Review: Heartbreak Warfare by Heather M. Orgeron & Kate Stewart


Note: An advanced reader copy (ARC) was provided by the authors via Give Me Books Promotions.

"On our wedding day, we promised to give each other the life we deserved." His thumb whispers over my knuckles gently. "I'm giving you the life you deserve, Katy. Take it."

I'm at a loss as for how to put together a review that can properly encompass all the thoughts and feelings going on in my head and heart over this book. To be honest, this is me a week after reading Heartbreak Warfare, and I'm still absolutely unsure as to what rating to give it. Make no mistake: this is a book about a woman who falls for another man while she's still married to her husband. It's right there in the blurb, so no one can accuse the writing duo of Heather M. Orgeron and Kate Stewart of trying to pull a fast one over their readers. But there's a whole lot of story to tell--the hows and whys of it all and how hearts are broken simply because a twenty-five-year-old woman fell in love. The same woman who just happened to be an army medic along with being a wife and mother.

I'm not going to give out details as far as the story is concerned. You're going to have to read the book in order to find out how Staff Sergeant Kathryn Scott's, Sergeant Christopher Briggs's, and Captain Gavin Walsh's stories play out as individuals, and what happens to the latter two's relationships with the Katy. Let's not forget Katy and Gavin's six-year-old son, Noah, either, because he is affected by the choices the adults around him make. But yeah, no details because I AM encouraging you to read the book. As iffy as I am when it comes to the rating, I think that each reader experiences a book differently, and what gives me pause and makes me feel certain things and have particular thoughts may not have the same effect on another reader. At its core, this book was quite well-written.

I'm just going to put it out there: I didn't like Katy. I also never really connected with her, and believe me I tried. I empathized with her post-traumatic stress disorder, and I could see that she was conflicted about a whole slew of things. I can also understand how some people could say that Katy and Chris shared an experience while deployed that bound them to each other; that doesn't necessarily mean that falling in love was the next logical step. You don't fall in love with every person you form a strong bond with. No, the whole cheating part--and yes, emotional cheating does count--happened even before the event that traumatized both Katy and Chris. I'm not slut-shaming Katy here. Nope. I'm stating a fact: she was married, she cheated. Period. There's no prettying that particular fact.

I'm probably going to be seen as someone who's being too hard on Katy, but let me stress that this is how I felt while reading the book and even a week after. I empathized with her as a soldier, but I have no sympathy for her as a mother and wife. It's weird because even though Chris wasn't exactly winning points with me in the beginning, it became clear that the man loved beyond measure, even putting Katy first. Then there's Gavin. Sigh. Was he perfect? No, but the guy went above and beyond, and he loved Katy and their family. These men were selfless--maybe to varying degrees--but cheating is, in one word, selfish, and at the end of the day, that's my image of Katy. So what rating do I give a compelling novel by two authors who have more than impressed me with their individual endeavors in the past that just happened to have a heroine I don't care for? Five stars. Had I liked Katy at all, Heartbreak Warfare would have gotten five-plus stars and landed on this year's list of favorites, but it is what it is. ♥

Release Date: 08 November 2018 01 November 2018 (early release)

Date Read: 01 November 2018

Learn more about Heather M. Orgeron and Kate Stewart.

Purchase Heartbreak Warfare on Amazon.

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