Honey Girl

by Lisa Freeman

[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.