Pestilence (The Four Horsemen, 1)

This is Pestilence, the first book in the Four Horsemen series - Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. This story is filled with carefully crafted, meticulously planned and expertly delivered words but the characters breathed into life, images painted, feelings evoked, and epiphanies delivered make this so much more than a simple dark fantasy. It is storytelling perfection. Pestilence is a horseman of the apocalypse and as such, is not a very likable character. No one is going to feel like cuddling Pestilence at the beginning of the book. Sara is also not a typical damsel in distress. She is a capable strong firefighter who chooses to kill Pestilence to save the rest of humanity even knowing her death will also be the result. Of course, Pestilence is immortal and when Sara’s murder attempt does not work, he decides to make Sara suffer as she allowed him to suffer. This is not a flowery love story chock full of sunshine and rainbows. It is at times dark and harsh. But despite being a dark fantasy, there is also light here, goodness, hope, and love, as an immortal being, now made flesh, learns about the human experience. On their way to finding love with each other and to Pestilence letting go of his divine purpose, they have to deal with the changes in Pestilence as he experiences a human body and a human experience for the first time. The storyline is told through tender moments, mundane life snippets, death, violence, steamy scenes, chuckles, painful pasts, and poetry. It also gives you all the feels - horror, anger, love, sadness, resignation, joy, and annoyance. Underlying the main storyline is thought provoking realism about the effect humans are having on the world and each other, all the goodness and all the depravity. Actions which lead to the arrival of the Horsemen in human bodies. I am excited to continue reading the stories of the other horsemen.

**No spoilers were harmed in the making of this review**"It’s a strange feeling, being vulnerable around someone who’s both hurt you and tended to you."Hey guys, so I decided to read Pestilence (The Four Horsemen, #1) by Laura Thalassa. I had heard mixed reviews about it and decided to just give it a whirl. And Damn. For the premise of this book, a hot guy captures a girl who tries to off him and they turn from arch enemies to not...damn. I was not expecting what this novel would contain: a storm of emotions. This novel made me cry, it made me hate, it made me laugh, and it made me love. All of these emotions were bundled up in the storyline and the characters, mainly the horsemen, though also occasionally Sara as well. Their relationship...because lets just face the facts, this entire novel was literally just about their evolving relationship, and all that things that came with it. It was obviously a very horrid and torturous in the beginning. The horsemen was cruel and vindictive and a really horrible guy, harming her in the ways he did. And she had every right to try to escape, to hate him, to think he was a monster. However...over the course of their time together...their emotions changed, slowly but surely, with many setbacks, many, many. Think you take one step forward, but then three steps back. Goodness. It was never ending mix of pain and pleasure. The tension was killer and it made you hold your breath, wondering if one wrong move would make rverything come crashing down upon them. At first the horseman just keeps Sara alive to 'make her suffer', and boy does he ever, so much suffering, physical, mental, emotional, all of it. He hates humanity, he only wants to fulful his task, and he basically is a total alphahole. But...over time, through Sara, he begins to see the other side of humanity, the caring, soft, loving, happy kind. And he begins to yearn for it. ANd when he falls, he falls hard. It was...it was really intriging to see the gradual and slow desccnd to humanity of the horseman, the small things he comes to enjoy, the way he changes, softens. But just when you think everything is so beautiful, of course it is. Cause where would be the fun in that?! Jesus christ.. More pain and suffering and heartbreaking, holy crap so much heartache, for real!! Then of course, when Sara begins to see these changes in the horseman, her perspective on life changes, one everything changes, her world axis is forever tilted. She begins to see the human in the inuman. She begins to crave it. But damn is she a sassy and stubborn woman, holding onto her morals and values to the very end, jesus, so much conflict and second guessing, it makes my head hurt. Though it was kinda smart of her to try and keep her wits about her given the situation...even if im sitting here like "jump his bones already, goddamnit!!!!!!". But he holds onto his values and morals as well, but once he falls...he cannot seem to get back up, not turly. This book....damn this book to hell and back for making me think and feel. I do like the enemies to lovers trope, but I didnt think I would like this scenario, but it was very intriguing and compelling, addictive, could not put it down. The writing was also easy to read, very fast, could still understand the gist of what was happening. It also happened to be graphic regarding gore and violence..and...adult activites.. But it was very good, good writing, good characters, the storyline was good, the plotline, so so. But overall...damnnn. Okay, remember, this is all my opinion, if you want your own read the book. Till next time, bye.

Finally, a new paranormal series to obsess over!I’ve been starting and not finishing a lot of paranormal romance series lately (it’s partially my fault, I’m looking for a good fit!) And I’m so glad I decided to finally pick up this series!There’s something about the bleak and hopeless nature of a well-written post-apocalyptic story that gets me right in the feels. I absolutely adore Sara Burns as a protagonist. She’s a firefighter and she’s tough, funny, and smart. She stays behind in Whistler, Canada when she knows that Pestilence will be riding through, because she intends to try to kill him to save humankind from extinction. What she doesn’t realize is that he’s immortal, and he decides to keep her as a prisoner as a warning to others who try to stop him…This is quite the slow-burn romance, and it’s rife with heartbreak. If you don’t want to read about many innocent people dying from the “Messianic” plague, then this book definitely isn’t for you. It’s hard to stomach, and I definitely cried a few times while reading this.That said, I loved the themes of religion throughout, but it never overwhelms or feels preachy. Humankind has ravaged the earth, and it’s time for the four horsemen to take it back.Bah! I can’t wait to read War’s book. 5+++ stars

Cuando la peste llega a la tierra y al pueblo donde vive Sara, ella intenta matarlo para que no se propague más la enfermedad, pero lo que no sabe es que no pueden matarlo. Por consecuencia el la toma como su prisionera para hacerla sufrir. Lo que ellos no saben es que este viaje los llevará por caminos que nunca esperaron.Realmente amé este libro, ¡un verdadero enemigos a amantes! Realmente recomiendo esta serie.When pestilence comes to earth and to the town sara lives, she tries to kill him so it doesn't spread the disease anymore but what she doesn't knows is that he ca not be killed. He then takes her as his prisoner to make her suffer. They don't realizes that this journey is going to take them to paths they never expected.I really loved this book, a true enemies to lovers! I really recommend this series.

Actually, enemies to lovers!! At first, it's hard to see how this could be any sort of romantasy. The evil of pestilence is so strong it makes it impossible to think Sara could love him.There are a few grammatical errors, words missing or sentences ending randomly mid way through. The author also has a problem with the overuse of brackets instead of commas, I don't know who this was edited by, but it needs another run-through.This story shows true human response and reasoning about an apocalypse - for example to survive they need to steal stuff like clothes and food, breaking into homes and even stealing survivors time by bringing the plague into the homes of others. It's not just a free for all on leftover homes like you see in other end of the world/apocalypse media. The FMC is aware of the deeper meaning behind these empty homes and lost lives. She battles with her morals throughout the whole book.Pestilence learning emotions and love is truly beautiful to read through, and it does pull at your own heartstrings, you can relate to his confusion and pain because it is SO human, and we've all lived it. The author has done a brilliant job of this.When they have kissed a bit, they go into a house where a nasty man called Nick lives... in here Sara asks pestilence why he is killing the family and he says "because you're my prisoner" and Sara just says "is that how this is then" we know that pestilence has no emotional intelligence. I do not believe that this man thinks love+abuse=bad he thinks both can exist together, I would have preferred the fmc to challenge this and say something like 'how can you claim love yet still inflict pain on me'All in all, a great book. Reading both the FMC struggling with her morals and pestilence learning emotions is a really great experience for the reader.

...and extremely well written!Someone suggested reading the Four Horsemen Series if you want a story about forbidden love.I downloaded Pestilence on a whim. I hadn't even read anything about the plot and didn't expect much of the story (judging by its cover I thought it was just some smutty book which I'd dnf pretty quickly). Boy was I wrong! I was so surprised to find a highly entertaining book which features a love story that basically revolves around the question "is it morally justifiable to fall in love with a killer?"This book has it all: world building, a wonderful love story, character development, engaging philosophical questions and very well written spice.I am so happy to have stumbled upon this series. It's my first book by Laura Thalassa and I promise you it won't be my last. I just wanted to leave a review real quick before running over to War.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4.25 starsPestilence tells the story of the apocalypse, which was brought about by the four horseman. Pestilence was the first and has returned after years and Sara is determined to bring him down and stop the plague he is spreading.“You’re acting like you can’t change, but to live is to change, and right now you’re alive. Even though you can’t die, you still walk among us. You love us and you feel pain like us.”I’ve been a fan of the Rhapsodic series by Laura Thalassa and really wanted to check out her other works.The story started of slow, and it took me a while to get into the story, and I think this is mostly due to the start being a bit repetitive. The repetitiveness was important though to really see the growth and change pestilence went through as the story developed.The apocalypse was really interesting to see and the plague as well, the horrors it brought, the destruction really did remind me a bit of the pandemic itself. It was paramount to see the world as it was at that time and how much worse it could get. Seeing the plague up close was also really eye-opening to why it was so important to try and stop Pestilence.I really liked Sara and she was super admirable, her humanity and want to help those in need really shaped her as a woman. Pestilence was super rigid at the start and determined to complete his task, but spending time with Sara really broke down his iron walls.The romance developed with ups and downs. A good written enemies-to-lovers, where they often took a step forward and two back. I liked how this developed and how stubborn both were in trying to convince the other. It felt fitting to the story and their personalities.I liked how the story developed and ended. I do still wonder what exactly could’ve stopped this from happening. Pestilence told that humanity had become corrupt and had the chance to make things right while he slept, but no further explanation was given, which I would’ve liked to better understand it all personally.Overall, I enjoyed reading Pestilence which felt like a really unique take on an apocalypse, and I’ll definitely check out the rest of the series!