Lovely War

To say ’Lovely War’, by Julie Berry, is a good book is a complete understatement! The historical romance has changed me and my mindset in every way possible while managing to entertain and inform me at the same time. Reading this novel was like going on a rollercoaster with every page keeping you waiting for the next. With every chapter I was eager to read the next, with every sentence I was consumed in another world and with every single word prescribed in this romance, I fell in love with the characters.

Lovely War, written by Julie Berry, starts off with the introduction of the three Greek gods; Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaestus. The book is told throughout the various perspectives of these characters. It narrates the story of Hazel and James, and Aubrey and Colette.

Hazel and James meet at a London party and fall in love only to have James sent to the trenches for war right the next day. Their romance was highly my favourite as it kept me in a state of curiosity. Throughout the novel, their love is seen as the sweet, innocent type with many milestones that kept me in tears and awe.

Amidst the novel, Hazel meets Colette, a survivor from “the rape of Belgium”. Despite her past Colette is introduced to be quite charismatic and outgoing, falling in love with a fellow black American soldier, Aubrey Edwards. Spoiler alert: they fall in love. Colette and Aubrey too, face their misjudgments throughout the novel, as their love is tested due to the difference in their races’.