Honey Girl

by Lisa Freeman

How to survive California's hottest surf spot: Never go anywhere without a bathing suit. Never cut your hair. Never let them see you panic.

The year is 1972. Fifteen-year-old Haunani “Nani” Grace Nuuhiwa is transplanted from her home in Hawaii to Santa Monica, California after her father’s fatal heart attack. Now the proverbial fish-out-of-water, Nani struggles to adjust to her new life with her alcoholic white (haole) mother and the lineup of mean girls who rule State Beach.

Following “The Rules”—an unspoken list of dos and don’ts—Nani makes contact with Rox, the leader of the lineup. Through a harrowing series of initiations, Nani not only gets accepted into the lineup, she gains the attention of surf god, Nigel McBride. But maintaining stardom is harder than achieving it. Nani is keeping several secrets that, if revealed, could ruin everything she’s worked so hard to achieve. Secret #1: She’s stolen her dad’s ashes and hidden them from her mom. Secret #2: In order to get in with Rox and her crew, she spied on them and now knows far more than they could ever let her get away with. And most deadly of all, Secret #3: She likes girls, and may very well be in love with Rox.

Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

• ISBN10: 1632204258
• ISBN13: 9781632204257
• Publish Date: 2 April 2015 (first published 1 January 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Skyhorse Publishing
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Honey Girl is not at all what I expected. Nani and her mother have just moved to California from Hawaii after her father dies. It's a hard move for Nani, but she's determined to make a fresh start. She's going to join the most popular girls and rule State beach, and then spread her father's ashes in the ocean. It's not so simple as walking up to the girls and introducing herself. There's many rules that Nani must follow to get in with the locals or else be shunned and alone.

There are some things that I think Honey Girl did very well, but for the most part it was a disappointment. I loved that Nani was biracial and that it was acknowledged in non-superficial ways. I could total relate to her not immediately fitting in and people being confused by her appearance. I also liked how Nani was confident, almost bordering on cocky. She knows she looks good and she's not going to hide it. The time period was also a nice change from the usual contemporary or Historical settings. I can't think of any other books that were set in the 1970s: weed and bellbottoms!

The other thing that I thought Honey Girl did well was present Nani's sexuality. She never explicitly states being bisexual, but she does say that she likes guys and girls. And one of her secrets that she reveals to the readers is that she likes Playboy magazine. It's not made into a huge deal, and there's no coming out story, she just is what she is. However, the description promises more romance between her and Rox than actually happens. She is in no way, even remotely, "in love with Rox." They have one makeout scene before Rox runs back to her on and off again boyfriend. In fact, Nani spends more time reluctantly making out with Nigel and at the end admits to actually liking him, despite giving no indication that she was into him other than for the status it brought her. Basically all the romantic elements failed miserably.

However, what truly kept me from getting into Honey Girl was this focus on the rules. Nani follows all of these unwritten beach rules and after the first few chapters it became a bit much. There's way too many of them, and she follows them exactly, no matter what. It's like her life depends on them. Every single situation has some rule attached. It's like I was constantly reading "There's a rule for that!" and not much else. This left no room for any interesting development on Nani's part. She just follows the rules to get what she wants rather than reinventing herself like she said she was doing.

Honey Girl was just not the story for me. It's not much like how it's described, which was a let down. But it's also just not an interesting story. It's just one girl following some made up rules and then the end.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.