I've read Amy Harmon's The Bird and The Sword Chronicles and absolutely loved it, so I've been determined to read another book by Harmon for quite some time now, and this book did not disappoint.

Just like what I've read by her in the past, this novel has such beautiful prose that it feels like a beautiful painting, and it makes the romances that much sweeter and beautiful. You know how it's so easy to fall in love with a beautiful painting when you look at it? Harmon has a way of writing that makes you fall in love alongside the characters.

I chose this to be my next Harmon read because it's one of her more popular ones, and I was super excited. I may not have looked into it enough, but when I started reading and the date was September 2001, I was a little disappointed. I don't generally have fun when reading a book centered around a great tragedy, but as the book continued, I realized it wasn't about 9/11 so much as the real life tragedy that is repeated way too often about the unlucky ones who come back from war.

"The lucky ones are the ones who don't come back. You hear me?"

It's about the people they come back to. And about the people who show them how to live again.

The story became less about Fern and Ambrose to me, and more about how this story is echoed in too many people's lives. Amy Harmon's pretty prose helps to balance the reader's love for the characters, while maintaining a little bit of a surreal feeling to remind you that this story isn't just about them.