Review of Making Faces by Amy Harmon

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.

Review done by Sav-
Okie dokie here is my very lame attempt to review a book that in my opinion is one of the hardest books I've ever had to review. It is just THAT good! This book is pure beauty. Want an example? Ok here goes..........

 “True beauty, the kind that doesn't fade or wash off, takes time. It takes incredible endurance. It is the slow drip that creates the stalactite, the shaking of the Earth that creates mountains, the constant pounding of the waves that breaks up the rocks and smooths the rough edges. And from the violence, the furor, the raging of the winds, the roaring of the waters, something better emerges, something that would have otherwise never existed.
And so we endure. We have faith that there is purpose. We hope for things we can't see. We believe there are lessons in loss, power in love, and that we have within us the potential for a beauty so magnificent, our bodies can't contain it.” 

Told ya!!! Just beautiful!  So the book starts off with Fern and her cousin Bailey. Fern has the heart of gold, she is good in every way imaginable and I instantly fell in love with her character. The issue here is that everyone she ever encountered looked at her like 'the ugly duckling' so in her mind she was just the ugly invisible girl and that y'all just broke my damn heart.


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

Does he make the legs that cannot walk and eyes that cannot see?

Does he curl the hair upon my head 'til it rebels in wild defiance?

Does he close the ears of a deaf man to make him more reliant?

Is the way I look a coincidence or just a twist of fate?

If he made me this way, is it okay, to blame him for the things I hate?

For the flaws that seem to worsen every time I see a mirror,For the ugliness I see in me, for the loathing and the fear.

Does he sculpt us for his pleasure, for a reason I can't see?

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

^^^^^^ That quote right there BROKE MY HEART! I sobbed for hours just from that quote.

Now I give you the 411 on Bailey! Oh my dear sweet Bailey. BAILEY WAS FANTASTIC!!! He has a muscular disease which was basically making his ability to move very limited and soon he was stuck in a wheelchair. Did you hear him complain? NO. Did you hear him blame everyone for his disability and just be a sour person?? NEVER. He had the heart and courage of a lion. Bailey was literally my favorite character of ANY BOOK I HAVE EVER READ! He made my heart smile :)

“Everybody is a main character to someone” 

Now I've made it to Ambrose. The guy every girl wants. The jock. The popular boy. Ambrose was HOT and in typical books the popular guys are jerks but not Ambrose. He was straight laced. No wild one night stands no alcohol no drugs. He knew Bailey and Fern and while he was goodie goodie with them, he wasn't mean to them either. Well one day tragedy strikes, what we all know as 9/11 the day the towers went down and many lost their lives. That was a turning point for Bailey. When he graduated he wanted to fight for his country. He went into war and his closest friends went with him. Then tragedy strikes again as they are hit with a roadside bomb. They didn't make it except for Ambrose who was terribly damaged and scarred. After he came home he hid but Fern and Bailey helped save him! Now Fern is not the ugly girl anymore she is now beautiful and he is the 'ugly' one. Can he overcome his fears and insecurities and love the girl who I think he always loved??? Well I guess you need to read and find out because it is truly amazing. This book is full of love and loss and finding your way and finding your inner beauty and just having the will of Hercules! This story almost is a new day beauty and the beast but with so much more! You are guaranteed to love it with every turn of the page!

This book gets 5 hearts from me!!!

Buy on Amazon US here
Buy on amazon UK here
Buy on B&N here