PESTILENCE
Series: The Four Horsemen #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Author: Laura Thalassa
Release Date: September 14, 2018

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 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.

Now the horseman, very much alive and very pissed off, has taken her prisoner, and he’s eager to make her suffer. Only, the longer she’s with him, the more uncertain she is about his true feelings towards her … and hers towards him.

And now, well, Sara might still be able to save the world, but in order to do so, she’ll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.

AMAZON

I cannot decide if you are a toxin or a tonic,” he says, lifting a hand to my cheek. “Only that you plague my thoughts and fill my veins.”

That moment when you read a book that everyone, their mother, their dog, and their uncle Jerry recommended to you…and you don’t like it.
I’m feeling a little like the black sheep of the book community right now because I know just how much so many of my book friends loved this book. And I wanted, so badly, to love it too. I tried, guys. I really REALLY did. But alas, this was just simply not my cuppa.

I’d like to preface this by saying that PNR is my jam. It was the genre the first got me into romance and so to say that I’m incredibly picky when it comes to it, would be a mild understatement. Perhaps that was one of the main reasons why I found this book falling short for me? I dunno. But I will say this, the author clearly has some major writing chops. I can definitely see why so many people enjoyed this one. But for me, there was just too many things that I couldn’t look past that began to chip away at my enjoyment of the story after the 20% mark.

1. The world building. It was there. Kinda? Not really. You get bits and pieces of the horseman and their “purpose” but just not enough for my tastes.

2. The purple prose. Sweet baby jebus the purple prose. I can’t with it, guys, I just can’t. And this book was riddled with it.

When you ignore me, I burn with restlessness; it feels as though the sun has turned its back on the world. And when you smile at me—when you gaze at me like you can see my soul—I feel … I feel like I am lit on fire, like you have been called by God to raze my world.”

On the one hand, it’s beautifully poetic. On the other hand, when it continues on and on, it gets to be too much for this reader.

3. The very many graphic deaths. Now look, I’ve read my share of gory details. I’ve read dark romance and romantic suspense, and I’m definitely no stranger to graphic depictions of death and sickness. But when those deaths are of children and sweet elderly couples? I don’t care what they add tot eh story or how they drive the plot forward, I can’t. I just can’t.

4. The romance. It was just meh for me, guys. I hate to admit it because you can definitely see that it was there, but I just didn’t click with it. It was torture porn disguised as romance, if I’m being perfectly frank. All of the deaths and gore simply overshadowed everything else. And that’s not even bringing up all of the shit that Pestilence puts Sara through.

5. Pestilence. GAH. I would have thought I’d love him, but man did I struggle. And no, it wasn’t because he kills so many innocents in the course of the story. It’s because he was a total beta hero in my eyes. Sure, he’s a big baddie with the diseases spreading and the kidnapping of our heroine after she tries to kill him in order to make her suffer. Sure he’s all tough and weapony and all that jazz. But he’s almost childlike in his idealistic views and understanding of human nature and interactions. I felt no alpha vibes from him in the least, and that’s a must for me. This is clearly a personal preference, so take that with a grain of salt.

Ultimately I found myself growing both bored and irritated with the story and all of the meaningless gory deaths and the back and forth between Pestilence and Sara. It felt almost preachy to me in parts because of the God references, but again, that’s another personal preference. I prefer my PNR to be strictly PNR. I’ve read another series by Larissa Ione on the Four Horseman Eternal Rider and sadly this book just pales in comparison. Perhaps it was because I kept comparing them that worked against it? I dunno. But sadly, this story just fell completely flat for me. I wanted to love it, but I barely got through it.

Would I read the rest of this series? Probably not. But I’ll definitely be giving this author’s other books a try. I loved her story telling, I just didn’t love this book and the concept.

Clearly I’m the lone black sheep here, because countless others absolutely loved this story. So don’t take my word as gospel. This is just one opinion here guys, with plenty of personal biases in play. So give it a shot and see for yourself.