Running Barefoot Paperback – April 5, 2012

04/27/2013 -Overall Rating = 10 Stars!Book Cover / Book Blurb = 4 / 4 = 4 StarsWriter's Voice = 5 StarsCharacter Development = 5 StarsStory Appreciation = 5 StarsWorth the Chili = 5 Stars [$3.99 on Amazon]This was the second book I've read by this WONDERFUL Lady; Amy Harmon. I've been chatting a bit with her and her goodness shines through in this book. It has one incredibly beautiful Native American man; Samuel. It also has one of the most interesting heroines I've ever read in Josie Jo. Together these two give us a love story for the ages. One you usually only find in a classic romance. The beauty of their interaction just flies off the page.I loved everything about this book. I think what I most liked was the deep emotion this story pulls from me. It has its sad moments, but they don't last and nothing is ever really free. You must take the good with the bad and believe me when I say, this book is worth any tear it may cause you.Let me tell you about some of the wonderful things I found when I read this book:1 - Again, I loved this writer's style. She pulls you from the very first page. She tugs hard on your emotions from empathy, sadness, happiness, curiosity, anger, apathy, friendship, love. All of it and more. She writes intimately. What? Well, she grabs the reader at their core. She does this immediately and she doesn't turn you loose. Not until you finish the last page and still you want more and know this story and its' characters will pop into your head for some time to come.2 - Great characters. Off the charts, wonderful people. People you want to know. People you feel you know. This book takes Josie and Samuel through ten [10] years and more. You get to know them and care about them. You want them happy. You want them safe and you want them together. You watch them as they develop a deep friendship they both need and come to depend on. They save each other. They are the other half of the other. The term soul-mates is used way too often, but with these two, it's true. They are too young for this depth of feeling. They don't really know what to do with it or about it. You move ahead a few years and life goes on. Samuel is in the Marines and is still too old for Josie. Samuel, who is 19 pushes her away. Josie - 16 now, doesn't understand. What has she done? Why doesn't Samuel need her friendship anymore. What she doesn't know is that he does need it. Too much. He needs her to grow up. He needs her to be as certain as he is. He plans to wait, but never tells her. Love is wasted on youth? Heard that one? Not wasted, but definitely not understood. When we are young and we feel this much so soon, we think it will come again. It was here the first time - so this is the way it always happens. Right?3 - A story for the ages. One I had a deep connection to. I too lost a parent very young. I too had the responsibility of caring for what remained of my family. I also had all the grief struck emotions; bone deep loss, anger, guilt, a quietness that keeps you safe ... However, unlike Josie, I didn't have someone give me the gift of music. Didn't have a Samuel to take my mind off my life and let me share my love of music and my love of classic literature. We meet these two when she is 13 and he is 18 on a school bus in a very small community in Utah. They rode the bus together two hours a day and shared a seat. Day in, day out for 8 months. Samuel needed help with English so he could graduate and join the Marines. Josie had nothing but time and a huge brain and she found she wanted to help Samuel. This is the start of this love story. The story finishes for us when they are in their mid-twenties. Just lovely.I absolutely cannot believe this is the debut book by this author. It has a polish and a vocabulary you rarely find in romantic fiction. It was an amazing book. I wish I could give books more than 5 Stars. It just doesn't seem right that we can't. I rated "A Different Blue" by this author 5 Stars too. Really no comparison in these two stories. They are very different but both are outstanding and VERY enjoyable. This book had me in "self-reflection" mode through much of it. It made me feel it deeply. I literally cried myself stupid in places, but laughed out loud and smiled until my cheeks hurt too. I'll read it again and again and know I'll take away something different, more powerful each and every time.I can't thank Amy Harmon enough for sharing these stories with the world. I don't know who I listened to on GoodReads who pointed me here, but nothing happens by chance. Know? Thank you whoever you are!Happy Reading!

Running Barefoot was one of those books that was off my radar for so long, that when I finally started it I thought ‘What was I waiting for?’ When I saw that this was Amy Harmon’s first published novel, I was shocked. This does not read like a debut. The writing is fantastic. This is a beautiful story of love, loss, music and most importantly, friendship. It’s the journey of two young people and the strong impact that their unlikely friendship had on their lives.Josie Jensen is a young girl who has a lot of responsibility for her age. She’s thirteen now, but ever since she was a child, she’s pretty much ran her house. Ever since her mother passed, she took on the cooking, some of the cleaning, and taking care of her dad and brothers. Josie is such a special girl. She is wise beyond her years. She is a musician, a reader and a dreamer.Then there is Samuel. Samuel is eighteen and goes to the same school as Josie. His senior year of high school, they get assigned to the same seat on the school bus. From there, the most unlikely of friendships evolve. Josie opens Samuels eyes to literature such as Shakespeare, and music. He realizes he loves classical like Josie. Samuel is a quiet and stand-offish man. He’s different than everyone around him. He is half Navajo and doesn’t feel like he fits in anywhere. Except when he’s with Josie.After spending the year becoming close friends, Samuel graduates and enters the Marines. For the near 10 years he’s gone, lots happens in his and Josie’s lives. Even though they were apart, they’ve never forgotten about one another. Their friendship was invaluable to Samuel. It shaped the man he became.Even though Samuel lost touch with Josie, he explains why. She was just too young. And his feelings for her were too strong. But Josie is not a child any more. She is a grown woman. A grown woman who has been through a lot this past decade. She has changed in some ways, but deep down, she’s still the girl Samuel knew all those years ago.Samuel is back for a short time, but their feelings for each other were always so intense, their connection so strong and real, it’s easy to pick up where they left off....I love a good second chance romance and a friends to lovers tale. Although there were several moments of tragedy that were heart breaking, for the most part, this book left my heart happy and left me with a big smile on my face. I was fascinated by all the information on music, as well as the Navajo culture. This was a story that really touched me and I won’t soon forget. The friendship, the romance, the characters, the story, the writing, I loved it all. If you’re looking for a beautiful and engaging story with a lot of love and a lot of heart, this is one I would recommend.

A wonderfully heartwarming love story between a musical prodigy and a Navajo with mixed blood, both rejected and ridiculed by their peers, who find an incredible bond of friendship in each other.Although fate leads them in totally different directions, when their paths eventually cross again at a critical point in their lives, their childhood friendship blooms into a love that saves them both.As always, I loved this author's incomparable skill in capturing culture and evoking emotions through compelling characters.Highly recommended!