In which I return to the interwebs...

Hello everyone! My, it's been a while...apologies all around! My reading time has been lacking lately due to some fun things (the return of football tailgate Saturdays, an OAR concert, and spending time at the lake cottage) and some not so fun (painting around the house, chores, and the like). But I have managed to finish one book and hopefully will finish A Prayer for Owen Meany this weekend since it has taken me WAY longer than I anticipated and I must start the September book club book ASAP. Anyway, on to the review.

Gifts of War

by Mackenzie Ford

350 pages (in ARC)

Isn't the cover of this book beautiful? It's really what first drew me to request this ARC. Then, I read the book description and I knew that I would be hooked.

Hal Montgomery is a British soldier on the front during WWI and on Christmas in 1914, there was a truce between the British and German soldiers for a whole day. They came out of the trenches, shared cigarettes and stories of home, and buried their dead. It was there that Hal met Wilhelm, a German soldier who had a fiancee in England who he was not even able to say goodbye to, due to the war. Wilhelm gave Hal a picture of himself in uniform and asked him that if he ever had the opportunity to please find her and give her this picture. A few weeks later, Hal is shot and discharged from the military. Once recovered, he goes to find Wilhelm's fiancee, Sam, to tell her about Wilhelm but of course, he falls in love with her.

So, since Hal is in love with Sam, he decides not to tell her about Wilhelm and his picture that he's carrying around with him. Even though, she continues to talk about him and HAS HAD WILHELM'S BABY! Seriously, this whole I'm-going-to-keep-this-secret-and-hope-that-it-goes-away thing NEVER works. Didn't work for Bill with Sookie in Southern Vampire Mysteries series, and didn't really work for Marcus in the Jessica Darling series, so it is definitely not going to work for Hal. Sorry buddy, but secrets don't make friends! (or lovers for that matter!) But, regardless of how much I really wanted to grab Hal by the shoulders and shake the living ba-jesus out of him, he really made up for it in the end and it was just so sad and so beautiful and I literally had just one little tear fall as I closed it...and I loved it. I clutched the book to my chest and wiped away the lone tear and just said "wow."

So 8.5 out of 10 stars.