Love the new cover. Excellent world building and visual descriptors. You really feel like you are in the story. I felt war and Miriam’s characters were interesting and well developed. I felt like they each had good arcs and backstories. The relationship between the two was chaotic but fun and led to some nicely done steam.

I will be honest that I am not yet done with the book so you can probably take this review with a grain of salt. I will complete my review on good reads though once I have completed reading the book.

Once again this is my honest review for the ARC I was able to get for War by Laura Thalassa.

At the time of this review I am at 3.5 stars for the story and the characters.

One thing that I liked about this series is that the characters are really well set, what I mean by that is that they are not easuly blinded by anything and that includes love.

Just like Pestilence, War was sent to Earth to judge the human race and he deemed them unworthy. Starting of in the Middle East he has been going through every town and when he got to Jerusalem he found his “wife”.

I am at 74% into the story and let me tell you, no amount of seduction has worked on War and he is not stoping his mission. I am excited to see what else will happen and if Miriam can even stop one of the Horsemen of The Apocalypse.

War by Laura Thalassa

★ ★ ★.5 | 🌶 🌶

!! POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD PROCEED WITH CAUTION !!

*A special thank you to Netgalley and Bloom Books for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

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Weirdly enough, I got permission to read this book, post publication date. But, here goes nothing.

Now, I really liked Pestilence. The concept of the series as a whole is so incredibly unique and complex. It was originally something I didn’t think I was going to enjoy, but I really did.

As for this book, it wasn’t bad in any sense of the word. I will definitely continue the series. But, this book wasn’t my favorite so far.

Starting off, the book was just way too long. There were points that just felt repetitive. Like they would kiss and act cute and then Miriam would defy him. I swear that happened like a thousand times. You could probably cut like 100-200 pages and the story would remain the same.

As far as the characters, Miriam wasn’t as likable as Sara in the first book. She was just kind of irritating for a majority of the book. Out of War and Pestilence, I think I like War just a little bit more. He has a way with words that just made me swoon. These books also would have been good with dual POV.

I’m just a tad concerned that we’re following a bit of a pattern that is going to end up being predictable in future books. Like, the FMC tries to kill the horseman, is taken hostage, long period of falling in love where the FMC doesn’t want to admit it, horseman doesn’t want to stop their mission, and FMC dies and Thanatos allows her to live. And then they live happily ever after.

But, we will just have to wait and see.

This is a slight trope spoiler, so skip if you don’t want it to be spoiled. Just as a warning, there is a surprise pregnancy trope. I know a lot of people aren’t fans of this. And I was surprised it was used in a fantasy.

I love love love this book . Laura sure knows how to hook you up to a story from the very beginning .

I do very much recommend this book .

This book is utterly heartbreaking yet beautiful. You can really feel the heartbreak and internal conflict of Miriam. Whatever she felt I felt, fear, anger, hopelessness, power, and of course love. It is a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the book, but leaves you with a feel good ending! For anyone who loves forced proximity romances this book is perfect!

I felt the author made some improvements to the plot and characters in this second book. The plot is still repetitive in that War goes to a new town, kills people, Miriam runs away, repeat; but the addition of extra characters and subplots boosted the readability. I thought the descriptions of camp added some color to the story, too. War is a much more well-rounded character than Pestilence and the reader starts to get a better feel for the backstory of the four horsemen.

I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Another great book in the Horseman series!

It was difficult to root for War at times. All the killing wasn't easy to get through, but I understand why it had to happen. I think War and Miriam were perfect for each other. She had such a big heart, and he needed that to see what he was doing.

And, of course, I loved how War was so possessive and attentive to Miriam. She was his wife, and he never let her forget it. Despite his aggressive and ruthless behavior, he was loving with her. Miriam was a fighter and strong, but she cared so much for the people.

They both learned from each other and grew together. I loved it!

I am ready to read book three.

When War comes to Jerusalem and tears the city down, his eye catches on Miriam, who he takes and declares his heaven-sent wife. Miriam is forced to stay with War in his camp as he and his warriors bring destruction slowly to earth. While Miriam fights him at every turn, War is determined to win her over. War sees her as worthy of being spared, but Miriam struggles to reconcile her love for War and the terrifying destruction of mankind, so she must convince him to give everything up for her or resign herself to watching the end of humanity.

This was probably my least favorite Four Horseman brother, simply because this conflict heavily relies on a level of back-and-forth dynamic between War and Miriam that isn't quite seen in the other books. Miriam comes to terms with her attraction and love for War pretty early on, and so she spends a large amount of the book deciding whether she can live with her love for War, or she can save humankind, but she can't do both. The spice was on fire, and I really felt for Miriam, but I had a lot of trouble empathizing with War as a MMC, perhaps because the depth of his motivations seemed shallow. He thought he could have his cake and eat it too, and he was just more arrogant than anything else.

But, in the end, War overcame his challenges and I did like him a lot more when he finally made the sacrifices he needed to for Miriam and the rest of humankind.

Thanks to the publisher and the author for providing me with an ARC of this book!

War is the second book in the Four Horsemen series, and although this can be read as a standalone, I would recommend reading the series in order to understand the complexity of the new world and connect with the FMCs in the books.

If you're a fan of The Game of Thrones - where Daenerys Targaryen had to marry the Dothrakhi guy (I'm sorry I don't know his name), War kind of follows the similar trope.

War is Enemies to Lovers, Dark and Apocalyptic Romance, following a strong heroine and an anti-hero who is now picking up after his 'fallen' brother. War's power differs from Pestilence. He thrives on war, the fight, and loves the thrill of winning one.

While he's invading a new city, he finds the heroine, Miriam - who's attempting to kill him. When he sees her, he declares her as his wife and takes her with him.

So I found this book much better than Pestilence - and a major reason is how War is with the heroine.

Although he thirsts for war and violence and killing humans, he is gentle with the heroine... Like the obsessive possessive hero in a dark romance. He calls her his wife, wants to spend time with her and get to know her. Miriam (like Sara in the first book) loathes him for what he is, and tries to thwart his attempts to kill off humans. She doesn't give him the time of her day.

However, the more time they spend together, the more War relates to the heroine, the more he understands her and somewhere in their journey together, he wants to save humanity too. After all, war is in the hearts of human and he is a part of them, just as they are him,

I loved the story, the setting, the emotions and turmoil, everything.

As usual, Laura's writing style just hooks you and it's addictive. The surface theme for this is the same as Pestilence, but the author has managed to add a unique twist to it.

Definitely recommend.

War is the second book to the four horsemen series and this was one held a lot of action compared to the first book. The book was a slow burn but worthwhile because I finished and loved reading about Miriam struggles between war and love.

First published in 2019 as an e-book, this novel follows the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, this time focusing on War and his romance with human, Miriam Elmahdy. I don't know why I love this series like I do, but I do. And Miriam is more likeable than Pestilence's heroine.

*Special thanks to Netgalley and Lavabrook Publishing for this e-arc.*

It took me a little while to fully get interested in this book. I was slowly plodding my way through chapters 1-25, but I finally was hooked by then. It's a very different story from others I've read. Yes, it's romance, but it also contains action, there are slight references here and there to religion, but they aren't heavy. You also get a lot of references to middle eastern states/towns/cities. I had to pull out a map at times to fully grasp where they were. I didn't read the first book, so I feel as though I had a slight disadvantage, and I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out if it was set in present day, or past. I believe it's present day, but essentially post-apocalyptic type situation where there is no electricity/motors/etc. The spicy sections took a while to finally hit because there was a very large enemies to lover's trope, but in the very literal sense of the word, but reading Miriam's spunk, and bravery to fight back and talk back was everything! Lastly, the story really got me at the end. Made me shed a tear which I truly was not expecting, but hopefully if you decide to read this book you will also be pleasantly surprised with the emotions it does evoke.

This is the most simp horsemen out of all of them😂

even though I surely felt very much pissed at every horsemen, I ATE this series

The second horseman tasked with humanity.

Miriam, a weapons maker in a region already ravaged by the wars ongoing, only trying to survive in streets overflowing with suffering and death. Once trapped by the horseman himself, instead of causing harm to her, he decided to take her as his wife instead.

She is ultimately forced to make the decision of accepting her fate and staying with this entity who’s hellbent on ravaging the earth until humanity is gone, or destroy him in order to save the human race as she knows it.

I fell head over heels with this horsemen and his legitimately surprising ways he dots and cares for Miriam. I also did not expect a ‘he falls first’, prior boyboy trope and I was ALL for it with this one given that the spicy scenes felt so raw and absolutely perfect for War. Even with the hard, rough outskirts he was a total cinnamon roll. We see them struggle internally hardcore as they try to come to terms and navigate a wild dilemma that could only happen like a needle in a haystack.

Laura absolutely doubled down on all things romance in this one compared to the first novel. I greatly appreciate her ability to create fantastic lighter moments throughout the book that break up the darker doom and gloom.

The dystopian atmosphere and continuous world building in a different area of the world was refreshing. This was an absolute joy to read and would read this series over and over again in a heartbeat.

War tells us the story of the second of the Four Horsemen who comes to Earth. Through the destruction and gore, War (our main male character) sees Miriam and claims her as his wife. She reluctantly travels with his war band as they decimate city after city. Miriam attempts to convince War to stop killing and destroying humankind with promises of love and affection.

I really enjoyed the fantasy of this book. The magic was fascinating and I also liked her post-apocalyptic worldbuilding. The writing was very enjoyable and the read was very interesting. Something that shocked me was how much I really adored both main characters. But the romance fell a little flat for me. I think there were opportunities for me to really like them but something just didn’t click. Miriam is still very conflicted about being with War until nearly the end when things only change because of her surprise pregnancy. War does have incredible growth throughout the story but I didn’t love the minimal progression that our FMC has. I don’t feel like the pregnancy really worked to tie everything up as seamlessly as it could have.

Overall, I didn’t dislike this book. It could be something others would enjoy if you like angst and more fantasy than romance in your romantasy books. I have plans to read the next in the series so that for what you will. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book for review.

I for sure loved this second book just a tad bit more than the first book if only because it was longer than the first book and there was more of a storyline.

War & Miriam were an enemy to lovers romantasy novel set in a post apocalyptic world that brings into question the reality that humans brought upon this end of the world with their actions and it was now time to face the consequences of a wrathful God.

Such a fun series I went out and bought the physical books! Pestilence still has my heart but I loved War and can’t wait to continue the series!

"War" by Laura Thalassa is a riveting and intense dystopian romance that weaves together the realms of fantasy and apocalypse. In a world devastated by the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Miriam Elmahdy finds herself thrust into a nightmarish existence as she becomes the captive of War, one of the fearsome horsemen. Amidst the chaos and destruction, a complex and tumultuous relationship develops between Miriam and War, with layers of love, vulnerability, and power struggles. Thalassa expertly navigates the delicate balance between the horrors of war and the tender dynamics of romance, creating a story that grips the reader's emotions and takes them on a roller-coaster journey through despair, hope, and sacrifice. "War" is a gripping and atmospheric tale that challenges the boundaries of love in the face of devastation.

Thank you NetGallery for this ARC! 3.75 ⭐️ took me a while to finish but it was a good fantasy read! It did get slow for me towards the end, but enjoyed reading about the second horseman of the apocalypse!

Well, here we are with the second installment of the Four Horsemen series in War's story. I really enjoyed how unique the love story between War and Miriam because it's cute and you can see character development throughout the book (at least in my opinion). They went from having going against each other (like enemies) to slow having attraction and some kind of loyalty towards each other. This was a change of reading for me because I usually steer clear from heavy violence, but it was more so intriguing then bothering to read. I would definitely give their story a good chance and see where it takes you.