Rachel Rambles About In Honor

In Honor by Jessi Kirby
From Goodreads:

Hours after her brother’s military funeral, Honor opens the last letter Finn ever sent. In her grief, she interprets his note as a final request and spontaneously decides to go to California to fulfill it.

Honor gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn’s best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn’t seen Rusty in ages, but it’s obvious he is as arrogant and stubborn as ever—not to mention drop-dead gorgeous. Despite Honor’s better judgment, the two set off together on a voyage from Texas to California. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn’s memory—but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

If you know me, you know that I am a sucker for a good road-trip book. It's basically my favorite genre. If you tell me a book you're holding is about a road-trip, I will POUNCE on you and rip it from your hands, and start reading immediately.

So when I started In Honor, I was pretty much expecting to love it. But I was honestly surprised by how much this book exceeded my expectations.

First of all, I LOVE the characters. I always prefer reading about "broken" characters who are dealing with difficult things like grief and messed-up families than characters with seemingly perfect lives. Honor struggles with the death of her older brother, who died in the military right before the book begins. Then there's Rusty, her brother's best friend.

Rusty and Honor deal with grief in very different ways, but at the end of the day, they realize they have a lot in common. They are mourning the same person, after all. The two of them somehow find themselves in the car together, headed from Texas to California on a spontaneous road trip.

AND THEN THINGS HAPPEN.

They fight and bicker and yell and cry and laugh and have this roller-coaster-like relationship. Both of them have a whole lot of issues to deal with, and they are so far from perfect in every way and I love it.

Also there might be some flirting and kissing and things. I DON'T KNOW I'M JUST THINKING OUT LOUD HERE.

But seriously. The relationship between Rusty and Honor is what makes the book so amazing. Everything is so raw and real and things don't always go well and it's not really happily ever after but it's an accurate portrayal of life and I love it. These characters...Sometimes I loved them, sometimes I hated them, but I always cared about them. There's something about the combination of all the crap they deal with an all the bad decisions they make and all the grief they feel that makes my heart hurt for these characters as if they were my friends.

If you're a fan of contemporary books that manage to be light and dark and happy and sad all at once, I definitely recommend this book. Just like Jessi Kirby's other book Moonglass (which I loved loved LOVED), In Honor is a very quick read that is perfect for summer.

-Rachel