PoppyLove and war. Two words that should have little association, but to me the two go hand in hand. Both are a tragedy. They rip you open and spit you out. The war killed my husband, Connor, shattered my will to live, and took my best friend. Brandon may not have physically died in that war, but his soul did. And now we’re left to pick up the wreckage. Expected to move on when all that is left is the ruins of a life we once had.
Brandon
War. It took everything from me, even myself. When you’re only able to exist, death seems like a blessing. Pain…a welcome distraction. I ran from everything associated with my past, and then she found me, fighting, drowning myself in whisky, trying to forget. She reminds me of Connor, of what I’ve lost—what we’ve lost. In the midst of destruction, she’s a salvation I don’t deserve.
I shouldn’t love him.
I shouldn’t love her.
Love is a war we never should have fought.
“I’m left standing in the middle of destruction, staring at the violence that must constantly be swimming inside of his head. And when I’m finally able to draw in a good breath, I collapse to the floor, head in hands wondering when love turned into a war?”
Oh holy crap! This book gutted me. Ripped my heart out and shattered it on the floor. Wine, Kleenex and Xanax should possibly (probably) sold with this book or at least listed as items bought with War Poppy. I have never read Stevie J Cole or LP Lovell before but I had heard that they know how to write the emotional stuff and I’d say that was spot on. This subject is so important and so real for so many people. Stevie and LP did an amazing job with such a tough subject!
War Poppy follows a trio of friends, Brandon O’Kieffe, Connor Blaine, and Poppy (Turner) Blaine, that are torn apart as a result of war. War Poppy shows that while war is ugly, the aftermath of war is just as ugly, if not worse than war.
When Connor, Poppy’s husband and Brandon’s best friend, dies in combat, Brandon runs away. In his mind, he has lost everything in his life. There is no way that Poppy will want him around because he didn’t save Connor. He’s gone AWOL from the military so he can’t go to them for support and his best friend is dead. All Brandon knows now is anger and numbness. He uses the anger to build his new “life” as Brandon “The Breaker” Blaine. If he’s not fighting, he’s drowning himself with whiskey in attempt to numb himself from the outside world and the voices in his head. From an outsider looking in, Brandon is fearless and indestructible, but Poppy sees the broken boy that has fallen back into his old life, the life that Connor had rescued him from to begin with.
Poppy is left as a widow at the age of 25. All of the should haves and could haves ever present in her mind and heart. This isn’t the first loss Poppy has had but in the past she had her father, Brandon, or Connor to lean on. Her father and Connor are both dead and Brandon is gone.
Poppy tries her very best to be everything that Brandon needs. She is his light, his hope, and his love but sometimes that’s not enough to tame those demons.
No one asks for the repercussions of war. No one deserves the aftermath of war yet it is something that so many people live with day in and day out. The reality that so many veterans and their families deal with day in and day out is hard. We all see the emotional reunions on TV but no one shows what happens on day 2 or day 102. LP and Stevie did that. This book is tragic, emotional, gut wrenching, and heart shattering but it is so much more than that. Tragic end and all – I would recommend this book to anyone.
Bravo ladies, bravo!!
Because sometimes characters need to be flawed.P.S. Stevie’s greatest fear is the impending zombie apocalypse. Think about it: swarming armies of decaying, oozing corpses stumbling around with clicking teeth, trying to eat your face. Nothing about that is good. NOTHING!
Lauren Lovell is an indie author from England.She suffers from a total lack of brain to mouth filter and is the friend you have to explain before you introduce her to anyone, and apologise for afterwards.
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