Reviews with content warning for Violence - Lovely War

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Lovely War by Julie Berry

77 reviews

mah454's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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lrose02's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I will have to say the last 100 pages of this book flew by as I was determined to know the characters fate. I am definitely happy with the ending. I loved the portrayal of all the gods. Aphrodite was so complex and I can definitely see her reflected in the two main female protagonists. I loved the female friendship between Hazel and Colette. I was slightly underwhelmed when James and Aubrey finally met but I do think the author sums it up in a perfect sentence. Ares is an ick but he is in a perfect position to be a morally grey character in a story cantered around a world war. Hades is treated so respectfully and the deaths are written so beautifully. I love the interaction between Aphrodite and Hades after the train. This book time far too long to finish but once I picked it up again I haven’t put it down. One of the best mythology retellings I’ve ever read and a beautiful romance. All of the POVs felt balanced and the emotional moments really hit home.

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dwinn5's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Wow. It’s 1:13 AM, I have to be awake for work in 5 hours, and my heart is breaking right now.

This book took me a second to get into, but as soon as it caught me, I was done for. I don’t usually go all in on the we-only-met-once-or-twice-and-then-were-separated-but-it-was-true-love thing, but a couple factors helped me over that hurdle here: 1) the time period and progression of romance back then in general, and 2) the urgency of war and everything that entails for people’s long-term plans.

The author was brilliant to allow each of the (present) gods to offer their perspectives on the timeline of events- it really added some depth and breadth to the story and gave the reader a small amount of peace after tragedy (thank you, Hades).

My main holdup was something about the execution of the chapters where it was just discussion between the gods- it didn’t capture my attention the way the rest of the book did, and the reveal of the final love story at the end caught me a little off guard; I think it could’ve unfolded a tiny bit more prior to the end. But regardless, I enjoyed that little twist as well.

Something about this story transcended beyond being just a book to me, I can’t explain it. But I will definitely be thinking about this one for a while.

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sophiegrubben's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

To my dearest sister, who lent me this book: yes I liked it. It's a good book! It just missed that little bit of je ne said quoi.

I liked and felt the most for the characters that we spent the most time with: Hazel and James. That is not to say I didn't like Aubrey and Collette (although I liked Aubrey a bit more than Collette) but we simply didn't spend as much time with them or their romance. It felt just placed there at times. Hazel and James's story just seemed more fleshed out, more thought out and more lovely put on the page.

Overall it was a very well written and researched book, but it missed a sprinkle of magic for me, especially in the Aubrey and Collette parts. I wanted more time with them and more care put into their characterisation. But not a bad book at all!

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