I'd like to start off by saying this review is going to be long, personal, and damn hard for me to write but I am going to say everything I have to say so if you want to stick around...
keep reading...
but if not then just know this book is amazing and you will LOVE it....
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.
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.
My Thoughts
I was absolutely riveted with this book...
I was sucked so far in, I had to fight my way back out..
This book held my attention from the very beginning and DID NOT let go until I finished it. Chores be damned, sleep...psh whats that??... Bathroom breaks oh no, no, no I brought my kindle in there with me...
It was just too good to put down...
I was sucked so far in, I had to fight my way back out..
This book held my attention from the very beginning and DID NOT let go until I finished it. Chores be damned, sleep...psh whats that??... Bathroom breaks oh no, no, no I brought my kindle in there with me...
It was just too good to put down...
When this book first started out, I was like oh great Fern's character is going to annoy the crap out of me because she had that Ugly Girl Syndrome...But it surprised me... She was so much more than her plain existence eluded too. She had depth , she had heart, and I am a better person for having been introduced to her. Heart of Gold would work to describe this girl... She was amazing!!
All the characters were amazing and I experienced so much angst and heartbreak with them...
I love how Amy Harmon does not make her characters perfect. They have imperfections that make it more relatable to the reader...
Not everyone is born gorgeous and she expresses that..
Flaws are perfect
All the characters were amazing and I experienced so much angst and heartbreak with them...
I love how Amy Harmon does not make her characters perfect. They have imperfections that make it more relatable to the reader...
Not everyone is born gorgeous and she expresses that..
Flaws are perfect
I am not going to go into too many details about this book because I don't want this review to be a novel but I will tell you what I felt, all my feels...
ALL of them so maybe it will be more like a novella ;)
ALL of them so maybe it will be more like a novella ;)
Ok here it goes....
Personal shit...
My husband is a Marine and my brother is a Soldier and my father was a sailor for 20years.. Military is in my blood, in my soul, and I give them the upmost respect. Not because I'm married and related to it but because they DESERVE it. They face shit NONE of us will understand, unless we do it ourselves, unless we face the horror they face...
My husband is a Marine and my brother is a Soldier and my father was a sailor for 20years.. Military is in my blood, in my soul, and I give them the upmost respect. Not because I'm married and related to it but because they DESERVE it. They face shit NONE of us will understand, unless we do it ourselves, unless we face the horror they face...
I thank God every dang day that my husband has been over there 5 times and came back in one piece and his soul maybe a little damaged but he is still my Chris... I thank GOD everyday my baby brother went over there for a year and came back in one piece... At one point both my brother and my husband were deployed at the same time, for a little over five months. Both of them were gone and it was a horrible, anxious time for my family. We were all on edge praying, hoping, wondering if they were ok...
The questions never fell far from our minds... The "what ifs" were a constant burden on all of our souls and we prayed and prayed that all of them would come home...
Sending care packages, receiving few phone calls, Skype dates, they all were precious and invaluable to all of us.
The most miserable/best part of my day was when I laid down in my bed at night...alone... and cried because I missed my husband... cried because I was relieved I made it another day....cried because HE survived another day... Thanking GOD I never got that knock on my door.. It is NOT easy... The lonely nights, the worry, the constant "What ifs" and what you would tell your children if something happened... how would you survive... its stressful but a blessing.. I'm not crazy, I say blessing because it made me thankful for my husband.
It made me thankful for what we have, it made me thankful that he came home when so many others did not... Same with my baby brother.
The same brat that terrorized me throughout childhood was fighting in a country that liked to terrorize their own people.. It did not feel good. I am the big sister, I wanted to protect him, put a shield around him so nobody could harm a single hair on his handsome little head.. To me, seeing my brother going off to war was a slap in the face.. I still saw him as my annoying five year old brother that would pee on my baby dolls and laugh like he was hilarious (jerk).
There was a time in one of my husband's deployment that I received awful news...
Not from my husband but from other people who had loved ones over there with my husband...
I remember talking to my husband on Skype so excited to see his face, so happy to talk to him but there was something off and he couldn't tell me about it... (they aren't allowed to say personal stuff over the computer)...
Then later that night I heard about what happened and found out why he was acting the way he was...
It was October 3rd, 2010 and one of his best friends stepped on an IED and it left him without legs and severely injured...
I never prayed so hard in my entire life... His name was Socks (nickname) and I met him two weeks before they were set to deploy... He was so sweet, so nice, and had the best smile I have ever seen. I remember thinking wow, his smile is gorgeous... After three days of praying and hoping and wishing he would make it... Three days it took, before his body could no longer fight and he passed away. When I saw the news I was heartbroken for my husband, myself, his unit... everyone who knew him. Such a gentle soul was taken from this world so early, he barely lived, he was only 21 years old! I was mad I couldn't reach through the computer and hug my husband, to comfort him, I couldn't do anything but offer words and words seem meaningless in a time like that, they are meaningless in a time like that, I was helpless.. I asked God why he had to take such a special person? My husband was a mess, the whole company was shaken from the news because everyone loved him...
In Making Faces, Paulie reminded me of Socks and it made me smile but it broke my heart all over again. I don't think the tears stopped while reading this. My pillow was wet and I was so sad because I knew these emotions, I KNEW this pain and I damn sure felt every emotion all over again... It was bittersweet pain, it tore my soul open and shredded it a little but at the same time it reminded me to love life, respect the life you are given, because sometimes bad things happen and we don't understand them and we are angry and sad but we have to remember that everything happens for a reason. We have to enjoy life and appreciate the good because when the bad does happen, it is easier to place blame and be angry but we have to count our blessings and be thankful for everything, it helps digest the heartbreak a little better.
Amy Harmon brought all those emotions back. She did such an amazing job relating to the reader and feeding into the emotions. If I didn't know any better I would have thought this story was about her. She knew her information, she did her research, and she filled the story with so much depth, history, philosophy, and Bible scriptures that it took me to a different level... a new height... new emotions. Taught me lessons that I could sit here all day and examine and reflect on.
It was so beautiful, introspective, humbling, and amazing...
Harmon is one BRILLIANT writer and I hope more and more people discover her talents because she deserves it, she deserves everything great coming her way!
I would normally say go READ this book right away but no reading it is not going to be enough, you need to EXPERIENCE it for yourself... FEEL it... and trust me, it will make you feel a lot!
I give this book 5/5 but I do not think that is even enough, it deserves SO MUCH MORE... Amazing job Amy, AMMMAAZZIIINNGGG!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Harmon knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, and she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story.
The most miserable/best part of my day was when I laid down in my bed at night...alone... and cried because I missed my husband... cried because I was relieved I made it another day....cried because HE survived another day... Thanking GOD I never got that knock on my door.. It is NOT easy... The lonely nights, the worry, the constant "What ifs" and what you would tell your children if something happened... how would you survive... its stressful but a blessing.. I'm not crazy, I say blessing because it made me thankful for my husband.
It made me thankful for what we have, it made me thankful that he came home when so many others did not... Same with my baby brother.
The same brat that terrorized me throughout childhood was fighting in a country that liked to terrorize their own people.. It did not feel good. I am the big sister, I wanted to protect him, put a shield around him so nobody could harm a single hair on his handsome little head.. To me, seeing my brother going off to war was a slap in the face.. I still saw him as my annoying five year old brother that would pee on my baby dolls and laugh like he was hilarious (jerk).
There was a time in one of my husband's deployment that I received awful news...
Not from my husband but from other people who had loved ones over there with my husband...
I remember talking to my husband on Skype so excited to see his face, so happy to talk to him but there was something off and he couldn't tell me about it... (they aren't allowed to say personal stuff over the computer)...
Then later that night I heard about what happened and found out why he was acting the way he was...
It was October 3rd, 2010 and one of his best friends stepped on an IED and it left him without legs and severely injured...
I never prayed so hard in my entire life... His name was Socks (nickname) and I met him two weeks before they were set to deploy... He was so sweet, so nice, and had the best smile I have ever seen. I remember thinking wow, his smile is gorgeous... After three days of praying and hoping and wishing he would make it... Three days it took, before his body could no longer fight and he passed away. When I saw the news I was heartbroken for my husband, myself, his unit... everyone who knew him. Such a gentle soul was taken from this world so early, he barely lived, he was only 21 years old! I was mad I couldn't reach through the computer and hug my husband, to comfort him, I couldn't do anything but offer words and words seem meaningless in a time like that, they are meaningless in a time like that, I was helpless.. I asked God why he had to take such a special person? My husband was a mess, the whole company was shaken from the news because everyone loved him...
In Making Faces, Paulie reminded me of Socks and it made me smile but it broke my heart all over again. I don't think the tears stopped while reading this. My pillow was wet and I was so sad because I knew these emotions, I KNEW this pain and I damn sure felt every emotion all over again... It was bittersweet pain, it tore my soul open and shredded it a little but at the same time it reminded me to love life, respect the life you are given, because sometimes bad things happen and we don't understand them and we are angry and sad but we have to remember that everything happens for a reason. We have to enjoy life and appreciate the good because when the bad does happen, it is easier to place blame and be angry but we have to count our blessings and be thankful for everything, it helps digest the heartbreak a little better.
Amy Harmon brought all those emotions back. She did such an amazing job relating to the reader and feeding into the emotions. If I didn't know any better I would have thought this story was about her. She knew her information, she did her research, and she filled the story with so much depth, history, philosophy, and Bible scriptures that it took me to a different level... a new height... new emotions. Taught me lessons that I could sit here all day and examine and reflect on.
It was so beautiful, introspective, humbling, and amazing...
Harmon is one BRILLIANT writer and I hope more and more people discover her talents because she deserves it, she deserves everything great coming her way!
I would normally say go READ this book right away but no reading it is not going to be enough, you need to EXPERIENCE it for yourself... FEEL it... and trust me, it will make you feel a lot!
I give this book 5/5 but I do not think that is even enough, it deserves SO MUCH MORE... Amazing job Amy, AMMMAAZZIIINNGGG!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Harmon has been a motivational speaker, a grade school teacher, a junior high teacher, a home school mom, and a member of the Grammy Award winning Saints Unified Voices Choir, directed by Gladys Knight. She released a Christian Blues CD in 2007 called “What I Know” – also available on Amazon and wherever digital music is sold. She has written five novels, Running Barefoot, Slow Dance in Purgatory, Prom Night in Purgatory, the New York Times Bestseller, A Different Blue and coming October 20, Making Faces.
Links to books and giveaway
GOODREADS:
Purchase Links:
GOODREADS:
· Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00F0XL3B2
· Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/making-faces-amy-harmon/1117181228?ean=9781492976424
· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/366894
· iTunes: COMING SOON
1st Prize:
· Kindle Paperwhite
· $50 Amazon Gift Card
· Signed set of all 5 of Amy Harmon’s books!
2nd Prize:
· Signed copy of Making Faces
· $25 Amazon Gift Card
I love your reviews so much... your pasdion fuels my own in such a way I feel I know you deeply. I will be experiencing this book once im finished with my current book. Thank you for bringing it to my attention :-) you are awesome and I prey you and your family continue to live full and happy safe lives xxxxx
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