Book Review: A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery

Summary: 

Perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks, this breathtaking story of love and loss is guaranteed to break your heart and sweep you off your feet.

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.
 



Release Date: July 7, 2015
Age Group: YA
Source: NetGalley
Reviewed By: Kelli


Review:

I've been on a contemporary binge lately, and books like A Million Miles Away are exactly why I keep coming back to this genre.  I loved so many things about this book!

First of all, I should mention that A Million Miles Away is a clean contemporary read.  I love it when authors make their books clean without being too "goody-goody" or prudish about it.  There can be plenty of chemistry without toeing the line of YA and NA, and Avery's writing is a perfect example of this fact.

A Million Miles Away gave me all the feelings.  Happiness, despair, elation, grief, uncertainty, and most of all, that all-encompassing falling in love feeling that I love YA for.  Kelsey goes from being a typical teenage girl to a girl who has experienced one of the worst possible things she could go through: the death of her identical twin sister (I'm not spoiling things, this is in the summary!).  Kelsey and her parents are affected by this loss in different ways, although they share the same grief.  The emotions were so raw and real that I cried more than once while reading.  

Avery explores many themes in this story, which I loved.  The entire book could have been about Kelsey's grief over losing Michelle, and that would have made a good story.  But Avery goes the extra mile (sorry for the pun, I had to do it) and explores other themes.  This gives the book even more depth and emotion.

A Million Miles Away is such a great story.  It ends on an up-note, without being too saccharine.  But I will not soon forget the emotional journey of this story.  A Million Miles Away should not be missed.





2 comments:

  1. I'm looking to beef up my YA romance in my library and I really like the sound of this one. The readalike for Nicholas Sparks had me worried because his books never end on a happy note. Glad this one did!

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    Replies
    1. Rummanah, I felt the same way. I'm not really a Sparks fan any more. But I loved this book!!

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