A Million Miles Away

A Million Miles Away: Lara Avery
Publication Date: July 7th

When high school senior Kelsey's identical twin sister, Michelle, dies in a car crash, Kelsey is left without her other half. The only person who doesn't know about the tragedy is Michelle's boyfriend, Peter, recently deployed to Afghanistan. But when Kelsey finally connects with Peter online, she can't bear to tell him the truth. Active duty has taken its toll, and Peter, thinking that Kelsey is Michelle, says that seeing her is the one thing keeping him alive. Caught up in the moment, Kelsey has no choice: She lets Peter believe that she is her sister.

As Kelsey keeps up the act, she crosses the line from pretend to real. Soon, Kelsey can't deny that she's falling, hard, for the one boy she shouldn't want.

Lately I've been reading more and more contemporaries. Ever since I've read My Heart and Other Black Holes, I've been wanting to give more contemporaries a chance since that book was AHmazing! Plus, lately I've been super busy and contemporary novels don't really make you think too much they are just kind of a light read. So this book has a lot of lying in it, obviously. It's in the description! Now, lying doesn't really bother me. Between Us and the Moon had a lot of lying and I actually liked that book after I looked at the underlying meaning that was more than just being young and wanting to do what you want. 

The book had a nice plot idea. The idea that her sister died and she was pretending to be her sister was extremely intriguing to me. The book was able to hold my attention for the most part. Even though I had problems with Kelsey, she was still a well thought out character. I don't think she grieved properly for her sister - ever. I thought maybe that Kelsey grieving properly would be a major turning point for the book but nope. 

Looking back now, I feel like I could have read the first 100 pages and the last 30 or so and I would have got the same message from the book. Towards the end, I started to get pretty bored with it. I didn't overly like any character except Michelle - who was dead after the first chapter or two. I could have liked Peter a lot more if they didn't only converse half the time in letters. Kelsey kind of annoyed me. She was lost after her sister died and the fact that she sought out a guy's attention to make her feel better about things was a bad message and also disconcerting. Why couldn't she want to seek comfort in sports or books or anything really? Girls can have a love interest and different interests as well, KELSEY. Your sister was awesome, you not so much. 

This book kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Besides the fact that a lot of it couldn't really happen realistically (weekend France trips? I think not), I really didn't like the comparisons of being deployed in the army to playing a basketball game. Now the main character DOES make the differentiation between the two, but the fact that a comparison was noted at all kind of bothered me. Also, Peter fits the typical Army stereotype. 1) He is on the front lines. Where bombs are going off and dangerous stuff is happening. In reality, that's only a fraction of careers in the armed forces. There are lots of behind the scenes jobs that aren't as dangerous and Kelsey seemed to fit that stereotype to him before she even finds out what his job is. 2) He wants his college paid for by the Army. Not all people in the armed forces want their college paid for by their country! So I think it just rubbed me the wrong way because I know people serving their country and I found some of it to be a little bit disrespectful. 

So anyway, I think if you are a die-hard contemporary fan you might very well like this one! It really wasn't one of my favorite contemporaries or love stories, but it also wasn't my least favorite. It really grabbed my attention but I feel like the characters could have been a tad more interesting. 

- Jocelyn