Title: Making Faces

Author: Amy Harmon

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

Expected Release Date: October 20, 2013

Blog Tour Organized By: Cristina’s Book Reviews and Vilma’s Book Blog

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.

He didn’t know how to make her understand that she was so much more than just pretty. So he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers. Very carefully. Not like the other night when he’d been scared and impulsive, and smacked her head against the wall in his attempt to kiss her. He kissed her now to tell her how he felt. He pulled away almost immediately, not giving himself a chance to linger and lose his head. He wanted to show her he valued her, not that he wanted to rip her clothes off. And he wasn’t sure when it came right down to it that she wanted to be kissed by an ugly SOB. She was the kind of girl that would kiss him because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. The thought filled him with despair.

She let out a frustrated sigh and sat up, running her hands through her hair. It flowed through her fingers and down her back, and he wished he could bury his own hands in it, bury his face in the heavy locks and breathe her in. But he’d obviously upset her.

“I’m sorry, Fern. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why?” she snapped, startling him enough that he winced. “Why are you sorry?”

“Because you’re upset.”

“I’m upset because you pulled away! You’re so careful. And it’s frustrating!”

Ambrose was taken back by her honesty, and he smiled, instantly flattered. But the smile faded as he tried to explain himself.

“You’re so small, Fern. Delicate. And all of this is new to you. I’m afraid I’m going to come on too strong. And if I break you or hurt you, I won’t survive that, Fern. I won’t survive it.” That thought was worse than walking away from her and he shuddered inwardly. He wouldn’t survive it. He had already hurt too many. Lost too many.

Fern knelt in front of him, and her chin wobbled and her eyes were wide with emotion. Her voice was adamant as she held his face between her hands, and when he tried to pull away so she wouldn’t feel his scars, she hung on, forcing his gaze.

“Ambrose Young! I have waited my whole life for you to want me. If you don’t hold me tight I won’t believe you mean it, and that’s worse than never being held at all. You better make me believe you mean it, Ambrose, or you will most definitely break me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Fern,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Then don’t,” she whispered back, trusting him. But there were lots of ways to cause pain. And Ambrose knew he was capable of hurting her in a thousand ways.

Ambrose stopped trying to pull his face away, surrendering to the way it felt to be touched. He hadn’t allowed anyone to touch him for a long time. Her hands were small, like the rest of her, but the emotions they stirred in him were enormous, gigantic, all-consuming. She made him shake, made him quake inside, vibrate like the tracks under an on-coming train.

Her hands left his face and traveled down the sides of his neck. One side smooth, the other riddled with divots and scars and rippled where the skin had been damaged. She didn’t pull away, but felt each mark, memorized each wound. And then she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his neck, just below his jaw. And then again on the other side, on the side that bore no scars, letting him know that the kiss wasn’t about sympathy but desire. It was a caress. And his control broke.

Making Faces by Amy Harmon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

4.5 “Kites or Balloons?” “Victory is in the Battle” “B S” Kisses

Wow…so I knew going into reading this book that I was going to cry. I even had fair warning that it was going to be an ugly cry. So you think I would be prepared…right? Yeah…no…not so much. Pretty much not at all. Nothing could have prepared me for that. Oh…and I have to state this for the record – the “B S” in my ‘kisses’ – not the B.S. you’re thinking! 🙂 I really don’t know what else to say except wow…however that wouldn’t be a very good review…but seriously this story covers 10+ years, so many different relationships and little details…so let’s see what I can come up with.

Fern Taylor…how can I describe Fern. She’s the ugly duckling…the quite little girl that is overlooked…the tiny girl with braces and glasses and wild red hair…the nobody that desperately wants to be a somebody. Fern is the epitome of what every girl does not want to be in high school…she’s smart and funny, but nobody aside from her cousin Bailey and her best friend Rita would even know that because they don’t bother to pay any attention to her. But Fern has so much to offer…she may not be the standard for gorgeous on the outside but she could not be more beautiful in my eyes. She’s caring and giving…sweet and nurturing…loving and thoughtful. She’s a pastor’s daughter…the miracle child her parents thought they would never have…she’s a good girl, just filled to the brim with goodness, like I don’t think she has a mean bone in her body, it’s just not in her nature. She’s so likeable it’s ridiculous. I could talk all day about Fern…she’s just a million different kinds of amazing.

“I just wish life was more like my books,” Fern complained, trying to hoist both her and Bailey’s backpacks on her narrow shoulders as they left school for the day. “Main characters never die in books. If they did, the story would be ruined, or over.”
“Everybody is a main character to someone,” Bailey theorized, winding his way through the busy hall and out the nearest exit into the November afternoon. “There are no minor characters.”

Ambrose Young…Brosey…for the record, love his nickname – prolly a little bit more than I should honestly love a name. He’s Hercules. 🙂 (there’s a story there…I love that too) He’s the town superstar…a wrestling god with a mountain of expectations to live up to and even more pressure that he puts on himself. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s tall, dark and handsome…but unfortunately that just goes along with the ‘perfect package’ that everyone sees…and expects. His past is…complicated…it has to do with parents, and it’s messy, sad and frustrating and I won’t go into detail suffice to say it’s not something a child should have to deal with…but what can you do. Ambrose has lots of layers…on the surface he’s this gorgeous guy that every girl wants and every guy wants to be friends with…but he’s a lot more than that. He’s a leader…he’s got more than just physical strength…he’s smart (smarter than most people probably give him credit for IMO)…he’s deep…there’s just so much to Ambrose that you wouldn’t expect. I felt like Brosey internalized a lot…not that he didn’t have anyone that he could talk to…he had his dad, he had close friends, he had Coach Sheen (the wrestling coach and Bailey’s dad)…but…for his own reasons, Ambrose kept things to himself. But he did open up to Fern…I liked she got to see sides of him no one else got to.

‘Everybody who is somebody becomes nobody the moment they fail.’

I cannot not talk about Bailey. Bailey is crucial in this book. Bailey Sheen is Fern’s cousin and best friend…and is about ten times more amazing then Fern is (and we’ve already established that Fern is pretty freakin amazing…). It’s hard to talk about Bailey and not tear up because a lot of my sadness came from Bailey and the things that happen with him. (and when I said a lot…I mean 99% of my sadness) Bailey has Duchenne muscular dystrophy…so while Fern is her parents miracle child…so is Bailey to his parents. Bailey might not be a part of the couple, but he is so a main character in my eyes. This story would be been great without him…with Bailey…it’s out of this world. You cannot read about Bailey Sheen and not take away something from his character. He makes me want to be a better person. And now I must stop talking about him before I break down into tears.

‘“You okay, B?”…
“Nah. Tonight’s one of those nights, Fernie.”
“Too much reality?”
“Way too much reality.”
“Me too,” Fern said softly, and felt her throat close against the emotion that rose in her chest. Sometimes life seemed particularly unfair, unduly harsh and beyond bearing.’

This was a different kind of read for me. I really don’t even know if I could call it a true romance because the romantic aspect is so secondary to the other aspects of the story. It’s more about Ambrose and Fern and the different struggles they go through before finally finding each other. Even when they did find each other, the other events that happened kind of overshadowed their relationship, at least it did for me. It’s not that their relationship was intentionally not made the focus or anything…there is just so much more to this story then the two of them getting together. Really, I fell more in love with Fern and Bailey’s relationship then I did with anything else in the book. In the end, it was Fern and Ambrose, but from page one it was always Fern and Bailey. I loved their connection and friendship.

‘Could you belong to someone who didn’t want you? Fern decided it was possible, because her heart was his, and whether or not he wanted it didn’t seem to make much difference.’

There is so much emotional struggle packed into this book…and different levels. If you’re wanting a light, fluffy, happy read…this is not the book for you. But if you want a book that will make you work for that HEA…and you want to see the journey and the process of two people coming together…then you will find no better book. I have to be honest, this book is a slow burn…there is no insta-love here, this is not about instant gratification and you will not see Fern and Ambrose in a happy place until the last 1/4th of the book. That’s not to say that there aren’t happy parts…there are…but they are fleeting. Like the love notes and their either/or game, I got these little moments that make me smile and eased the pain of the tough stuff. And like I said, this book isn’t really focused on the two of them, it’s more about them growing up, their friendships and relationship around them. I guess that’s one thing that I was missing out on a little bit is that they had so much work to do to get to a happy place in their relationship, it would have been nice to get to see them thrive and enjoy that more.

‘“You are still beautiful,” Fern said softly, her face turned to his. He was quiet for a moment, but he didn’t pull away or groan or deny what she’d said.
“I think that statement is more a reflection of your beauty than mine,” Ambrose said eventually, turning his head so he could look down at her.’

I did have to adjust a little bit to the writing style, it’s pretty different style POV for me. I don’t even know what to call it…because it is narrated…but sometimes we slip into the characters thoughts, but it’s not constant and you never know who’s head you might be in – and you might only be in that person’s head just once, but obviously the main thoughts are from Ambrose and Fern. The head-bouncing while sometimes confusing is done with purpose…whatever fact or tid-bit you might be gaining is pertinent for what’s going on…it was just a little jumpy at times and took me a couple of chapters to figure out the flow. It also bounces back and forth between past and present…the past is usually short little flash-backs, which are nice…I liked that, and once again, it always tied in somehow with what was going on. Aside from the little flashbacks, the story was chronological…following them from their senior year in 2001 thru to the present. I have to say though, the characters in this book are flawless…each one is so well developed it made my head spin. The writing is detailed and Amy paints a very clear picture both visually and emotionally. I was never lacking with an emotional connection to the story and being an emotional reader, I loved that.

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

While my heart is still a little tender, and it was a completely exhausting emotional journey, I did thoroughly enjoy Making Faces. My heart is full of loss, love, beauty and the power we have as humans to impact someone’s life, even in the smallest of ways. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface because there are so many details to this story…the impact religion has on the characters and story line, the influence of the 9/11 attacks, the transitions the characters go through…there is just so much that can be taken away from this book.

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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. 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. Check out Amy’s website.