Making Faces by Amy Harmon

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 a little beauty and a little beast in all of us.

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Review

"It's hard to come to terms with the fact that you aren't ever going to be loved the way you want to be loved."

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO FREAKING MUCH. I'm in love with Amy Harmon's writing. Abso-freaking-lutely the best book I have read for 2013. Outstandingly written, so poetic and beautiful. Each word resonated within me, deep, deep to my very core and touched my very soul.

I cried my eyes out in this book. From the beginning tears starting to spill (at 7% I believe), then at the middle and near the end. You get the idea that I cried a lot! I remember remarking how I never cried so much reading a book than I did right than. My tears kept pooling in my eyelids making it so hard to keep reading - I tried so hard to focus through my tears because I was so riveted by the words, the story, the characters, the heartache and the pain and they just kept falling so I had to stop each time to wipe my tears away. 

My heart sang with this book, it laughed, it cried (swollen red eyes!), it smiled (more like grinned so much, my cheeks ache!).

“I used to be afraid of going to hell. But now that I’m here, hell doesn’t seem so bad.”

I LOVE AMBROSE SO MUCH. He's so tortured in so many ways, things change for him, things he had was taken away and he learns to live with them slowly as much as he can. I fell face first in love with him. Landed so hard. Slammed into him more like! My heart kept breaking with his. Crack, crack, crack. Like my heart was made with glass. 



"I need you because it hurts when we're apart. I need you because you make me hopeful."

Ambrose stole my breath away from the beginning of this book and when he comes back from war, things changed fast, in a spilt second his world was taken away from him. I mean that literally, it all took a second to change. When he gets back battered, broken and lost, Fern the beautiful girl, sweet and wonderful girl is there for him. Everyone is there but Ambrose pushes them away and Fern doesn't let that deter her and slowly worms her way in his life. 

“I want to be a hero.”

I LOVE BALIEY SO MUCH TOO! He's just so special in so many ways, you fall so hard for him and you laugh and cry with him. This guy made me cry sooooo freaking much. I just couldn't help myself and he made me laugh too a lot. (I blame you! LOL) He’s taken such a special place in my heart and will forever be there. <3 This boy took a huge chunk of my heart and I don’t want it back. I feel so blessed getting to know him and he will always live within me. Everyone one needs a best friend like Bailey and I so need one. Bailey to me has always been a hero and is my hero. Will always be no matter what. He has done so much in his life that some people fail to do, he is so special because when life dealt him cards that will make some go mad but he smiles each day, lives life to the fullest and doesn't let his disability define him.

"Accept the truth in it. Own it, wallow in it, become one with the shit."

Bailey's outlook in life is so enlightening after all what happening with him he doesn't resent it but moves further with his life and teaches us to move forward and be happy with what we have.  

“Maybe there is a bigger purpose, a bigger picture that we only contribute a very small piece to. You know, like one of those thousand piece puzzles? There's no way you can tell by looking at one piece of the puzzle what the puzzle is going to look like in the end. And we don't have the picture on the outside of the puzzle box to guide us.”

Sweet, sweet Fern. Love her. She is so beautiful inside and out if you really see her. And perfect in so many ways once you get to know her. Sometimes I think Fern is so like me. Pieces of her is in me as well.  Its like Fern is Trisha and Trisha is Fern. And you just keep loving her. 
She has this beautiful soul, that brightens my soul, the light is food to my starving soul and fulfills me in ways no one can understand. 

“Maybe everyone represents a piece of the puzzle. We all fit together to create this experience we call life. None of us can see the part we play or the way it all turns out. Maybe the miracles that we see are just the tip of the iceberg. And maybe we just don’t recognize the blessings that come as a result of terrible things.”

I love how Amy gives us a piece of advice along the way that we all can relate to through Fern and Bailey. I'm always like "I love that shit, give me more!" like a famished beggar. I love pieces of advice in books, they are seriously what makes me love the books even more. 

This is a brilliantly written book that pulls on to your heartstrings, nestles into your heart like glue and sticks there like super glue. Leaves tearstains tracks on your face. Sobs rack your body and laughter too. After you're finished you are left spent and heart aching for it to never end. A poignant sense of loss however capturing a beautiful memory etched in your heart, mind and soul. As many wounds this book leaves open, it also heals leaving beautiful scars behind adding more character to our persona than we had before we started devouring Making Faces.

★★★★★★

6 STARS!!!!