Hi friends,
This is the second post of my weekly series about my unicorn authors and my favorite books they wrote.
This week is yet another romance author but next week I swear you’ll get another genre for a change!
This will again be no surprise for many of you but I chose Amy Harmon
What I deeply love about Amy’s books is the warm feelings you’re left with. I’m always feeling happy, joyful like I’ve been touched by some kind of grace. She has a unique talent to weave gorgeous stories with words that will make you feel …blessed.
I am not an overtly religious person but every time that I read her books the words: “grace” and “blessing” come to mind.
I can’t explain this properly.
This is nearly a spiritual experience. Her books make me think and ponder. On life, on beauty, on kindness.
And here are my top 5 books that I will never recommend enough!
Making Faces : is still my best of all the best books I have ever read in my life!
Amy Harmon has just a magic touch with words. With a few well thaught sentences she delivers pearls of wisdom and sensitivity. I filled nearly two pages with her quotes and sentences so beautiful I wanted to keep them and meditate them each day.
The characters in “Making Faces” are extraordinary. So much I wish I could be friend with them in the real life. Fern is selfless, caring, enthousiast for simple things and has no pretense. She is deeply loyal in friendship as in love. As Ambrose said, she writes “smutty romance novels and quote scripture”. Ambrose is intense, courageous, beautiful inside out. He is introspctive, strong and loyal. And Bailey … he is my Super Hero! He is so alive, self mocking, determined to fight and beat the odds. Never self centered, never complaining despite his sickness. He is a force to be reckoned with.
From Sand and Ash : this love story happening in the second world war was a story of courage and self sacrifice.
There are so many books written about World War II and its atrocities but Amy chose to highlight the fate of the Italian’s Jews helped by the church and protected as could be by the Pope.
In her acknowledgements she wrote: “It was a terrible time, but the silver lining was the revelation of such goodness and heroism. For me, the horror was eclipsed by the stories of bravery and valor. Eighty percent of Italy’s Jews survived the war, a marked contrast to the eighty percent of Europe’s Jews who did not.”
I was impressed and in awe with the historical setting. As usual Amy Harmon painted a realistic world. Word after word this era and these utterly incredible, courageous and loveable characters became my world.
If the historical background was fascinating the love story was bitter sweet and brilliantly executed.
What the Wind Knows : had a feel of Outlanders with amazing characters
Amy is not on the top of my top 3 authors for years now without a reason: her words are magic!
She really weaves a tale intertwining past and present Ireland, mixing historical facts with ordinary people’s lives, rational with a dash of fantasy.
And it works so well that I was not in my living room on my couch anymore. I could tweak her quote and apply it to reading instead of writing:
“It was like that for me sometimes. I would become so immersed in reading that the scenes and characters I created came alive in my head, fleshed out and independently animated, visiting me as I slept.”
I was at Garvagh Glebe. I found myself catapulted by some magical twist of fate (we are in Ireland, land of faeries) in 1921. Looking so much like another woman it was uncanny. I was supposed to live her life, trembling someone would discover that I was an impostor as I didn’t know how to lace a corset or how to call some pieces of garments.
No one would believe that I was coming from the future when I did not know how I landed more than 80 years ago.
Does it feel like Outlander here? Well yes that’s what I experienced too 😊
The Bird and the Sword: was the first fantasy book from Amy that I read but it was magical!
Once more, Amy Harmon enchanted me with her incredible talent. If Lark is a Teller and has power with words, Amy must have some Teller in her family tree too. Yes, I’m a fan through and through and this latest novel only strengthens Amy’s position as one of my top 5 authors. If Contemporary Amy was incredible Fantasy Amy is just as excellent!
In no particular order I loved:
– the elaborate world building;
– the appropriate pace neither too fast neither too slow;
– the gorgeous spellbinding writing;
– the compelling main characters be it the frail woman with huge eyes or the powerful king;
– the curse worth of every good fantasy story;
-the plot with the threat of the Volgars and their Liege, the race to find a cure, the betrayals among the courtesans;
– the slow building romance;
-…well, everything.
I loved watching Lark and Tiras’s relationship unfurl, slowly growing but threatened by Tiras’s impending doom. There was a desperate quality to their interactions, an urgency to save Tiras and give a chance to what could ever be.
A truly haunting and poetic story.
”Why do you walk in the forest at night, all by yourself?” “I know you watch me. That’s why I do it. I am Looking for you”
Last but not least, her most recent creation Where the Lost Wander is pure brilliance!
What will I tell you first as I have so many emotions battling inside?
That I was shedding tears on the train, again? Tears of sadness and tears of gratitude.
That Naomi and John were an evidence? Will I talk how they just made sense together?
Or will I tell you that this story is about finding his place in the world when you are from mixed origin? That this heritage will make you extra cautious when you love someone and think really hard, as you know that people will judge?
Maybe I’ll choose to talk about these pioneers, their courage, their hard life and about the brilliant job Amy did making them feel real?
The truth simply is that this historical fiction is brilliant!
Told in Amy’s graceful and powerful writing, this love story engulfed me and propelled me into Naomi and John’s hard, uncompromising yet beautiful world. I smiled, I swooned, I cried, I feared, I hurt and I hoped.
That’s it! I hope I have convinced you to give Amy a chance!
Thanks for reading!
Sophie
She’s one of my favorite authors too! I haven’t read her Making Faces yet but I’m planning to pick it up this year.
An excellent installment in your series, Sophie! Nothing like reminding ourselves and everyone else who the best of the best actually are. 😉
Exactly Lashaan!
What a fantastic list! I have never read anything by this author, but I am now convinced to give her a try. I need some uplifting reads these days.
I hope you will Lori!!
This author seems to be so well loved and I love your thoughts on her here. Definitely have plans in reading her this year. Love an author that conveys those warm feels.
Oh Renee you will love her!
I enjoy her books, but I truly adore only two, Making Faces and Where the Lost Wander, my only two five star books by her. Nevertheless I’m excited to read more of her upcoming books. She is an author who can easily write a couple more 5 star books for me 😀
Exactly Corina!
You really convinced me to give the author a chance!! ❤️ I think Making Faces might be the first one to try
Oh Sofii I would be so happy!
I’ve read Making Faces and A Different Blue (which I loved) by Amy Harmon but none of the rest. I need to get on it!
Oh yes!!!!
I haven’t read any Amy Harmon books yet but I’ve been wanting to for SO long. I really need to get to it. 😛
No???? Stephanie!!! Yes you should LOL
The Bird and the Sword was a fab read!
Right???
I’ve never heard of this author before but From Sand and Ash sounds really good
It is I swear!
Amy’s books always seem to have an element of – not religion – but of faith, and maybe even spirituality. I’m not sure what the right word is. But they’re never, ever preachy. There’s definitely an overriding message but it’s always one of grace and hope. I love that about her books.
Exactly Tanya! It’s difficult to put words on it but grace and hope should be the most accurate!