Book Review: A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery

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A Million Miles Away
Author: Lara Avery
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: July 7 2015
Review Source: Poppy

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

Kelsey and Michelle are identical twins. They're use to everyone getting them mixed up, even though they are - personality wise - worlds apart. When Michelle dies Kelsey has to learn to go on, but realizes that Michelle's boyfriend, Peter, is unaware of her passing because the news hasn't gotten back to him in Afghanistan. Not wanting Peter's head to be unclear while he's fighting, Kelsey keeps up the pretenses that she is Michelle and that Michelle is doing well, this also allows her to feel as though she is still close with her sister. Unsure when to break the news of what happened to Michelle, Kelsey ends up falling in love and finding herself.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to. I was also able to finish it within a day. I mean it took me a while to start it up, but once I got to chapter 3 I just sat down and read. I read somewhere that this book was akin to Nicholas Sparks -- and while I love his movies and have yet to read one of his books, I do know that they are over done. You go see a Nicholas Sparks movie and know how the story will play out. Sometimes you only go because you're favorite eye-candy is the lead man. I fall victim to this too, and I tend to love Nicholas Sparks' movies. But that doesn't mean I want to read another one of those types of stories. So this was why I was apprehensive about reading this. But this was not just a romance novel, it was a novel about learning how to move on.

Yes there is a love story, and yes I was hooked because of Peter, but at the heart of it all the moral revolves around Kelsey and how she is dealing with the loss of her twin sister. Kelsey is practically a normal high school teenager. I'm positive most of my friends were like Kelsey in high school. Where Michelle is the artsy type who goes against the norm, such as myself. But after Michelle dies Kelsey has to learns more and more about herself which makes her realize that she has an artsy side to her that she just didn't really know about.

This book is definitely heart wrenching - I mean off the bat you know Michelle will die. And having this little bit of knowledge going into the book I wasn't expecting to get an attachment to her within the first few chapters. I basically assumed that chapter 1 we'd hear mention of Michelle and then bam she'd be dead. But instead Avery makes you ache for Michelle's death. There's other things that you ache for, such as Peter and his well being, or Kelsey and her well being. But that's good - means you're attached to the characters and the story that is unfolding in front of you.