Război și dragoste

Had all the elements to be great but weirdly didn't do it for me. I love historical fiction. I love historical fiction with fantasy elements. I adore WW1 historical fiction. Logically this book, with its beautiful writing and original premise should go straight to my favourites shelf. Let's talk about why it didn't. Starting off with everything I enjoyed, bringing the book up to a solid 3 stars:I was intruiged by the original layout of the story. The Greek gods debating on love in a court like setting were some of my favourite chapters.The love story at times was infectiously cute. I became smitten over Hazel and James. .............Let me explain why (to my sadness and surprise) my rating doesn't hit the 4 or 5 star mark:The story didn't really affect me, it never ceased to be anything more than words on paper. I felt little sadness when characters died or were separated. I didn't believe in their love. It lacked rawness. I needed more trauma, higher stakes. I could predict when the characters would die and magically come back to life a few pages later. I wanted to be surprised and heartbroken, sobbing and screaming "WHY WOULD YOU WRITE THIS?!!" at 2am. But from the get go we know how this will end and it didn't suck me in enough for me to forget. The relationship also felt pretty 2 dimensional with pretty easily surmoutable struggles. Those being when James doesn't want to see Hazel after his injury. And when Hazel is "disfigured". In both cases the "issue" keeping them apart is solved within a few pages. Other elements in the book felt forced and too fairytale like. The romanticism of the story sort of muted the ruggedness of war which is meant to be at the core of why this love story is so formidable and precious.I know Aphrodite was the one who made the lady have a seizure who happened to have a piano and needed someone to play it. But it still sticks out as odd. As is the ease with which Hazel uproot herself from her life to aid the war. I know the fact that everything runs more or less smoothly and everything connect and is "meant to be" is what makes the love story so charming. But at times it felt like the love hadn't been sufficiently tested for me to really swallow its existence. Furthermore, I didn't feel confronted to harsh, thought-provoking thoughts and scenarios that come with the topic of war. It felt like a missed opportunity. But it would've been nice to delve deeper into chemical warfare, or of suicidal tendencies, just getting into the nitty gritty unpleasant stuff. Here it didn't feel like topic of War and Love were equally balanced. More like War made for a convenient setting for a Love story with seemingly high stakes. Maybe I just like to suffer when I read.Anyways....I wanted so badly to love this book, for if to go onto my favourites of all time shelf. Yet I was unable to go any further than simply enjoying the story. Comparison is the thief of joy and all that, but this book did not hold up on the same level as the Nightingale or Divine rivals did for me. Lacking the harsh rawness when it comes to dealing with relationships in a time of war like the former. But failing to reproduce a enchantingly magical but plausible love story as the latter. In a nutshell: Enjoyable read, but forgettable.(I hope that everyone who read this book loved it)