Famine by Laura Thalassa

Dates Read: June 17, 2022 – June 20, 2022
Publication Date: October 1, 2020
Source: Owned paperback

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Ahhh. We’re back to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and I am SO HAPPY TO BE HERE. Especially with Famine. Is he my favorite? Yes. Yes, he is. Pestilence was my favorite up to now. Now Famine takes the cake.

Famine is the most brutal of all his brothers I would say. All of them are “duty-bound” and are willing to commit some atrocities to see their purpose carried out but Famine… Famine really goes above and beyond. He claims a home for his own and has the owners brutally killed and thrown in a giant hole in their own backyard for heaven’s sake. Famine does make mention of being “the least human of all his brothers.” He says he can “feel everything”. THAT is one consistency I really appreciate about this book.

So, our heroine in this story is Ana. Ana is a worker at a brothel called the Painted Angel. Ana was displaced as a child when her entire family was killed. She was taken in by the madam of the Painted Angel and started working to make money to live. Until Famine comes and takes her with him.

You see, the two of them have history. She first met Famine years before while she was on the way home with groceries for her abusive aunt. She saw Famine in the street, nearly dead from being beaten by villagers. She nursed him back to health and sent him on his way. Once he recognizes this girl, who is now in a woman’s body, he keeps her and refuses to let her out of his sight or become hurt.

And so begins the next seriously messed up love story in the series.

“That’s the difference between me and my brothers,” he continues. “We are all meant to ravage the world but we have our distinctions: War is the most human, Pestilence perhaps next. But even Thanatos – Death – is intimately connected to life.
“I am the one least truly alive. I have more in common with wildfires and clouds and mountains than I do anything else. So to be something that lives and breathes is a stifling, unpleasant experience. I am … trapped in this flesh.”

I really did enjoy these two. I don’t know why but I think they’re my favorite with Pestilence and Sara coming in at a very close second.

I glance over at the horseman, frowning. I’d do all of it again for this man, because wicked or not, violent or not Famine might be the only being who has ever truly seen me and cared for me. And . . . I might be the only person who has ever really seen and cared for him.

Once again, I wasn’t sure how the author was going to give us something fresh being that this is the third book in a series about these horsemen who all have this duty-bound, driven-to-destroy attitude. However, she delivered. Once again. Once again there was a different couple with different mindsets and experiences who ended up with a not-so-happy happy ending.

Famine crouches next to Rocha and laughs. “You’re not going to die Heitor. You haven’t begged enough yet. But you will. And even then I’ll make you linger. Because, believe it or not, you are not the worst thing to walk this earth.” The Reaper leans in close. “I am.”

Technically the first two books end on a “cliffhanger” as well but this one REALLY did. The first two books ended with a happy ending where the couple could live out their lives together with no issues. This book’s ending pretty much depends on the way the next book, Death, plays out. I was excited to read Death already because, I mean, c’mon… that cover. Now I’m even more so excited because I get to see how Famine’s story plays out AND I get to meet a new hunk of a horseman.

Let’s see if Death can top him. (I doubt it.)

“Because around you,” he says, “I feel the oddest urge to use my power to create rather than destroy.”

Just going to jump right into the next one so stay tuned!