This is a unique story, based off the fact that the love stories are telling from the Greek gods’ perspective. Throughout the book, Ms. Berry attempts to try and explain why people fall in love during wartime, a cliche that many of us, myself include, swoon over. For the mast part, Ms. Berry does answer this question while also allowing some wiggle room to allow the reader to draw their own conclusion.

Lovely War tells the love stories of two couples, and while James and Hazel’s story is beautiful, sweet, and well told, I found the relationship between Colette and Aubrey to be more interesting. Colette is a Belgian whose family is killed by the German Army and Aubrey is an African American soldier who faces prejudice and violence among his fellow comrades. I felt like their story should have been given a bit more attention but what Ms. Berry did do with it was lovely and original.

Though the book is almost 500 pages, I would argue that you shouldn’t be persuaded by this to not read it. The chapters are very short, and you can read a bunch of it in one sitting. That being said, you do have to give it a little bit of time to get going but once it does you’ll be happy you stuck with it. Another note is that while Lovely War is considered Young Adult, it didn’t read that way to me and I think both young and older readers will appreciate Ms. Berry’s storytelling.

Overall this is a well done story with a strong message about love, and does a very good job of trying to explain why we love so hard in dark times.