Review: Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

Posted May 26, 2023 by Stephanie in 3 Stars, Fantasy, Review, Romance, the four horsemen / 10 Comments

Title: Pestilence
Author: Laura Thalassa
Publication: August 15, 2023 by Bloom Books (first published in 2018)
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Dark Fantasy, Romance
Find it on: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Waterstones
Rating: 3/5★

They came to earth―Pestilence, War, Famine, Death―four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity.

They came to earth, and they came to end us all.

When Pestilence, the first of the horsemen, comes for Sara Burn’s town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the angelic-looking horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed.

Too bad no one told her Pestilence can’t be killed.

Alive and furious, the horseman takes Sara prisoner, determined to make her suffer for impeding his mission. Despite her pleas, nothing and no one gets in the way of his orders to destroy humankind. Only, the longer Pestilence spends beside Sara’s bravery and compassion, the more he seems to understand her, and understand humanity. And the longer Sara travels with Pestilence and his plague, the more uncertain she grows about his true feelings toward her…and hers toward him.

Sara might still be able to save the world, but she’ll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.

 

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa was one of those cases where I liked the story but didn’t love it entirely. This book has been pretty hyped in the bookish community on social media so when I saw the whole series is being re-released in August with pretty new covers I really wanted to give it a go and requested it on NetGalley. I’m glad I got approved so I could find out what all the fuss was about and I could definitely see why so many people enjoyed it. I did too but there were some little flaws for me.

This story featured Sara Burns and Pestilence, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. When Pestilence comes through Sara’s town, she shoots him in the hopes of saving the world. Except he can’t die. In retaliation Pestilence takes Sara as his prisoner and wants to make her suffer. As they go through towns and cities spreading the Fever as the plague is known, they both start to develop feeling for each other. Can Sara convince Pestilence that humanity is worth taking mercy on or will she have to watch humanity die before her very eyes?

I very much enjoyed the apocalyptic setting of this story and how Sara was a firefighter before the four horsemen of the apocalypse came to earth. She had a very protective and caring way about her and towards other people, which is why it was hard to even shoot Pestilence although she knew it was to try and save humanity. I also enjoyed reading about Pestilence. I liked how he was totally clueless about certain human things like kissing for example but also ruthless when it came to spreading his plague to end humanity, which he didn’t enjoy but it’s what he had to do.

That said, I didn’t entirely love the romance. I enjoyed it partly, don’t get me wrong, I’m always up for a good forbidden romance but I wish it had been a bit more of a slowburn. The romance started and moved a bit too fast for the circumstances that both characters found themselves in. Maybe I’m looking a bit too deeply into it all but Pestilence is the cause of many of people dying and I just thought Sara was a bit too focused on how hot he was all the while with humanity dying around her. I think I missed some depth there. Also, the story could be quite repetitive with them moving from town to town with a lot of the same things happening.

The next book is going to be about the horseman of War and I must say I’m intriguing so I will definitely be reading it. I’m curious to see how and if the romance is going to differ from Pestilence. Watch this space for that review.

Shout-out to Trixie Skillz, Pestilence’s noble steed and true main character of the book!🐎

 

 

About the author:

Found in the forest when she was young, Laura Thalassa was raised by fairies, kidnapped by werewolves, and given over to vampires as repayment for a hundred year debt. She’s been brought back to life twice, and, with a single kiss, she woke her true love from eternal sleep. She now lives happily ever after with her undead prince in a castle in the woods.

… or something like that anyway.

When not writing, Laura can be found scarfing down guacamole, hoarding chocolate for the apocalypse, or curled up on the couch with a good book.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | BookBub | Goodreads

 

 

10 responses to “Review: Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

  1. Yay, review buddies! 🙂
    I rated this a little bit higher, but that said I also completely agree with your issues! I enjoyed the romance, but it’s so true that Sara focused a bit too much on Pestilence’s hotness. And the story did get way too repetitive near the end. I’m curious to see whether War will have those same issues – I’m definitely looking forward to finding out 🙂
    And yes, shout-out to Trixie Skillz!! 😀

  2. verushka

    Ok, so a romance featruing the Horsemen of the Apocalypse was not something I expected to be so intrigued by! I hear you on wanting a slow burn too — too fast romances do turn me off.

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