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My Review:Title: Famine
Author: Laura Thalassa
Series: The Four Horsemen #3
Published by: Indie
Release Date: October 1, 2020
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 472
Genres: Romance, Apocalyptic, Contemporary Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
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.
Ana da Silva always assumed she’d die young, she just never expected it to be at the hands of Famine, the haunting immortal who once spared her life so many years ago. But if the horseman remembers her at all, he must not care, for when she comes face to face with him for the second time in her life, she’s stabbed and left for dead.
Only, she doesn’t quite die.
If there’s one thing Famine is good at, it’s cruelty. And how these blighted bastards deserve it. Try as he might, he can’t forget what they once did to him. But when Ana, a ghost from his past, corners him and promises pain for what he so recently did to her, she and her empty threats captivate him, and he decides to keep her around.
In spite of themselves, Ana and Famine are drawn to each other. But at the end of the day, the two are enemies. Nothing changes that. Not one kind act, not two. And definitely not a few steamy nights. But enemies or reluctant lovers, if they don’t stop themselves soon, heaven will.
2.5 stars — Well…that was probably how I was expecting to feel after reading the reviews. Just because I know I get bothered by the same things as were mentioned in many negative reviews. I definitely enjoyed Pestilence, I was middling on War (even though it ended great apparently, though now I don’t honestly remember), and I’m unsurprised that I didn’t enjoy Famine’s brutality and cruelty.
All of these books are a little more drawn out than I’m used to, and this one in particular felt long without enough happening to justify it. Maybe if I’d seen more growth and change in either Ana or Famine during the repetitive murderation, maybe it would have been more meaningful. But that growth was pretty slow until it wasn’t. And let’s be honest, I just don’t have the appetite for cruel heroes, so there was nothing there for me personally.
Ana wasn’t horrible. I don’t think I connected with her, because I can’t imagine going through the things she went through in life and coming out the other end as she does. Obviously I really appreciated her empathy and compassion, and how torn she could be about it given the horrible humans mixed in with the good ones. She has a strange sense of humour, but it was okay for me. I don’t think I quite always got her need to rile people up, but just because I would react differently doesn’t mean her way is invalid.
Famine…is complicated. I still don’t really get him. I got why War was all in on the whole war thing more than I understand how to create a being who relishes starving and killing humans. He definitely went through absolutely HORRIFIC things at the hands of humans. And it’s not that I don’t get how that can turn someone into the cruel being he became, but he’s supposed to be the hero I fall in love with…and it kind of felt like falling in love with an abuse victim who becomes the abuser…the one who doesn’t see how wrong that is. And in the end, he didn’t really change his mind, he just had one exception and he wanted her to be happy. Uh, yeah…not exactly redeeming.
As for the two together? They had this weird banter that could be fun. They definitely eventually had the connection based on the brutalities in their past, and I could see how Famine fell for her…but how Ana fell for him? Less so. Like with the other books, it was STRONGLY about the physical. And that’s just not even close to enough for me.
So yeah. I read it because I was curious, and since I already bought Death, I’m going to read it because I’m curious too. Will it have been worth it? Eh, probably not for this reader. It’s just not my jam, but dammit…I need to know how it turns out!
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