I am a middle-aged male who does not read romance. I just am not into it, and writing about a male character’s “navy-blue eyes” doesn’t float my boat. But after an online discussion on an Amazon forum about historical issues with the cover of this book (which I found out that the author was completely in agreement with my point and had the same issues when she first saw it), I was gifted a copy of the book and decided to give it a shot. I am not sure what I expected, but what I did not expect was to enjoy the book so much.

On a basic level, proofing and editing was superb, and formatting was excellent. Other than the cover, I saw nothing that jumped out and grabbed me as something to be fixed.

I do like historical fiction, and the author obviously did a tremendous amount of research to get the setting correct. I tried to catch her in an inaccuracy, but, to be frank, I couldn’t. I have seen many, many more issues with military books, and here is a romance which puts them all to shame.

The author did a tremendous job in giving a feel for the utter horror of a war such as WWI. She didn’t merely reflect the historical aspects of the war, but the emotional toll that this type of war extracted from the people who fought it. I am pretty familiar with the war itself and have walked the battlefields, yet I thought the author really brought it to life.

As someone who reads historical fiction, I found this book really hit the mark, and on those grounds, I would recommend it to anyone. However, this is not an historical milfic. This is a romance, and the target market for this book would be people who read romance. I don’t read romance, so maybe I am not best qualified to judge the book on those merits. I will say, though, for an old fuddy-duddy who doesn’t read the genre, I enjoyed that aspect of the book, much to my surprise. I thought the romance was well-developed and emotionally tugging. I personally am not a fan of jealousy, and one comment Amy’s English lover made almost floored me, but other than that, I found this raison d’etre just as enjoyable as the rest of the book. Maybe I have been missing out on a huge number of great books simply because I have not given romance a chance.

I would enthusiastically recommend this book to those who enjoy milfic, historical fiction, romance, and anyone who just enjoys a well-written, enjoyable novel.

About the reviewer:

Jonathan Brazee is a retired Marine infantry colonel who after years of writing non-fiction, wrote his first novel while serving in Iraq. He independently published it, hoping to sell a few copies to friends and family, and was pleasantly surprised when the book gained traction among the general reading public. Twenty-three novels later, he is now winding down his post-military career overseas to become a full-time writer. A majority of his books have a military bent in science fiction, paranormal, historical fiction, and general fiction, but he has also written non-military scifi and paranormal. He writes three to four hours each day with the help (or despite) the attention of two rescue cats who insist on sitting on his lap or keyboard.
Jonathan is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the US Naval Academy Alumni Association, the Disabled Veterans of America, and is an officer in the VFW’s Department of the Pacific.

Learn more about Jonathan and his work at http://www.jonathanbrazee.com