young adult, romance, fantasy
Moses, who had been an abandoned crack baby at birth was
reluctantly raised by his dead birth mother’s family members being shuffled and
passed along from place to place. The novel begins when he comes to live with
his great grandmother for his senior year of high school. He’s an unusual guy with a ruined reputation
and the small Utah town residents mostly avoid him. However, Georgia is drawn
to him and builds a relationship with him. Then, Moses is torn away from her
life and both of them must face some harsh realities.
This was a fun romance with magical realism which was
terrific. Technically, it’s a young
adult romance but these characters acted more maturely than typical high
schoolers. It felt more like they were in their 20s. The story wasn’t about
school so I’m unsure why Amy Harmon chose to set them in high school at the
beginning. I also didn’t love the bad guy’s motivation and confession at the
end. It wasn’t believable. But, the serial murders were always in the
background of the story and not a main focus so I won’t dwell on this
disappointment near the end of the novel.
I really enjoy Amy Harmon’s novels. Now that I’ve learned
her formula, I’m good with it. I like the way she develops characters and
relationships. I look forward to the sequel to this one since I think it’s
based on another great character from this novel! I was amused that she used
the exact same city in The Law of Moses as in another of her novels, Running Barefoot,
and then I grew very appreciative when she included a few of the favorite
characters from that other novel within this story. Well done!
The narrators were Tavia Gilbert, who has narrated several
other novels by Harmon, and J.D. Jackson.
Gilbert did a great job, as always and I give her an A+. I also thought
Jackson was terrific. My only problem was that he pronounced the name of the
city in which the characters lived differently than Gilbert (and she’d been
pronouncing it her way through the prior novel set in this city so it was the
default). Granted, his character hadn’t grown up in the town always but his
family was from there and he would have known how to pronounce the name of the
city as a native would. So, I have to
ding him for lack of research. He also had a narrower voice repertoire. I’ll give him an A-.
mystery, romance
The second novel of The Law of Moses duology, The Song of David picks up shortly after The Law of Moses ends but focuses on David
Taggert’s life. He’s Moses’ best friend
and is now a successful businessman and fighter, living life on his own
terms. He meets Milie, who is blind,
when she starts working at his club.
This was a heartwarming story and told from both Moses’ and
Tag’s points of view. I loved that aspect and I also loved the characters and
the events in the story. It held my interest entirely and was extremely touching
at the end. The conflicts came from the mystery of Tag’s disappearance and from
the enemies of the human body. I thought the topics, including autism and
illness, were handled well by Amy Harmon.
The narrators were J.D. Jackson (who reprised his role as Moses)
and Zachary Webber with a stellar performance as Tag. Again, my only complaint is around the
pronunciation of the small town in which Moses lives. Moses’s pronunciation had been different than
Georgia’s in The Law of Moses and now Tag’s pronunciation was a third version.
Good grief. Come on! You people producing these audiobooks need to get on top
of this sort of thing. Meanwhile, both narrators were fabulous voice actors but
neither has a huge voice repertoire.
They did both voice Henry, a teenage autistic boy, very well. I will give them As for being pretty perfect
for this novel.
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