A review by shirecrow
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

"Our chatter swarmed the heavens; our voices echoed from the stars."

This books is poetry. It is filled with love and hurt and everything in between. It makes you ache for a love just like this. Enemies to lovers to much more just through the power of words, written with so much care that even the paper starts to feel soft under your touch. 

I loved this book. With every inch of my soul, I loved this book. How can two people write in a way that makes even the most loveless person swell with the warm and bloody feeling of love?

The world was kept so vague but yet it was more then enough. I loved the stories in between. The world falling apart in between lines and words, the people dying while you just take another breath and move on. 
But of course the letters were my favorite part. I loved the love. The realization. The stress that comes with it. The way they addressed the other.

Here some of my favorites:

"My perfect Red,"
"Dear Red Sky at Morning,"
"My Red, Red Rose."
"Dearest Lapis,"
"My dear Sugar Maple,"
"Dear Sailor's Delight,"
"Dear Strawberry,"
"My Blueprint,"

This is a book in a million. Brilliant in every single way. Perfect from every angle and not one word to much. 

The way they loved each other in such real, natural ways in such a different world. Never have I felt so warm before in my life during reading. 

"(...) every evening I see a red sky bleed into a blue water and think of us."