A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery

328 Pages
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Poppy
Release Date: July 7, 2015

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult, Twins

Michelle and Kelsey are twins. Where Michelle is an artist, Kelsey is the captain of her dance team and has a boyfriend, Davis. Michelle was seeing Peter, but he was leaving for Afghanistan. She drove him to the airport but on the way home, she was in an accident. One night Kelsey hears a sound from Michelle’s laptop. It was Peter using a video chat. She trieds to tell him about Michelle but the video quality is terrible, and he doesn’t understand.

The story has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. This book shows the bond between identical twins. If you like general fiction or stories about siblings, you may enjoy this book.

My interests have changed since I requested this book as I no longer primarily read YA. At this time, I won't be reading or reviewing this title as it does not fit my current interests or the interests of followers of my blog/Instagram. Thank you.

Another in line with catch up reviews time. This one I tried, I really did. Overall it seems like a sweet premise, but I think I would have actually been able to finish it had the characters been in college or just older than high school. But as it stands, this book did not do it for me and I could not bring myself to skim finish it either :(

While maybe a little bland and predictable, this was a sweet young adult read that did keep me turning the pages and wanting to see how it all turned out. I also passed this title on to my teenage daughter who enjoyed it as well.

I look forward to more from Lara Avery and appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot was believable, the emotions palpable, and the characters enjoyable. Kelsey has a lot of growth as a character -- learning how to define herself as an individual, not just the opposite of her twin -- trying new things, putting others' needs before her own, etc. The way the novel deals with grief is also well done -- everyone grieves in their own way (and some handle it very poorly), and I feel like that was well portrayed here. And Peter, well, he was worth falling in love with. I only have two beefs:

1. The first chapter. Kelsey is really obnoxious, and the heavy focus on teenage partying (alcohol, sex, disregard of parents, etc.) is very offputting. I nearly stopped reading before the chapter was finished, which would have been a shame. This same heavy-handedness is not present in the rest of the book, and it greatly improves as a result.

2. The resolution. Kelsey and Peter have an enormous problem, and then after watching her video he shows up, all contrite, all is forgiven, with nothing to discuss or resolve. It's just not believable. I feel like they would need a little more discussion or something in order to fully resolve everything. The way the ends were tied up is just too quick.

**I received the novel in 2015 and was not able to finish reading**

Will give feedback on my own terms outside of NetGalley due to archive.

I couldn't connect with any of the characters within the first chapter, so I DNF'd.

*I read this in July 2017 and reviewed it then. I read this as part of my arc catch up challenge. I read this as an arc, and as always, this is my honest opinion.

So, I’ve had this book for a while and hadn’t given it a chance. But I started it today and couldn’t stop reading.

You know how sometimes you just know something is going to backfire and turn into a total train wreck, but you keep watching because you know it’ll be an entertaining train wreck? A Million Miles Away is like that.

Obviously, this plot is predictable, you just know it’s all going to backfire, but you enjoy the ride. I was surprised just how involved I got into the story. I felt the pain Kelsey losing her sister and dealing with that grief. Her actions don’t seem over the top or ridiculous, they seem…in a way, justifiable. There’s so much hurt and she finds a way for it to be a little bit better.

I think this book had a lot of good going for it. It has emotional depth and heart, the love story is cute and the worries and struggles are there and you feel them and it hurts but there’s also hope.

There’s always hope.

This is a quick read, my kindle says it only took me 2 and a half hours to read. It’s light and almost a fluffy read, but it deals with some heavy things and it deals with them well.