Review: Making Faces by Amy Harmon

My rating: ★★★★★
Genre: contemporary, romance, war, drama, new adult.
Series: stand-alone.

Blurb from Goodreads:

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.

My review:

“You loved ferris wheels more than roller coasters because life shouldn’t be lived at full speed, but in anticipation and appreciation.”

I follow AprilBrooks on YouTube. And we almost have the same taste in books, so when she mentioned this book in one of her haul video’s, I was like ‘I NEED THIS’. I ordered it immediately and started reading it. And ooooooooh man.

I think you should go into this book without knowing too much about it. But let me tell you, I expected it to be good, but it was even better! This book blew me away. 

“Victory is in the battle.”

The story covers different serious subjects: death, friendship, love, family, chronic diseases, war, abuse… And so many lessons can be learned while reading this book. I definitely consider this book as a must read for any kind of reader.

The love story between Fern and Ambrose is great and sweet, but damn. The ending was brilliant! I ended up crying for the last 50-60 pages! When you are reading this book you can of course predict a little what will happen during the ending. But there were little aspects I didn’t expected at all and that made everything even more perfect.  

“I would rather be lost with you than alone without you.”

The way the story is written is amazing too. They are some flashbacks from when Ambrose was in Iraq and some of when Fern/Bailey/Ambrose were kids. It makes the story very pleasant. Plus, it made me love a few characters even more.

I can go on and on about the great things of this book, because I can’t find a single negative thing to say. I just loved it. This book deserves a million stars! 

“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?”

View this on Goodreads here.