Making Faces by Amy Harmon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian
Genre: Romance, Contemporary Fiction
Content: Strong language, Some steamy makeout scenes


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.

“I wrote your name across my heart so we could be together, so I could hold you close to me and keep you there forever.”

I've had this book on my Kindle for several years now, and finding myself in between obligated reads (buddy reads, book clubs, NetGalley, etc.) I decided it was finally time to read it. I have also recently had some rather disappointing reads of late. I already knew I loved Amy Harmon as a writer, so I figured she wouldn't disappoint me. I've read all her fantasy stuff, and they rank among my favorite books, but this is the first contemporary novel I've read by her. Let me just start out by saying that this book made me cry! It also had my heart soaring. Like all of Harmon's books, this one was deep and beautiful. I rarely give out 5 stars, but this one, I knew well before I finished that it was going to be a 5 star read for me. I loved these characters so much. Fern, Ambrose, and Bailey all have a special place in my heart now. Thank you Amy Harmon for writing books that make my heart sing, and make me feel all the feels. What wonderful medicine for the soul!

“You know that thing people always say, about beauty being in the eye of the beholder?... I always thought it meant we all have different tastes, different preferences . . . you know? Some guys focus on the legs, some guys prefer blondes, some men like girls with long hair, that kind of thing. I never thought about it really, not before this moment. But maybe you see beauty in me because you are beautiful, not because I am.”