The other gods are flummoxed by the notion that love matters, that Aphrodite matters. “Do you know what it’s like,” she says, “to spend eternity embedded in every single love story – the fleeting and the true, the trivial and the everlasting? I am elbow deep in love, working in passion the way artists work in watercolors. Early on, the goddess utters a powerful statement challenging common portrayals of her as shallow and feckless: A gauntlet is thrown and the larger story unfolds as Aphrodite makes her case for the importance of love and the struggles she suffers from supporting it. Lovely War opens in 1942 with a surprise: three denizens of Mount Olympus – Aphrodite, Ares, and Hephaestus – meet in a hotel under less than auspicious circumstances.

There is nothing to suggest fantasy from the cover, but rest assured there is something extra special in this narrative: a smart spin that makes the drama all that much more enjoyable.

You have a young woman in period dress, a photo of WWI soldiers in the background, and a statue of the Eiffel Tower encircled with biplanes in the woman’s hands. Hailed by critics, Lovely War has received seven starred reviews and is an indie bestseller.Lovely War, Julie Berry ( Greenwillow 978-3-9, $18.99, 468pp, hc) March 2019.įrom the cover, Lovely War by Julie Berry appears to be the historical novel that it is. Their story, as told by goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though War is a formidable force, it's no match for the transcendent power of Love. Army, and a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. A classical pianist from London, a British would-be architect-turned-soldier, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the U.S. They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. Summary: Read the novel New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network Kate Quinn called 'easily one of the best novels I have read all year!' A critically acclaimed, multi-layered romance set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II, where gods hold the fates-and the hearts-of four mortals in their hands.

The lovely war