The Smallest Part

Compelling, passionate and heart-wrenching, Amy Harmon crafted a provocative, thought-provoking tale about first loves, second chances, and pure, unconditional love.

Loving Mercedes wasn’t like falling off a cliff. It wasn’t even the heart-clenching of a missed step. It wasn’t a jerk or a jostle. It wasn’t tripping or tumbling at all. It was the slow climb of a lifetime of moments, the line upon line, day after day kind of love. And it was deeper and more durable for it.

Did you read ‘The Law of Moses’? Do you remember the Dr. that worked with Moses in the hospital? This is his story, Dr. Noah (and it has a similar feel to that of ‘The Law of Moses’). Amy Harmon takes us on his journey. Along the way, we meet Mercedes and Cora. They would become his closest friends. We experience their tragedies, happiness, failures, and successes. I laughed and cried so many tears for them.

Where Mercedes was strong, independent and fierce, Cora was timid, shy and lacked self-worth. Two opposites who became the best of friends. Holding them together was Noah. He loved unconditionally, was unbelievably kind and giving, he loved with his whole heart, even though he’d never been shown true love at home. They become The Three Amigos.

The Smallest Part had stellar secondary characters that supported the plot like stone pillars. From the small child to the homeless person, they were beautifully and brilliantly written.

One thing worth highlighting, even though Harmon spoke about this many times, is there is a great deal more steam in this book than in her previous books. I can’t imagine this story would be the same without having had those scenes because they were necessary for conveying the feelings her characters were experiencing.

Harmon’s writing is flawless. There are no holes, there are no gaps, just pure, fresh story-telling. If you love angst (I cried a bucket load of tears) and a gripping love story (I couldn’t help but swoon), pick up Harmon’s, The Smallest Part!

In the end, only three things matter. How much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.

I said to say that I was pretty disappointed with this book. Partially because I had such high expectations but it wasn’t all.
So far the books I read by the author simply swept me off my feet. She is the one author whom I reach for when I need a emotionally wrecking and soul cleansing read. Not to mention the synopsis prepares you for a wild ride, yet it kinda fell flat for me this time.
I’m not going to rave about the writing style because Amy Harmon proved it time and time again that she has an exceptional way with words. It’s easy to read despite the overwhelming emotional charge her stories generate. She has a really fluid style.
Plot wise the book has sooo much potential, just based on the synopsis I was ready to be wrecked. It has a really great and complex storyline but for me it felt kind of mellow. The way the events are dragged out, stretched to it limits it weighted down the whole thing for me. Not to mention that maybe because of this the emotions didn’t come through as strong as the book required. For me this story was just missing the power, the dynamism from it. So in the end it was a crash and burn in my book.
The story is narrated in dual point of view and each chapter also has past/present duality going for it. Alas each chapter starts with a snippet from the past loosely relating to the presents events it tells after it. It gives a criss-crossy path for the story. And while I generally don’t like the whole jumping in time thing going on in some books it would have been an interesting way to build up this story, if the past chapters weren’t so immensely boring and most of the time completely unimportant. All in all the book had so much potential, promise and interesting solutions but put together they didn’t work for me.
I loved both Noah and Mercedes. They are both loving and caring characters with a phenomenal bond from a really young age, but they also both has a huge soft spot towards Cora and despite seeing her problems and manipulative ways they give too much leeway for her which essentially creates problems for themselves. I got pretty irritated with how Cora behaved and more like how easily they forgave her.
Anyway Noah and Mercedes take a rocky journey before they can get their HEA, they hurt each other in the process quite a bit and we have the front row seat for this.
It was a great book but not my favorite form the author. However it made me want to really read Moses and David books.

Wow…just wow, best book I’ve read all year! A must read! My first read from this author and I was so impressed with the depth of this book. There was so much of everything in here and many twists n turns you don’t see coming. You really feel all the emotions with these characters. I highly recommend this book!

Mercedes (Mer), Noah and Cora have been friends since childhood. I love how this book was written. We’re in the present and then re-visit the past and back and forth until the past meets the present. We get to travel along with them through all the twists and turns that their lives take. I think with the story written this way we get more of an insight of how they came to become the adults that they are.

Mer always puts everyone else’s wants/needs before herself. She’s even put her dreams on the back burner so she can protect those she loves.

Noah went into the military serving our country. During that time period through correspondence he fell in love with Cora. He is now a doctor and has a beautiful little girl, Gia.

I really struggled with Cora’s character. Sometimes she comes across as self centered. Not really seeing or caring how her actions affect others. Through out their lives it seems like she has to go after everything that Mer wants. Then I got thinking about her childhood and the tragedy she has faced and realized she’s broken. She doesn’t know how to be happy as herself as she doesn’t know who she is. I couldn’t help but feel sad for her.

These characters are very well developed. When they faced challenges, tragedy, loss in their lives my emotions when along with them. Many times I had tears streaming down my face.

I was actually a little jealous of the deep friendship that Noah and Mer have.
Childhood friendship that is developing into something deeper and more meaningful. They always seem to connect on such a deeper level, soulmates.

The wonderful secondary characters I felt added an extra layer of depth to the story.

In the famous words of Abuela “In the end, only three things matter “Who He is. (meaning God)” “Who you are, and who your friends are.” I’m applying this to my own life.