The Book Courier: A Million Miles Away

by Lara Avery

*ARC received in exchange for honest review*

This title is available July 7th, 2015!

Cover~ C

I feel like its a pretty average cover. It doesn't do a fantastic job grabbing the reader's attention, but the picture is cute.

Plot~ B

When Kelsey's identical twin sister dies in a car crash, her world crashes. Kelsey finds herself a phantom in her own life, going through the motions without any feeling. Numb. That is she feels. Her parents are too wrapped up in their own grief to help her and her face is a constant reminder to everyone of Michelle, the dead girl. And Kelsey comes to learn that she never knew her sister at all.

After everything that has happened, it falls on Kelsey's shoulders to tell Michelle's boyfriend the news. The only problem is he's serving his first tour in Afghanistan. Kelsey has no way of getting in touch with him, that is until he video calls one night and Peter shows Kelsey a happiness that she hadn't seen in a long while. Kelsey realizes in that moment, Michelle is alive. Through Peter, Michelle's memory is well and Kelsey thrives on finding her sister again. He is the person who knew her most recently or at least was the person Michelle wanted to know her. Unable to break Peter's spirit, Kelsey assumes the role of Michelle to help Peter overcome his struggles overseas. But two wars rage on, in Afghanistan and in her heart; fore Kelsey finds herself changing and falling hard and fast for her dead sister's boyfriend.

Characters~ A

Kelsey is the queen bee, dance team captain, she's popular, got the the perfect boyfriend, perfect life. Everything changes once her twin dies. Kelsey morns, and searches for ways to cope after such a loss. She finds herself on a journey of discovering the sister she thought she knew through other people's eyes.

Michelle; Although she dies early on in the book, Michelle still plays a very large role in the book for all of the characters. Her death has a large impact on those around her and in a way her spirit lives on through Kelsey and Peter.

Peter is Michelle's boyfriend of three months (prior to her death). He is a soldier with a kind, passionate heart. His relationship with Michelle was short but the love was instantaneous; he felt the love with her within the few days the couple were able to see each other over the three months. The day Michelle died, he was deployed to Afghanistan and knew nothing of her death.

I found myself loving the characters because they were so genuine and raw.

Writing~ A

I read a few review on Goodreads prior to reading this, and it seemed a lot of people struggled to understand how Peter could have believed Kelsey was Michelle when he claimed to have loved Michelle. You should know the one you love ya know? I get where they are coming from, but then again, Michelle and Peter did not really have a relationship for that long of a period and during that time they were apart a lot due to Peter's military training. Peter may have said he loved her, but I am not entirely sure.

It could be said that Kelsey was cruel to keep Michelle's death a secret. But I think I understand her reasoning. Peter is in a war zone. We even see some of the things he has to go through and how it affects him. He is struggling to keep his composure and Michelle is the only thing holding him together. Knowing what it feels like to lose her other half and feel unable to move on, Kelsey felt that if she told Peter, he would fall apart and his life would be taken in the process because he is so fragile due to the war.

On the other hand, it is a very cruel thing to drag out. But, I am sure that many of us have created a lie and the only way to keep the lie alive is to keep lying. As the lie continues, it grows and grows. In the end the hurt from the lie will be greater than it would have been to have just told the truth to begin with. Kelsey is coming from a good place, but in the end she was just being selfish by not letting her sister go. With Peter she is able to forget about being sad and missing her sister, and just have fun. She can pretend nothing happened and her sister is still alive.

Sometimes she knew she was secretly pretending Michelle was just on vacation. Or busy. Or asleep.

To me, Kelsey was real. Her emotions were so raw and clearly portrayed the feelings of losing a loved one. I cannot imagine the kind of heart break it would cause to lose your best friend, let alone your sister, your other half. It is that much worse for Kelsey because they were identical twins. Imagine looking in the mirror every day and seeing your dead sister. Horrible.

I am not a hug fan of the ending, but it was the right way for it to happen. I was hoping for a bit more emotional ride (as in more tears), but I am difficult when it comes to that in books. In the end, I was pleased with Kelsey's character progression. She took a path that I think was more suited for her, and I think Michelle taught her that.