Love And Other Battles - Tess Woods

Love And Other Battles – Tess Woods

‘Emotional, compelling’ ‘Compulsively readable’ ‘Utterly unputdownable’ ‘A must-read for all fiction lovers’ …

1969: Free-spirited hippie Jess James has no intention of falling for a soldier … but perhaps some things are not in our power to stop.

1989: Jess’s daughter, Jamie, dreams of a simple life – marriage, children, stability – then she meets a struggling musician and suddenly the future becomes wilder and complex.

2017: When Jamie’s daughter, CJ, brings home trouble in the form of the coolest boy at school, the worlds of these three women turn upside down … and the past returns to haunt them.

Spanning the trauma of the Vietnam War to the bright lights of Nashville, the epidemic of teenage self-harm to the tragedy of incurable illness, Love and Other Battles is the heart-wrenching story of three generations of Australian women, who learn that true love is not always where you seek it.

My Review of Love And Other Battles

I have never read anything by Tess Woods before. Generally, I shy away from historical fiction and I am not sure why – I actually really enjoy the majority of them when I read them! But for some reason the genre doesn’t appeal to me the way thrillers, sci-fi and others do. Having said that, I am so glad I got this little gem!

Spanning across three timelines, this story follows a grandmother, Jess in the 1960’s hippy era. She swears she will never fall in love with a soldier, but fate has other plans for her! Her daughter Jamie’s story intertwines with hers as she navigates love in the late 90’s, and Jamie’s daughter CJ is dealing with her own dramas in the late 2010’s when she brings a bad boy home.

Just how these stories interweave and compliment each other is fiction writing at it’s best! What a great story! I loved the jumping between times, I felt SO MUCH for poor CJ, and loved Jess’s story with her soldier love!

Brilliant writing, that is all I can say. I just loved it! I adore a good romance in the book and there were at least THREE in this one! But it wasn’t a romance overload!

It was paced well and the characters had a great depth to them, things weren’t TOO unbelievable and it was just lovely!

And TWISTS AND TURNS! My goodness I was not expecting that big twist at the end there and it was really fitting and AWESOME!

Would I recommend it?

Absolutely! Even if you aren’t a huge historical fiction fan like me, if you appreciate a good drama, some exquisite romances and a darn good story line, then give this one a go!

(5 / 5)