HEARTBREAK WARFARE by HEATHER M ORGERON & KATE STEWART

“You were destined to be a part of my life. You’ve changed me. No matter where this journey takes us, when I close my eyes, it will be your face I see. When I breathe my last breath, your name will be on my lips. I need you to know that – for you to know how incredible you really are. In another lifetime, I know we’d have been perfect together, and I’m certain you feel that too. I see it in your eyes, and I felt it. I still feel it.”

Well damn, if you love intense angst and a love triangle to end all love triangles then Heartbreak Warfare is the book for you! We’re still trying to process the story we just read and believe us, there’s a lot to get your head around. We’re late to the game on this book and having seen how this story affected other readers we were so scared to start it. We were told it was going to break us, have us crying to the point of almost no return. Knowing this meant we hesitated to start reading Heartbreak Warfare until we felt ready, emotionally. After all we’re mood readers and didn’t feel up to a soul destroying read, that is until now. We craved it. Thankfully we went into this book spoiler-free which meant we had no idea what to expect storyline wise. This was a blessing and therefore we will make sure our review does the same justice to you. We won’t tell you anything about the crux of the story as you deserve to read it as we did, unspoilt!

“I’m like the corner piece to a puzzle, trying to force into the center and no matter how I try to manipulate myself, I just don’t fit. I no longer fit. I’m not her, the woman who left.”

Heartbreak Warfare was brilliantly written and had a story-line that felt like unchartered territory despite the commonness of the loved or hated love triangle aspect. We happen to love it. As a standard, we –as readers- like to take sides. Feel more sympathetic to one character as opposed to another. There has to be a bad guy right? Well, that wasn’t the case this time.

‘She is my mystery, my question, and answer, my wife, my reason for wanting a forever.’

Everyone was a victim of circumstance, of tragedy, of war. The strength of a person is their coping mechanism and ability to overcome what life and loved ones throws at them. Of how a person treats another and ultimately themselves.

‘It’s one of the darkest nights of my life, but I relive it all for him, for myself, for the truth our relationship deserves…’

There were so many threads of story knotted into one tangled web and we have to say the time spent in the desert and frontline was flawless. We felt the heat, the dust, the extreme emotions and the emotional and physical brutality. This was one side of the story; the devastation of war. Another side was the human side of terror and the connections we form under severe duress. That helping and healing hand reaching out to us when we are at our absolute horrifying lowest. Experiencing a brutality alongside another, sharing a desperation with one person forming a bond and memory no one else will be a part of or truly understand.

“I’m not watching you do it again. I can survive being a soldier, I can survive another war, but it seems I can’t survive loving you. If I have to let you go, you have to let me go too.”

Whilst on the whole we loved this story, we had a strong issue with one aspect, which felt pre-determined through the early writing which threw doubt onto the intentions and then later excused, for want of a better word, by a sharing of a traumatic event. It felt inconsistent and in our opinion somewhat contradictory and conflicted when actually – if left till after this traumatic event the consequential actions would’ve felt natural and truly convincing. The fundamentals of what was to come felt written in the sand too prematurely for us, sadly. And that is perhaps why we didn’t feel the intense heart-breaking gravity of what was to come and perhaps didn’t sympathise fully with certain aspects other than those that came and felt natural to the storyline. Saying that though, some of the heartbreak broke our hearts, and the aspects of the brilliantly written storyline jarred us into feeling the utter anguish and terrors of war and the debilitating after effects. Kate Stewart and Heather M. Orgeron’s story had powerful writing that ensured a compelling read, which deserves to be read.

‘All of this I set in motion to try and stop the spiral, but it seems I’ve just thrown all three of us into a tailspin.’