Reviews with content warning for Violence - War

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

War by Laura Thalassa

60 reviews

xlaurareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

based on a friend's review, i anticipated this book to be even better than pestilence's one, but i must admit, to me, it was not as good as the first one. i love love love how the authot takes time to introduce us to the world and describe the state of it - excellent worldbuilding, really. but i also found some info missing, whether intended by the author or not, that is, i wasn't really aware that the phobos riders were humans who actively chose to fight at war's side rather than having risen with him when his time came. however, this exact instance clearly showed how cruel humans have become and once again makes it obvious why god sent the horsemen to destroy humanity altogether. that was really something. i also adored the "the guy falls first" trope because you could really feel how war softened up to miriam over time. nevertheless, i do have extremely conflicted feelings about him...i adored him one minute, then wanted to have him dead the next. i couldn't really wrap my mind about how he could be so utterly cruel and full of hate, but then again, he's war so what would you expect? i did like how he fully surrenderd to miriam near the end of the book but I'm not sure if I'm 100% d'accord with the reasons bc i just don't like the HEA the author used (plus, i didn't like it to have the same HEA in book 1 and 2). the ending was nice and didn't seem as rushed as in book 1 and i loved that we also got some chapters in war's pov near the end. all in all, i enjoyed this book a lot and finished it within two days, but my conflicted feelings aboht war and the fact that the HEA just wasn't too much my thing led me to rate this one with 3.75 stars.

Content Warnings

keishlavz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

karina_dreamsinwords's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The whole concept of this series is unique, paired with Laura's writing and you have a fantastically dark, post apocalyptic romance and what in the world- I ate it up!

I loved the strong willed heroine in this story. She was very much a "take no sh*t" from anyone type of person, the horseman especially! This was very much a hate to love scenario. War was pretty smitten from the jump and seeing his coldhearted exterior soften the longer he was with Miriam was so sweet! I love being able to see the hero open up and change his outlook all because of the women he loves. It just does it for me, friends. It really does.

Content Warnings

kinsportch's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

shinyfox's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

paigeofstories's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ loved it but probably won’t re-read
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ a lot of descriptive spicy scenes throughout the book
TW: ⚠️ stockholm syndrome, violence

—

After some of the experiences I’ve had with Kindle Unlimited, I can’t believe we get these books for free. Thalassa clearly spends a lot of time structuring, writing and editing her stories. This one was cohesive with clear arcs, but managed to include twists and turns as well.

Although set in the same mid-apocalyptic world as Pestilence, War was a very different book (aside from the enemies-to-lovers, stockholm syndrome vibe… which, honestly, is probably the only way you can really do a romance book about one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because they’re coming to wipe out the human race). There were WAY more characters in this book, and I really enjoyed that because it allowed us to watch Miriam and War in the context of how they related to other people as well as each other. The expanded scope allowed for much more depth, which in turn, made for greater character arcs. It’s great that Thalassa has been able to take tales as old as time and put this type of spin on them, because the plots deal with familiar concepts surrounding the end of the world, but the stories themselves are incredibly original.

I liked Miriam more than the FMC in the first book of this series. She actively fought for humanity and was unwilling to accept War’s mission as gospel—not even for a moment. She knew that he had a choice in spreading war and she fought tooth-and-nail to get him to make the right choice.

There was definitely a lot more violence in this book, but the title is literally “War”, so I mean… that was to be expected. The pacing of the battles/invasions was done really well, with each one holding a significant purpose for furthering the plot (which I didn’t expect). Thalassa was not gratuitous in her battles, she made each one of them count—and it created a very tightly-knit story, which I appreciated.

The spice in this book was much more frequent than in Pestilence, and I really liked the way it was done. Thalassa has a way of capitalizing on her scenes, of making each and every one of them count for something—and I think there are a lot of authors who could learn from her in that regard. The steamy parts of this book the kind of hot scenes that make you want to curl up and re-read them, but they somehow always manage to also further the plot. It’s masterfully done.

Anyways, enter at your own risk (I mean, this is a romance book that is literally called War)… but if you can do so, this book is a delicious read.

Content Warnings

elenamarmiroli's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.25

Meno strabiliante del primo e con qualche elemento che si ripresenta, ma sempre altamente piacevole da leggere. Potrebbe anche essere che prima di approcciarmi a questo volume avevo aspettative maggiori rispetto a quando ho letto il primo.

Content Warnings