Customer Reviews

In Love and War

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The relationship-writing duo of Denene Millner and Nick Chiles are back with their signature He Say/She Say style. This time they explored the budding relationship of Zaria Chance and Kenneth Roman in the novel In Love and War.

When the opinionated, out-spoken and unforgiving Zaria is paired with the quieter, sensitive and conservative Kenneth, sparks are sure to fly. The couple gets off on the wrong foot immediately, when Kenneth tries to talk to Zaria about her son at a parent teacher conference and his approach is all wrong. Zaria flies off the handle, berating him and his teaching abilities and later realizes she does not even know what the problem was. In fact, Zaria jumps to conclusions a lot without giving others a chance to explain. Zaria and Kenneth also have to explore their feelings on single parenthood, when to introduce their children to dates and the dynamics of teacher/parent dating.

It is very interesting to have both sides present their point of views during the courtship and their thoughts and reactions to the actions of each other. The New Year's Eve scenes illustrates this exceptionally well. Unlike in their previous work of fiction Love Don't Live Here Anymore, this couple is not married and have a life outside of the relationship so this book is not as repetitive in each member replaying the same scene. Kenneth's life as a basketball coach and his concern for his players is another story within this book. Zaria's relationship with her children, sister (Mikki is back) and friends are also prominent storylines. The story is told in a humorous, sensitive and thought-provoking manner. I would definitely recommend this book for book clubs as I can foresee it causing a very enlightening discussion.

Jeanette
APOOO BookClub
Motown Review Book Club

In Love and War is a charming and romantic novel about Kenneth and Zaria, two single parents who must overcome personal issues in order to develop a promising relationship. The novel starts off great: there's lots of attitude, spunk, humor, and spicy dialogue to keep the pages turning. The alternate chapters that are written by husband and wife team, Nick Chiles and Denene Millner, work well - we are allowed to get inside the head of a single male father and receive plenty of info regarding his feelings on parenting, dating, societal issues, and it is refreshing to receive a balanced viewpoint. But mid-way through the book, the storyline and chapters for both Kenneth and Zaria become unfocused in that some of the scenes and thought processes are repeated unnecessarily.

When the novel concentrates solely on Zaria and Kenneth's relationship, the pacing is smooth; but a few of the subplots hamper the action, yet don't greatly affect the overall good writing and juicy story. Lots of foreshadowing make much of the novel predictable, nevertheless, readers who enjoyed Love Don't Live Here Anymore should also be entertained with In Love and War, another satisfying offering from Chiles and Millner.

Denene and Nick did a good writing on relationship, faith and good -ending can just about happen anywhere. If you only have a little faith.This was really a good title for this book. If you really like someone then you really have to show them more than one way.There's going to be many rainy days as well as, sunny days. I just love the characters in book. THEY ALL SEEM TO WORK THROUGH ALOT. You can look forward for me reading more. Keep up single or joint good writing!!!
Your Mississippi reader fan,

The concept was admirable, but the story itself was entirely too wordy. The way the book was organized made it a very difficult read. The paragraphs were too long as with some of the chapters. It was just a bunch of words scrunched together that sometimes had me fading away. I almost fell asleep reading it. I think if it had been written in more of a "story/novel" form and not the Him/Her-He/She format, it would've had a better flow. But the author did keep the language real. I'm looking forward to reading "THE VOW." With the additional authors, this should be a good read but the synopsis already sounds like a remake of Danielle Steel's "SECRETS." A 2.2 on the SmithScale.

This book was a definite page turner! The writing style was great as well as the editing (only 1-2 minor errors). I am thoroughly impressed with this husband and wife team and will be buying more of their books. I would give it 5 stars, only the end seemed a little rushed (to me) and I would have like for Zaria to finally meet Kenneth's daughter in person.

In Love and War is worth the money. This was a very good book, a definite page turner.