Monday, April 20, 2015

From A Distant Star by Karen McQuestion

24036086
4 Stars
 
“Tell Emma that I’m sending her less than three.”

When Lucas goes from his deathbed to making a miraculous recovery from cancer, his longtime girlfriend Emma begins noticing he’s not quite the same as he was before his illness . . .

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Well, maybe not that different.

But when a couple of Feds show up at the door with a team who want to take a poke around Lucas’ family’s farm, she gets even more concerned . . .

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Did Lucas really come back from the edge of death . . . or is someone else just using him as a “Lucas suit”????

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It doesn’t take long for Emma (and Lucas’ little brother) to begin putting two-and-two together, and realize they are dealing with something that is literally out of this world . . .

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Then we get . . .

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A ROAD TRIP!!!!!!! (Full disclosure: I'm fairly certain I give stories an automatic 1/2 Star bump just for including a road trip.)

Where the couple find help from some unlikely heroes when they stop at a little hole in the wall . . . .

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(Okay, it’s actually called the “Bar None,” but there’s no way I’m not using a Road House reference if I’m given the opportunity.)

And Emma might be able to save the boy she loves, as well as the boy From A Distant Star . . .

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The fact that I’m currently ELEVEN reviews behind should show that I generally kind of suck – but I REALLY suck when it comes to writing reviews about books none of my friends have yet reviewed. I read From A Distant Star last week and kinda loved it – mainly because of it was a fresh idea and not the same ol’ regurgitated YA love story that has been churned out for eternity.

There was no insta-love in this one. Emma and Lucas have been together for years, and while some will probably complain that planning your entire future together with your high school sweetheart is not realistic, I’m here to say I’ve been married for 147 years to a boy I met at the tender age of 18. While I realize I’m an exception to the rule, I also realize I’m not the only exception so Emma’s love for Lucas rang very pure and very sweet to me.

From A Distant Star also provided some bigger topics to think about. Readers should take note of the lessons to be learned from “Scout” in this novel . . .

“This is a very confusing planet. People believe things that aren’t true about other people just because of how they look and what kind of vehicle they drive. Why can you not wait and see who they are inside before you make a decision?”

All in all, a truly enjoyable story that could be read by middle-graders to high schoolers to old ladies like me.

Disclaimer: I was approached by the author with a read/review request, but I have a firm policy of not accepting author requests. However, in what may be the biggest reading co-inky-dink to ever happen to me, From a Distant Star was a title that sounded familiar to me and once I checked NetGalley I realized I had already obtained a copy that was sitting in my queue to be read. So thank you, NetGalley!

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