This book was tough for me to initially get into. I don't like to DNF books, so I kept reading. There were parts that were really frustrating to read, just because for the characters some of the pain could have been eased if they had just worked together. In the end, I thought this was a great book. The characters perseverance, the sacrifices they made for each other all really brought this story full circle for me. About the last forty pages are so were just incredibly sad, and I did think that it all sort of ended really fast.. most of the book seemed drawn out while they were going through the war, but not much on the aftermath and how they managed to go on with their life. So I would say 4.5 stars for me.