Remember when I said we couldn’t speak after parting 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.
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.
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. . .
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Our Review:
Review by Donna ~ Infinite stars
ARC received for an honest review
“All too often I’m reminded just how short life is, and because of you, I’ll die both soldier and thief.”
Sometimes you read a book, and you know that you have just read one of those once in a lifetime reads. A book that will stay with you for the rest of your days, and one that, if you are brave enough, you will read time and time again. I have an all-time favourites shelf, I have read nearly 3,000 books, and there are only three books on there. Those three books are about to get a companion.
“For now, my heart is the reckless navigator, and I, a reluctant passenger, unable to escape the way I love him.”
Heartbreak Warfare by Heather M. Orgeron and Kate Stewart will be on a lot of all-time favourites lists this year, it will be on most peoples Best of 2018 lists, it will get a lot of 6-star reviews because it is just that damn good. This book was EVERYTHING!!! A plot I have never seen done before, a book with so much emotion, passion, angst, and heartbreak that your heart will be left in a pile of mush by the end. Yet despite the agony, a book full of heart, promise and growth.
“How much can a heart handle in one lifetime? I’m pretty sure I’ll never know the exact answer to that question, but the scars that mar mine make me hate the fucker for continuing to beat…”
This is a military romance of EPIC proportions, intense, brutally honest, raw and haunting. How something beautiful can be born from something so tragic. How there are many victims of war, not just the soldiers and how war has lasting effects on everyone, even after all is said and done.
“…when I went back, it felt like a house, no more than that. Like a life that belonged to someone else, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t get it right. I’m like the corner piece to a puzzle, trying to force into the center, and no matter how I try to manipulate myself, I just don’t fit.”
This book is brutally honest, raw, gritty, devastating, unique and extraordinary. There are truly not enough superlatives that I could use that could adequately describe the story within the cover. My heart was left on those pages, weeks later I still have not been able to pick up another book, and my brain will not leave these characters alone. This book leaves an imprint on your heart and soul. Yes, it doesn’t hold back, but I appreciated it. It happens, life happens, love happens, and sometimes you don’t choose it, it chooses you. These characters were in an untenable situation and yet, love prevailed, the things we do for love, how love surfaces in many different guises and how ultimate sacrifices show just how much love the heart actually holds. This book was FLAWLESS.
“It was only in breaths we shared together that we found relief. It wasn’t through longing or passion that we discovered our unbreakable bonds; it was through love and loyalty.”
These authors pull at every single heartstring, they play their own tune, from the melancholy to the uplifting, to devastation and destruction, to living life. Damn, this book BROKE ME!!! I have never cried so much reading a book, I mean, complete and utter sobbing, hysterical mess, I couldn't breathe and had to walk away. This is a must-read book and if you only read one book this year, make it this one.
“because of you I finally know what lonely feels like.”
Excerpt:
“I need you to break my heart,” she declares, wringing her hands nervously. “Give me a reason to hate you, because wanting you this way is…it’s ruining me. It’s ruining my life.”
She is dead serious.
Lifting her chin, as if ready to take a blow, her turbulent eyes implore mine. “Tell me about them. Tell me about all of the women you’ve been with since Germany.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Hell no.”
“Oh, please, Briggs. How long did you wait? A few days?” She laughs sarcastically. “I bet you didn’t even make it a day.”
She’s coming out guns blazing, and I can see it’s physically killing her to do it.
“Are we playing the guessing game? Do I get to ask how many times you’ve fucked your husband?”
“Sure,” she says with a shrug. “We’ll trade. You go first.”
She’s bluffing, and I’m calling her on it.
“Don’t do this, Scottie. You don’t really want to hear about that.”
“Humor me, Briggs.” Her eyes plead with mine. “I need to hear this.”
“Fine. You want the truth?”
She nods.
“Complete honesty?”
Again, she bobs her head.
She stands stock-still as I pace the small room, feeling the blood begin to boil beneath my overheated skin.
Fuck it.
I stalk back toward her, stopping inches away. “You really want to know that there have been so many that I’ve lost count? How they’re all blondes with blue eyes? But the blue, it’s never right, and their smiles—all wrong.”
She swats at the fresh tears that trail down her cheeks as her lips begin to tremble. Reaching out, she places a hand on my chest, and I know that she must feel the way my heart is pounding against my rib cage, reaching for her. Always reaching for her.
I jerk myself away and brand that touch to memory.
In about forty-five seconds, my heart is going to implode. I start ticking them down.
“You want me to tell you all about how I have to drink myself stupid, till their faces blur enough that I can pretend…” I pause running a hand down my face. “So that I can pretend they’re you? You want to know how fucking miserable I am? How when I slide between their legs, I close my eyes, and it’s your face I see? How I’m always careful not to kiss them because their lips are all wrong. How every time I finish I want to fucking kill myself, because I can’t stand the pain of wanting the one woman I can never have.”
Thirty seconds.
“Is that enough?” Her eyes snap to mine. “Hate me yet?”
Face crumbling, she gasps out a sob, wrapping her arms around her shoulders.
“Come on, Scottie. Let’s not kid ourselves. I’m still the same prick you hated when we met. Nothing’s changed. I think we’ve romanticized this situation long enough, don’t you?”
Taking another step away from her, I tilt my head. “You’re a housewife,” I say snidely. “Someone else’s wife and I’m a career soldier. This isn’t exactly ideal.”
She flinches visibly, and my heart bottoms out.
Fifteen.
I cut my hand through the air. “At the end of the day, this was nothing but a big mistake. And we never would have happened if—”
“Stop,” she cries out painfully, “stop, I’m good,” she whispers before rocketing toward the door just as I reach for her, my fingers curling in the space she just left. Handle in hand, she looks back at me with the sweep of her eyes until they meet mine. That’s how we started, and it’s only fitting it’s how we should end. For the moment, we’re right back there in the place we created, where we are perfect. Where our souls line up without any visible smudge on the seams. In a place where there is still so much love, so much that I can’t stop the tear that slides out before batting it away with the back of my hand.
An identical tear runs down her cheek. “Thank you.”
Three. Two. One.
About the Authors:
Heather M. Orgeron
Heather M. Orgeron is a Cajun girl with a big heart and a passion for romance. She married her high school sweetheart two months after graduation and her life has been a fairytale ever since. She’s the queen of her castle, reigning over five sons and one bossy little princess who has made it her mission in life to steal her Momma’s throne. When she’s not writing, you will find her hidden beneath mounds of laundry and piles of dirty dishes or locked in her tower(aka the bathroom) soaking in the tub with a good book. She’s always been an avid reader and has recently discovered a love for cultivating romantic stories of her own.
Kate Stewart
A Texas native, Kate Stewart lives in North Carolina with her husband, Nick, and her naughty beagle, Sadie. She pens messy, sexy, angst-filled contemporary romance, as well as romantic comedy and erotic suspense because it's what she loves as a reader.
Kate is a lover of all things '80s and '90s, especially John Hughes films and rap. She dabbles a little in photography, can knit a simple stitch scarf for necessity, and on occasion, does very well at whiskey.