Review: The Distance from Me to You

The Distance from Me to You by Marina Gessner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"McKenna and Courtney had been planning this trip for over a year- a two-thousand-mile hike down the Appalachian Trail and they were supposed to leave in less than a week."

Mckenna Berney and her friend Courtney have been accepted to college in the Fall, but hiking the Appalachian Trail entirely has been their dream for years. Her friend backs out because of her boyfriend, and Mckenna decides to hike the journey all by herself (without her parents knowing, as Courtney will make it seem that she is with her). While on the trail, she meets Sam who quit school and has left his abusive father and passed mother behind. Mckenna and Sam, as different as they seem to be, finally fall in love after meeting up on the trail on numerous occasions and they decide to hike together. Months pass with little to no discussion on what will happen once they finish the trail, and when the devasting event in which Sam and Mckenna lose each other, and Sam is unable to walk, it is up to Mckenna to save both herself and Sam. "Sam wondered if any other face in his life would ever be as beautiful or as important."

"He paused. Mckenna knew him well enough to know he wanted to say I love you, Mack. But he didn't, because he didn't want to make this even harder on her. A burst of her own love rose up. She didn't bother fighting it."

I rated this book only 4* because I felt the characters did not really have a foundation for their romance. One moment they were two separate people, and they next, they seemed to be inseparable. I enjoyed the storyline and the romance to a point, but I think less detail of the wilderness would have made the characters stand out more. I felt I was more focused on the trail and setting than on the romance. Overall, this book had heart and humor that I would recommend to a younger audience. :)



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