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. The day Jerusalem falls, Miriam Elmahdy knows her life is over. Houses are burning, the streets run red with blood, and a traitorous army is massacring every last … massacring every last resident. There is no surviving this, especially not once Miriam catches the eye of War himself. But when the massive and terrifying horseman corners Miriam, he calls her his wife, and instead of killing her, he takes her back to his camp.
Now Miriam faces a terrifying future, one where she watches her world burn town by town, and the one man responsible for it all is her seemingly indestructible “husband”. But there’s another side to him, one that’s gentle and loving and dead set on winning her over, and she might not be strong enough to resist.
However, if there’s one thing Miriam has learned, it’s that love and war cannot coexist. And so she must make the ultimate choice: surrender to War and watch humankind fall, or sacrifice everything and stop him.
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I can’t believe I haven’t rated this one yet. I’m on my zillionth reread (approximately).
I loved Pestilence (the start of this Four Horsemen saga), but oh man, did War hit the spot.
War is not f*%^ing around. He is here to destroy, he is here to pillage the world, and he thoroughly enjoys it.
The one issue standing in his way? Miriam. His gift from God. His Achilles heel. His wife.
Also: Currently determined to plague him and defy every edict he hands out.
Together, they are sexy times and defiance and the most delicious “surrender” scenes I’ve ever read. I absolutely love how much she perplexes him. I can almost see War going, “WTF wife? Why are you defying me in front of my mens? How am I supposed to wage a global war with you standing in my way?”
Recommended for readers who don’t mind gore, anti-heroes (like, an actual horseman of the Apocalypse who kills people, so don’t expect him to be purely heroic), sexy times, and a kick-ass heroine.
Two books down (Pestilence and War). Two to go (Famine and Death). This is a fantastic series about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse sent by God to annihilate mankind, but who are stopped when they fall in love with human women.
Book two is about War, whose armies of human refugees and the undead systematically massacre village after village. When War encounters Miriam, he believes that God sent her to him to be his wife. Despite his tenderness for her, he won’t stop killing. Can this marriage be saved?
I’m both looking forward to and dreading reading Famine. The books are brutal and bloody, but they do end happily.
First off, I loved this book. Secondly, this is NOT for everyone. The hero is WAR: A Horseman of the Apocalypse. And he for real murders MILLIONS of people. Seriously, they don’t come back. They’re dead. When I started this book (I started this series at book 2, not book 1), I was compelled to see if I could come to like such a hero who was Murder/War Incarnate. Turns out, I LOVE HIM. <3 The growth, the change, and the amazing story and characters in this deep, moving novel were really fantastic. However, this is not a book forever. Especially if you abhor blood, gore, and violence in your romances. This is NOT a sweet romance.
This sequel was just as good as the first one. I can’t say it was better because it wasn’t better per se, but just as intriguing in it’s peculiarity. But that’s what makes this series so unique.
I loved the mere thought that the author used the four horsemen of the apocalypse as her heroes. It’s so profoundly taboo but so innately humanistic too. War was just as swoony as Pestilence–perhaps a smidge swoonier only in that…well, what’s hotter than surrendering to a sexy angel of Death who knows nothing but brutality and desires only you? Having him surrender to you.
Take a ride on the back of a horseman of God and you’ll be hit with a dose of romance, adventure, pain, war, love, life, and the essence that makes even angels human.
Rating:
War is Awesome!
I loved the first book, Pestilence so I had a feeling I would like this one even better and that feeling was correct! At the beginning I wasn’t quite sure where this story was going to go, since it started out so different than Pestilence. However, I couldn’t turn away and I loved every minute. For one thing I love the fact that these heroines are so strong and capable.
Miriam is a survivor, she grew up in New Palestine, formerly known as Israel and is the daughter of a Jew and a Muslim. She survived the death of her father who was hit by a bus at the beginning of the apocalypse when everything with a motor stopped working. Then later Miriam, her mother and younger sister had to flee the city when there was a war. This was prior to t horseman “War” coming. Her city has seen many wars over the past few thousand years.
When Miriam lost the rest of her family in an accident, she returned to the city and lived alone in the damaged and condemned building where their previous apartment was located. She became adept at making weapons and had several rules to staying alive, the most important of which was to be brave. She was not afraid to kill in defense of herself, but when she sees the horseman “War” coming into her city she is brave enough to try to kill him.
“War” sees Miriam and immediately knows that she is his wife and was made for him. Though Miriam fights him at every turn. And it is no small thing since everyone else that goes against him ends up dead. Miriam keeps trying though because he is determined to kill all humans. He forces the people that are captured to either swear fealty to his cause or to die.
The fact that “War” sees her as his wife makes things both easier and harder for Miriam. Easier since he isn’t so willing to kill her but harder because she is both attracted to him and repulsed by what he is doing. It makes for some pretty steamy scenes. I won’t go further into what happens but to say that “War” won’t let Miriam go, so he takes her and his army from place to place destroying everything in his path while she tries to change his mind and thwart him in other ways.
The world building is terrific, the supporting characters are well developed and have their own reasons for doing things. The sites and smells are certainly well described. I couldn’t put this book down, and now I can’t wait for the next one!
I love the combination of slow burn falling in love with steamy chemistry and a heroine defiant until the end. Watching War change almost made me believe in bad boys again. 😉
Kept me up till 5 in the morning, one of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended.
I made this book last. I savored every word, every page. And when it came to an end, I was not ready to let it go. I want to flip back to page one and start it all over again.
Laura did the impossible. War is just as good as Pestilence was. Pestilence set such a high bar, I confess, I was a little afraid. But this book is just as good. It is filled with surprises and twists and things I never saw coming.
I loved Miriam. She’s sassy and full of grit. And War. Wow. How does one even begin to explain War. So complex and simple at the same time.
Watching these characters grow into themselves and each other was just another level to the story. And I was surprised by the amount of times it cracked me up and I was laughing out loud.
Amazing read. I’m putting this one down as a Top 10 for the year.
Oh my! I just finished War a minute ago and I am a blubbering mess of so many emotions! This book was EVERYTHING! Miriam is an incredibly strong, brave, savage, and beautiful woman and War…well, despite his horseman proclivities, his devotion is immediate, intense, and unconditional. To watch the two come together is fire and ice. It’s watching two souls completely tear each other apart, then build each other back up. It was magic. Every word, every chapter of this story is beautiful. Full of self doubt and redemption, love and hate, stubbornness and surrender, War is a romance for the ages set in a world where there’s little beauty left. Laura Thalassa finds it, however, and gives it to her readers in War, with every turn of the page.
This one took me a while to get through. If it didn’t, it sure felt it. I wish I could pinpoint why but I suppose after the wonderfulness that is Pestilence, War didn’t live up to my expectations. A lot of the book I kept thinking how creepy it’d be to be with him when he starts digging up dead bodies to ravage the cities (shudder) and then have those same corpses guarding you. Yep, no thanks.
Like book 1, the romance is a slow burn. It works, because rightly so she hates him. Nothing was rushed and I enjoyed how true feelings eventually emerged for them.
He called her wife a few too many times. I get pet names, and love em, but I do think his speech could have been stronger without so many. It’s not a bad thing to refer to her by name..
Overall good read, but not the best so far.
5 MOTHERFUCKING STARS!!
YOU MUST READ THIS SERIES!!!
I’m writing these reviews after reading the entire series, so I’ve had time to think at length about the plot of every single book, my feelings about the characters and their romances, and how each story compares to the others. Usually, when I binge a series, the details of each book become less clear with every book I read. The stories just kind of all begin to mesh into one giant blob in my head. That wasn’t the case with The Four Horsemen. Each book as well as the emotions they evoked are still fresh in my mind, and I credit the author’s brilliant storytelling for that.
Okay, okay! Let’s talk War!
For starters, War is my probably my favorite hero in the entire series. Even though I adore his brothers, something about him just hits different for me. The character development War goes through is the most thorough and well done of all of the horseman. I appreciate how he goes from being this violent brute of a man that literally gives zero fucks about humanity to one that falls in love with a human woman and finds compassion for mankind itself. He begins to relate and care for them on a personal level, and it is absolutely fucking beautiful!
I appreciated that though the heroine, Miriam, was falling for War, she never forgot her purpose. She didn’t put her personal happiness over saving the world. Every chance she got, she was out finding ways to warn others of what was coming and sabotaging things as much as she was able to. She intervened on other people’s behalf when she could, and she tried to use War’s affections for her for the greater good. I couldn’t fault her for anything she did.
Yes, she was sleeping with enemy while people were being slaughtered by him on a regular basis, but ultimately, that’s how she saved everyone’s ass! Plus, they had an otherworldly connection. She understood the Angelic language and was clearly put in his path by God for a purpose.
When I finished Pestilence, I was worried that the rest of the books in this series would be carbon copies of each other, and if you’re worried about the same, please know that isn’t the case at all. The author makes sure that each individual story and couple dynamic is unique. The setting of every story is different than the last, and the endings differ more and more as the series goes on.
If you’re interested in The Four Horsemen at all, please don’t hesitate to pick them up. You won’t regret it! This series is one of my favorites of the year, and if these books are any indication, Laura Thalassa will be going on my list of unicorn authors in the very near future.
Fantasy/apocalyptic romance fans, this one’s for you!
A MUST READ SERIES!!!
And now I’m Wrecked.
Seriously. I am emotionally Drained and Wrecked from this all consuming read.
WAR is by far the most complex MC I’ve read.
I loved everything about this story.
It’s a Rollercoaster of emotions and you will be in a nervous twist, but it is an angsty that you will never regret.
The Narration was exceptional!
Pestilence was fantastic and now War has perhaps claimed the spot as my favorite Horseman so far. This series is an interesting slow-burn romance twist on the Four Horsemen!
Wow!
I love a redeemable Alpha Male romance! Especially if it is a series! Another badass heroine that is relatable. Though, I could have done with one to three fewer chapters
Format: Ebook
Read Time: week and a half
More sexy paranormal/horror type reads. What can I say? I like the dark stuff.
The Good:
War is hell- there is nothing romanticised about the conflict. All the bad bits are shown and as we are dealing with a post-apocalyptic world, combat is up close and brutal.
An Israeli leading lady- who makes weapons. Jerusalem is a far different place in this book and I appreciated the direction the author took things. The book ranges right through into Egypt too, which was a good setting choice.
Side characters- there is a far bigger cast in this book and it was nice to have a broader focus. Also we get a better picture what is going on globally and I was craving more detail in the previous book.
Pacing- was again great and the action scenes had plenty of tension.
The Bad: (sort of)
Trigger warnings- gore, cruelty, torture, assault… the list goes on, and yes the book does touch on some of the religious themes and the past issues between Israel/Palestine. If you are sensitive to any of this this is really not for you.
While the side characters were great a few of them I felt should have got more page time so we really got to know them better. One twist fell flat because I did not really know a character and had problems caring about what was happening to them.
I did not really warm up to War himself. He’s much more stoic and seemed far more ‘human’ than Pestilence in the previous book.
Setting- I wanted to feel that desert sun and get into some of the difficulties of traveling in that environment, but this was mostly glossed over.
I still enjoyed the book, but I was less invested in the characters this time round. I will still read the third and see where the author goes next.
Not as good as Pestilence. Not even close.
Full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3076300653?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
So many twists and turns, I loved every second!
** spoiler alert ** I would love to study and discuss this book as a feminist romance. On one hand, the basic components (Stockholm syndrome, alpha hero, fated mates) signal that we are not going to find an empowered heroine, because–hello–agency? On the other hand, the circumstances are pretty unusual.
This book finds us with a heroine who is taken captive by the God of War (who she calls “War”), who spares her because he knows instinctively that she is his fated wife. She is then taken along for the ride as his terrible army goes from town to town on a killing spree to save the human race.
War, meanwhile, is waiting rather patiently for her to conclude that they are fated and for her to consent to being with him. But she is busy trying to both stop him from killing and actively working against his army to save innocents each time they go into battle.
WARNING: SPOILERS
Let’s stop on that point for a minute. She is pretty badass in this role–tricking members of War’s army, scheming to help warn towns on the warpath of the army’s arrival. She is actively dismantling War’s military operation. And, guess what? It works. She literally outsmarts the god of War and saves the remaining human race.
As for the love story, she ultimately falls in love with him, but not until he begins to change his warmongering ways. And she does as so many women at the side of powerful men have done throughout history: changed the world even though she was not the one who ostensibly had the power.
So, yeah, an interesting read that will make you think and a romance that mostly works despite some discomfort on my part around some predictable things. Overall, a huge step up from any Stockholm Syndrome I’ve ever read and most alpha heros I’ve read as well. War is an alpha, without being an alphahole.
My favourite of the Four Horsemen series. I mean, just look at that cover!! And he was such a bad boy!!! My favourite kind of guy! Not really, but this was a treasure. The heroine was a true badass and War was just…. !!!!!!
War is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse who has been sent by God to kill mankind by war. This is the second book in the series.
I liked Miriam at first and believed she was going to be a strong female lead and a good compliment to the male lead War. Unfortunately I got bored with Miriam’s constant denial of her situation and the sneaky (and stupid) plots to stop War. I understood her desire to help the people, however her character was written entirely too similar to Sara in Pestilence’s book. I wanted something new, a different angle than the first book. I also found it hard to believe that as many times as Miriam went against War, that he would forgive her, especially in front of his soldiers and the others at the camp.
“I am yours and you are mine, Miriam- … -but I am not like you, and you should never forget that.”
Fortunately for Miriam, no matter how brutal and horrible War could be, he loved her and could not imagine hurting her.
“For your soft heart.”
I felt like I should feel guilty because I was rooting for the wrong side, especially since War’s purpose and responsibility was to destroy. Nevertheless, I liked War and enjoyed watching him realize what love was and discover humanity. For such a monster, he could be vulnerable and gentle. Miriam finally had a light bulb moment, but it took a while to get to that point and I was exhausted.
I’m anxious to see what happens next in Wrath’s book, but I’m more anxious to read Death’s story. He’s made an appearance in each of his brother’s books, and I’m very curious to meet the woman that could potentially steal his heart.