5,331 Miles

5,331 Miles by Willow Aster is a beautiful, bumpy, and breathtaking journey.

I love the way Aster not only lets this storyline unfold, but allows her characters to blossom before our eyes.

Mira (Bells) and Jaxson’s story is not always an easy one. Even though they’ve known each other since before they can even remember.

But it’s their story. And it’s filled with emotions, setbacks, and most of all triumphs.

Absolutely loved this book!

4.5 Stars

5,331 Miles is the utterly charming coming of age story by Willow Aster. A tale about two lifelong best friends in Jaxson and Mirabelle and the bumpy road they had to take to hopefully find each other at the end. It’s the kind of book that simply made me feel good. I fell into an easy rhythm right from the start and I honestly did not want to put it down.

Told in both past and present, which is completely necessary and never felt the least bit tedious, we truly get the whole story. The whys of the fine line of the love/hate that Mira feels for Jaxson. We get to witness firsthand all the horrible teenage angst and the dopey ways in which hormonal boys manage to hurt those closest to them by just being a guy. With each new moment of bad behavior, told from Mira’s POV, when Jaxson would manage to damage her heart once more, I cringed for her. Thankfully, the chapters in the present gave us a stronger Mira. Still battling harsh memories and still trying to figure out how to be around Jaxson without losing her very soul all over again.

Oh my goodness. The angst. The longing. The love. All of it is there for the taking as Jaxson finally pulls his head out of his a$$ and is relentless in claiming his girl, his best friend, his Bells for good. But I was so angry at him for what he put Mira through. The bad decisions, the miscommunication, the rush to judgment. It just continued to get worse and worse as her past thoughts continued to threaten what her heart truly wanted in the present.

Even though she put Jaxson through the wringer, something he most definitely deserved, I was happy that Mira found her strength as a 21 year old and she stood her ground, not wanting to be anything more than friends. The almost-constant nudging from well-intentional Mums in Anne and Vanessa, definitely tipped the scales in Jaxson’s favor and provided the much-needed comic relief from all the intensity they and I both witnessed. Their own stories were told in the background and that definitely added an additional rich layer to this book.

Combined with great and some not so great, secondary characters, 5,331 Miles is quite simply a wonderful look at the trials and tribulations of young love. Even when both Mira and Jaxson were beyond frustrated with how their story continued to unfold, there was always that hint of fate that they would beat the odds and find their happy in each other’s arms once and for all.

With the most satisfying of conclusions, I happily give 5,331 Miles a huge 5 stars!!

Oh boy, I loved this story so much!
So angsty and heartbreaking but also so hopeful…

Mirabelle and Jaxson’s story starts when they were little. Their friendship grows and survive the long distance they are forced to live until they see each other again.
There’s no mistake about the love they share, but for Mira it was always more…
Jaxson did a lot of mistakes and when he realizes that, it might be too late.

Their story is told between the past and the present, where we witness Mira’s heart being broken over and over again and how she, being the strong woman she is, surpasses it all.

Shortly after getting the opportunity to read and review Downfall by Willow Aster, I had an email about another book by her – 5,331 Miles.

I was so excited to sign up and get the opportunity to read another book by her! This book came out in March of this year but I hadn’t had the opportunity to read it yet, but it was on my TBR list.

5,331 Miles follows the story of Jaxson and Mirabelle from youth to adulthood. A friends to enemies to lovers romance that have you falling to your knees with just how much it sucks you in.

Mirabelle and Jaxson grew up together in Holmes Chapel. Best friends who made a list to always be together, no matter what. When Jaxson has to move to California with his family, they make a promise to stay in touch. Six months after he moves, Mirabelle’s family moves there too. But Jaxson has changed.

The novel takes you back and forward from past to present, from Mirabelle’s POV. It’s heartbreaking just how much she went through with Jaxson. He upset me so much with so many of his actions and I honestly wish we would have also gotten his POV throughout the novel as well to find out exactly where the heck he was coming from. I hated the way he treated Mirabelle. I do love how she came into her own and grew a backbone when it came to him.

When Jaxson shows back up in her life, her heart is hardened where he is concerned but he claims to have grown and knows how much he messed up and wants to fix them. Honestly, this is another part where I wish we could see things from his aspect because I feel like I couldn’t truly understand the story without it. I loved her point of view, but it felt lacking when it came to Jaxson and just how much he put her through… from middle/high school through when he left for college.

They are such a dynamic couple and I was rooting for them all along, but at the same time, I also wanted to slap Jaxson in the face for the way he was with her. He truly was a boy through much of the novel and it hurt my heart to see just how much she was hurting because of him. When she finally came to her senses, I swear I did a jump for joy because she FINALLY knew she was worth so much more than he was putting her through.

All in all, it was a beautifully written story and I feel as though it could have come together a lot better had we had both sides of the story interwoven throughout. Without Jaxson’s view, I feel like we are missing some pretty important pieces when it comes to their happily ever after.

5,331 Miles didn’t come together until the last minute, and because of that format, it was hard to know if I liked the characters – or could forgive them – until the book was almost complete. The way Willow Aster contrasted her timelines and made the past and present weave together was interesting, often frustrating, but the only way to tell this story and make me still love both Mirabelle and Jaxson.

For a good portion of 5,331 Miles, I found Mirabelle (Mira, Bells) frustrating as all get out. I didn’t understand why she was so angry with Jaxson or why, when he was doing everything he could to prove his love and devotion to her, she refused to forgive him. When I finally knew all of the things he’d done to her, all the things she’d been through, it was hard to see how she could put it all in the past. I was exceedingly happy she took the time she needed to heal and find herself before she made any rash decisions about her future. I don’t think she – or the readers – had any idea how much pain she’d been carrying around until she had space and safety to sift through all that emotional baggage.

I loved Jaxson from the off, then, little by little, he got more and more infuriating to me. He’d been an awful friend for a long time while Bells desperately needed unconditional love and support, and it was hard to reconcile that self-absorbed teenager with the kind and loving man we knew him to be in the present. As much as I appreciated how hard he tried to prove he’d changed from that awful boy, I felt like Jaxson was attempting to erase the past rather than make amends for it and it was a little frustrating. I wish he would have done more to show her he knew how wrong he was in those actions from their past.

5,331 Miles was a much deeper story than I had anticipated. Even into the final chapters of the book, it didn’t occur to me all of the trauma Mirabelle had encountered in her short life. When it was all laid out, my heart broke for her. Jaxson had done wonders to prove his love to her, but she had to work on herself before she could even think about loving another person. Though 5,331 Miles was chock-full of romantic gestures, the most beautiful part of the story was when Mira took the time to let herself heal. This was a beautiful book, and I am quite happy to have read and experienced Mirabelle and Jaxson’s tumultuous love story.

Grab a box of tissues, get yourself all snuggly, and start reading this beautiful, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes sweet, sometimes scorching hot friends-to-lovers second-chance romance.

Jaxson and Mira have been friends since they were kids, but there has always been a little extra spark between them. They even make a list of eleven things they want to accomplish together. Life, though, has other plans. Jaxson and Mira each need to grow up, and they need to get to know themselves first before they can fully be together.

Willow Aster guides her couple through the ups and downs of adolescence and early adulthood. They make mistakes, sometimes infuriating mistakes. You will want to shout at them, and sometimes you will worry that they do not want to do the work necessary to be happy. Because that is one message Willow Aster makes clear: happiness doesn’t just show up. You have to want it enough to work for it.

The title refers to the distance between Jaxson and Mira’s English hometown and where they move–first Jaxon, later Mira–in California. It just as easily could also refer to the emotional distance they have to travel. There are betrayals and surprising loyalties. Always at the center is the unity–the oneness–of Jaxson and Mira, regardless of any sort of 5,331 types of distance.

I adored this book. For every time that Jaxson or Mira frustrated me, they also surprised me and made me love them more. The conclusion feels a little rushed, some of the plot threads too conveniently and hurriedly tied together. Jaxson and Mira remain true to themselves, though, and I loved them for that.

“The best thing about Willow Aster’s writing to me is the simplicity that packs a punch.” ~ Misty, White Hot Reads

3, probably 3.5 because of the writing alone, well and Jackson.

I have to admit there were times I had a hard time with this book. Mainly because Mirabelle was driving me crazy. She was so indecisive in whether she wanted to hate or love Jackson, be his friend or give into her feelings. I had whiplash the entire book wondering what the day would bring with her mixed emotions. This started to wear off a bit as the story unfolded but man did it take her a long time to figure things out.

Jackson, sweet Jackson. I disliked him a bit during the teenage years but he was easily forgiven as an adult. You could just feel that he had truly grown up and knew what he wanted. He never faltered once he knew what he wanted to fight for and that was his Belles. I felt like he was the saving grace in this one.

I feel like this is a good coming of age story. Willow did a great job jumping from past to present so we could get a good feel on what transpired between Jackson and Mirabelle to cause a huge void in their relationship. It was a bit of a slow burn to figure everything out but I think the jump between times is what really drove this story for me. There weren’t a lot of secondary characters I actually liked, aside from the parents, and I’m a bit disappointed in that because I feel like good ones could have really helped this story a bit.

All in all it’s a solid story and I can see why anyone would love it. It’s not just a romance and that I can appreciate. I loved that this was more about forgiveness, finding one’s place in the world and fighting for a future of love.

l began reading Willow Aster’s newest book, 5,331 Miles, when she decided to publish it in a monthly newsletter. From the very first chapter, I was hooked by Jaxson and Mirabelle’s story. Every month, I patiently awaited the next chapter…and it was slow. Very slow. I couldn’t wait for more, anxiously wondering if Jaxson and “Bells” could, at the very least, find their friendship again, more hopefully, their “happily-ever-after.”

This story is an angst-filled story about two life-long friends, trying to find love in each other. Jaxson and Mirabelle have known each other since birth. As far as the reader knows, Mirabelle has loved Jaxson for most of her life. When they are young, they make a list of things they’ll do when they are older together. Based on the list and a kiss goodbye (his family moves away from England to the U.S.), Mirabelle believes that Jaxson might feel the same about her as she does about him. Unfortunately, time away changes their friendship. Eventually, Mirabelle and her mother move to the U.S. too, but Jaxson is different, more interested in fitting in with the popular kids. While he tries to stay loyal to Mirabelle, he makes many choices that put more distance in their friendship. All along the way, Mirabelle endures it, feeling her heart sliced open over and over again by Jaxson. By the time he goes off to college, their friendship has ended, and Mirabelle tries to move on with her scarred heart.

A few years later, Jaxson has returned, and he is adamant about winning Mirabelle back. He returns to the list they made as children and tries to engage Mirabelle in completing the list. Unfortunately, everything is different. Can Jaxson and Mirabelle find their friendship again? Will Mirabelle ever be able to trust Jaxson again with her heart? Those are the big questions of this story.

Throughout this story, my heart hurt. Pounding and firmly lodged in my throat, I felt every bit of Mirabelle’s hurt. She simply wants to be loved and cherished by the one she has loved most of her life. There are so many moments when Jaxson is a stand-up guy. He shows her at various times that he cares, but, in the next moment, he makes decisions that cause her heart to break. He takes her for granted through most of the book, and the reader feels the devastation of this.

This is an emotionally gripping story about needing to be seen and accepted and loved. It seeks to remind us that hearts are fragile and should be cherished carefully by the ones who love us. It takes Jaxson much of the story to understand this. And this realization is the undercurrent of the angst in this story.

5,331 Miles is a beautiful romance that reminds us that the people we love should be adored and respected. Thankfully, as we see with Jaxson and Mirabelle, it is never too late to make that choice.

Overall:

4.5 “Mira & Jaxson Forever” Stars!
Mirabelle Hart & Jaxson Marshall were inseparable growing up together in Holmes Chapel, England. Their mums were best friends, and so were they. They’d been each others everything for years, and then life happens, and they spend some time apart. When they are reunited things don’t fall back into place quite the same. They both grow and change over time, and move in different directions. It seems their feelings had never aligned at the same time.

Mira has loved Jaxson Marshall most of her life, but over time all his promises slowly faded away as they got older. She was hurt, and had finally shut the door on them ever being a couple. She was home from college for the summer, and would just have to do her best to avoid Jaxson. He was always her one weakness she could never resist, because when he’s near, he’s all she can see.

Jaxson didn’t fully know what he had until it was gone. Until she was gone. He wants Mira to give him another chance, and he wants her friendship back. He needs the opportunity to prove himself to her. He’s asked her to give him the summer, and makes it his mission to remind her of all the good things still between them.

Figures right when Mira finally tries to move on, Jaxson decides to go all in pursuing her. He wants to do the things on the list they made as kids, and she wants nothing to do with him. The universe seems to agree with her as everything they try seems to end in disaster. He was beautiful, overwhelming, and still affected her more than she would like. She wasn’t sure her heart could survive him again, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

5,331 Miles was my first book by Willow Aster, and it was fabulous! I really loved it, and look forward to reading more by her. This was a sweet friends to lovers romance packed with angst. It goes from past to present as we follow Jaxson and Mira’s journey of friendship & love.

“Olive You”

I will definitely be reading more by this author. My 1st book by her and I very much enjoyed.

This is a very cute-charming-heart twitching-coming of age-real friends-romantic story.

I loved going on Mirabelle and Jaxson’s journey and seeing them grow. It is told in a past/present which adds a little uncertainty (anxiousness) and a bit of a guessing game of “What did they do?” I didn’t want to stop reading….

It’s easy to read, page turner with a great flow of events.