Review: Amy Harmon's "Making Faces."

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/2kTn7hQ

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2lqYLtA

Synopsis:

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 little beauty and a little beast in all of us.

Review: Surj

If God makes all our faces, did he laugh when he made me?

Amy Harmon's "Making Faces" is one of those books that will stay with me for a long time. It was poignant. It was thought provoking and it was life affirming. In fact this book was a lesson in how we should all want to live our lives. There was so much beauty yet equal measure of heart ache but what stood out above all else for me was the compassion and love that seeped through every single page. Even when the characters were faced with life changing hurdles, it was the unconditional love of those surrounding them that saw them through those difficult times. 

“I’ve often thought that beauty can be a deterrent to love.”

“Why?”

“Because sometimes we fall in love with a face and not what’s behind it.” 

"Making Faces" was a book that spanned years following several characters from childhood into teenage years and finally into adulthood. I followed each of the characters on their journey and experienced al the wonderful, heart warming things that came their way. I also felt every single bit of heart ache and sorrow as life threw unexpected curve balls their way. I felt my heart fit to burst as each character showed courage and bravery in the face of adversity and I felt lifted by the strength each displayed by never giving up, even when all they wanted to do was to curl up and die. 

"I promised myself that if you came home I wouldn't be afraid to tell you 

how I felt. But I'm still afraid. Because I can't make you love me back."

It was difficult not to fall in love with Ambrose, Fern, Bailey, Ruth and the rest of the gang. Each of them had their physical imperfections (or so they thought) but this book was not about beauty being skin deep. It was about scratching the surface and uncovering all the beauty on the inside. i loved the slow building friendship between Fern and Ambrose. Here were two people who appeared to be so opposite yet actually, they couldn't have ended up being more similar. Ambrose and Fern were two people destined to be together and I rooted for them in every page I turned. Then there was Bailey. My favourite of all the characters I met. Bailey was the person you wanted on your team. He was the person you would want standing next to you. He was courageous and brave and I loved his outlook on life. I challenge anyone not to love this man. 

“Everybody who is somebody becomes nobody the moment they fail.”

I loved the writing in "making Faces." I loved the way it made me feel, like I belonged in the town of Hannah Lake right alongside the rest of the town's folk. I adored the way I was able to visualise so much of this story play out in my head and I loved that "nostalgic" feel to the story that unfolded. 

"Making Faces" was a love story. It was also a story about unconditional love. It was also a story about hope, friendship, loss, guilt, forgiveness and atonement and I rated it ❤️❤️❤️❤️