4 Stars

I had never heard of this book when I saw it on netgalley, but the cover caught my attention and once I read the description I knew I wanted to read it. I'm so glad I got the chance because I absolutely loved this book!

The characters. This story follows three main characters, Fern, Ambrose, and Bailey. I was able to connect with Fern, a lot. Not just because we look very similar physically, but because I can understand the doubts about the way she looks. Something that I truly loved about her was that she didn't let it impact her. Yes it could make her doubt herself, but she never let it stop her from being herself and doing what she wanted. She was a very real, and I think she was written perfectly. Ambrose Young, aka Hercules. What he went through was absolutely tragic, and his struggle to find his footing once he comes back from war was truly heartbreaking, and also inspiring. I cried more than once reading Ambrose's memories of war and his thoughts as he tried to adjust. Seeing him overcome everything and learn to live again and accept his past was great. Now Bailey, probably my favorite character. I loved him. He was so funny and sweet and just all around a great character. His character arc was so incredibly done. It was equally heartbreaking and heartwarming. One thing is for certain; Bailey Sheen is a hero.

The writing was great as well! It was very easy to read and the dialogue was really enjoyable.

THE BONUS CONTENT: I really enjoyed it! There wasn't really a lot, but what was there was great! It let us see a little into the future (and into the past), and it definitely gave me a ton of feels!

Why I'm only giving it four stars? I wish some aspects were more fleshed out. For example, Rita. I think he story was so interesting and it was extremely important, yet I feel like we didn't get that much about it. I definitely wish we would've seen her reaction to finding out everything that happened. I also wish we saw more about Ambrose interacting with his friends families. We know they eventually spoke, but I wish we knew more. I also wish we saw him struggle with PTSD. To me it felt less like PTSD and more like he was just struggling with his physical changes and survivor's guilt. Which is still tragic, but I didn't really feel like we saw him struggling with PTSD.

Overall it was a very enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it!

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I devoured this book. Amy Harmon has such a beautiful way of writing. The story of Fern and Ambrose was sweet, moving and brilliantly told. I have to say Bailey stole the show! That is one unforgettable character. He had my heart from the beginning. This is story of love, tragedy, and perseverance. It is a must read!!!!

This was a really good story! I felt connected in the beginning when they are sitting in the classroom on 9/11 and watching the planes hit the buildings on the TV because that is where I was. The romance was sweet, and the book was sad and cute at the same time. I loved Bailey!

This was another amazing story by Amy Harmon and her first published book two years ago. Everyone should pick up Making Faces and read it today. I have truly enjoyed every one of Amy’s books, that I’ve read so far, but this book and the character of Bailey really moved me and touched my heart and soul.

Making Faces had just about everything: young love, unrequited love, a shy girl, a popular girl, BFF’s, a sports hero, world tragedy, a war hero, life altering decision, a community bonded, domestic violence and above all Love and Family.

I’m not lying when I say everyone should read this story. It is so much more than I’m describing and it will stop and make you think about your life and how you want to live it.

Amy has a way of grabbing a hold of you, pulling you in and not letting you go until she has changed your heart, body and soul. Thank you Amy for your words. I look forward to your next book.

Making Faces by Amy Harmon was originally self-published by the author on Amazon in 2013 and is now being re-released by Spencer Hill Press in both digital and paperback formats. The Amazon links take you to the existing Kindle editions, as the paperback additions will not be available until February 21. The Book Depository link will take you to the pre-order page for the paperback being released on February 14.

This story starts off in high school and is told from many different perspectives, but I would say the 3 main characters are Ambrose, Fern and Bailey. The story begins during their senior year in high school and then spans the 4 or so years after the graduate. Ambrose is not only the high school wrestling star, but he is very good looking, beautiful even. Some cal his Hercules because of his large muscular body and shoulder length hair he refuses to cut. And in a town where wrestling is taken very seriously, he is the town hero, expected to head off to Penn State after graduation to wrestle. Fern has spent high school feeling invisible to most people, with her bright red curly hair, freckles, glasses and braces. She spends most of her time with her cousin and best friend Bailey, who has been confined to a wheelchair since around the age of 11 due to muscular dystrophy. Fern loves reading romance novels and even writes her own. She has been in love with Ambrose Young since she was 10 years old, but he doesn't seem to see her in the same way. And with Bailey's dad as the wrestling coach, she spends a great deal of time near him. Ambrose does the unthinkable towards the end of high school and decides to not only join the military, but convinces his friends to join with him. The year is 2002 and September 11, 2001 rattled Ambrose to his core and pushed him to decide on a different path forward after high school. Their unit is shipped out to Iraq and he is the only one who returns after his convey comes is hit by an IED. Ambrose returns damaged, physically and emotionally, but that hasn't changed Fern's love for him and she is determined to prove it to him. This is a story of love, loss, family, friendship and moving forward.

I really loved this story. This is the second book by Amy Harmon that I have read this month and I am loving her writing. First I have to say that I wouldn't categorize this book as new adult because it does begin in high school and although there are intimate scenes, there really aren't any sex scenes in the book, not that I would categorize as new adult. I really loved all three of the main characters. Fern is funny, loving and creative. Although she is insecure about her appearance during high school, by the time Ambrose returns, she she is a beautiful woman, although she doesn't see it herself. I also really loved Bailey's character, not only is he hilarious and speaks whatever comes into his mind, but he is also positive and optimistic even though he is wheelchair bound and completely dependent on other people. Although Ambrose is the golden boy during high school, he never seems cocky, he actually acts in the opposite manner although he is the town hero. He treats everyone around him with kindness and respect. When he returns from Iraq, he is very different and hides himself away from everyone he knows, embarrassed and guilt ridden. This book does move at a steady pace except for a few chapters right about half way through. Otherwise, I loved this book. I loved the story and I love the characters. I also loved that Fern's father is a Pastor and the author includes scripture throughout the book. I rarely ever hear the mention of any religion in young adult or new adult books and it was a very nice change.

Ambrose Young was beautiful. 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.

I dropped all other books when this showed up on my shelf. I've read this book three times and every time I'm a snotted mess at about 72 percent until the end of the book. This book is one that resonates in your soul and doesn't let go. It hangs on, it's one that you recommend to your friends, family and everyone in-between. I love it and hate it at the same time because I know I won't be able to breathe the next day. Amy Harmon has done something that not many authors do - she tells a story without explicit sex or language. She tells a story and keeps it going til the very last page and you're sitting there with a feeling of loss, strength, hope and love. I bought this book for my mother when it came out to read. My mother is someone who only reads Christian books but yet I wanted her to read this so bad. This book has some Christian scripture and references, it does have some language but not a lot. I bought it in hope that she would see past it and boy did she. She loved this book and for my mother to give her stamp of approval on a book, it means the world. I read this book in about 5 hours and didn't stop. That means radio silence for everyone and I was on-call.

This book is about Fern, Ambrose and Bailey (Oh Bailey, how I love you!!) and it goes back and forth through their childhood. I loved all these characters, there wasn't one of the main characters that I could say I didn't like. I loved Brosey's (Ambrose's) friends, even Beans. This book was a tearjerker. It was heartbreaking and tore at your heartstrings. Bailey has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and it can't be cured and the first time he finds out he's going to die, I thought I was going to go through a whole box of Kleenex so I cut up an old t-shirt and used it instead. To listen to Fern tell him she might die first by getting hit by a car while walking down the road to make him feel better is so real to life. She starts listing all the ways she might die first to make him feel better. How we all need a Fern!! She is his person. She's his helper but also his cousin who I honestly believe God sent to him and you find out at the end of the story that her father always believed that once Bailey was gone God would take Fern soon after because of it. It's a sad thought to think that God would do that and he's a pastor but he does. Fern always has Bailey's best interests at heart and always helps him and he is one of those characters you can't help but love. He's all about wrestling and wanting to wrestle but he's also all about Ambrose and helping him become a better person and wrestler. Bailey is really the hero in this story. Hands down, this book wouldn't be what it is if not for Bailey.

Fern is an ugly-duckling and she's never the one that the boys look at. She writes letter to Ambrose for her friend Rita who's beautiful, even though she's always been in love with him. Ever since he helped her bury BS "Beautiful Spider" and sang the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" at it's funeral when they were ten. She's a deep character who writes the most eloquent poetry that says:

If God makes 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 the deaf man to make him more reliant?
Is the way I look 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?

How many times have we all looked in the mirror and thought this? It's like the author reached inside my very soul and knew what I felt and how long I'd been feeling it. Those words I will have written on a plaque and framed, so I can read them everyday and know that I'm more than a face. This book just has all the feels!!

There's a scene in the book that I love where Fern refers to Bailey as BS like the spider but calls him "Beautiful Sheen, Beautiful Bailey Sheen" and it's at a part in the book that I'm not going to give away but I had to get up and take the dogs out...at 4 a.m. because I couldn't breathe from crying. I literally was like "NOPE...can't handle no more snot, gotta get up and find something cause I'm dying here." And then I went right back to the book of the best night of my weekend.

You come to love all the characters in this book but one. Ambrose's friends: Beans, Paulie, Grant and Jesse - You love them all in their differences. It's not an easy story to read about them. It's about September 11th, the fallout afterward and 5 boys who join up to make a difference not knowing that the difference will be made in 4 families and a whole town.

There was a lot going on in this book but I didn't feel at any time that I didn't know what was going on. I always felt like everything was explained. There were some really hard topics in this book: War, domestic abuse, dying, peer pressure, ugliness of the world and of oneself, terrorism. It's all in there and it's dealt with appropriately.

Buy this book, buy it for your friends, family and gift it to people you love. It's an awesome book and has made me read all of the authors books since. You will not be disappointed you read it and if you are, then you're not human...you just can't be!! I will guarantee that a part of this book will resonate with you somewhere unless you're a sociopath and then it probably won't!

I was given a copy of this ARC from the publisher on Netgalley for a honest review. All of the above comments are my express opinions and no one else's.

Oh, wow, I’m speechless by this one. Huge thanks to Netgalley for the ARC as well as the author and publishing company for the newer edition of this. This was gorgeous to read. It was also incredibly touching.
Fern, has always been the awkward girl. Red hair, glasses, braces, and thinks of herself as sort of invisible. She takes care of her cousin Bailey who has Muscular Dystrophy (major points for not dumbing down the disability featured) and is genuinely caring. She’s been in love with Ambrose since they were kids and she’s been unknowingly communicating with him through letters that make them vulnerable although Ambrose doesn’t know it’s her. Ambrose at the beginning of the story is the typical all American jock including a scholarship but what changes this story and makes it much more than a typical rom-com novel (at the beginning) and gives the story so much heart is what happens. Ambrose enlists in the military taking along his friends.
He comes back changed from what he was not just mentally but physically as well. It’s not only the story of Fern at this point but of Fern and Ambrose who gradually find their way towards each other (not feeling forced at all) and beginning to both put the pieces of things back together and gradually continue to heal both apart and together and the people around them that help when things become overwhelming.

5 BEAUTIFUL STARS

"God has given you one face and you make yourself another"
Hamlet
This story is beautiful in so many ways.It's a story about true friendship,loss and love..This book made me feel so much on every word.Each words are so deep and meaningful !

Making Faces is the story of Fern, Bailey and Ambrose.
This story is told in pieces from past to present.It flashes back on memories of the kids when they're young and moves forward into their future...
Fern and Bailey are cousins and they have the most beautiful relationship!
Bailey is confined to a wheel chair and Fern is his companion.They adore each other and they take care each other.Bailey is such a loveable character!He is a hero!I admire his courage and his strength!

Fern is the unnoticed girl who is in love with the town hero, Ambrose Young..
.During their senior year of high school,she finally gets her chance to get closer to him..but things didn't end very well...However she never stops thinking of him..Especially when Ambrose and his four best friends decide to join military.

Something terrible happens and when Ambrose is back...he isn't the same person..
He is injured physically and mentally and he feels guilty..Ambrose shuts out the world and hides himself away...
When he decides to return to work in his father's bakery, he didn't know that he will be in the same place with Fern's work.

Fern and Bailey will try to bring him back in life...

Ambrose and Fern spent a lot of hours together and now he can see what kind of girl she is..he is starting fall in love with her...and Fern is still in love with him...


"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'd better make me believe you mean it,Ambrose or you will most definetely break me."

"I want your body.I want your mouth.I want your red hair in my hands.I want your laugh and your funny faces.I want your friendship and your inspirational thoughts."

Fern is a cute, funny akward girl who never view herself as pretty ... Her heart is so pure!I like her!She is so real!!I could connect with her!!
Omg Ambrose...My heart aches for Ambrose! His journey is devastating. But he manage with Ferns and Bailey's help to be his self again!

Making Faces is an unforgettable story.It's really a must read!