Death by Laura Thalassa

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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.

🐎 🐎 🐎 🐎

He’s known by many names: Thanatos. Horseman. God’s last angel. And then, of course, there’s the one I’m all too familiar with—

Death.

☠️ ☠️ ☠️

The day Death comes to Lazarus Gaumond’s town and kills everyone in one fell swoop, the last thing he expects to see is a woman left alive and standing. But Lazarus has her own extraordinary gift: she cannot be killed—not by humans, not by the elements, not by Death himself.

💀 💀 💀

She is the one soul Death doesn’t recognize. The one soul he cannot pry free from her flesh. Nor can he ignore the unsettling desire he has for her. Take her. He wants to, desperately. And the longer she tries to stop him from his killing spree, the stronger the desire becomes. 

🩸 🩸 🩸

When Lazarus crosses paths with the three other horsemen, an unthinkable situation leads to a terrible deal: seduce Death, save the world. A hopeless task, made all the worse by the bad blood between her and Thanatos. But Death’s attraction to her is undeniable, and try though she might, Lazarus cannot stay away from that ancient, beautiful being and his dark embrace. 

👥

The end is here. Humankind is set to perish, and not even the horsemen can stop Death from fulfilling his final task. 

🛑

Only Lazarus can.

“Death, God’s last angel.”

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💚🖤💜❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙📔
World building: 🌎🌍🌏🌎🌍
Character development: 😳🤬😏🤓☺️

The heroine: Lazarus – as a young child, she was the only one left alive in a city decimated by the horseman Pestilence. Now, over 25 years later she is the only one left alive in her town when Death rides through. Her adopted mother named her after Saint Lazarus of Bethany who was raised from the dead.

The Hero(es): Death (a.k.a. Thanatos) – the 4th and most powerful horseman. He not only has the power to kill, but he has all the powers that his three brothers had as well. He is able to separate souls from their bodies and send them on there way to the hereafter.

The Story: After Death rides through the town where Lazarus lives, she takes it upon herself to stop him in any way she can. Lazarus lives to thwart death and to slow him down or stop him in any way she can. Though he certainly doesn’t make it easy for her. The attraction between them doesn’t help either.

“Hate is such a gentle word for what I feel for the horseman. And yet the sight of him makes me ache inside. He’s beautiful and terrible and more than just a little mythical as he rides down the highway.”

This story takes some turns that I did not expect at all. Pestilence, War and Famine make a few appearances and I enjoyed them quite a bit. Lazarus was the most surprising of all. She is definitely a warrior and she doesn’t give up. She fights for what she believes in and even when she gives up the fight, she has valid reasons.

I enjoyed this book, it was similar to the others of course in that each had a horseman traveling and leaving destruction in their wake. Though each did have a different way of killing people. Death’s was the most humane, though he killed hundreds, or even thousands in an instant the minute he rode into town and also he sees it as setting the soul free of human trappings to go on to the pearly gates. Though I suppose many souls go the other way as well, so it isn’t exactly freeing for them.

I also liked the romance. These two start out as enemies, battling and even killing each other. Though neither of them can really die, so they come back to life after being killed. But man that’s gotta hurt. They each die more than once and in some very painful ways, so it would seem hard for them to fall for each other. However, you can see why they would since they both are living very lonely and solitary existences and the only time they can really be themselves is with each other.

“You were designed to be mine. And it’s time I claimed you.”

I waited a long time for each book this series after first reading Pestilence and loving it so much. I am sure at some point in the future I will binge the entire series. Though I have to say that since I am getting older and read 300-500 books a year, I end up forgetting much of the detail of some of the books I read, but the books in this series have all stuck with me. I loved them all.

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