Saving June

Saving June
Hannah Harrington
330 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: NetGalley
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

When Harper discovers her older sister June's body after her suicide she's confused and hurt.  She's fed up with the way people are treating her and she's disgusted that her divorced parents are splitting up the ashes.  Then, after finding a postcard for California in June's desk, she steals the ashes and sets off on a road trip with her best friend and June's friend, Jake, to scatter the ashes there.

This book was so powerful and there were so many things to like about.  First of all, it's very realistic.  The emotions all three of the main characters feel on their road trip is realistic, as is their dialogue- they sound like real teenagers.  The book deals with a heavy topic, but it also has humorous moments that made me giggle out loud.  And of course there was the developing relationship between Harper and Jake to like.  They had a real sexual tension that definitely kept me clicking through the pages late last night.

Harper, Jake, and Laney take several detours during their trip, which really added to the plot.  They stopped at everything from "Fridgehenge" (it's exactly what you think it is) to an anti-war protest, to a hardcore concert complete with mosh pit.

Music played a huge rule in this book, which I liked since so many teenagers look to music as a life source.  It was nice to see Jake not just like whatever was playing on the radio, he had a very definitive kind of music he liked and related to.  When I was in high school I knew a guy just like that.  There are even some "soundtracks" listed at the end of the book so you can look it up for yourself, which I thought was great.

If you're into realistic, contemporary YA then this is definitely a book for you.  I highly recommend it, it was raw and real.  Saving June comes out November 22nd, so add it to your holiday wish list or pre-order it today.