Reading With Tyler

Name: Death
Series: The Four Horsemen #4
Author: Laura Thalassa
Publisher: Bloom Books
Format: Paperback & Kindle Unlimited
Genres: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Dystopia
Spice Rating: Explicit Open Door 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Review:

There will likely be spoilers for the first three books in The Four Horsemen series, including spoilers for the Horsemen themselves as they all appear in book four. Spoilers for Death will be hidden as normal.

I don’t know if it was the distance from this series that meant I ended up really enjoying Death, or if it was just that Death was that good… because it redeemed the whole series for me (I did enjoy Pestilence!)! I actually really liked both Lazarus – even if her name was odd and took some getting used to – and Death.

This one reminded me a lot of Pestilence! However in Pestilence he absolutely loathed Sara to the point of tieing her up to the back of his horse and dragging her a long… Death and Lazarus go at each other over and over again because for some reason Lazarus doesn’t stay dead. Which meant that the enemies to lovers was strong with this one, truly.

I think it’s easy to forget that this series spans a lot of time! I think it’s over 20 years across all four books, because The Four Horsemen didn’t come down and wipe humanity out in a day. It happened in stages, and in each stage the Horsemen was stopped by the love he develops for a woman… Death was determined to be the exception to this pattern. But that didn’t mean he didn’t find her.

Lazarus, I thought, was great. I liked how she was absolutely determined to try and do anything, no matter how futile, to prevent Death from wiping out the next town or city he’d come across. Her ability to come back from death really gave her a unique shot at it, and you cannot fault her for trying. I did find the “Ben” story line a bit odd, but I think this was perhaps because time in Death felt a bit… rushed? But despite that, I really liked her.

Death I liked too – though his ‘I want both’ attitude kind of annoyed me, because when has that ever worked out for anyone (why choose’s don’t count). I think he had the nicest of powers, honestly – or at least he used his power nicely, I get the impression it could have been worse if he wanted to make it so. Then add to the mix the arrival of the first Three Horsemen and we had a party! Both Pestilence and War were mortal and so were aging and had learned how to be human. Famine is still immortal (thanks to Death) and so isn’t aging but is as determined as the others to protect their families. And together they team up with Lazarus to try and convince Death to spare humanity…

Honestly any time all of the horsemen were on the page (or anymore than just Death I should say) I had a great time. I wished there was more of it, though I understand why there wasn’t. I think Pestilence remains my favourite – though War shockingly grew on me thanks to Death’s book.

All in alll, I mean it when I say this series was redeemed because of Death. I’m really glad I continued, even if it was just for the sake of completing a series for a prompt on my TBR. I don’t know if I’d be recommending this series but books 1 and 4 were definitely worth it at least.

“You snatched my loneliness from me,” he breathes, “and I hope you never give it back.”