Review: Lovely War (by Julie Berry)

My Rating: 4 stars

This was a delightful read, one that I was a bit apprehensive going into it, but ended up really enjoying!  The premise of the story is a unique one: two young couples — Hazel and James, Colette and Aubrey — fall in love amongst the turbulence of World War I, their story narrated not by any human characters, but rather by a few famous gods and goddesses from Greek mythology.  After being caught by her husband Hephaestus in an affair with a fellow god (Ares, god of war), Aphrodite, the goddess of love, seeks to avoid judgment on Mount Olympus by spinning the story of these 2 couples and the love that they share despite the world around them descending into chaos.  But yet, this story isn’t just about love — it is also about the bonds of friendship and the unifying power of music, about courage in the face of adversity and destruction, about the possibility of hope after heartbreak, resilience after devastation.  Ultimately, in a battle of Love versus War, will Love triumph or will War succeed in destroying everything in its path?

This book is largely categorized as historical fiction, but at the same time, it can also be appropriately grouped under romance, YA, and fantasy.   I will be honest in saying that, based on these genres, this is a book that I probably would not have picked up on my own to read due to the fact that, while I love historical fiction (and the author, Julie Berry, certainly did a great job with the historical elements in here – there were ample historical details but not to the point of dragging down the story), I’m not too keen on the other 3 genres.  I don’t read much YA because I’m not the target audience for that genre and so I usually find it harder to appreciate the story and characters; with romance, I can be quite picky and usually don’t handle “overly sappy” stories well; and with fantasy, that’s just not really my thing.  But given that this was the May selection for one of my book clubs, plus the story sounded interesting based on the summary and it came highly recommended by trusted friends, I decided to give this one a try and hope for the best.  Well, this book ended up surprising me, but in a good way – all the genres blended together really well, the story was engaging, and the writing was lovely, but most important for me were the characters, all of whom I couldn’t help but love dearly.  It’s not often that I feel like I don’t want a story to end because I want to keep reading about these characters and spend more time with them – this was definitely one of those instances!

One thing that I think has to be mentioned, especially since the entire premise of the book hinges on this aspect, is the Greek mythology angle and the unique structure of having Aphrodite and the other gods narrate the main characters’ stories.  From the various reviews, this aspect seemed to be a mixed bag in that it worked for some people but not for others.  For me personally, it worked really well – in fact, I loved the cleverness of the way Berry structured the story, with having the appropriate god or goddess narrate the chapters based on their areas of expertise (for example – the chapters heavy on music were narrated by Apollo, the ones that revolved around the war battles were narrated by Ares, sections related to death or injury were narrated by Hades, and of course, the overall love story with the main characters was narrated by Aphrodite).  Perhaps it is because I already had a certain familiarity with Greek mythology going into this, since I had studied it extensively back in my school days (albeit that was eons ago), so it helped me appreciate those aspects in a way that I probably would not have otherwise.  With that said though, in terms of the sections where the gods (and goddess) interacted with each other, while I did find some of their banter funny, it got a bit old after a while, which made me somewhat impatient for them to get back to the actual story.

The other thing that I felt this book did really well was balance – parts of the book were fun to read but the parts related to the war and its aftermath as well as other historical events were treated seriously as it needed to be.  The story itself had substance, yet it wasn’t dense to the point of being overly complicated or hard to follow.  This is one of those books that manages to blend the YA and adult aspects pretty well, without sacrificing the elements that also make this a worthwhile historical fiction read.  Definitely recommended!

Review: Happily Ever After (by Debbie Tung)

My Rating: 3 stars

 

I read Debbie Tung’s Book Love last year and absolutely loved it!   As a fellow bookworm, I was able to relate to practically everything that was in that book and would be nodding my head with a smile on my face as I turned each page.  

It was precisely because of my affinity for Tung’s previous book that I decided to pick up her newest work Happily Ever After.   Just like with Book Love, this is another comic collection drawn by Tung herself , with inspiration from her own life’s experiences, except that this time around, instead of being about books, it is about marriage and relationships – specifically her own married life with her husband.   While I did like reading this one for the most part and thought it was definitely a cute read overall, I unfortunately wasn’t able to relate to most of the “sweet and mundane moments” depicted in here.  Some of the comics did make me smile, but the enjoyment level, of course, wasn’t on par with what I had felt with Tung’s previous collection of comics about books and being a book lover. 

Basically, this was an instance of me picking up this book purely because of the author / illustrator, which I’m ok with doing for graphic novels and comics, since these are usually short and don’t take up too much of my time to read.  I will likely still pick up Tung’s next collection of comics even if it’s a subject matter that doesn’t appeal much to me, as I do like her illustrations quit a bit and definitely don’t mind seeing more of it!

Received ARC from Andrews McMeel Publishing via Edelweiss.

Review: I'd Give Anything (by Marisa de los Santos)

My Rating: 5 stars

 

From the beginning of the year until now, I’ve read 21 books and so far, not a single one of them had reached 5 star level for me.  Don’t get me wrong — there were plenty of excellent books in that mix and quite a few that, regardless of whether I rated them 4 or 4.5 stars, I still enjoyed greatly and even loved, but instinctually, somehow, they just didn’t feel like 5 star reads.  Well, with I’d Give Anything, the newest novel by renowned author Marisa de los Santos, it looks like I have finally found my first 5 star read of the year!  

In this beautifully written, heartfelt story, the close friendship between 4 high school seniors — Ginny, Kirsten, Gray, and CJ — is forever changed one night when a fire breaks out during a football game at their school.  Gray’s father, a fire fighter, perishes in the fire and immediately, Gray’s 3 best friends are there for him, ready to support him through the tragedy.  But then Ginny makes a devastating discovery about the fire, which she decides to keep from her 3 friends — this secret not only shatters Ginny’s world, it also ends up destroying their friendship.  Over the next twenty years, Ginny gradually puts the past behind her, and after moving back to her hometown upon graduating from college, she builds a quiet life with her husband Harris and their teenage daughter Avery.  When her husband becomes embroiled in a scandal at work, Ginny experiences turbulence in her carefully constructed life once again and as she tries to deal with the fallout from that scandal, she ends up coming face-to-face with the 20-year-old secret that she thought had been buried long ago.  

For me, the best character-driven stories are the ones where nearly all of the characters (whether main or supporting) are realistically drawn in ways that make them relatable and easy to connect with — pretty much to the point that the characters feel like old friends whom I don’t want to part with even when the story is over.  Ginny and Avery were characters I adored from the getgo and rooted for throughout the story — both were written in a way that felt so raw and real.  It’s refreshing to read about characters whose experiences hew so closely to what many of us may encounter at different points in our lives — as I watched Ginny work through the various challenges she faced, not only with her family, but also with her friends, I recognized some of her struggles and was able to resonate on an emotional level.   All the other characters, regardless of whether they only appeared for a few pages or were a constant throughout the entire story, were also well-developed and memorable.  I also loved the way the various relationships were depicted in this story.  We all know that, in real life, the complexities when it comes to relationships are endless – whether it’s family relationships, friendships, work relationships, or mere acquaintances -- there are so many nuances that are difficult to capture accurately in a fictional story.  Yet this book does it -- and does it well!   

This was a profound read that left me with much food-for-thought, not just as it pertains to relationships, but also life and its intricacies.  It covers a lot of ground in its exploration of themes such as family, love, friendship, truth, regret, forgiveness, and so much more.  One of the insights that stood out the most to me pertained to love and forgiveness, that both are not mutually exclusive of each other insofar as the inability to forgive someone for their actions does not preclude the ability to still love them and care deeply about them.   The ending brought me close to tears, as did several other parts of the story.

I like the way Marisa de los Santos writes as well as the way she is able to tell such an emotionally nuanced story so effortlessly.  I read this book in 2 sittings over the weekend, putting it down only once to tend to the necessities of life and then when I picked it up again, I didn’t want it to end.  If there is anything to complain about with this book, it’s that I wish it had been longer (the ARC was less than 300 pages) so that I could spend more time with these characters.  I’ve actually had several of this author’s works on my TBR for quite some time, but didn’t have a chance to get to any of them previously — well, now I will definitely be exploring her backlist while I wait patiently for her next book, whenever that may be.

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via Edelweiss.