"I can't put it down, and I don't want to!"
Natalie
About 500 Miles
Anna Marcus is successful in the world of computers, but not as accomplished when it comes to lasting relationships. Which would be fine … if she wasn’t also completely and madly in love with the idea of being in love and being loved in return.
Anna’s growing fear in life is that the love she imagines doesn’t exist at all. That she is waiting for something that isn’t even real.
When she meets Justin — smart and caring, with an unforgettable smile — he is a perfect candidate for her fairy-tale life, and it makes Anna start to wonder if there is hope after all. But if Anna’s trust in love isn’t a big enough obstacle, Justin’s girlfriend certainly is. That, and the fact he lives in another state — 500 Miles from Anna's Melbourne life.
When disaster strikes Anna's family, she travels to Sydney to help. Lonely and bitter, she finds herself on love’s doorstep, questioning everything she thought she understood about the heart, and what she really wants.
Anna is about to learn that not all journeys can be measured by distance. It's the bumps in the road which are the hardest to travel and overcoming them is the true journey.
(496 Pages)
Book Preview
​
Perfect. What a word.
Anna grew up idolising the concept, idolising people she thought were perfect — wanting to be perfect just like them. She, like any little girl, wanted it all. She wanted perfect hair that didn’t frizz up in the rain or in the heat of a hot day. She wanted perfect handwriting that looped and swirled like a ballerina. She wanted the perfect mark on the perfect school project. But most of all, she wanted the perfect family.
Anna had been the only person in her class with divorced parents. The only one that missed birthday parties because of custody days — the only student teased because her mother didn’t live with her dad.
While watching the other parents arrive together for the end-of-year school concert, while hers pointedly sat on opposing sides of the school hall, Anna had made a decision. At the grand age of seven-and-a-half Anna smugly decided that when she was a grown-up, she would never let that happen to her own children. Of course, when Anna was seven-and-a-half, life was very easy to map out and the road was straight to travel. Getting married and having a family was all she wanted, and it would happen as simply as she would find a job — which was going to happen right after she finished school. For Anna, getting the life she had expected was just an eventuality. You lose your front teeth and new ones grow. You finish the second grade, and then go straight on to the third.
In Anna’s young mind, getting a job, being happy and getting married were as certain as her feet growing and turning eight on her next birthday.
​
However, as the years passed and her feet stopped growing, it slowly became apparent to Anna that life was not so straightforward. Jobs, she had to earn. Hair, she needed to tame. Perfect families? They didn’t actually exist. And as for marriage, Anna had realised that, ideally, she needed love. But love isn’t as certain as a child is led to believe. Love, far above jobs or unruly hair, is the trickiest one of them all. And love, is certainly not perfect.