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

I did like this book, however i was disappointed from the lack of relatability to the main character Miriams actions. I dont want to spoil anything but the main reason i did not give this 4 stars rather than 3 was because of the climax of the book. I feel like it was an avoidable ending if Miriam just used her noggin and the knowledge she literally witness previously in the book. However that being said. I understand why it makes sense to happen the way it did because throughout the entire book War, without spoiling, couldn't be fully swayed. Something big had to happen and BOOM was that big. Overall a good read, just didn't get into the characters like I did with Pestilence.

“𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡—𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫, 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.”

War is book 2 in the Four Horsemen series and takes place a few years after the first book. I really enjoyed Pestilence, but I loved War! The tension and chemistry between War and Miriam was fantastic from start to finish. 4.5⭐️

𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕋𝕠 𝔼𝕩𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕥:
💋Enemies to lovers
💋Forced proximity/captive
💋Violence and action packed
💋HEA

“𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞. 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐭—𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞.”

“𝐈𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬.”

“𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐥𝐲.”

“𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠.”

“𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐧, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧.”

“𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭.”

I absolutely loved this continuation into the world of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

This time we meet Miriam in Jerusalem when her personal world falls apart. She meets an already established War on his rampage to end humanity. This is very Khal Drogo vibes with a harsh leader treating his woman like a queen. They overcome a lot of obstacles, obviously, as he is trying to destroy the world and she is trying to show him why it isn't worth destroying.

This is my favorite book in this series, I love the dynamics between the main characters and the new cover art is so gorgeous.

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

I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced reader's copy of War by Laura Thalassa from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Laura Thalassa and I very much enjoyed Pestilence’s story in the first novel of this series so the opportunity to read War was exciting.

War is a fast-moving tale that follows the second horseman of the apocalypse, his unwilling bride, zombies, heartache, betrayal, and redemption.

Reading the summary, it seems inconceivable that anyone could fall in love with the embodiment of war or be happy with such a creature….then you start reading and quickly realize that Laura Thalassa makes it work. She does t shy away from the ugliness of human but she does try to put it in context for a well-crafted story. War was engaging from the first chapter, moved quickly, featured plenty of action, had lots of layers, and many steamy scenes. All too soon, you’ll be at the end of the book and craving the next novel.

I would wholeheartedly recommend War to anyone and am looking forward to reading book three!

Somehow, this series just keeps getting better and better. Yet again, I finished this in almost a single sitting. Laura has an absolutely addictive way with words. She makes you feel like you're living these tragedies right there with the characters. I absolutely loved the character dynamics between War and Miriam. They are probably my favorite characters in the series so far.

“You were right. Love is far more than longing. It’s far more than anything I imagined.”

Another beautiful story of love conquering hate. This one broke me in ways I didn't imagine possible and brought out all of the emotions. I found myself holding my breath at times and other times shedding real tears while reading. The transformation in not just this vicious Horseman of the apocalypse but also in Miriam was so beautiful, and it's definitely going to stick with me for a long time.

“All creatures can experience pestilence, famine, and death—but war, true war, that is a singularly human experience.”

If you have seen my review of Pestilence, then you know I compared him to Thor. But with War it gets even better. War gives such Jason Momoa vibes, especially from his Game of Thrones character (or most of his characters actually). If this is ever a movie, I will allow no one else to be casted as him or I will riot.

“You are painfully human. Your bones want to break, your skin wants to bleed, your heart wants to stop. And for the first time ever, I am desperate for none of those things to happen. I have never known true fear until now.”

War was definitely better than Pestilence (sorry, not sorry). I am also happy to say that the overall writing really improved in this one. I liked Miriam so much as a character, she was amazing. I also felt the plot was so much better. All around, we got a major upgrade from Pestilence. As a disclaimer, War is a lot more graphic than Pestilence so I recommend checking trigger warnings before reading.

“God didn't send me a wife," he says under his breath. "He sent me my reckoning.”

So far, the books keep getting better so I am excited to jump right into Famine.

I am having so much fun reading the Four Horseman series! I have seen it on social media everywhere over the years. So exciting that it is being picked up by a publisher and I am loving the new covers! (I have preorders physical copies already :) ). These are great spicy quick reads. I love to use them as palette cleansers throughout deeper reads!

War had such tender sides, which were the stark opposite to duties. I loved how easy it was for him to accept Miriam for what she was, his wife who was stubborn and there to make his life interesting. Miriam was a strong FMC, and I enjoyed her against War's strong nature. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Gawwwww I absolutely love this author and this world they created! Can't wait for more by this author. Thanks Netball for the ARC!

4⭐️ 3🌶️

- M/F
- 4 Horsemen of the apocalypse
- Forced proximity
- Enemies to lovers
- One horse
- He falls first

After all the conflicting emotions Pestilence made me feel, it took me a minute to work up the courage to read this book but I’m so glad I did. I loved the change in location to the Middle East. I really liked how the Four Horsemen weren’t all in the same place at the same time. That the next appeared when the previous horseman had failed

I really loved how Miriam was a fighter and made weapons. No weak FMC here. I really enjoyed watching Miriam’s interactions with the war band and how she learned that War was not the mindless killer and conqueror she thought him to be. That he provided community and a purpose for his people.

War was everything I hoped he would be. A brutal leader with hidden depths and compassion. He was always so sure and steadfast when it came to Miriam and allowed her distance when needed. I loved how he tried to find ways to give her what he thought she wanted while still fulfilling his tasks. Even if she still wasn’t happy.

While the characters and location was different this book still dealt with the same struggle where the FMC has a hard time with her attraction to the horsemen responsible for so much death.

I was better prepared to handle the conflicting emotions this book made me feel and was eager to read Famine.

I will forever be obsessed with this series!! Laura did it again with War. The vibe in the book was so different from Pestilence, but in a good way. Don’t get me wrong, Pestilence is still one of my favorites, but War 🤤

Definitely recommend if you enjoy apocalyptic type books with absolutely mouthwatering spice.

As soon as I read the description and saw the words four horsemen I knew this book was for me! OH MY FANTASY BOOK HEAVEN! I absolutely loved this and could not put it down. Book hangover - check.