Review: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Open Road SummerOpen Road Summer
by Emery Lord
YA Contemporary
Hardcover352 Pages
April 15th 2014 by Walker Childrens                  

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. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

   


My Review

This book totally blew me away! I don't know that I can say that enough. I just absolutely loved it!!! Do you want to know why? I'll tell you...

These characters! Loved them!! I connected with them. I felt for their struggles and wanted to join in their hopes. Reagan, Lilah, and Matt were just amazing! They weren't perfect, which meant that they felt real. The emotions I felt while reading about these three characters were so wide. I loved how Matt and Reagan challenged each other, but especially that Matt wouldn't put up with Reagan's crap. I loved how close Lilah and Reagan were and that their relationship wasn't perfect. I was sighing, laughing, tense, crying, then sighing and laughing some more all during this story. I honestly haven't read a book with a similar mix of characters and written so well before. They were just so well done. Then there were some side-characters that also added to the story here and there, but these three (Lilah, Reagan, and Matt) were definitely the focus of the story.

Just like with the characters, there were lots of emotions with the plot of the story. There were definitely highs and lows. We learn about Reagan's past as the story unfolds. It's not pretty. Then we learn about Lilah's, which was pretty amazing, but during the story she is having a rough time. Then there's Matt who has had both good and bad in his past. I loved that the story evolved around Lilah's tour! I loved that we get to see backstage and the different cities and the tour buses... It worked so well for telling these characters' stories.

If you follow my blog, you're probably aware that I prefer my books clean and this one doesn't completely fall into that category. However, it is presented in such a way (her bad choices are shown as bad choices and it's a pretty realistic take), and so real, with such amazingly imperfect characters that I didn't regret reading this. Obviously I still loved it. Of course, I would have liked no swearing, but it did fit the characters.

Do not miss this one! I highly recommend it for those who enjoy reading Contemporary in the YA, NA, and Adult genres. This is definitely one worth picking up!


Content: There is some swearing, drinking, innuendo, talk of abuse, and suggestive content.

Source: I'd like to thank Bloomsbury/Walker Childrens and the author, Emery Lord, for my review copy, which did not affect my review in any way.


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