Wow! I love this series so much!! It is my new obsession!! I absolutely could not put this down! Fire! Pure fire!
I just reviewed War by Laura Thalassa. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

Once again, Laura Thalassa delivers such a fascinating story - seeing one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse being brought to heel by the woman he's falling in love with. I thoroughly enjoy seeing these strong female main characters giving these fearsome men a run for their money, and War (the book) delivers all of that. From the moment that War (the character) declares Miriam his wife, I was completely hooked and so ready to see what journey these two were in for. There is such a war in Miriam's head for falling for this man who swears to be her protector while he is also out in the world, destroying the humans that she wants to protect. There is a push and pull throughout the book. There was only one moment where War did something rather catastrophic. It's hard to say it was redeemable, but it did make Miriam upset, and I didn't feel like War did enough to absolve himself of he did. I wish that he had groveled more and that Miriam had held to her convictions a little stronger.
Other things I enjoyed was that we get to see a new area of the world being affected and how each horseman brings about destruction for humans. I appreciated seeing the differences.
Once again, I caution readers that there are violent and graphic scenes depicted throughout the book, so be cautious of any triggers.

What a wonderful addition to this series! I really enjoyed Pestilence, so I was very excited to read War. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this! The cover is beautiful and the book is well written.

The main characters are beautifully described, and their relationship is questionable but as the story develops, so does the relationship. The fact that she falls for the guy who's killing off human-kind seems to be the big NO-NO for some people. One reviewer somewhere once put it simply; would you really feel like humans deserved a place on this earth after what they have collectively done to it, and doomsday was around the corner? I have to say, that as much as it would pain me to die and lose everything, if judgement day was upon us, I could definitely understand.

The book is beautifully written, with laugh-out-loud moments.

After reading Pestilence, I knew I had to discover the fate of the remaining 3 horsemen, so I finally picked up the next book in the series, War. I enjoyed the first book of the series, but I loved this one so much more! It's made me even more excited to get into the final two in the series.

13 years after the Horsemen had originally appeared on Earth, Miriam is in the middle of a massacre in her home of Jerusalem as War's army destroys everything and anyone in sight. She is sure she is next to die when War himself spots her in the chaos but much to her surprise, he instead declares her as his wife and takes her back to his camp.

Miriam isn't sure how to take this new turn of events, but she refuses to surrender herself to her new "husband" The one thing she is sure of, is she needs to do everything in her power to take out members of War's army and convince War himself to stop the bloodshed from town to town. Perhaps the only way is to go along with their "marriage" and use his love for her as a bargaining chip. Unfortunately, he may be more stubborn then she is.

The chemistry with Miriam and War was probably my favorite part of the book. From the beginning, I was unable to picture War as anyone other than Jason Mamoa when he played Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, especially in the way that he treated Miriam. (Im thinking the part in the show where they were super in love) He wanted her right away, but he very quickly starts to care for her and I love that he doesn't force her into sexual relationship. He wants her to want to be with him, for her to surrender. This makes Miriam's plans a little harder but it makes for great tension and banter between the two.

This is a Dark Romance, so there is plenty of violence and it's worth reminding readers going into the book, War is a horsemen of the apocalypse. He is here to kill and destroy humanity, but he will do anything to save his "wife." So if you are looking for a hero or even a morally grey love interest, I would say this is definitely not the book for you.

But for me, I loved it! Famine and Death, here I come!

Miriam is alone, fending for herself when suddenly War and his army come to her city in order to kill all of the inhabitants. But, luckily (or unluckily?) for Miriam, she is spared when War lays eyes on her and calls her “wife.”

Let me start off by saying that this isn’t necessarily a bad book by any means but I just don’t think it was for me. Now obviously it’s a love story with War, he’s going to do some truly heinous things and for the most part our main character Miriam reacted exactly how I wanted her to, but at times I really wish she would have stayed angry longer. It all started to get very repetitive. War would do something awful, Miriam would retaliate and get mad, and then the next chapter she would be fine with him again. I understand that for a romance you actually have to have the romance part but it just wasn’t connecting to me. In the previous book Pestilence the love between the main characters felt a lot more believable to me than this one. With that said though, I do plan to continue the series and read the last two books.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bloom Books for sending me an early copy for review!

4 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was so excited to dive into this after I absolutely loved Pestilence and it definitely did not miss.

At the end of the previous book where Pestilence has given up his mission to be with Sara, we get a cliffhanger where War is awoken. Fast forward to the beginning of this book and several years have passed since then. I really enjoyed this detail, as we get to see the world as it has been trying to recover from Pestilence while War has had time to establish himself as the newest apocalyptic threat.

The world has further adjusted to its essential reversion to the Dark Ages and Miriam is not just surviving, but fighting. Whereas Sara had lived most of her life before the Horsemen arrived, a majority of Miriam’s life has taken place in a world where they exist. All alone, she has been forced to learn to craft weapons, forage, and kill in order to live to see another day. She’ll even sacrifice herself to kill War himself if it means saving others.

The pace of this book seemed quite a bit slower to me and I didn’t feel that it really picked up until the 50-60% mark. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a very enjoyable read. But compared to Pestilence and its fast pace right out the gate, this felt like it took longer to find its stride.

The pregnancy trope is one of my least favorites, so when it popped up near the end, I could definitely find myself checking out a little bit, hence the lower rating. Despite that, I still loved watching the relationship between Miriam and War grow and am looking forward to seeing how the story evolves in Famine!

Omg , 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
So good , I have to said this dark romance by Laura is just amazing loved the first one , loved the second and I can’t wait to read the rest .

War by L. Thalassa is the second stand-alone in the Four Horsemen Series, re-published by Sourcebooks Bloom Books.
Miriam and War have nothing in common, but she refuses to submit to the big destroyer.
An incredible dystopian read that is best read in order. The previous book is Pestilence, the next ones are Famine and Death.

This copy was kindly given to me by the publisher and netgalley for review. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely love the cover revamp for this series! (unlike the revamp on her Rhapsodic series, not a fan of those new covers... sorry to the cover artist!). War so far is one of my favorite, tied with Pestilence I think. If you like journey stories, one horse (lol), touch her and you die, this is the book for you. This series overall is fast paced, steamy and so much fun. I think it is a really cool take on the apocalypse and the four horseman that bring it forth.
All I have left is to binge Death and wrap up this series.

I love Laura Thalassa so far, I am starting her back log as I try to catch up but I love the pace of her novels, settings, plots and of course, the steamy romance.

Thank you NetGalley and Laura Thalassa for an ebook in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 3/5 Stars

While this book was interesting at some points, it lost me at many others. Felt very repetitive but still was enjoyable.

Thank you to Bloom and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was my favorite of the whole series, I think the characters in this one made the most sense to me and were the most likable. Laura Thalassa is a romantasy powerhouse!

Going into this book, my expectations were incredibly high. I mean, I’ve read ”Pestilence“ multiple times by now and love it so much.
And then “War“ happened, and it was even better than “Pestilence“.

The characters were brilliant. Miriam was such a strong protagonist and I loved how she stood up to War.
War was a force of nature. And hot. Really hot. Ahem.

The story itself was great. There was a lot of violence, which I loved. I might try to count the on-page deaths in this book the next time I read it...
The book never got boring even though it is pretty long compared to Pestilence“.
I also had no idea how Laura Thalassa would manage to write a satisfying happy end for this book, but it was perfect.

I threw away my kindle 3 times, because “feelings“, which never happens to me. So maybe be careful with your eReader...

And all of that being said, I loved this book SO much and would recommend reading it as soon as possible.

I loved this book so much more then Pestilence. Miriam and Wars relationship was beautifully done. The plot kept me coming back and I didn’t want to put this book down at all. Miriam’s soft heart and War figuring out if he is redeemable after all he has done was a wonderful moment.

The whole thing was fantastic from start to finish. How Laura talked about mercy, different religions in Wars camp, and how you cannot have love and war, and what are you willing to sacrifice for humanity and love was done extremely well.


I cannot wait to read the last two in this series. So far I am hooked hard!

❤️🖤 War Review 🖤❤️

Thank you so much to Laura Thalassa and netGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!!

War is a dystopian fantasy romance and the second book in the Four Horsemen series. It’s 13 years after the Horsemen first arrived and Miriam has been surviving in the post apocalyptic world as best she can. One day while out scavenging for supplies, she sees someone who should have only been a myth…a giant, sword-wielding man on a blood red horse. This man could only be the infamous horseman War, and he’s bringing his army to her city…

This book was such a fun read! We are in a completely different part of the world from where Pestilence was set, and it was great to see the similarities and differences! Miriam is such a strong and passionate character, and I loved how she slowly got War to come out of his shell. War has only known chaos, death and destruction in his existence - so it was fantastic when he allows himself to experience new things

Overall this was a 4 star read for me! I was a fan of this series after the first book and even more so after reading War!! I loved this book and there was a tiny smidge of it from War’s PoV, but I would have loved to see more from his perspective. This book was a smidge of a slow burn, but it did have some delicious tension and smutty scenes later in the book, so 3 flames for spice!

If you’re a fan of enemies to lovers, morally grey, possessive warrior men, and all the “touch her and d*e vibes”, then this series is absolutely for you!! Though each book is a standalone, I’d definitely recommend reading them in order for the best experience!! The first book in the series is Pestilence and War is available now on ebook, paperback and on KU! The beautiful new Bloom cover shown above will be released in August!!

I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t really like this book all that much. To be fair, after Pestilence, I had insanely high expectations. That story was unlike anything I’d ever read before. It’d had me on the edge of my seat and constantly questioning myself and my judgment. And while I appreciate that this book couldn’t be a step by step reprisal of that one, I was still left feeling disappointed and unsatisfied.

War and Miriam were waaay too chummy from the get-go, for my liking. Long gone were the days of awesome, kick-ass Sara and Pestilence—they were true enemies-to-lovers if I’ve ever seen it.

Also, Sara was torn up inside and absolutely disgusted with herself when she started seeing Pestilence more as a person than a monster—and developing feelings for him. Meanwhile Miriam didn’t seem all that bothered.

To me (and this is a very personal, perhaps misguided view), Miriam came across as a domestic abuse victim. She knew what War did was wrong and horrible—got angry for a hot second—but then started justifying and rationalizing his behavior. She complained and pouted. Too many words, too little action. She should have tried to escape more than once, she should have been stronger willed and more defiant. She should have fought him more, like Sara did with Pestilence. Instead, Miriam quickly grew complacent and resorted to being pitiful and begging to get War to do something. Pathetic, as harsh as that may sound.

Apart from that, while Pestilence’s wake up call was more about realizing he wasn’t obligated to do something just because someone had given him that task and had started feeling bad seeing the unnecessary pain and suffering he was causing, War’s realization came purely out of selfishness. He started caring only when his own actions started affecting him. When he got a taste of his own medicine, let’s say. It just wasn’t a satisfying way for him to change his ways. It was trivial, uninspired and lacked the emotional-growth and depth of Pestilence’s character arc.

So, yeah.

Neither main character was to my liking, nor was the story as a whole. I’m giving it 3 stars, cause it was still written very well, the flow was good (even if I didn’t agree with the progression and development of the relationship) and the previous book was so excellent that some of my appreciation for that one is spilling over into this one.

I sincerely hope book 3 will turn things around, and Famine will knock Pestilence and War out of the park.

Unfortunately, this just felt too similar to book 1. It took me a while to become attached to Miriam and War, which might have been the reason I enjoyed it less.

I wasn't blown away with the plot until around the 60% mark but this book has me wanting to know more about Daddy Death...

War was definitely an interesting horsemen but I seem to have a soft spot for Pestilence.

I received an advanced copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

"𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟", ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑛. 𝐼 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑚. "𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟."

𝓯𝓲𝓮𝓻𝓬𝓮, 𝓹𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓻𝓮𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓰

Here we have the 2nd installment of the #fourhorsemen saga by Laura Thalassa, featuring War, the relentless and unwavering 2nd horseman. At least until he meets Miriam, a woman just as fierce as War himself.

Like the first book, Laura Thalassa gifted us a genuine masterpiece, enthralling from start to end. 𝕎𝕒𝕣 is filled with unbridled passion, conflict, and compromise between the two heroines, speckled with physical pain, blood, and battle. The stark contrast to ℙ𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 astonishingly highlights Thalassa's ability to captivate with her stories despite a similar underlying scheme.

Albeit for me the book didn't reach the emotional depth ℙ𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 did, mainly due to it being something completely different to setting, feel and tone, it was a formidable read with great character development, especially on behalf of the horseman, that felt satisfyingly redeeming. With less emotional but more physical pain in the books' first half, witty dialogues, and plenty of passion, I've no doubt it will find its way back into my hands, sooner than later.

I found this novel darker and more complex that Pestilence. When you see what is a war day after day it's a bit hard to consider the fictional charater as something different.
That said it's a good story even if I found it less entertaining and more intense.
3.5 upped to 4
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine