REVIEW: The Law of Moses (The Law of Moses #1) by Amy Harmon

Title: The Law of Moses
Series: The Law of Moses #1
Author: Amy Harmon
Publisher: Amy Harmon
Published: November 27th 2014
Format: eBook | Pages: 333
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance (with Paranormal elements)
Source: Amazon

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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.

The first few words of every story are always the hardest. It's almost as if pulling them out, speaking them into existence, commits you to seeing it all the way through. As if once you start, you are required to finish.

Sigh.

There's hardly a moment in any given day that I don't want to pick up a book. But there are times that not just any book will do. I sometimes feel a need, almost a desperation, to be emotionally destroyed by a book. To be pulled so deep into the brink of sorrow and heartache that I'm practically drowning in it. So far down that I'm not at all sure it'll be possible for me to reach the surface again.

I'm always surprised when someone, an author, is able to evoke those kinds of feelings, emotions within me. When I started feeling that craving coming on recently I instantly knew that Amy Harmon and The Law of Moses were going to fill that need for me. I'd previously read her book Making Faces which did all of those things for me while also sprinkling in bits of warmth and happiness, so I was feeling pretty confident. If anything, The Law of Moses probably even made me feel a tiny bit more.

It was really hard for me to put a label on this book when it comes to genre, because at it's heart it's Contemporary, except there was this huge part of one of the characters, and who they were, that was heavily influenced with the Paranormal and/or Supernatural. So I guess you could kind of view it either way. No matter what label you throw on it though the one thing that matters is that Amy Harmon is a brilliant author. She strings together all these words that paint these beautiful images in your mind. Images of tragedy and loss and breaking, of love and mending.  

Whatever it was, when Moses came to Levan, he was like water—cold, deep, unpredictable, and, like the pond up the canyon, dangerous, because you could never see what was beneath the surface. And just like I'd done all my life, I jumped in head first, even though I'd been forbidden. But this time, I drowned.

Just like Georgia, I found myself quickly drowning in Moses. I seem to gravitate towards the broken and Moses could not have been more so. I found myself completely fascinated by his character and constantly wanting more of him. Every time we got to be in his point of view would end up pulling me deeper into his character. The only downside to that was that it could be so heartbreaking at times. Knowing exactly from his own mind how deeply he viewed himself as nothing or worthless or...I don't know. It's really hard to put into words. He made my heart heavy and I just wanted to hug him, convince him he was wrong.

"I'm a very ordinary girl, Moses. I know that I am. And I always will be. I can't paint. I don't know who Vermeer is, or Manet for that matter. But if you think ordinary can be beautiful, that gives  me hope. And maybe sometime you'll think about me when you need an escape from the hurt in your head."

My love for Georgia was right up there with my love for Moses. I loved her small town, country girl attitude. I loved her heart and compassion. I loved her tenacity, her complete and total stubbornness. I think what made me love her the most was the fact that she saw something beautiful and worth knowing in Moses. Something that goes beyond the pretty yet intimidating outer package. When everyone else was afraid of him and automatically assumed the worst, Georgia believed in him and ran towards him instead of away, hard as he tried to push her away himself.

Like I said there was a paranormal aspect to Moses's character that was a complete surprise to me. Normally surprises like that, going in expecting one thing and getting another, end up irritating me but it had the complete opposite effect in this case. It added so much more to this story and added this deeper emotional element that, in my opinion, it wouldn't have had without it. I feel so cryptic with not telling you what was so special about Moses but I really think it's one of those you need to read to find out things.

The Law of Moses was everything I was needing and expecting from an emotional read. It also surprised me at every turn. The characters are complex and complicated in all the best ways. I found it impossible to put down and found myself dreading the final chapter. I wish I could've stayed in this world and with these characters for just a little bit longer. If you love a book that will turn you upside down and inside out then I highly recommend this one.