Pestilence is about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as this instalment follows Pestilence as he comes to Earth to spread his plague across the world and rid the world of depraved humanity. However, then he is attacked by a human woman, Sara, who he takes as his prisoner to. Their relationships is very fractious and fraught with suffering and hatred to begin with, however, as the two traverse the wilds and cities of Canada and North America a strange truce develops between the two. Pestilence begins to learn about humanity and human nature from Sara who pushes his buttons and introduces him to the ways of humans and things begin to change.

The Good:
>Sara. She was pretty strong main character. She didn't allow Pestilence to walk all over her, she was physically strong and capable as any tortured prisoner could be expected to be in the wild winters of Canada. She had a lot of spunk and was pretty snarky which I liked a lot.

A woman should not be oddly pleasing. She should be a ball-busting, skull-crushing, badass motherfucker who is impossible to forget.

>The concept. I think the use of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as a plot device for a romance/dystopia fiction was quite unusual and a fun concept. I'd be intrigued to see how this pans out in the other books for sure as Laura Thalassa crafts the stories of Pestilence's three 'brothers'.

>The romance. I really liked the pairing of Pestilence and Sara, as Sara pushed Pestilence to understand humanity, to consider mercy, to consider emotions and human behaviours. I really enjoyed these aspects of Thalassa's story crafting as she talked about ideas, behaviours and what makes us human. I enjoyed the arguments between Pestilence and Sara about whether they could change their nature and their mission, however, I enjoyed the snark and the tender moments that developed between them too. I wouldn't say this was a perfect romance, but I think it developed well and overall I enjoyed it.

“I cannot decide if you are a toxin or a tonic,” he says, lifting a hand to my cheek. “Only that you plague my thoughts and fill my veins.” Pestilence really could work on his compliments. His thumb strokes over my skin. “Tell me you feel the same way.”

The Bad:
>World-building. There wasn't really much of a background to why the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse were coming, or why they were emerging in stages after an initial appearance years before. I felt like there was a lot of opportunity for expansion on the concepts of the four horsemen, their purpose on the earth and their backstory. It also felt like the story was very geographically isolated despite talking about 'world destruction' the pairing never made it out of North America.

>The plot beyond the romance. The slow-burn, development of the romance was the forefront of this book, which was fine. However, I wanted a little bit more given the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse theme and the total destruction of the world by the plague. The main focus was of the pairing riding around Canada and some of North America as Pestilence spread the plague and condemned man-kind before Sara's eyes. I felt like there was a missed opportunity to get into some gritty rebel groups, or perhaps even government response to Pestilence's chaos? It just felt like there should have been a bit more than the occasional vigilante group or individual trying to stop Pestilence, or at least we should have had a stronger explanation for why there wasn't a stronger government response.

Overall I enjoyed and actively liked the book, it was easy to read and an interesting concept. I will probably pick up the second book at some point, but I wouldn't say I was desperate to read it.