Book Review: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Release Date: April 14, 2014

Publisher: Walker

Pages: 342

Received: eBook

Star Rating: ★ ★ ★½ ☆ ☆








Summary:
                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.



My Thoughts:

I've had mixed feelings with this one. It started out great. The book is a mix of friendship, romance, and adventure. It has everything any reader could ask for in a YA contemporary. But the execution was a disaster. I appreciated the writing and friendship dynamics. It was fairly enjoyable, but it didn't hit a home run for me.

Dee is a country pop star and about to go on tour. Without her family accompanying her, Dee invited her best friend, Reagan. Both Dee and Reagan have recently gotten out of a relationship. Dee is still hung up on her previous boyfriend and has Reagan's friendship for reassurance. They are ready to travel the states and make up for lost time. But all that changes, when a "has been" pop star joins the tour. Matt Finch is every girls' dream. But when things start to rile up with Reagan and Matt, their story is endearing and reassuring.

The hype around this book is what interested me, at first. Most of my friends raved about it, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was almost the end of summer and I knew I HAD to read this before it ended. It wasn't the perfect summer road trip, but it was an interesting take on fame and friendship. The cover just screams summer. The cover just seems misleading because I'm not sure where the bike was from and it simply looks like a love story. But it isn't. It involves the realism in friendship and how flawed characters can be, but they can change. 

I didn't agree with the main character, Reagan, most of the time. I tried my best not to get my annoyance with Reagan caught up for my love for Reagan and Matt's relationship. But like all love stories, there's a force against them. And that force was one of the most cliche things. It frustrated me that the author chose that route. Either way, there were so many scenes with Matt and Reagan that were cutesy. But the things I just couldn't grasp were the stereotypical elements. But overall, the story was adequate and charming.

OPEN ROAD SUMMER is not a masterpiece, but I think y'll will enjoy it. Oh no, the country accent is kicking in. But it was a sweet story that made me mourn for fiction to become reality.

3.5/5 STARS