This might sound weird but the first word that comes to mind for this book is beautiful. The way that it portrays this romantic relationship taking place during such a traumatizing and uncertain time is just... well I'm not even sure I have a word for it.

One of the reviews on the back of the book states that Gaunt and Ellwood will stay with you long after you've finished the book. I don't really think I can sum it up any better than that. I'd just like to add that the side characters will also be joining Sidney and Henry in my head for a while yet.

It can't have been easy to write a love story set in one of the bloodiest and most brutal wars in history without romanticizing the war, yet Alice Winn managed it perfectly in my opinion. The two narratives are of course intertwined tightly, yet there's none of the clichés that I've read in other novels in the past. The way the war shapes/changes the two main characters and their relationship to each other was really genuine and emotional.