Making Faces

Ambrose Young is the best-looking boy in his small town: tall, broad-shouldered, with shoulder-length hair and an intense stare. Fern Taylor has read romance novels since she was thirteen, and she knows exactly the type he is. Because of that, she never imagined he could be hers.

Then five young men from the town go off to war, and only Ambrose comes home. The face that once belonged on a book cover is gone, and he returns to a community grieving the others.

The book is a contemporary romance with a Beauty and the Beast thread running through it. It follows two relationships: Fern's love for a damaged young man, and a wounded veteran's love for a girl nobody would call remarkable. Friendship sits alongside both.

Loss is the central subject, and it takes several forms: the death of friends, the grief of a whole town, and the loss of looks and of identity. Expect a serious, emotional read that asks what heroism looks like when it does not fit the usual picture.