Saving June follows a girl named Harper who’s sister committed suicide, and how she goes on a road trip to California with a mysterious boy and her best friend so that she can scatter the ashes of her sister. I loved Harper, at first I didn’t think I was going to connect with her at all but then something just clicked. She was just very realistic to me and with the sarcasm thrown in she was bound to be a winner, but the best thing about her was that on the outside she was a rock but then as the story went on those layers were peeled back. Laney is Haper’s best friend and just like all the characters in this book they seemed so real, I could totally sympathise with Laney and the situations she was put in. One of the other big characters was Jake, he was completely mysterious in the fact that he never revealed anything about his life, and also that Harper didn’t know his affiliation with her sister. I must say Jake also had a great music taste and combined with the story it just screamed summer, Jake and Harper also made a great combination they were both as stubborn and sarcastic as each other and I constantly found myself smiling at their witty remarks and constant quibbles. So when I first heard of this book I was like “Count me in!.”, but then I became sceptical of reading, it as I’d just read Black Heart Blue which was a pretty intense read. I’d also read other books were death was a prominent part of the story, adding this to the beautiful heat wave the UK were having all I wanted to do was read something light. I was far from disappointed though and I found that although this story did revolve around the death of June, it was also a tale of friendship and love. It’s hard to put this kindly but I felt that the death in this books was taken lightly, and that’s not a bad thing I mean at points the characters especially Harper, would break down or share their thoughts about June, but just like in reality life moves on. I didn’t ever expect to be hooked to a book like this and I didn’t really understand why everyone was going crazy for this book during its release, that is until I found myself staying up until the earliest hours of the morning trying to see if I could finish it. I think the fact that Harper wasn’t all “I feel so sorry from myself.” “I’m not pretty.” was another reason I kept reading, she was different but in a good way. The setting gave major brownie points to this book for me, you can’t really say it had one setting as it was a road trip but just reading about it made me want to jump on a plane and go on a road trip all around the USA.Overall Saving June is definitely a summer read, it’s not as depressing and tear jerking as it sounds and it will most certainly be worthy of a second read. I can also guarantee that this book will make you laugh, maybe shed a tiny tear and have you smiling until the very last page.
