3.75 stars - yeah, I went for the quarter stars! 
 This was almost a five star book. The first 90% was for sure. But one chapter at the end caused it to be demoted. 
 For the first 90% of this book, I absolutely adored it. While the dead sister trope is sooooo common, this was handled creatively, with interesting characters and some good humored dialog. I loved the exploration of not only the relationship between Harper (narrator) and Jacob, but between best friends Harper and Laney and each of the characters' relationship with the Dead Sister June. 
 Unfortunately, the subplot with (view spoiler)[ Laney's pregnancy due to date rape was extremely frustrating. It was straight out of Party of Five. Remember when Julia was pregnant with Justin's baby and then conveniently has a miscarriage so to conveniently avoid having to make any decisions? Yep, that's what happened here too. What I wanted to was Becky from Friday Night Lights (not because of her specific decision, but because she realistically had to make a decision--instead of it being neatly taken care of for her by a convenient miscarriage), what I got was Julia. (hide spoiler)] 
 Anyway... Aside from that frustrating point, I loved much about this book. The characters were flawed and interesting, we don't get tidy resolution as to why Harper's sister killed herself (which actually made me wonder even more about the oh-so-tidy resolution to the subplot mentioned above), and no one finishes the road trip perfectly newly self-aware--everyone's a work in progress and I loved that. 
 This is not my favorite YA road trip novel, that's be Morgan Matson's Amy and Roger's Epic Detour, but it's recommended for folks who enjoy road trip novels, despite my issues with it. 
 Bonus points for including Fridgehenge--which is one of my favorite weird things to see in New Mexico! 
 (Book #148 for 2011.)