THE LAW OF MOSES by Amy Harmon-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

Release Date: November 27, 2014

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.

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REVIEW: THE LAW OF MOSES is a stand alone new adult, contemporary romance, murder-mystery storyline with a slight paranormal edge from author Amy Harmon. The focus of the story is Moses Wright-a crack baby found abandoned and near death who grew into a young man plagued with emotional disorders and a life riddled with struggle and torment. This is his story-a story that covers twenty five years in the life of a man born to a drug addicted mother, passed from family member to family member, until he will one day find his place with a woman he can love.

To retell Moses story is difficult without giving away too many spoilers so I will skim the surface: girl meets boy; girl pursues boy against boys wishes; girl falls in love with temperamental boy; boy gets in trouble; pushes girl away; they reconnect seven years later where life has changed for the now adult couple.

Told from alternating first person points of view (Georgia and Moses) Georgia Shepherd, an up and coming rodeo cowgirl, was seventeen years old when her world collided with Moses Wright. Having heard the story about ‘Baby Moses’ Georgia was intrigued and fascinated with Moses-the now eighteen year old, mixed raced young man who lived next door with his great grandmother –GiGi. But getting to know the real Moses was difficult as he refused to talk, was easily distracted, constantly in trouble, and lost himself in his paintings-paintings that became all too familiar with the neighboring town and people. In this, Moses life spirals further out of control when a devastating loss changes his life forever. Moses will push away his only friend and in the end, will lose everything that could have meant something in his life. Moses believes himself to be a ‘cracked’ kid who refuses to love because everything you love will either die or be taken away.

Amy Harmon’s THE LAW OF MOSES focuses on connections, differences, laws and color-the color of skin, the colors of the world, the colors of life, death and love. Our intense, tormented and heartbreaking hero views the world around him in colors-not the colors of the rainbow-but through descriptive colorful images of sight, sound and touch. Moses is an artist whose work will bring him to the forefront of people’s curiosity but it is the inspiration and his ability with paint and brush that will be the focus of Moses’ life.

“Everyone always talks about being color blind. And I get that. I do. But maybe instead of being color blind, we should celebrate color, in all its shades. It kind of bugs me that we’re supposed to ignore our differences like we don’t see them, when seeing them doesn’t have to be a negative.”

The storyline will fast forward approximately seven years where we only catch glimpses of our couple and it is in the ensuing seven years that life will change for Georgia and Moses.

THE LAW OF MOSES is a complex storyline of acceptance that is slow to build. There is a lot of personal reflection from both Moses and Georgia in a story that veers down several differing paths and scenarios. The emotional and psychological fall out of his mother’s addiction set the tone for all of Moses’ actions and life changing choices. The murder-mystery premise weaves a trail of intrigue that affects a town, several families, and a young man whose only sin is to be born –cracked !

Reviewed by Sandy