Katerina's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse
(or Pestilence and All His Friends)

? DO not, I repeat do not, let mind-blowingly beautiful covers seduce you. This is the first step towards your doom.



? IF you were weak me and gave in to the temptress called Cover, you must be prepared to shut your moral compass. That is necessary if you do not wish to spend your entire reading experience hearing the voices in your head screaming error.404.this.is.not.right.

? ACCEPT that you WILL NOT dive into a dark, paranormal, heart-pounding adventure. That your eyes will feast on apocalypse smut, that the world will literally burn but the heroine will be busy gawking at the sculpted abs of the human incubator of plague and judging the people who try to kill him in order to save their families and, you know, MANKIND.

? TRY not to cringe every time Sara calls Pestilence well, Pestilence, even in their, ehem, intimate moments. (wait, scratch that, it cannot be implemented)

? SIT back and try to enjoy the ride.
*sigh*
This is wrong on so many levels.



If you follow my , you must have known by now that I don't do 2 stars. I've always stood for the idea that authors expose themselves when they publish a book, because willingly or not they pour a part of their souls into their works, so 3 stars has been my lowest rating, out of (maybe misguided, maybe not) respect. But this time, I couldn't help myself. It's not because Laura Thalassa is a bad writer; on the contrary, I enjoyed her prose in general, and d the sarcasm that laced her narration, so this is by no means an attack to her talent, or the author herself. I also know, taking into consideration the average rating of this book, that I express a highly unpopular opinion, without intending to offend all those readers that enjoyed Pestilence. The truth is, I envy them. The blame for not liking Pestilence is all mine, since I knew it was about the unly romance between a human and the first of the Four Horsemen, thus being aware that the line between right and wrong would be blurry. But guys, the way the main heroine, Sara, perceives things is all messed up.

Let me give you an example: the last time Sara (who was taken captive by Pestilence) and Pestilence entered a big city, riding his undead stallion, the citizens had set up an ambush, resulting to Pestilence being gravely injured (note that he cannot be killed). So, the next time they approach a big city, Sara wants to get off the main road, because:

a) she wants to spare the people that didn't evacuate from a horrible, painful death
b) she's afraid she might be killed in the ambush
c) she doesn't want undying Pestilence to get hurt

And yes, Sara goes for option c). I suspect she wanted them to throw Pestilence a welcome party as a thank you for, you know, exterminating human race.

Don't get me wrong, along the way they encountered some really nasty people who committed atrocities against them, and I do not condone that. However, Sara was present when children and sweet elderly people died because of Pestilence, when children lost mothers to plague and parents lost their children when Pestilence commandeered their homes in order for Sara to eat their food (!) and rest (!), something Sara gradually came to accept. I am sorry, but this is beyond disturbing.



One could say that the whole point of this book is to show that Pestilence came to understand humanity and found compassion through the power of luuve, to depict Sara's inner battle etc. I beg to differ. I don't blame Pestilence for his nature (even though, to be honest, he was able to spare people but he did so only for the hot chick he encountered), I blame Sara for her tolerance. Pestilence tortured her, abused her, made her suffer again and again, and she stood by his side when he spread death and mourning, getting angry at the people who tried to stop him.

Sadly, this f!cked up relationship was not my only issue. The entire book consists of the same routine: Pestilence and Sara travel on horseback, they find some poor fellow's house to rest, and once in a while they encounter desperate people trying to stop them. It eventually got really tedious, it felt I witnessed the same events again and again.
*another sigh*
To sum up, Pestilence was not the book for me.

BookNest | Instagram2018-reads dystopia paranormal1,257 s6 comments NavessaAuthor 13 books8,148

FUCKING BRAVO.

Okay, so here's the thing, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book this. You know, one where there's a borderline Stockholm Syndrome relationship going on.

Because feminist rage.

This author pulled it off for me, though, and I'm so frigging happy she did, because sometimes I just want to tune out and enjoy a love story that's dark and twisted and oh so wrong that it's right.

However, I can definitely see other readers having a problem with this book and the romance that blossoms between the male and female leads. And that really comes down to a simple question:

How do you feel about humanity?

Do you think we're all worth saving, or are you at the point where you're just , "Fuck it, maybe we deserve the apocalypse."?

Lately, I fall into the latter category, so I didn't have much of an issue with the male lead (Pestilence, , of the four horsemen of the apocalypse) leaving a trail of bubo-covered bodies in his wake.

And I didn't have a problem with the female lead starting to fall in love with him, even though he was actively wiping out her species. Because it's apparent from the beginning that he's not really driving himself onward. Some divine order is.

Which made for a really interesting male lead. Because, through the heroine, he starts to learn that humanity might be worth saving after all. Or, more , maybe some of us are. The resulting existential crisis is fascinating, and worth sticking around for, in my opinion.

So, ultimately, if you're bothered by their relationship in the beginning, maybe try pushing through until the end. Because, and I still can't believe I'm saying this, the male lead is fully redeemed by then.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest2018 dark-romance fantasy-romance ...more672 s A?Y?Queen of Fat cats????'s fiancé459 11

Update 9
WAR IS COMING!!!
???JULY 11 is the official release date. ???
I can't wait! Grow up and don't let people tell you don't read this book that's so childish
Update 8
On second thought this is a 6 stars read!!! Seriously so good. I'm upping my rating 'cuz I recently finished Dark Harmony and it's not as good as this one but I still enjoyed it so much!! So I found a few flaws there and still a 5?? Then Pestilence is 6 'cuz it's so so good. GUYS!!!! you really need to read Thalassa sensei, she's a writing goddess.

Update 7
#NotMyCover
GUYS! Thalassa sensei was robbed! Seriously big fraud! A stupid book designer stole the artwork so she had to replace the cover.

Question, though. If the criminal designer pays for the stolen artwork because he did it after all, can we recover the old cover? If it's possible let's start a petition. I need the original cover back!

Make the thief pay! Let's start a petition!

Update 6
Guys! Don't get so worked out! It's just a book! A good book, too.

It's fiction people.
How is the cover deceiving? A horseman of the apocalypse falls in love with hot chick. I mean that's not lovey-dovey romance, or post-apocalyptic adventure: it's romance of the dark-ish kind. Anyone can see that just by looking at the cover.

So Pestilence kills people?
Duh!



Update 5

"I came to conquer this land and its people, but instead, one of its people conquered me."



4.5 pestilential stars!

Buddy read still in progress with: Rachel, Jordan, Parvati, Bilabi, Raven Blake, Kimberly and a few more friends still reading. Click below for their AMYzing , I'll add more later:
?Rachel's
?Jordan's
?Parvati's
?Bilabi's
?Raven Blake's
?Kimberly

I loved Pestilence! I laughed, I cried, I couldn't put it down!

When you finished a book you loved and need an striking visual of a hot blond horseman and all you can find is this:





You scream this!



Those aren't bad visual, I'm seriously thinking our world is ready for Fabio 2.0. The problem is along with those images I found this:




Not I picture my lovely Pestilence.

I picture Pestilence this:



Anyway! I've been hyped for Pestilence since I saw the cover and I was literally counting down the days because I have a thing for blond antiheros Laurent, Jace, Aleksey, Lothaire, Warner, Sebastian,
even Sebastian Morgenstern is so close to my heart. Well thanks to Thalassa sensei, dear Pestilence joined the club! It took me a while to warm up to him because he was an ass, and not in a good way, but eventually he won my heart. I love love love love love him! It was so cute how Sara was teaching him to be human. Don't take me wrong, not everything was lovey-dovey. Some scenes were seriously fucked up and gory, but I loved that.

Guys this is a #Mustread, if you're a fan of Angelfall or you need to read a book featuring a brooding, blond hero you'll love Pestilence.


????____________________________________________________???
Update 4:
Buddy read in progress with Rachel, Jordan, Parvati, Bilabi. (Lucia and Corinne, will join us later maybe? During the holidays?)
?Rachel's
?Jordan's
?Parvati's
?Bilabi's


Click on their names to read their .


UPDATE 3: THIS ISN'T A DRILLING

****IT'S LIVE GUYS! ****

*Kisses her kindle

?UPDATE 2?
March 20th can't get here fast enough!
?UPDATED?


Oho! Februarish- Marchish according to Thalassa-san. I can't wait!
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...



?ORIGINAL REVIEW BEFORE UPDATES:
?NEED THIS! ?Release date?




------------------------------------------------------------adult adult-fantasy bae ...more398 s V. A Court of Wings and Ruin is NEW ADULT/EROTICA but Goodreads editors won't tell you to include it in the choice awards266 493

Update 07/22/19
I finished the sequel of this book some hours ago and I have to tell you that I was seriously underating this series. I'm upping my rating to 5 stars beacuse book 2, War has some issues, but it's another safe book that in no way ruins the good things built in Pestilence. If you me hate cheating heroes and OW after meeting I highly recommend this series.

I also want to point out that Goodreads is a site to express our opinions about books and to discover new books. Any member of our community trying to prevent you

a) from expressing your honest opinion, whether positive or negative about this or any other book
b) from discovering this author's books because they would prefer if you paid more attention to the New adult fantasy (marketed as YA) of the big publishing houses.

is someone that if I were you, I would block.

I'm tired of seeing campaings pro/anti books based on their content (Twilight? Fifty shades? Carve the mark? Damsel? Black witch, Pittacus Lore books?) or stupid parameters indie vs. Traditionally published, Harper vs Simon and Shuster, Amazon books vs. Penguin books etc.

Let the material speak for itself and readers decide by themselves

Nobody has the right to tell the readers DON'T FALL FOR THE COVER OF THIS BOOK, THIS BOOK IS PROBLEMATIC, THIS BOOK IS THIS OR THAT, THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK OFFENDED MY FRIEND. in other words, many people in goodreads always tell you don't read this book.
There's good and terrible edited books in the traditional published world. Lately bad edited books from the big publishers are a frequent occurency.
There's Good and terrible edited books in the indies world.
As a reader what we want is good stories and who publishes those stories is beside the point. The fact that some times content offends a group is something that I'm free to ignore or not. But don't act if I enjoy Twilight or Fifty shades or tHE SELECTION, or Carve the Mark or Pestilence there's something wrong with me and don't try to force me into your triggers. I have triggers of my own, thank you very much.

So please don't use our Goodread platform to prevent people to read books they might enjoy. Trash the book all you want in your review if you want to. But don't use your review to try to prevent a book reaching its target audience. In the case of Thalassa and Sarah J. Maas books the target audience is the 17 and older readers. That's not what goodreads is for. I have specific triggers (cheating, rape, Other woman) and I love reading that give me information about those triggers but I would never use my negative to prevent people who might a book better than me, to read it because its message offends me. That's immature. I have no time for immature readers so I'm starting to unfriend and block readers according to what I perceive are misleading .

If you me are a reader who pays for your own books and are tired of the same old same old of the fantasy and romance genres I suggest you to ignore the haters and give the Four Horsemen a chance. Or at the very least Rhapsodic. A book in my opinion, much better than all the New adult fantasy (which is currently marketed as YA ) by publishers Wensday books and Bloomsburry. Distrust anyone who tells you Thalassa isn't an author worth reading.

One last thing. Many people who trash this book are big supporters of the big publishing houses and dont' want you to discover that some indies (key word being some)are publishing great stories that you're missing out. Just because some top Goodreads reviewers and Booktubers don't pay for their books (or want to get a publishing contract with traditional publishers) and NEED TO SUPPORT the traditional pulsihers doesn't mean the rest of us, that all we want is a good story to read, should follow their advice. I'm here to discover books, and I don't care the publisher behind it as long as I enjoy the story. And Thalassa's stories are some of the most original ones I've read in a long time. And to top it all safe!!! It's so difficult to find safe books nowadays so if you me hate cheating, sad endings and OW after meeting don't let anyone keep you away from Thalassa's books.


ORIGINAL REVIEW
NOTES FOR SAFETY GANG:

No Cheating,
No Other Woman
No Other Men,
plus Virgin hero!

More info on safety below


Jason Lewis as Pest!






Thank you Laura Thalassa for writing this beautiful enemies to lovers book. And their love conquered everything! I'm so happy LOVE was such an important part of their redemption! Additional thanks to you Laura Thalassa for trusting your talent and hard work SO MUCH as to avoid falling into the pattern of false/deceiving /misleading advertising. That speaks volumes of your quality as both: as a human being and a writer.A good book doesn't need false advertising, word of mouth and a good story will make the book a bestseller. This one is currently number one on several Amazon Lists.

I almost gave Pestilence a 5 Stars rating on honest advertisement. I might up my rating when I finished the entire series because I've been saying all along that False marketing has become my personal trigger and it's so refreshing to find a new adult book marketed as such!

When a "fantasy" book has characters who are older than 19 YO and feature explicit sex scenes there shouldn't be:
a) False advertisement shoved through Goodreads on underage readers throats using Listopia and the Goodreads choice awards to give the impression that said book is a Young adult book

b) Campaigns to vote up and protect from erasing certain books in what is in my opinion big publishers' self-promotional lists aimed to promote new releases to underage readers (meaning YA 2017, YA 2018, YA 2019 lists in goodreads) Distrust those lists my friends! Plenty of books there are New adult and heavy on sex!

YA 2017
YA 2018
YA 2019

c) Censorship and campaigns against the few honest reviewers who mention explicit sex scenes in books marketed towards underage readers.
(Note to goodreads employees and editors, please stop trying to hide the information we readers need to make informed decisions before reading a book.)

So in spite of the current state of the Goodreads community regarding false advertising (they will probably hide/censor this review) I'll be honest in this review disregarding the consequences (Note: Thalassa isn't pretending her book is Young adult, she has been very upfront and HONEST about the genre of her book and I commend her for that.) : Pestilence isn't a Young adult book, it's a New adult as the MC's are all older than 18 and there are explicit sex scenes. Plus there are some graphic scenes of torture and a massive epidemic. However, that's the brilliance of this book: Not many authors can weave brutality and romance the way Thalassa does. She did it before in her Fallen world series (one of my favorite New adult dystopias) and she did it again with pestilence. I'm impressed with Thalassa's writing ability.

Is this book perfect? Is this book for everybody? Honestly, no, but what book is? As I said, if violence and sex are your triggers perhaps you should skip it (you'd be missing out, but hey, we what we ). The hero, Pestilence, is very stubborn about his mission of wiping out the human race, and he won't change his mind until almost the very end of the book, so a huge amount of human lives will be lost. However, the author makes a great job making you understand why he does this and you don't hate him. I personally think that Thalassa could have made the violence of her post-apolyptic world way worse, but she didn't. She knew where to draw the line to make her book a very enjoyable experience and not one that will keep your bile rising up. I thought the combination of horror and romance was beautifully done.



So Pestilence starts 5 Years after The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse appeared on Earth. Pest is the first one to start their mission of wiping out the human race from Earth, and he takes his mission seriously. The internet has failed and some people aren't sure of what's going on. Several people have tried to kill Pestilence, but he's immortal. Sara doesn't know this and when her own attempt to kill Pest fails she'll become her prisoner. Cool isn't it? And let me tell you something. Pest is really sadistic at the beginning. He seems to have been observing for years how low our kind can scoop (Hitler? Rwanda? Bosnia? Sandy Hook?) and he'll hurt Sara physically so much that at one point you'll be wondering: Is this really a romance? To be honest I almost DNF at certain point. I can't stand a hero torturing the heroine and then root for her tofall in love with him. That's not romantic, but hang in there my dear romance-loving friends. Later in the book we'll be able to see why Pestilence is the way he is, and why he isn't the bad guy.

After a journey all over post-apocalyptic North America (think Angelfall) and several close encounters with death, a crucial point comes for Pestilence and Sara when they meet Rob and Ruth, an elderly couple. Rob and Ruth know what kind of death awaits to the ones who come close to Pestilence, yet they are religious, wise people. They realize Pest isn't a bad man, they know he's not doing what he does for fun and they above all notice the kind of feelings that are brewing inside him. He's already in love with Sara and it shows! So they'll welcome death with open arms after a long life of shared love and shared hardships. Honestly, I couldn't love this couple more. From their encounter with these two something changes in both, Sara and Pest and they'll start their own path through redemption. Through love, with love, because love. I thought that was beautiful!

Religion is managed well IMHO. Nothing is offensive or contradictory to the beliefs of the Abrahamic creeds: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Have you read City of bones or Angelfall? Both are insanely popular books that IMHO have a more risky, potentially offensive approach to religion. Jace the hero of City of Bones says that although he is a nephilim and has been blessed by the Angel Raziel he hasn't seen anything that makes him believe in God, he's convinced that even if God existed (and he doesn't bet on it) we are on our own. Archangel Raphael the hero of the Angelfall series is an atheist and he isn't even convinced God created him. Does this sound risky and potentially offensive to bible readers? It isn't, considering both books are insanely popular. In comparison Pestilence handles the religious talk in a more neutral way IMHO. According to Pestilence God exists, but Pest is convinced God is beyond religions so all religions deserve respect. I personally loved the way religion was handled here. It discusses religion in a non-religious way. Brilliant!

Two minor issues I had with this book: The ending and not enough grovel Hero trapped h when she tries to break up with him. I gave it a pass because he doesn't have experience with human relationships and she was very sick at the time, not trapping her could have lead to her death. I only wish he had groveled! and the cliffhanger ending. We got a HEA, but the Epilogue is 5 years after the final chapter and it opens a Pandora box. Our H and h are happy, but for how long?

This book deserves all the praise is getting and I'm recommending this to my friends who loved New adult dystopian books.

SAFETY INFO
No OW, No OM activity
Bareback sex, but he's a virgin
H tortures h at the beginning of the book.
Not enough groveling
NO CHEATING
Some graphic violence





=================

Pre reading thoughts
Beautiful cover?


No fake advertising? This is New adult paranormal/fantasy advertised as such.
Amazing blurb?
A talented New adult author who as far as I remember never writes cheating heroes or heroines?
Enemies to lover trope?
Edgy The Fallen world series?
Based on Apocalypsis mythology?
Standalone?



I'm in!addictive age-difference angsty ...more282 s Jessi ?? H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?]625 996


“Because naming things humanizes them. And once you humanize something, you are essentially recognizing it’s existence.”

Story ????????
Four years ago four horseman landed on earth. With their arrival humans thought the end of the world was there.
But they were so wrong. The horseman disappeared as fast as they appeared on earth.
Only four years later one of them appears again - Pestilence the conqueror of the world. Spreading a plague through the world he’s destroying Pestilence is attacked by Sara who sacrifices herself to kill the horseman and safe humanity.
But things never really go according to the plan and so Sara is being held prisoner by the horseman.
There’s suffering and there is pain painted with thick hate, but the line between love and hate is small and soon Sara isn’t so sure about her thoughts and her feelings for the horseman anymore.
This was awesome! The whole book was so addictive, funny and entertaining I couldn’t stop reading.
Even though I enjoyed it immensely there will be people saying that there is a lack of action. But for me it was a book with a great pacing, filled with action and a lot of feelings. All in all mostly an emotional and character driven book.
The first half of the book easily would’ve been a five star, but reading more and more of it, the book itself really concentrated on the love story in it and that made it a little less intriguing.
Still, the end was great and I’ll definitely reread this book sometime soon!
Btw. Did you see this gorgeous cover? Uh
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