In Honor

Gr 8–10—When Honor returns home from her brother's military funeral, she finds a letter Finn had mailed weeks before being killed by a roadside bomb. In the envelope is a belated high school graduation present, two tickets to singer Kyra Kelley's farewell concert. Poised to attend college orientation, Honor impulsively lies to her guardian and decides to head out in Finn's 1967 Impala to the California concert as a last tribute to her brother. To her surprise, Finn's brooding ex-best friend, Rusty, comes along as a self-appointed chaperone and car mechanic. Unresolved issues about Finn's enlistment in the Marines after he and Rusty had both received coveted college football scholarships, and Rusty's absence at the funeral, hang in the air as they head west. Car trouble, campground dust-ups, and some tequila parties have Honor wallowing in self-pity, unaware of Rusty's own pain. Some plot contrivances link Honor with the possibility of meeting Kyra Kelley and a tidy ending looms until Rusty tangles with local police, the Impala gets impounded, and Honor is left alone on the sidewalk on the day of the concert. This climax is late in coming but the page-turner results in Honor's ability to come to grips with newfound truths. Flirtatious tension between the teens and a road-trip theme provide plenty of girl appeal, especially for fans of Simone Elkeles's "Perfect Chemistry" series (Walker, 2008) or Elizabeth Scott's Between Here and Forever (S & S, 2011).—Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY