Open Road Summer by Emery Lord | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord | Book ReviewOpen Road Summer by Emery Lord
Also by this author: Open Road Summer, The Start of Me and You, The Start of Me and You, The Names They Gave Us, The Map from Here to There
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA on April 15th 2014
Genres: Friendship, Love & Romance, Music, Performing Arts, Social Issues, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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five-stars

After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind. . . and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

I am late to the party when it comes to Emery Lord’s debut, Open Road Summer. I think everyone was going wild for this book a few months ago and I don’t even remember what I was doing, but unfortunately it was not reading this book. YOU GUYS! Why did I wait so long to read this? Now that I live alone, I have the ability to read books until an ungodly hour and so, with this book, I read it in starts and bursts and then, I wound up reading the last half in a single sitting, reading late into the night when I have work the next day. Open Road Summer is exactly my favorite kind of contemporary book — it’s a bit light with bursts of seriousness in it.

Reagan has just broken up with her boyfriend – a criminal type who was pretty much the worst. It’s a good thing though, because she’s going to spend summer on the road with her best friend, Lilah Montgomery, a country superstar in the vein of Taylor Swift. Unbeknownst to Reagan, a new opener is about to join Lilah’s tour — Matt Finch, formerly of the Finch Five, a wholesome band kind of like the Jonas Brothers. Anyways, as the summer goes on and various paparazzi scandals are created involving Lilah, Reagan and Matt get closer and closer, in spite of Reagan’s attempts to resist.

Reagan is the sort of girl who puts up a harsh front and is tough as nails, especially when it comes to her best friend, Lilah aka Dee. She has a bit of a reputation about her Southern hometown for being slutty, but Reagan totally owns it. It’s not like she’s ashamed of being active and going for what she wants. However, she does act out in a sort of delinquent way. That stated, Reagan also gets awesome grades but doesn’t brag or anything about them. Furthermore, beyond being into adult times, Reagan is passionate about photography. I thought Emery Lord did a superb job fleshing out Reagan’s character and giving her all of these layers. I think her characterization was the highlight of this book for me.

Well actually, there are multiple highlights when it comes to Open Road Summer. The friendship between Dee and Reagan is excellent and the sort of friendship where there is give and take in equal amounts. Emery Lord puts a lot of emphasis on the friendship in this book and well, I thought it rivaled the friendship in Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson — another of my favorite best friends books. Aside from the friendship, I’ll just say that the romance in this book is super adorable and I think you guys totally will enjoy those bits when you read this book.

five-stars
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April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. You know, I read this book last year and I really liked it. I loved the friendship between Dee and Reagan, and I thought the romance was totally swoony. But the more time goes by, the more I end up remembering the bits that I didn’t like. Especially all the girl hate that Reagan spits out (except for Dee of course). But that sort of thing always annoys me.

    I’m really glad you enjoyed this! Although it’s exhausting the next day, I do love it to stay up late reading.

  2. I read this one last year and loved it. I’m glad you enjoyed it too.

  3. Yes, yes, yes! While the romance is pretty cute, what I really loved about Open Road Summer was the friendship Reagan and Dee shared. It’s seriously such a great depiction of a solid friendship, and I loved that. It doesn’t hurt that the story is so well-written too!

  4. This sounds like a great book to read when you need a light and fun read. I love those books because it doesn’t feel like you’re committing much and often really enjoy the book too. I bought this one on a Kindle deal because it had been pretty hyped. Your review reassures me that it was the right decision. 🙂