
Title: War
Author: Laura Thalassa
Genre: Fantasy romance
Pages: 502
My rating: ★★★✭☆
Read from: 02.06.23 – 21.07.23
The E-Arc War was kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This has not altered my opinion of the book.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.
My Review:
This is the second book in a series, but this review will be spoiler-free for both books. The only thing I will say is that War didn’t quite live up to my expectations after reading and loving Pestilence.
I struggled a little with this story, it didn’t feel as engaging as the first book and I didn’t like War very much. However I have to admit that by the end of the book I was bawling. This is one of those books where the ending makes every earlier struggle so worth it! Seeing War slowly but surely change and gain insight into what humanity should look like and can look like was wonderful. War, similarly to Pestilence, is a book about the human condition and how humanity can still prosper even in the darkest of times. That is what I love most about these books!
I found War’s character very interesting, once I got over my initial dislike for him. He is supposed to have grown from every war there’s ever been, which means that all he knows of humans is how they are during war. This again has had a direct impact on his own personality. He therefore has a very bleak image of humans, which means that our fmc Miriam had her work cut out for her if she wanted to influence War’s campaign at all. Even though the story felt like it dragged a little in the beginning and middle, I still really enjoyed it! I would honestly rather have it drag a little than have a rushed plot, or a rushed romance.
If you haven’t read this series yet, I highly recommend checking it out! With how much I have enjoyed the first two books, I’m really excited to continue the series. I hope it keeps exploring humanity’s quest of self-preservation and our deep capacity for goodness even in the face of all that we fear!
❀ Mathilde
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