Making Faces

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Amy Harmon
Format: eBook
Pages: 405
Rating: 6 out of 10 (I'm being harsh lately)

Summary (from the face of 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.

Thoughts: I heard this was like Beauty and the Beast. I think that however said that lied. I didn't really think that it was much like Beauty and the Beast at all. I mean there were some similarities but none that make it stand out as some kind of story based off of it. The similarities were no more than any random book off the shelf. I was excited then torn down. I feel like my thinking it was Beauty and the Beast made me want to love it. I feel like I tried too hard and I may have even let that thinking get to me and stop me from realizing how good this book really was. It makes me sad.

Don't get me wrong. I did really like this book. I enjoyed that characters enough. It was an easy to read and understand story. It was even kind of cute. It was cute but also horribly predictable. I didn't like that I consistently saw where the story was going but I don't think that's how it should be. I think I should be a little surprised because that's half the fun. Maybe I'm too good at noticing foreshadowing. It's too bad that isn't what being an English major consists of or maybe I would have done a lot better. Alas, I digress...

There is a random love letter in the middle of the story from Jesse...I'm still not really sure where that came in. It just confused me a little bit so I didn't think too much about it.

I felt horrible for Rita but saw Bailey as the predictable, loving, helper, fixer friend. It's kind of an archetype. It made me sad but also really happy at the same time. He was great. He was a great friend and super smart. I love that he was insightful. I love that the other character realized what he was and how important he was. I felt the end to his part of the story-line went way too quickly. I think it maybe should have had a bit more story meat.

I am soooooooo tired of girls who think they are ugly getting the guy of their dreams. I'm tired of girls that don't think they are pretty but are actually beautiful. Just once, can the girl just be ugly? Just once, let her be ugly but let it not matter. Let the guy talk about how much he loved her for her. Don't even mention what she looks like. Don't mention her body images. I understand that it is realistic but please, for the love of God, can we care less about what the main character looks like. I'm not sure how we can accomplish this, I just want it done, okay? Thanks.

I thought that the ending for this novel was sufficient but that's the best I can say about it. That's actually kind of harsh. I think that it fairly wrapped everything up. I do, however, feel like there were two ending and that kind of bothered me. I was reading the last chapter thinking it was the epilogue but then I got to the epilogue and it was just weird. I wasn't sure how to take that. One book should only mean one ending.

So: It was quick, easy, painless ( just kidding, that's a bit of a lie ), and insightful. I love how Fern views the world. I love how good friends they all become. I love how it ended because everything was wrapped up and completed. I could see reading this again. Would recommend to those looking for a love story with some action and emotion.