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I received this book free for review from a review circle.

This is not my genre. I'm a warm and fuzzy chick lit kind of girl, but I decided to give it a go anyway.

When the book started, I had a hard time figuring out who was who and how they all related. Within a few chapters though, I'd grasped the individual soldiers' stories and found myself sinking deeper and deeper into the tale. You know going in this book is about soldiers- warriors- the war they're waging and so graphic violence is to be expected. Some scenes made me cringe (oy, that dentist!) but they didn't feel gratuitous- the violence was necessary to the plot.

There were some interesting side themes here... the treatment of refugees for example. There was a play on eugenics with the whole reproduction side story. It was also an interesting read from the feminist perspective- strong, capable women characters who broke some more typical military themed literature stereotypes I've read in the past.

My favorite storyline was that of Sare and Neera, their strong bond and relationship, their mutual respect, their physical and emotional support of one another. I'm going to avoid spoilers here, but there was a lot of substance here from start to finish with them.

The main take away in this book though, isn't that this person had an interesting story or that person was extra tough, it's that warriors fight the battles their politicians start- and those battles are not usually not good guys vs bad guys. The perspective as to who the enemy is, shifts in each soldier's mind and heart. Ultimately, we are all the enemy, we are all allies

This book is very well written overall. The story may not appeal to readers of all genres. The first chapter or two feels a little disjointed so I vacillated between 4 stars and 5 stars but ultimately the INCREDIBLE final chapter tips the scales here. Five stars!