I received a review copy courtesy of the author/publisher. This does not affect my opinion or views regarding the book whatsoever.
After finishing A Million Miles Away, I jumped straight into You And Him And Me, and I immediately noticed a subtle " connection " between both books. While their stories were completely different, they shared common concepts or aspects as I like to call them, and because they were so similar, I decided to create what I call a " Contemporary Mashup " for this review.
So sit back, relax, and let's break these titles down!
A Million Miles Away is centered around two twins. Kelsey and Michelle. Kelsey is the wild child of the two, the popular party girl, handstand-keg-drinker, and co-captain of her high school's dance team. Michelle -- my personal favorite, is more laid back. She's a bit of a hipster, is incredibly artsy, and had an obsession with my FAVORITE artist Andy Warhol. Both had boyfriends, (OF COURSE) Kelsey with the wannabe comedian Davis, and Michelle with Peter, a guy enlisted in the military. The story takes a turn for the absolute worst when Michelle suddenly passes away, leaving her twin sister behind to pick up the pieces. Well if you ask me, Kelsey picked up one piece too damn many, but we'll get to that.
#girlwhatareyouthinking?
You And Me And Him follows our main character Maggie, and her best friend Nash. Being overweight and having a gay bestie really isn't the formula for " popular " in their small hometown, so our duo is casted as the " outsiders ". Mags works at a vintage record shop, which is pretty dope, while Nash worked as the over-bearing friend, meaning he did nothing but irk my nerves. In comes Tom, the new guy on the block, and soon the story becomes a tangled mess of feelings and wrecked friendships.
#thisbookwasoverdramaticallyconfusing
A Million Miles Away
Twin Power -- I absolutely loved the fact the girls were twins! They didn't have this perfect relationship where they wore the same clothes, and finished each other's sentences. Instead, the only thing they had in common was their ability to beat each other up! Yep, our main characters were fighters, and to be honest, I loved their violent behavior lol. My brother and I fought like cats and dogs as kids, so it was pretty realistic for me.
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe -- I've seen many reviews for AMMA floating around the blogoshere, and I immediately realized that there is a great mix of readers that like eitherd Michelle or Kelsey. It was never both, which didn't strike me as odd, mainly because Michelle dies pretty early in the story, but for some reason I felt more connected with her than Kelz. As I mentioned earlier, Kelsey is an " okay " character, but I adored Michelle. She was smart, goofy in her own little way, a complete hipster, and come on, she loved Andy Warhol! The girl scored HUGE cool points with me off that alone. I was pretty disappointed when the plot twist came and Michelle was no longer in the picture, because well -- I honestly wanted to learn more about HER instead of her sister.
Computer Love -- Fun Fact: I am OBSESSED with online dating & long distance relationships. I don't partake in these . . . (activities?) but I love hearing stories, or watching documentaries on successful and not-so-successful relationships. Even though Kelsey pursuing any type of connection with Peter was oh-so-wrong, I enjoyed the aspect of them communicating through Skype calls, emails and letters.
You And Me And Him
Jazz It Up -- Surprisingly, this story had an aspect that I wasn't expecting at all . . . music. Our main character Maggie worked at a vintage record store where she sold old vinyls of various music. Rock, Jazz, Pop, Rap, you name it - it's there. Her gay boss Quinn was so funny and he easily became one of my favorite characters. The author tied music into the story pretty well, having Maggie and Quinn play music in the store according to her moods, or situations she was going through. Imagine how shocked I was to see that Billie Holiday was played quite often.
MAGGneficient -- Maggie wasn't the best character I've ever read about, but I enjoyed how she stood out in her own way. She was overweight but also active, loved to bake, had a great ear for music, a was an extremely loyal friend.
Twin Power -- I absolutely loved the fact the girls were twins! They didn't have this perfect relationship where they wore the same clothes, and finished each other's sentences. Instead, the only thing they had in common was their ability to beat each other up! Yep, our main characters were fighters, and to be honest, I loved their violent behavior lol. My brother and I fought like cats and dogs as kids, so it was pretty realistic for me.
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe -- I've seen many reviews for AMMA floating around the blogoshere, and I immediately realized that there is a great mix of readers that like eitherd Michelle or Kelsey. It was never both, which didn't strike me as odd, mainly because Michelle dies pretty early in the story, but for some reason I felt more connected with her than Kelz. As I mentioned earlier, Kelsey is an " okay " character, but I adored Michelle. She was smart, goofy in her own little way, a complete hipster, and come on, she loved Andy Warhol! The girl scored HUGE cool points with me off that alone. I was pretty disappointed when the plot twist came and Michelle was no longer in the picture, because well -- I honestly wanted to learn more about HER instead of her sister.
Computer Love -- Fun Fact: I am OBSESSED with online dating & long distance relationships. I don't partake in these . . . (activities?) but I love hearing stories, or watching documentaries on successful and not-so-successful relationships. Even though Kelsey pursuing any type of connection with Peter was oh-so-wrong, I enjoyed the aspect of them communicating through Skype calls, emails and letters.
You And Me And Him
Jazz It Up -- Surprisingly, this story had an aspect that I wasn't expecting at all . . . music. Our main character Maggie worked at a vintage record store where she sold old vinyls of various music. Rock, Jazz, Pop, Rap, you name it - it's there. Her gay boss Quinn was so funny and he easily became one of my favorite characters. The author tied music into the story pretty well, having Maggie and Quinn play music in the store according to her moods, or situations she was going through. Imagine how shocked I was to see that Billie Holiday was played quite often.
MAGGneficient -- Maggie wasn't the best character I've ever read about, but I enjoyed how she stood out in her own way. She was overweight but also active, loved to bake, had a great ear for music, a was an extremely loyal friend.
A Million Miles Away
Maybe In Another Universe -- My biggest problem with this story, was that it was too damn unrealistic. There were situations that were sooo absurd, and other occurrences that were too much of a coincidence for it to feel REAL you know?
Love Triangle? Square? -- As I read, I seriously had a huge debate with myself. The question I kept tossing around in my mind was, " Even though Michelle is dead, is she still included in this love affair? " My answer is both YES and NO. Of course we know that Michelle is gone, however Peter isn't aware of this, and Kelsey is PRETENDING to be her sister, so this very much allows Michelle to be in the story, without really being in the story. Does that make sense? Probably not lol. Anywho, Kelsey has an entire boyfriend named Davis, who she breaks up with when things get serious between her and Peter. Poor Him. I just thought how she pursued Peter in the first place was in poor taste, and then dropping Davis like a bag of hot soggy potatoes wasn't cool either. Get it together Kelsey.
Disconnected -- Even though I really enjoy when certain media (texts, emails, letter's etc,) are included in a story, it just didn't work for me here. I felt as if I was disconnected from the characters. It didn't help that I didn't care for Kelsey at all, and it also hindered my ability to get to the know Peter. The main problem was that he isn't aware he's talking to the wrong twin, making it hard to establish a genuine relationship between the two.
You And Me And Him
Weird Love Triangle -- I'm such a huge fan of love-triangles, but this is the first I've ever encountered that has left me utterly confused. Maggie and Nash start crushing on the same guy, Tom the new kid in town. They have this stupid thing where they put dibs on their crushes, and Nash wanted a piece of the " fresh meat " first. Here's were things get complicated. Nash is gay. VERY OPENLY GAY. Tom is straight. BUT, he's a bit OVERLY FRIENDLY as he flirts with both Nash and Maggie sending very MIXED signals to both of them. In the end, nobody gets the boy because A. He isn't gay and B. He apparently doesn't like Maggie either. Sooo, he led her on because??? Ugh, it was just too dramatic and messy for my tastes.
Directionless -- After finishing this book a whole entire week ago, I still have no clue as to what the point/message, or what direction the author was going with this story. The characters in my opinion were a bit underdeveloped, leaving much to be desired in the plot. This also didn't help with Tom's character because we don't know WHY he did whatever it is he thought he was doing, and WHAT the point all of it really was. I felt lost, as if the story was incomplete after finishing, and unfortunately alot of my questions will never be answered.
All in all, both books turned out to be " okay " experiences for me. I went in with very high expectations, and sadly, I was left pretty disappointed . . . again. If you're willing to overlook some of the issues I encountered, and can hurdle over a few hiccups here and there, then I'd recommend both titles for readers looking for some quick, scandalous, contemporary reads.
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