Book Reviews/ August 20, 2023August 24, 2023

War by Laura Thalassa Book Review

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Blurb

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 to the horsemen, Miriam Elmahdy knows her life is over. Houses are burning, the streets run red with blood, and a traitorous army is massacring her people. 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 heaven-sent wife, and instead of killing her, he takes her back to his camp.

Now Miriam faces a terrifying future, helplessly watching her world burn town by town, and the one responsible for it is her seemingly indestructible “husband,” who refuses to let her go. But there’s another side to him, one that’s gentle and loving and 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. She must make the ultimate choice: surrender to War and watch humankind fall, or sacrifice everything to stop him.

Sensitive Content

Here is the potentially sensitive content that I observed while reading:

Animal Death
Blood
Child death
Confinement
Death of a parent
Emotional Abuse
Fire
Grief
Gore
Gun Violence
Injury
Kidnapping
Murder
Physical Abuse
Rape
Pregnancy
Sexism
Sexual harassment
Sexually explicit scenes
Suicidal Attempts/Ideation
Torture
Vomit

Ratings

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There are possible **SPOILERS** beyond this point!

Overall Rating

3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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.