by Julie Berry

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It’s 1917, and World War I is at its zenith when Hazel and James first catch sight of each other at a London party. She’s a shy and talented pianist; he’s a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect. When they fall in love, it’s immediate and deep–and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.

Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches. A gifted musician who’s played Carnegie Hall, he’s a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment being sent to Europe to help end the Great War. Love is the last thing on his mind. But that’s before he meets Colette Fournier, a Belgian chanteuse who’s already survived unspeakable tragedy at the hands of the Germans.

Thirty years after these four lovers’ fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? But her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music and reveals that War is no match for the power of Love.

A WWI romance narrated by the gods of Greek mythology sounds like a weird concept, but Julie Berry makes it work. Her writing style and prose are lovely to read. The plot may move a little slower than most, but I think that’s what worked best with Berry’s narrative style. Lovely War is a love story, but it’s also a story about people living and surviving during WWI. I enjoyed it.

Cautions: seven blasphemy; six instances of swearing; three instances of coarse language; non-descriptive heavy violence; racial violence; brief assault scene; several kisses; moderate/heavy romance; brief innuendo; mentions of an affair