Format: e-ARC
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Publisher: Walker
Publication Date: April 15, 2014
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.
"A fabulously entertaining story of friendship, healing, and love. Filled with laughter, heart, and a side of sass, this rock star debut will have you cheering for an encore!"—Elizabeth Eulberg, author of Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality
My Thoughts
Open Road Summer has been on my radar for a while, it was one of my most anticipated Contemporary books of 2014. And I'm happy to say that this book surpassed every one of my expectations.
Reagan is excited to be touring with her best friend Dee for the summer. Yep, Reagan's best friend Dee is actually country music star Lilah Montgomery and when she invites Reagan to spend the summer touring with her, Reagan jumps at the chance.
Reagan has been through some tough things lately and she's trying to change and become a better person, and she feels that spending a whole summer with her best friend is the perfect opportunity. I have to say that I loved Reagan and Dee's relationship, for some weird reason it's so uncommon to see a good best friend relationship in YA books these days so I'm always ecstatic when I do come across one.
Reagan is such a wonderful main character, she's proof that even though you come from a broken home and have made some questionable choices, you can still come back from that and change the type of person that you are for the type of person you want to be. She grows so much by the end of this book and it was such a pleasure to watch her transformation. I also really loved Dee, she is the complete opposite of what you expect famous people to be. She's very down to earth and she's a genuinely good person, she's also an amazing friend.
I was very surprised by how much I liked Matt. Like Reagan, he has been through some tough things in the past few months and he's had a hard time dealing with them and I think Reagan this tour was exactly what he needed in order to start the healing process. Did I mention that he is also incredibly swoon-worthy?
Overall, Open Road Summer is such a fast and fun ride and it deserves every bit of the praise that it's getting. Lord is definitely an author to watch out for and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.
