Review: Famine by T.A. Chase

Title: Famine (The Four Horsemen: Book Three)

Author: T.A. Chase

Pages/Word Count: 140 Pages

At a Glance: Book three in the Four Horseman series is entertaining, even if not as good as the others.

Reviewed By: Jennifer

Blurb: Saving a dying man might be just what Famine, the Black Horseman, needs to feed his starving heart.

Having been sacrificed by his village shaman, Famine knows what it’s like to do anything to survive. He wanders the world, sowing drought and starvation in his wake. Yet he hates being the Black Horseman more than anything in the world, except the man who ended his life all those centuries ago. Famine never stops doing his job, and never allows himself to fall in love.

Ekundayo wants a better life for himself, so he steals a diamond from the mine where he works. Nothing goes well for him after that, and he finds himself dying in the desert on his way to the border. When he’s rescued by Famine, Ekundayo isn’t sure if his luck has changed or not. The longer he stays in Famine’s company, the more Ekundayo discovers he just might be falling in love with Famine.

One bad choice on Ekundayo’s part and a future together seems out of reach. Will Famine let his only possibility of love go or will he defy Death himself to keep Ekundayo?

Reader Advisory: This book is best read in sequence as part of a series.

Publisher’s Note: This book was previously released under the same title. It has been re-edited for re-release with Pride Publishing.

Review: Given how the author treated the first two horsemen and tied them to their jobs, I was interested to see how they would connect to this horseman. As a third book in the series, Famine was a good read. While I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the others, it follows along nicely and throws massive hints as to events in the fourth book.

When Famine was alive, he was training to become a shaman in his village; however, severe droughts led his people to desperate measures. As a result of the jealousy of one man, he is sacrificed to the gods to end the drought, and as he dies, the rain comes. However, instead of dying, he meets Death and becomes Famine, destined to bring drought and crop failure wherever he spreads his salt. Even a single grain of salt will leave the earth it lands on bare for years to come.

Ekundayo is on the run after he steals an uncut diamond from the mine where he works. Injured and alone, Famine runs across him and saves him from certain death. But when Ekundayo recovers, all he wants is his diamond, and his actions have a devastating effect on the land.

I truly enjoyed the approach to Famine. T.A. Chase certainly is creative in this aspect, and I like that it took place in Africa. The reasoning behind Famine’s perpetual wandering of his home continent was plausible as well. What I struggled with was their relationship. Famine and Ekundayo seem to have an attraction, but I wasn’t too sure about their real feelings towards each other. It felt more like lust than love. While I can understand Ekundayo’s fixation on the diamond and his desire for a better life, I wanted to throttle him because he had the better life with Famine in the treehouse, but he refused to see it. Another aspect was the heavy-handedness on the use of condoms. While important, certainly, it seemed over-done and went into preaching territory. While this did come up in the other books, it wasn’t nearly as bad as in this one. Yes, condoms are important, and yes, they should be used, but the presentation of the topic wasn’t woven into the book well and really jarred me from the story.

As with the last two books, there are inconsistences and editing issues, and while I struggled with them, I was able to overlook them for the story itself.

Unsurprisingly—if you’ve read my previous two reviews—my favorites were Death and Lam. Even more is revealed about Death, and something really interesting about Lam that had me sitting at the edge of my seat. While I know I’ll find out Death’s story in the next book, I am now even more curious about Lam. Why does he not want the Horsemen to know what he smells like? And just why would a messenger angel smell like sulphur? I have my suspicions, but I hope more is revealed in the next book.

To fully enjoy this story, read the first two books in the series. You don’t want to miss out!

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