Briggs,

Remember when we parted ways in Germany? It was the day I broke your heart. What you didn't know was that I was breaking mine too.

I thought they’d be enough–my husband and my son. That I’d get home and everything would go back to the way it was . . .

Before the war.
Before the ambush.
Before you.

But, no matter how hard I try, I can’t erase the trauma we shared. I can’t seem to forget the way my heart beat in time with yours.

The truth is I’m lost without you.

I thought the nightmare was over when they pulled us from that hole in the ground, but nothing could have prepared me for the war I’d face at home.
I know it’s selfish of me to ask, but, please, I have to see you one last time. . .

All my love,
Scottie

HEARTBREAK WARFARE

by Heather M. Orgeron and Kate Stewart

I haven’t read a book that punched me in my heart and my gut and destroyed me so thoroughly like this in a long, long while. I’m left raw and in need of a good ole hug.

HEARTBREAK WARFARE is a life lesson. About how we shouldn’t judge people’s decisions because we haven’t walked in their shoes – so start this story with this mindset because it’ll make you uncomfortable. It starts out with Katy leaving home and her husband and son for a deployment she doesn’t want to go on, meeting a fellow soldier she feels a connection with but she fights the attraction because she’s a happily married woman.

That was before the ambush. What follows is harrowing, a hail storm that batters your heart, leaving it ripped open and bruised. Heather M. Orgeron and Kate Stewart didn’t hold back when they described the nightmare of Briggs and Katy’s time in Iraq. It was painful but necessary because, let’s be real people, there are people in this world who live this nightmare everyday. If they can live it so that we can breathe easy and live free and in peace, then we damn well can read about it.

Katy’s resilience and strength is nothing short of awe inspiring. When she came back from Iraq she couldn’t accept the change in her. She was stuck in hell with no way out of it. Yet she fought for her family and herself with every breath she took. The guilt, the horror, the nightmares would be her companions for the rest of her life. The only person in the world who understood was the man she was trapped with in hell. Only he knew the atrocities because he lived them, too.

Locked in our gaze, everything else disappears. I see the pain and fear leave her eyes. They’re replaced with trust, with a connection so powerful it steals my breath. We’re no longer in this bunker. There’s no pain. No torture. We’ve drifted off to a place that’s ours alone.

Briggs, a cocky, wisecracking and mellow guy, had fun riling Katy up. He knew he couldn’t cross the line with her but those two months in captivity with her turned their initial connection into an unbreakable bond as only life-altering events experienced together can weld it.

She’s all that matters. As long as she makes it back to her little boy in one piece, and as long as I can see her smile again, I can live with whatever hand I’m dealt.

Gavin was a saint. That man deserves a medal for being one of the most selfless men in romance. My heart shattered for him, how he fought to bring the woman he fell in love with back from her darkness.

She’s finally home, and I’m still living in the headspace we were in when she left. Not only are we not on the same page anymore, we’re reading completely different books.

And here’s the thing – every single one of these characters is so wonderful and amazing that you can’t help but root for them all and it’s what tears you apart while reading this story. All of them are catapulted into an impossible situation and they have to make impossible decisions. If you had made me choose I wouldn’t have been able to and it’s that dilemma that makes you understand some of Katy’s choices. They all did things that hurt the other and it changed all of their lives fundamentally, but when you are thrown into Briggs and Katy’s hell your world is narrowed down to a very small piece with little room to wiggle and hidden exits.

Now I’m nursing the mother of all book hangovers. This book is hard, so hard that I had tears in my eyes pretty much all the way through which turned in ugly-crying at the tough parts. Heather and Kate definitely didn’t take the easy way out with their story-telling, which, by the way is effortless and seamless. Even though it may not be for everybody, everybody should still read it. There are so many lessons in this story. It’s darkness and light, violence and tenderness and full of undiluted love.

Together, we breathe the ultimate sigh of relief, and as our climax ripples between us, our eyes never part. Ocean blue meets amber sunset. And it’s beautiful.
It’s healing.
It’s life-altering.
It’s inevitable

HEARTBREAK WARFARE is raw, unfiltered and painful, and pure heartbreaking emotion, that will have your heart in your throat, make you cry and angry, oh so angry. It deserves its title 100%. Ms. Orgeron and Ms. Stewart have penned one of the best and most memorable stories I’ve read and these characters will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to all the soldiers in the world for their service so that we can live free and in peace.