Review: Saving June by Hannah Harrington

  Title: Saving June
  Author: Hannah Harrington
  Publisher: Harlequin UK
  Publishing date: June 1st 2012
  Source: NetGalley
  My rating: 4 stars


 

Saving Jane had been a book on my wish list ever since it hit the shelves in Australia, and the Aussie bloggers just couldn’t get enough. So I was excited to finally get my hands on a copy a year after first hearing about it.

Harper is struggling, her sister June has just passed away, she took her own life leaving no letter or explanation why. On the surface everything seemed fine with June, she’d found her boyfriend and cheated on her, but other than that everything seemed to be going okay. So finding June’s body in the back of her car was a massive shock. And now everything seems to be falling apart around Harper, after their parents separation, Harper’s mum was just coping, but now with June’s death she’s hit even harder, she seems to be walking around in a daze, and so Aunt Helen decides to take charge. Harper doesn’t mind Aunt Helen, but she thinks she knows best and Harper doesn’t really take to be told what to do. And to top it off, Harper’s parents want to split June’s ashes! Who in their right mind would want to do that? One night when rummaging around June’s things with her best friend Laney, Harper discovers a postcard from California and comes to a monumental decision, she will scatter June’s ashes in California; it was June’s dream place and so exactly what she would have wanted. However they have no way of getting to California and how are they going to leave without their parents discovering June’s ashes are missing? That’s where the mysterious Jake Tolan comes in, he turned up unexpectedly at June’s wake; June used to tutor him and so he offers his services to the girls; he will take them to California. This is the perfect opportunity for Harper, but why does she have a niggling feeling about Jake, has he got some hidden agenda, as to why he wants to help them out?

Harper; I so felt sorry for her, she was all alone without June and had a tough time with everyone always making comparisons between her and her dead sister. I understand that the only way she could move forward in her life was doing something for June, it wouldn’t bring complete closure, but it made her feel as if she had a purpose in her life.

Laney, I adored her, I’ve come across some awesome best friends in YA books lately and Laney has easily made it to the top of my list. She was constantly there for Harper, even though she was adamant that she was fine. I loved how she was such a spontaneous character, that you didn’t really know what to expect from her, also how she jumped freely into things without over-thinking them. She definitely livened things up a bit whenever Harper’s mood was low.

Jake; I remember nearly everyone who read this book fell in love with Jake, what’s not to love? He knows his music, he plays guitar, he can sing and has a gorgeous body. But I didn’t understand his flippant mood changes, he could be sweet and understanding one minute then arsey the next. Yeah it must have been difficult driving for hours with two girls with totally different moods. However since we first met him at June’s wake, I thought there was something shifty about him, I thought he held a torch for June, but his real intentions for driving to California did come as a quite surprise.

There’s nothing more I love than reading a road trip book, and this one was a great one, reading about their adventures from Michigan to California and the comical characters they meet on the way was great fun. Plus also we had the perfect weather over here for once, so I got to sit outside with my laptop devouring this lovely book. One of my favourite aspects of this book was the playlist, I love it when authors make up playlists for books especially ones which exactly match the feel and tone of the book and this one does exactly that!

I did enjoy Saving June, but not as much as I had originally hoped, maybe because my expectations were set too high in the first place. Instead of being a quick read as I thought it would be, it took me over a week to read it, I had numerous distractions that kept me from reading it, but when I also had the time to read, at times I didn’t feel like picking it up.

Overall Saving June was a beautiful read; it was full with vivid settings and beautiful writing and has left me with a yearning to road trip across America one day. I just wish I could have loved it that little bit more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin UK for the opportunity to read this book.