Review: The Law of Moses by Amy Harmon - Vilma Iris | Lifestyle Blogger

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I’ll receive a small commission should you purchase using those links. All opinions expressed are my own. I receive no compensation for reviews.

Review: The Law of Moses by Amy Harmon

My Thoughts

Hauntingly beautiful and evocative. 
A stunning work of art that grips
you with its power, its truth, and its heart.

5stars

Synopsis

Nov-27

If I tell you right up front, right in the beginning that I lost him, it will be easier for you to bear. You will know it’s coming, and it will hurt. But you’ll be able to prepare.

Someone found him in a laundry basket at the Quick Wash, wrapped in a towel, a few hours old and close to death. They called him Baby Moses when they shared his story on the ten o’clock news – the little baby left in a basket at a dingy Laundromat, born to a crack addict and expected to have all sorts of problems. I imagined the crack baby, Moses, having a giant crack that ran down his body, like he’d been broken at birth. I knew that wasn’t what the term meant, but the image stuck in my mind. Maybe the fact that he was broken drew me to him from the start.

It all happened before I was born, and by the time I met Moses and my mom told me all about him, the story was old news and nobody wanted anything to do with him. People love babies, even sick babies. Even crack babies. But babies grow up to be kids, and kids grow up to be teenagers. Nobody wants a messed up teenager.

And Moses was messed up. Moses was a law unto himself. But he was also strange and exotic and beautiful. To be with him would change my life in ways I could never have imagined. Maybe I should have stayed away. Maybe I should have listened. My mother warned me. Even Moses warned me. But I didn’t stay away.

And so begins a story of pain and promise, of heartache and healing, of life and death. A story of before and after, of new beginnings and never-endings. But most of all…a love story.

My Review

“This is a story of love with no end… though it took me a while to get there.”

A work of art. That’s what Amy Harmon’s latest story is. A stunning, lyrical, poignant masterpiece whose tendrils of hope and love tangled with despair and heartbreak. Her words gripped me with a story of second chances… of cracked minds and broken hearts, of misunderstood brilliance and indomitable desire, of danger and comfort… and most of all, of love… before and after.

“She was a wild card. She was a small town girl with a simple way of speaking, and thinking, a frank way of being that turned me on and turned me off at the same time. I wanted to run from her. But at the same time, I spent all my time thinking about her.”

At seventeen, Georgia Shephard was a free spirit. A girl who loved her horses and lived her life in a small town, simply and with vigor. A girl who had known Moses Wright since was young. She’d known the broken boy, the “crack baby,” who had lived in infamy. She had watched him from afar. But one summer when that boy spent some time at their farm in Levan, Utah, her fascination for him grew.

They were as different as two people could be. Moses was a tortured soul who let no one in, who didn’t talk if it wasn’t critical, who found solace in solitude, torment in his thoughts, release through the swish and swirl of frenetic, but brilliant brush strokes. Georgia was a spitfire, a girl whose freedom thrived on the back of a horse, who spoke plainly and directly, who flirted with danger and skated along the ridges of recklessness. When she met Moses, she was hungry for something… someone… and Moses was an alluring unknown. He was an enigma that both scared her and fascinated her, and like a moth to a flame, she couldn’t stay away.

“No one had ever wanted me, starting from the day I was born. But Georgia had wanted me. And because she had wanted me when no one else did, I had immediately been suspicious. I had immediately distrusted her. And I had always held it against her.”

Slowly, but surely, the more time they spend together, the more Georgia fell for Moses. She wanted to understand him. She wanted him to let her in. But Moses pushed and pushed. He pushed her away. Warned her away. She couldn’t know the anguish that churned beneath his cracks. The visions that haunted him. But I love that Georgia continued to force the issue. That she saw past the dueling feelings that battled within Moses. He needed her with him as badly as he needed her to leave him alone. As teenagers, their relationship was complicated and charged. It was chaos at the brink of being unleashed.

“Thou shall paint. Thou shall leave and never look back. Thou shall not love.”

And one day the chaos was set free as the boy who was born unwanted and abandoned lost the one person who cared for him, and pushed away the other person who had wanted him. Loved him, even. Georgia’s heart was shattered and things were set in motion that would forever alter both of their lives. And that chaos Moses left in his wake was the very reason he had laws he did not break.

“But there are laws. There are rules. Laws of nature and laws of life. Laws of love and laws of death. And when you break them, there are consequences. And Moses and I, like a stream of fateful lovers who had gone before us and who would come after us, were subject to those laws, whether we kept them or not.”

Distance and time and unexpected pain separate these two people, these two opposites, two lovers who loved and lost so much. This is a story with tremendous richness and depth, with beauty and truth lacing every word that graces the page. As with all of Amy’s books, there’s a deeper message woven in, making the reading experience all the more special and personal. This story is one of acceptance of those whom are different, of seeing the beauty of those differences and of never giving up when you heart feels something true and real. It’s a story of love and loss, of forgiveness and new beginnings. Amy Harmon’s storytelling brilliance knows no bounds, as evidenced by each novel she shares with us. I love her tormented male characters, who seem strong and fragile at the same time, who feel so real and flawed, that they are uniquely beautiful and unforgettable. This is a story that moved me to tears, that struck me with its emotional gravity, and that is undeniably one of my favorites this year. It’s simply a book that should not be missed.

“It was a great story, after all.

A story of before and after, of new beginning and never-endings. A story flawed and fractured, crazy and cracked, and most of all, a love story.”

addtogoodreads

About The Author

amy harmonAmy Harmon knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, and she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story.

Amy Harmon has been a motivational speaker, a grade school teacher, a junior high teacher, a home school mom, and a member of the Grammy Award winning Saints Unified Voices Choir, directed by Gladys Knight. She released a Christian Blues CD in 2007 called “What I Know” – also available on Amazon and wherever digital music is sold. She has written six novels, Running Barefoot, Slow Dance in Purgatory, Prom Night in Purgatory, the New York Times Bestseller, A Different Blue, Making Faces and now, Infinity + One.

Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Blog

✦✦✦✦✦

Follow VBB: Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Subscribe by Email

 

Subscribe for Updates:

Share This Post

One Comment:


  1. Livia said:

    Great review! I liked The Law of Moses even more than Making Faces, my first Amy Harmon read. =)

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

On Instagram