Name: War (The Four Horseman Book 2)
ISBN: 9781942662242

Laura Thalassa

As the second horsemen brings war and destruction, he meets a young woman who he believes is destined to be his wife, but unfortunately for him she does everything she can to sabotage his plans.

War (The Four Horseman Book 2)

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 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.

This was more boring in comparison to the previous story.

I loved Pestilence and came in with too high expectations.

Ultimately, it was good, but a Jason Momoa love interest is not my jam, I won't lie. And it was hard to imagine Callum Turner when his description was constantly described.

Overall, pretty good, but didn't hit like Pestilence for me.

Sarah Campbell

This was more boring in comparison to the previous story.
I loved Pestilence and came in with too high expectations.
Ultimately, it was good, but a Jason Momoa love interest is not my jam, I won't lie. And it was hard to imagine Callum Turner when his description was constantly described.
Overall, pretty good, but didn't hit like Pestilence for me.

chateau

THIS BOOK IS A WHOLESOME. AND IT'S BEYOND OF MY EXPECTATION. THAT IS. THAT'S THE REVIEW.

Lover of Romance 

This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance

War is the second book in the mind awakening series "The Four Horsemen" and WHEW.....I wish I could express in this review my full thoughts but I doubt I will be able to express how much I adored this book. Laura Thalassa has done it again folks.....delivered such a brilliant story that stretches your limitations and boundaries in a way you never imagine. Now I thought the first book "Pestilence" was just a fluke, but nope, this author has the talent of addicting her readers to her stories in such an unforgettable way.  I have become hooked on this book. Now first off THE COVER is just gorgeous. I love how they matched it to the first one and man I want to take him home with him. He is definitely yummy looking and that hair.....*sigh* in love.
Loss is a wound that never heals. Never never never. It scabs over, and for a time you can almost forget it's there, but then something--a smell, a sound, a memory--will split that wound right open and you'll be reminded again that you're not whole. That you'll never fully be whole again
Pestilence was staged in North America, but now our author takes us across the world to Israel and more specifically to Jerusalem and this is where we get introduced to our heroine Miriam who is on her own and who lost her family due to other circumstances. Miriam works in medieval weaponry and since the arrival of the Four Horsemen and the technology and instability of firearms, swords and arrows are what you defend yourself with. But now her land and her people are being killed by the next Horseman "War" and his army. But then when she tries to kill him, he comes after her but instead of killing her, he lets her live and calls her "wife" and takes her back to his camp of followers. Even though she wants to fight him, she is confused by his affection for her. But even though they are enemies, she sees a side no one else does, one that is gentle and affectionate. But there is a divide happening and soon War will need to make a choice .....his duty or the woman he loves and his inner battle with what is right and wrong.
Somewhere along the way, my reasons for giving into these human emotions changed. I no longer pursued you beause I was suppose to. I craved your company, your smiles, your fierce anger and clever tongue because it brought me the same joy battle did. And the world bloomed into color. For the first time, I began to truly feel this body and every emotion within it.
War was such a delight and this book swept me up and I stayed up ALL night reading this book, and I have no regrets on that score. This was so brilliant and what a page-turner this book turned out to be. I was unsure, since the first book I had read in audio format, so this was different but just as good in my opinion. But a bit different, we still had that level of angsty and feeling of the enemies to lovers trope, but the vibe between War and Miriam was a bit different from the one between our couple in the first book. I think I liked War even more than Pestilence in many respects to be honest. Now he is a tough one to really get into. Because he has such pride and arrogance but he also believes in strongly in what he is doing. His sense of right and wrong is very black and white.  But just like Pestilence, he finds his own path in discovering what is really right and wrong.
I love the horseman.

I love his violent eyes and the way he sees me. I love his strength and his humor and his ridiculous body and that smile. That smile that I wait for. I love War's growing humanity and his otherness.

I love him
We see much more brutality in this book though, so be warned about that. It's not easy to see in some of these scenes but there are so many redeeming moments that build in this book. I was really stunned with our heroine. She is a fighter but she also seems to know when to pick her battles. She tries to help humankind when she can but she is walking a fine line and War seems to let her do it in many cases. But these two really battle it out and have to find their own common ground. But the growth that we see in both characters is so thrilling and seeing their relationship deepen with their own character understanding of themselves.
But....that's changing---War is changing, and the world is changing with him
Overall I found War to be a stunning read that will cross boundaries of love and hate.....a beautiful balance in finding yourself and a mate to stand by you and fight for each other in such a vibrating deep abiding way!

Wren Elliott 

So after reading War I've come to the conclusion that I liked Pestilence better. And yes I'm willing to eat my words about not liking Pestilence and would even go as far as to bump up my rating from three to four stars. 

War's story just wasn't what I'd hoped for and neither was either main character. In the first book, the female main Sarah Burns was so badass and then in War Miriam seemed like she was missing something. Miriam didn't have as much fight in her as Sara and it felt like she kind of just...gave up?? She wasn't a damsel in distress by any means but she still seemed to be missing something. 

War was very much the dark and dangerous warlord type, protective and possessive but still, there were moments between him and Miriam that were soft and showed us the cracks in War's whole heartless, here to destroy the world attitude. In the end, his self-realisation was also pretty similar to Pestilence, though I felt he was definitely less of a brute in some ways than the first horseman.

Again this was kind of a slow burn, nothing crazy spicy and just like with the first book that fits the relationship between War and Miriam, anything more and it would have seemed a little out of place.

The story was still brilliant and so well written and I really loved how it jumped to a different continent. But in saying this I just found the plot a little too repetitive and overall a little too similar to the first book and therefore a little predictable, for that reason I gave it three stars. Again though, it was still enjoyable enough that I will absolutely finish the series. I mean I've been eyeing off Famine and I have super high hopes...

Jessica Lynn

freya.nightwolf

THIS BOOK IS PERFECT! 

It's way better than Pestilence, it has a lot of action and you can see that war and death work hand in hand. It's a lot of violence, but again, this is WAR, not Easter Bunny, and everything horrible thing that he does, reaches his name. This is no joke, no game. This is WAR. 

You have action, you also have love and spicy scenes, but let's not forget that War [= Ares] requires passion. So even if war and love are exact opposites, in the passion they are equal. For every Scorpio in the world, this is your book. I am one and I love it. I can't wait to read book 4, "Death".

Now, let's get back to the book. War is a passionate creature and you cannot fall in love with him. He knows exactly what he wants and he gets it. He is a master and also a protector. What I love most about War is that he speaks his mind. Everything he feels, he says it in your face. He doesn't fear to speak up his mind and if he doesn't like something, you will also know it. He's ruthless and he will protect what is his at any cost. In battle, you clearly see his passion for fighting, for war. But in love, you can see a whole new passionate creature. He devours Miriam and he is not afraid to show his passion in front of her, and in front of the others. He doesn't care about what the other people think, I mean, if you piss him off, you're dead meat! 

Miriam is a fighter and I think she's perfect for War. Yes, she practically is dragged into War's camp and she has to learn his ways and leave by his rules, but she will never give up. Even if you'll think she's giving too much to him after the atrocities he left behind, in a way, it's understandable. The end of the world is coming and you have nothing and no one to lose. So, screw it. She also lived a long time on her own, and loneliness tends to get to you. So when you finally live with somebody else, even a lot of douchebags and a killer for a husband [one who makes you feel all kinds of powerful things and loves with passion], you feel alive, and forget about loneliness. So, I understand her. I mean, she did try to (view spoiler)[kill him with his own sword! (hide spoiler)] So she didn't really give in to him completely :)). I loved that scene.

The reason that I'm saying WAR is much better than PESTILENCE is that this book has a lot of action. PESTILENCE has its own charm and you get to see everything about Pestilence and Sara, 'cause there aren't many people left. WAR on the other hand has his camp, the battlefields, and the people Miriam managed to save from War's wrath and it's a lot more passionate. There is also determination and fighting for what you believe in, or your moral codes. You can see the relationships that are formed in the camp and how easily they can stab you in the back. And also, you can see the nativity of those warriors that didn't choose death, thinking they are saved from War's task. You can see a lot of aspects of human nature, of the heart of a human being. 

It's interesting how, in the end, the horsemen or their women stay face to face with Death. I think Death's book is going to be very complex in knowing the horseman because of the crumbs that Laura left for us in the endings of these first two books about Death's actions, it's hard not to make you think: 
  "What is Death up to? Why is he doing that or why is he thinking this is interesting? I need the fourth book!"
 I have a feeling I'll see him in FAMINE too. Something big is coming!

Sven Test

3.5 stars | Now, this was a good story! I enjoyed War’s and Miriam’s adventure. It was gruesome and dark, but also, War tugged at my heart strings. Definitely glad I kept reading the series!

Rebecca okeefe

The longest of the four...or maybe just felt it. Whilst I did love this story by the end. For a while there in the middle I felt I may give up. So happy I'd didn't. Be prepared for a longer story but just as beautiful as pestilence was.

I'm a little conflicted on how to properly rate this second book in the horsemen series. It felt a bit like "read that before", as of course the basic principle is the same as in the first book. I did like the scenery change, I enjoyed the main characters more than I did in "Pestilence" but at times it was very repetitive. 

They start to get along, she is witness to something (expectable, yet brutal), she tries to flee, he catches her... repeat. 

It would have been more enjoyable to me, if it had been cut short by about 200 pages, as not much would have been missed. 

The trope itself leading up to their ending ... uff, still not my cup of tea. (If anyone knows if this is the same for books 3 and 4 I'd actually appreciate a warning. 😁) 

I liked the ending, though, which made me even more curious about book 4. Can I skip #3? 

Leonie

I'm a little conflicted on how to properly rate this second book in the horsemen series. It felt a bit like "read that before", as of course the basic principle is the same as in the first book. I did like the scenery change, I enjoyed the main characters more than I did in "Pestilence" but at times it was very repetitive. 

They start to get along, she is witness to something (expectable, yet brutal), she tries to flee, he catches her... repeat. 

It would have been more enjoyable to me, if it had been cut short by about 200 pages, as not much would have been missed. 

The trope itself leading up to their ending ... uff, still not my cup of tea. (If anyone knows if this is the same for books 3 and 4 I'd actually appreciate a warning. 😁) 

I liked the ending, though, which made me even more curious about book 4. Can I skip #3? 

Zoe P

Honestly better than the first one. That was intense!!!!

Bird 

A MASSIVE improvement from the first book! I liked this one a lot more for sure.

Ley Stanton

December 23, 2019: 

We are finally given a more concrete timeline and explanation for the horsemen’s tasks. The horsemen first arrived and threw the world into turmoil ten years ago. Five years ago, Pestilence arrived and was swayed by a human, abandoning his task. Recently, War has arrived and begun his part in the end of humanity. When I first started reading the series, I didn’t realize the larger timeline. I can’t recall if it was mentioned in Pestilence. I devoured that book so quickly that, unfortunately, many of the details are lost to me. I intend to re-read it before the next book in the series, Famine, comes out so that everything is a little more solid in my mind. 
One of the things I love the most about this series thus far is the time Laura Thalassa takes to introduce us to the world, to the current state of things. She has created a believable new world in the shambles of the one that currently exists. 
The horsemen come off as terrifying before they are even introduced and, somehow, seeing them just makes them even more fearsome. War gives me mixed feelings. There are moments I adore him and moments I want Miriam to find someway to kill him. I think that back and forth rings true to how Miriam is dealing with her feelings about him and his actions throughout the book. The reader is taken along as War softens to her and Miriam finds solace in any mercy she can bring forth from him. There is an internal struggle over whether she should love him despite all the atrocities he is committing or convincing humans to commit against each other. The fact that so many people chose to help him destroy the world instead of dying by his hand is fascinating to me. I was not expecting that aspect when I started the book, I assumed his Phobos riders rose with him when he was sent to destroy the world. I think War perfectly made his point that humanity was far worse than Miriam realized. The Phobos riders not only helped him destroy others but some of them seemed to find true joy in doing so. 
From the beginning Miriam hates War and makes the decision to die but he will not allow it. He believes Miriam has been given to him by God to be his wife. War will stop at nothing to get her to surrender to him and accept him as her husband. The book follows the pair getting to know each other and understanding each other’s side of the story. This included a lot more back and forth between the couple than Pestilence did. Neither wants to surrender to the others will. But neither wants to live without the other either. 
I adored this installment in the Four Horsemen series even more than the first. I didn’t even know that was possible. The only reason I didn’t read this the day it was released is that I knew I would have to wait even longer before I could read the next one in the series, Famine. Finally I broke down and had to read it, now I have undetermined amount of time before I find out what happens next. I look forward to seeing how Laura Thalassa deals with Famine and makes me fall in love with him as much as I have Pestilence and War. Before starting this series, I didn’t even know it was possible for me to see such characters redeemed

December 22, 2019: 

When I stop crying about this book, I’ll post a proper review.

Ale ♡

4 stars.

Spanish review is below the English one.

I hated War so much, hahaha but part of me kinda loved him? I don't know yet. I loved the fact that Miriam is strong and she freaking enjoyed sex: she's the "good for her". I miss Zara. :( Also, when War mentioned Pestilence I was so excited that I missed him... War is completely different to Pestilence, this last one is like a child: he doesn't know anything, and yet, so similar to War because they don't know love so well... Ok, the four assholes (ily, btw) don't know how the love works, even if they have so much time existing...
I loved the ending, when Miriam found her mother and sister... That was actually pretty emotive.

I'm expecting Death and now I'm moving to Famine. :)

Spanish review.

Odié a Guerra, pero también, ¿me encariñé? No lo sé todavía. Amé el hecho de que Miriam es fuerte, y ella en serio disfruta del sexo. Es mi "bien por ella", la felicito por ello, yas. Extraño a Zara. :( Me emocioné a montones cuando Guerra mencionaba a Peste porque lo extraño mucho... Guerra es completamente diferente: Peste es como un niño: no sabe nada, y aun así, es igual a Guerra, porque no saben cómo funciona el amor... De acuerdo, los cuatro idiotas (los amo, btw) no saben cómo funciona el amor, incluso cuando tienen mucho de existir.

Voy a continuar con Hambre, pero estoy esperando a Muerte como a nadie.

Faith

So I definitely liked the first book in this series more. This one was just...alright. I didn't like War, and I didn't really like Miriam either. This one was even gorier than the first, and huge trigger warning for sexual assault here. Here's hoping that the third book has a relationship with a liiitle more chemistry.

Aundreya Rich

To the reviewers on audible who said the narrator developed a lisp.... thank you because that’s all I noticed 😂😂😂


If you read pestilence, which was a fun read/listen.... then you read War just in a different part of the world and a little more of an interesting horseman.

I was sort of disappointed by this one. But I will listen to book 3 with high hopes of a strong return.

roosmarijn

Two books in. That means investment. There's no going back now.

I must admit I was a little hesitant going into this after Pestilence, which I didnt enjoy as much as I hoped I would (sorry Pesti).
But this really didn't dissapoint at all.

War has the exact same narrative structure as the previous book, I believe Thalassa literally copy pasted the same structure into each book of this series. But I'm not complaining. It's a solid narrative:

 Muscly-apocalyptic-daddy-dude-who-in-my-head-looks-exactly-like-jason-momoa (not complaining one bit) arrives to earth with a single purpose: killing off humankind. And then there's Miriam and angst and a delicious slow burn romance and too many zombies. ​

The question that's burning on everyone's lips: "Roos who’s sexier??? Is it War or Pestilence so far?" And the answer by far has to be War. (Though I still haven't figured out if he really is or if Pesti was thát dissapointing). 
War was hot. And funny (thank god for that).

I'm really doing Plague-daddy dirty here, but he can't compare with War.

This was FUN. 
Miriam was really cool and badass and funny. I loved her with War and I loved that they both didn't quite extinguish each others fires. THE SCENE WERE SHE PUTS A FUCKING SWORD TO HIS NECK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT - FUCKING AWESOME!!! Alsooo the steam was better than the first book, though still tame, the dirty talk was definitely better. Oh and daddy Death was there for a little bit which was cool.

Just as with the first book, I thought it was really nice there was a lack of physical descriptions of Miriam. There were no oversexualised female body shapes or unnecessairy comments on weight loss and man, that's appreciated.

Is the length of the book a secret metaphor for Wars dick? Because I feel like that's the only explanation for why this streched out as long as it did - I lost count of how many cities were invaded (all of them much too similair) and how many times they walked back and forth the tents. It was a bit too repetitive but alas, at least the sex scenes improved. 

Sooooo
All in all this was funnnnn, I'm hoping the series keeps developing like this because I'm ready for Thanatos man. 

​
  



pre-reading-review:
debating wether or not postponing my schoolwork is worth another day of continuing this really bad really addicting really weird series
(it wasn't, but it was yaknow)

Yaneli | @aquariusbookadventures 

Rating: 3.5 Stars! 
https://bookboyfriendsdoitbetter.com/

This is my least favorite of Laura's books. This was the first release of hers I was there for and I think I just hyped it up for myself too much. 

I was annoyed with Miriam for most of the book and I got too attached to War very early on in the book. I have only read it that one time and I honestly don't see myself rereading this one.

Maria emilia 

Katie

War has now ridden out with the intent of indiscriminately killing all who cross his path, except those he takes as part of his army--and Miriam, who he claims as his wife.

She's not into it.

War is a very different character from Pestilence, the love interest in the first book in this series. Pestilence knew very little about human life and was not happy about completing his part in the apocalypse. War is the opposite; he loves human culture, but not enough to give up his quest. I loved reading about him, and the banter between War and Miriam is SO GOOD. They are both headstrong and stubborn, and they both have their own agendas.

Miriam was a fun character to read from, since she's been thrust into this impossible situation with seemingly no way out. She takes what independence she can (and some she can't), and I really respect that about her. She has some baggage that, through careful needling, War helps her work through.

Their relationship development, while at some points was overly dramatic, was pretty good. It felt realistic that, under these circumstances, their relationship would develop the way that it did. I enjoyed seeing Miriam and War get to know each other in between all the bickering.

There were a few negatives to this book. The first is that this definitely should have gone through another round of edits, because there were some grammar and spelling mistakes that could have easily been fixed. It was also waaaay too long, and it felt like the plot was dragging at some points. A decent chunk of this book could have been cut with no significant changes.

My biggest complaint, however, is the sex scenes. On the page, War references some super dirty sex (chaining Miriam to the bed kind of sex), and then they DON'T DO THAT. Most of the sex scenes are fade-to-black, and when they're not, they're pretty vanilla. Which there's nothing wrong with that, but Laura Thalassa absolutely teased me with War literally saying that he wanted to do some dirty stuff, and then not following through. Don't have a character say they want to do XYZ thing, and then not have them do that thing. Not only is that disappointing from a reader's standpoint, but that definitely wasn't in line with War as a character. He is the type of person to do what he says he's going to do.

Overall, I absolutely devoured this and thought it was an excellent addition to this series. I will be eagerly making grabby hands until the third installment comes out.

Heather Solov

3.5 stars. 

Nothing groundbreaking, definitely smutty. Basically the same plot line as the first one, just a different horseman. Will I still read the next one? Probably lol.

Amanda 

Took me forever to finish even though I really did enjoy it. I liked it more than the first one (Pestilence), most likely because violence does it for me. Some parts were fantastically ridiculous but easy to overlook for the action and romance.

Coralie | she/her

3,5/5
I liked this book a little bit more than the first one. To be honest, it was about to be an at least 4starts read, but then something disappointed me so yeah.. A little bit disappointed. 
This book still is quite gore but I found it a little bit more bearable than with Pestilence.
So yeah, a good read, but just a little disappointment near the end.

Lacey

4.5 STARS

I’m going to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but AHHHHHH!!! War is about the size of two average-sized books, and I pretty much read it in one sitting (when I knew I had uninterrupted reading time). I DEVOURED this book. It was everything I was hoping for as the sequel to Pestilence! I fell in love with War (even when I knew I shouldn’t) and the heroine is so kickass and awesome. War is a possessive, alpha mofo and once he claims Miriam as his wife, there’s no going back. This absolutely lived up to my expectations and now I can’t freaking WAIT for the next book!

Laura Thalassa has written some of my favorite fantasy romances, and now War is going near the top of my list. It’s dark, twisted, addicting, and unputdownable. War is the perfect kind of hate-to-love and love-to-hate hero. He reminds me of the hero from The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley, with the same warlord, alpha-male vibes. Miriam holds her own against him, which made for some incredible, steamy chemistry. I was glued to their romance, to the way it turned from hate (on Miriam’s part), to reluctant feelings, and finally, to genuine love. I think Laura Thalassa did an amazing job portraying War’s character – he’s is not a good guy, but you can’t help but grow to love him.

The wait for War was 100% worth it. Right now I’m crying about the wait for Famine, though I know Laura Thalassa won’t disappoint with that one, whenever it releases!

Thanks to the author for generously providing me an ARC to review.

Amazon Ebook: https://amzn.to/2XHsU9V

Liked this review? Subscribe to Booklovers For Life for more!