Review: Making Faces by Amy Harmon

Title: Making Faces

By: Amy Harmon

My Copy: Ebook from Author for Review

BookWhisperer Rating:

Ambrose Young was beautiful. He was tall and muscular, with hair that touched his shoulders and eyes that burned right through you. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She'd been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have...until he wasn't beautiful anymore.
Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl's love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior's love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast, where we discover that there is a little beauty and a little beast in all of us.

Oh Dear, Amy Harmon!! Where have you been hiding? I see that this author has a couple of other titles, and I must find them….. Now!!! How have I not read anything by her yet? Making Faces was given to The BookWhisperer for an honest review, and an HONEST REVIEW is what you will get. This book was INCREDIBLE!!!! I am so messed up after finishing this story that I am worried for the next title I will pick up. It might just be impossible for anything else to hold a candle in the shadow of this wonderful story. Ambrose, Bailey, and Fern are three of the most unique and intriguing characters I have met, and for completely different reasons. Let’s break them down shall we! Bailey so wise beyond his years proves to be a teacher through this entire story. Knowing that his days are numbered makes this a very realistic and heart breaking story. Readers know from the start that this is going to most likely be the climax of the story; watching it is like observing a train wreck, and it proving impossible to look away even as the situation proves traumatizing at times. As each lesson plays out I believe Bailey is unaware of the strength and guidance that he offers his friends. I fell in love with this character, and when his end plays out I felt as though I lost my own best friend.

Ambrose, on the other hand,  is a genuine character. He is beautiful, yet subdued. He is amazing, yet humble. The good guy at heart is impossible not to love from afar. As Fern watches him over the years it is impossible not to see the unfolding of his future as well. Readers will experience a mixture of emotion when his future unfolds. While it is horrible to watch fate unfold; it is a pertinent component to the growth of his character. A lovely life lesson that enforces the moral, and that some things happen for a reason. More importantly enforcing that only God knows why.

Fern is best explained in the story; Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web, a rut herself, but in the end will save everyone. These three characters are truly amazing, and together it is almost as if anything is possible as long as they have one another. The majority of the story is told by Fern, and her honest and innocent character is a great pov for such a story. Without any bias or judgments she will offer a nice unbiased observation. Readers will root for her future, and gratefully accept it as it unfolds splendidly.

Amy Harmon is a natural born storyteller. This book reminded me why I love reading SO MUCH!! Why I enjoy a story over a movie, and ultimately why words are the key to creativity and emotion. Her story had me wrapped up so tightly that the emotion tore through me as this story flowed like waves of the ocean. When we find ourselves at the peaks of those cresting waves it was joy and love overflowing, but when we reached the lows of those crashing waves it was a depressing and aching that not many story can generate. It was heart breaking, but combined with a reassuring sense that everything is as it should be. That although there is darkness in life, the light can overcome. The light will bring us home, and it can be recognized by HOPE!!!! Kudos to Harmon great job girl, and I hope to have more opportunities to read masterpieces such as this in the future.