A Million Miles Away – Book Review

Plot:

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.

Review:

I wasn’t too sure how I was going to feel about this book when I started reading it, but it surprised me in a good way.

Kelsey Maxfield has a pretty easy life. She goes to school, is on her high school’s dance team, and dreams of going to the college in her hometown and joining their elite dance team. But her life crumbles around her when her twin sister Michelle dies in a car accident on her way back from taking her boyfriend Peter to the airport.

Kelsey doesn’t know much about her sister’s boyfriend except that he is being deployed to Afghanistan. She has no way of getting in touch with him to let him know what’s happened. Then one day, while Kelsey is on Michelle’s computer to delete her Facebook, she gets a Skype call from Peter. She answers it, and of course Peter thinks that she is Michelle, seeing as they’re twins. Kelsey doesn’t have it in her to tell Peter the truth, especially after Peter tells her that she is the only thing keeping him going while he is overseas.

Kelsey keeps up the ruse, because it makes her feel close to her sister and like she isn’t gone yet. Slowly, Kelsey starts to fall for Peter, but she still doesn’t know how to tell him the truth about her sister’s death, so she continues pretending to be Michelle.

I didn’t see this book ending well, at all. I couldn’t see a scenario where Kelsey could tell Peter the truth and that he wouldn’t be furious with her. The ending to the book actually surprised me a few times by making me think one thing was going to happen, only to blindside me with something else happening, and then yet another surprise at the end. It was like a very pleasant rollercoaster and I loved how the book ended.

When Kelsey loses her sister, she doesn’t know who she is anymore. While her sister was around, she felt like she knew who she was because she wasn’t her sister, so she at least knew who she wasn’t. But after Michelle passes, Kelsey has trouble finding herself and discovering what she does and doesn’t like or believe in. In a way, pretending to be Michelle helps her to discover who she really is and what is the most important to her.

I don’t agree with Kelsey’s actions but they made for an interesting story to say the least. I enjoyed her journey of realizing what she really wants out of her life and how losing her sister helped her to do it. I give this book 4/5 stars.

A Million Miles Away goes on sale tomorrow, July 7. You can order it by clicking the image of the book’s cover above.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.