The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson

It's October 19th and Destiny Faraday already knows it's a day that will not turn right for her, one way or another, it never does. It is, after all, the day when her parents sent her away to boarding school when she was seven years old, and she hasn't been home in nine years.

Des, who is generally unenthusiastic about everything, is not surprised when her Aunt Edie calls and cancels her programmed visit on said fateful day. But on this particular October 19, Des has reached her tipping point so, when a visiting teacher, finds her in the garden and asks her what is it that she wants, Des has only one answer to give: One Fair Day, a day where everything adds up, the good guy wins and there is justice for all.

When, right after this, she finds a gorgeous champagne-pink car idling by, it seems like a sign, so Des finds Seth - a fellow classmate at Hedgebrook, who had been assigned to trash duty - and makes him drive, and soon they are joined by two other classmates, Mira and Aidan, and together they embark on a road trip and a quest to find their Fair Day.

In The Miles Between, Mary E. Pearson waves a very tangled web where things might no always be what they seem, at times whimsical, confusing, funny and heartbreaking the story moves at a good pace in what seems to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime days, the kind that never end.

I have to give the author props for creating this protagonist that seems so full of apathy but who manages to get hold of you and drag you into her story. Des, Mira, Seth and Aidan are well drawn characters, with a lot more to them than what you see first. Oh, and there is one adorable Lucky lamb thrown in.

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