Name: Open Road Summer
ISBN: 9780802736109

Emery Lord

Taylor Swift meets Sarah Dessen in this emotional summer story of love and true friendship

Open Road Summer

Sarah Dessen gets a road trip twist in Emery Lord's debut novel, a summer story of love and true friendship. "A fabulously entertaining story of friendship, healing, and love." --Elizabeth Eulberg, author of Better Off Friends and Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality 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 voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord's gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

Jess

You guys!! Open Road Summer was everything! Just, ALL THE THINGS I LOVE.<br />—<br /><a href="http://gonewiththewords.com/review-open-road-summer-emery-lord/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Read my full review, originally posted on Gone with the Words</a>

Monicap

This was a cute rom-com in book form. I flew through it. I loved the characters. It was exactly what I needed to get over CoFH.

Plot: 3.5/5
As the title suggests, this is a road-trip book. Our main character's best freind is the equivalent of Taylor Swift and the Main character is going on tour with her for the summer.
At one of the first stops, a picture is leaked and a scandal strikes up concerning the Taylor Swift Look Alike. Luckily. Taylor Swift's PR manager has an idea: Lets invite a boy who signed to the same label on tour and let the media think you're dating him!
Enter boy.
Enter drama.

Characters: 4/5
Reagan: Reagan has had a rocky past. An absent mother, an alcoholic dad, and a series of bad choices and boyfriends on her part. At some point before the beginning of this book, something happened that made her reaxamine her whole life and realize, in her words, there are only three things she cares about: Dee, her dad, and her photography.
Dee: Dee is the Taylor Swift Look Alike. Except with WAAAAAY less boyfriends and break-ups. In fact, Dee has only had one boyfriend and one break up. And despite the fact that this break up happened more than a year ago, she's still hung up on it. You can see her trying to hold together even though the fame is causing her to fall apart in this book. 
Matt: Matt is the boy Dee's PR manager set her up with. But, predictably enough, Matt and Reagan fall for each other even though he's fake-dating her best friend. 

Romance: 4/5
As I said, Reagan had made a series of bad choices and boyfriends prior to the beginning of this book, and the last one has left her sort of vulnerable, which, on top of the fact that Matt is fake-dating her best friend, just another reason to push him away. But Matt is a persistent country homeboy and she eventually gives in.

NOTE ON GIVING IN: I HATE the song "Give". Especially since "Human" and "Battle" were so good. But "Give" was SOOO immature. It pained me to read those lyrics. Listen: I know that county has this stigma, but very few country songs are actually that immature. It just seriously annoyed me, I'm sorry. And if someone wrote ME a song, and they wrote THAT song, I'd be pissed off too. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

When Reagan and Matt start being officially not-dating-because-he's-still-technically-fake-dating-her-best-friend but they're officially in love and Dee knows and it all cool and wonderful and then Corinne comes smashing in, and even though Reagan never explicitly stated her fears in her thoughts, I knew what she was afraind of and I said, out loud, "He'd never do that to you. It's just not in his character." So when that thing happened, though I WAS on Reagan's side, I was still pretty sure that the situation had been horribly misread. And there was a reason she misread the situation, stated apty by Dee and Matt, but the sum of it is: Since her last mistake, she'd been projecting her fears onto Matt their whole relationship. she was ready, prepared, willing to bolt at the first sign of trouble.

Ryan 

2.5 stars

probably one of the most disappointing books i read from one of my favorite authors. :( review to come.

Victoria

devin.reads

4.5 stars! 

Full review: http://devin-reads-books.blogspot.com...

Just generally a light and fun summer-y read! Definitely a good book to carry around in your beach bag.

Alyssa Huffman

the romance was cute and so was dee and reagan's friendship, i mostly enjoyed this book. HOWEVER, the "im not like other girls!1!1!1" trope is probably one of my least favorite tropes EVER which i why i had to dock 2 stars :///

Sara Poole

I really enjoyed this book. It was a light, quick read that focused on friendship and young love, and on the importance on forgiving oneself. The main character has made questionable decisions and is punishing herself for them, but then realizes that she is bigger than her mistakes, and that the people she has in her life, and her support system is all that matters. Definitely a feel good read!

Sahi K

After the wonderful book that was The Start of Me and You, I had to go and read all the other books by the author. And this one didn’t disapoint. It’s beautiful, vulnerable and realistic with an interesting trio of characters you can’t help but love.

Reagan is not your typical protagonist. She is an infamous party girl, drinking, smoking, just all out rebelling until a bad breakup (and a very literal one) finally forces her to revaluate her choices. She is prone to temper, doesn’t trust anyone easily and is fiercely protective of her best friend. She is also very intelligent, gets excellent grades, has an ambitious plan for college and has decided to use her summer on the road with Dee to shore up her applications for her photojournalism major – not that anyone knows this about her. She is sassy, gives back as good as she gets, but has a vulnerable side to her that no one gets to see except Dee. She has always given into her bad instincts but is now trying very hard to listen to her therapist and think before acting out on her impulses.

Lilah Montgomery or Dee may be a teenage country music star who has to work hard everyday to live up to her image as a role model for young girls; but she is just a young one herself who has to constantly deal with intrusion into every aspect of her life by the paparazzi and slut shaming of all kinds by the gossip rags despite being untrue. She is very mature and strong willed most of the time, in spite of being heartbroken over her breakup with her high school swetheart. She is focused on her goal to become a successful songwriter even if that means she might not get to be with the love of her life, but she does burst into tears and outbursts sometimes when everything becomes too much to handle.

Dee and Reagan’s friendship is the best part of this book. They are very opposite in personalities and its hard to believe that they could really be friends. But they’ve also know each other since they were eight, have seen each others’ bests and worsts, shared their heartbreaks and drunken bouts, but always been there for each other. Reagan’s sees past Dee’s celebrity status and recognizes the teenager within. Dee can see through the tough rebellious facade that Reag puts up and wants the vulnerable girl within to find her happiness. They poke and prod each other, laugh and cry together, and fight and shout and say mean things, but its such a realistic portrayal of teenage friendship, that it made me remember all the best times with my BFF.

Matt Finch is the cute, sweet, boy next door type. He is effortlessly charming and swoony, making all his female fans go crazy, but Reagan likes the man underneath – the one who misses his mom and is very unsure of his future. He tries every trick to tease Reagan out of the walls she has put up around her heart. Their attraction is instant, but they hold back, unsure and uncertain, develop a friendship based on trust and slowly ease into their relationship. Drama obviously ensues and misunderstandings force them apart but the ending is very interesting. They are definitely not the cute, adorable couple but the stubborn, passionate one who will fight with each other about everything, but will also fight hard and dirty for each other, and there will never be a dull moment when they are together.

Though this book is set on the road, it doesn’t have that spontaneous adventure vibe that we generally expect. But I enjoyed the metaphorical journey of each of them finding what they want and where they want to be in their lives. The writing is easy flowing, very conversational and raw and realistic and you will not want to put it down once you start. I especially loved the song lyrics, they are so poetic and emotional and full of feelings and I kept wishing I could hear them as a song.

This book is amazing in its portrayal of teenage friendships, love and heartbreaks, very authentic, showing it in all its true and ugly glory. Definitely recommend to anyone who loves YA contemporaries.

laura

This was a strong 3.5 read. I loved the musican tour aspects and both female lead characters. I really would have loved to see the book as duel POV just to get into both girls heads cause i really enjoyed them both. Reggan did annoy me at points so the duel POV would have helped alot. I love mat and the relationship that developed, but i wish we would have learned more about jimmy. I hope to read more by this author soon.

Ruth Parker 

This was a sweet book which followed a girl with her best friend who is a famous singer on a tour around America. A faking dating thing begins between the best friend and another singer and trouble follows.

This was cute but totally forgettable. I feel like the fake dating thing could have been done more, I do like the twist that it is the fake daters who fall for each other though! 

I’m writing this review about 3 weeks after finishing this book and to be totally honest I can’t remember much more than that. I have other Emery Lord books on my shelf and have heard amazing things about them so will pick them up for sure... this one just didn’t work for me.

Find this review and more at 
  kimberlyfaye reads
.

If you're ready to beat away the winter doldrums with books about road trips, music and summer love, look no further than Open Road Summer. I loved absolutely everything about this book – from the gorgeous cover to the very last line. I had high hopes for this one, had heard nothing but positive feedback from others who read it before me and I loved it even more than I hoped I would when I first set eyes on that amazing cover.

  
    "As I stare back down at my photographs, my thoughts linger on a camera function called aperture, used to describe how much light is being let into the lens. It seems easy to think of myself this way – as someone who programmed herself to let in the least amount of light possible. There's space for Dee and for my dad, and that's the best I can do. When I met Blake, I let myself click open a few millimeters, unfurling like a spiral shutter. In fact, I let in just enough to be overexposed. Burned."
  

Reagan wasn't the easiest character to like at first, if I'm being honest. She's a little rough around the edges and hasn't had the easiest life. Her mom left when she was young. Her dad is a recovering alcoholic who is getting ready to marry his new girlfriend who Reagan isn't a huge fan of. She's prone to destructive behavior – especially with guys – and has been in and out of trouble recently. She loves to make an impression. She's a photographer (we have that in common) and I loved hearing her talk about her photos. A few chapters into this book, I connected with Reagan. I started to see her behaviors for what they truly were: a defense mechanism to keep from getting hurt. If you don't let people in, you won't be destroyed when they disappoint you. But she was a good friend and I appreciated her snark and honesty. Her inner dialogue was quite amusing at times. 

  
    "To her fans, Dee is the best friend they've never had, and I guess that part isn't so weird. Dee's the only real friend I've ever had – the one who comes running even though I'd never admit I need someone by my side. She jokes that she keeps bail money in her nightstand; I joke that she'd be my one phone call. Only I'm not joking. She would be."
  

Reagan's best friend Dee (aka Lilah Montgomery) is a rising country star and about as far opposite Reagan as you can get. She's a teen country idol; a good girl who is going through a painful breakup. Dee and Reagan have been friends forever. They're each other's rock. Through thick and thin, they've always been there for each other. It only makes sense that Reagan accompany Dee on her summer concert tour. The time away from home, her ex and her father will do her good. She needs a break. 

  
    "The look between them – the locked eyes and knowing expressions – is nothing more than a good friendship and mutual admiration. I know better than anyone. But their display of affection is convincing, and I have to glance away. It's the same reason my dad can't have dinner with any friends who might order a beer. It's too damn hard to watch someone else get what you want."
  

The summer that is supposed to be great times shared by just the two girls is quickly changed after a photo of Dee and her ex-boyfriend in what has been altered to look like a compromising position is leaked. Now it's time for some PR damage control. It's then that former child star Matt Finch joins the tour as Dee's opening act and fake boyfriend. Reagan doesn't want to share her friend, but despite her best efforts to steer clear of Matt, he gets under her skin. It's not long before her summer is taking a completely different path than she expected, or thought she wanted, but wouldn't trade for anything. Of course, things are tricky because Matt's supposed to be Dee's boyfriend, so he and Reagan have to keep things on the tour bus. I just want to be clear, though – there is NO LOVE TRIANGLE in this story. It would have been so easy to take the story there and I'm thankful Emery did not. It's one of the things I love most about this book. 

  
    "If we could capture feelings like we capture pictures, none of us would ever leave our rooms. It would be so tempting to inhabit the good moments over and over again. But I don't want to be the kind of person who lives backwardly, who memorializes moments before she's finished living in them. So I plant my feet here on this hillside beside a boy who is undoing me, and I kiss him back like I mean it. And, God help me, with the sky wrapped around us in every direction, I do mean it."
  

Who am I kidding? I loved everything about this book. Emery has a way with words and can write humor as well as she can write the deeper, more meaningful moments. I loved the focus on friendship, whether it was Reagan and Dee, Dee and Matt, or eventually Reagan and Matt. I loved the dynamic in each of these pairings so much, even though they were very different. These characters are complex. They're each running away from something and are forced to deal with those things while on the tour. 

  
    "﻿His eyes are somewhere between gray and blue, and his hair is somewhere between brown and blond, and I am somewhere between hostile and attracted."
  

Matt was absolutely perfection. He was a good and protective friend to Dee. He and Reagan went round and round, but anyone with eyes could see it was only because they were attracted to each other. Matt understood what Dee was going through as he'd had his own share of relationship drama in the news. He could relate to Reagan, once she opened up, because he too had lost his mom. He was a sweet (and HOT), the perfect boy next door, or in the next tour bus over, in this case. I loved his song lyrics, too. There was something vulnerable about him that spoke to me. Sure he had some cockier moments where I might have wanted to shake him, but those were more to get a rise out of Reagan than anything else. And boy did he ever. I adored these two together, whether they were fighting in the early days or flirting as time went on. They had a spark that jumped off the page.

  
    “I dig the toe of my shoe into the dirt. “It’s complicated.”
“Is it? Most complicated things in life are actually pretty simple at the core. We put so much extra nonsense in the middle that we can’t even see how easy it really is.”
  

Of course, what's a young adult road trip book without some drama and a hint of angst? It wasn't overdone and didn't feel forced though. It just made the story that much richer and believable, in my opinion. Now that's not to say there weren't some times when I wanted to yell at each and every one of my beloved trio for being ridiculous. But that's just part of the process of reading a book where you care about the characters and what happens to them. Or, at least it is to me. 

  
    "He's only nineteen, and I hope he doesn't see me as too young for him. That would ruin my plans to flirt with him – not to start something up, of course, just to flirt for the hell of it. It's a law of nature, like a cat with something shiny; dangle it in front of her long enough and eventually she'll paw at it. Only in this case, I'm the cat and Matt is something shiny. The pawing part is the same."
  

Open Road Summer was just a great read all the way around. It was sweet and funny and charming. It had plenty of funny moments and a lot of heart. The characters were rich and lovable. The plot kept me guessing as to what would happen next. I ended this one with a big smile on my face. Reagan was dealing with some pretty intense issues, but I thought they were handled well. She grew tremendously through the course of this book. I seriously can't recommend it highly enough. It was one of my most highly anticipated YA reads of the year and it exceeded my every expectation. I have a feeling I'll read this one a time or two more before the year is over. It's that good.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All quotes come from the review copy and may differ from the final version.

Kaele Perkins 

** spoiler alert **
           This was a cute book. Reagan was a funny and protective best friend who had some messed up stuff going on, but she was trying to get her life back on track. I loved her and Dee’s relationship. Definitely reminded me of me and my best friend. Matt was awesome. I loved him. As far as Mrs. Lord’s books go, I still don’t know who my favorite male character is. Jonah, Max, and Matt are all amazing. I just think she writes amazing male protagonists. I feel like the whole fake-dating-turned-real-feelings troupe is very over used, so I liked the whole best friend-fake-dating plot. Because that was an interesting situation. I loved that Reagan always put Dee first. I loved the scene at the lake. I loved when Matt brings the girls ice cream after the show to cheer Dee up. I love Dee as a character. I would die if she had her own book, it would be amazing. The only downside was the conflict. Honestly, I hate conflicts, I wish it could just be happily ever after. But I’ve accepted that that’s not the case. But I hate reading the same overused conflict plots again and again. Besides love triangles, the plot where they’re together and then there’s a misunderstanding with guy and another girl where it all looks bad because of timing and she gets angry and she’s done. No one listens to reasons which bugs me. I did like that he didn’t give up. He stayed and said that she had to hear him out or he wasn’t leaving. Overall, this was a great contemporary story that I enjoyed reading and would recommend. :)
ENTP and ENFJ I think.

Devin Jones

Helena

Pretty good story, I liked a lot the 'best friend story watching on the sideline' kind of story/point of view. Normally the main character would be famous instead of the best friend.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

I really kind of loved this book. It was such a joy to read. This is one of those books that really makes me frustrated with the speed at which I read. I’m definitely on the slower side when it comes to reading speeds. It took me several days to get through this book, but that wasn’t because I didn’t want to read it. I read every chance I got! I would have devoured this book in one sitting, if possible.

I fell in love with Reagan instantly. I loved her snarkiness, her edge, and her “whatever” attitude. She was one of those characters that some may find annoying, negative, even frustrating at times. To me, that just makes a really great character. I’m a fan of flawed, edgy, and at times somewhat annoying characters. So Reagan and I hit it off immediately. 

Dee was simply adorable. A goodhearted country singer, always seeing the best in people and trying to do what’s best for everyone. She was so super sweet. I could picture her perfectly, with her cute sense of style, and her always smiling face. The story line between Dee and Jimmy was so sweet and really broke my heart at times.

Then there was Matt. He was nothing like I thought he would be, which is a really good thing!! I was expecting an arrogant, stuck-up rock star, and instead I got a super caring and fun pretty normal guy. I have to admit his song writing was a bit cheesy and silly at times, but I still loved him. 

This story was so fun!! First of all, can I just say ROAD TRIP!!! Who doesn’t love a road trip book?! On top of that, a summer on a tour bus with teenage singers… it was just full of fun!!

Wonderful story. Perfectly flawed characters. This story had a smooth flow, ups and downs, smiles and tears. All aspects of this story were bundled together in the perfect little summer read package. I’m so excited to see what Emery Lord comes out with next. Such a fantastic debut! 

(Thanks to Walker and Netgalley for the review copy!)

Find this review and others like it at Lost in Literature!

Giulia 

Recensione su Giulia's World

Okay, a quanto pare siamo giunti alla resa dei conti. 
Non so davvero da dove cominciare, ci sono troppe cose che non vanno in questo libro. Prima fra tutti, quando leggo un libro mi aspetto di trovarmi di fronte ad un romanzo non ad una fanfiction che potrei aver scritto io stessa all'età di 16 anni. Meglio non dirvi quante ne ho lette di tipe che si mettono a fare i panni della protagonista stronza che in realtà è così perchè ha un sacco di problemi, che parte con l'amica per un tour e guarda caso chi incontra? Proprio il suo idolo e, ovviamente, si innamorano. Ora, con qualche cambiamento, questo è ciò che ho letto.
Non mi ha trasmesso nulla, se non noia e un senso di "ma perchè?!" continuo. 
La protagonista è orribile, sfido chiunque a farsi piacere una tipa così. Ha un carattere che a definirlo di merda le fai un favore, ma non è solo il carattere il problema. Mi sembrava di avere a che fare con un bambino. Un bambino che fa continuamente i capricci quando non si fa come dice lui. Una ragazza che si crede matura un comportamento del genere non dovrebbe averlo.
Il romance è... oddio no! Vogliamo parlare dell'onnipresente insta-love? Per carità, c'è praticamente nella stragrande maggioranza dei contemporary ma almeno fai in modo che io non lo veda. Ci sono tante autrici che lo usano, sanno mascherarlo benissimo e creano un romance fantastico. Emery Lord non è tra questi, poco ma sicuro!
Il finale è ancora più scontato, insomma la classica storiella o, come dicono dalle mie parti, la classica pastocha della cagnulina. Letta e riletta, trita e ritrita. Non se ne ne può più, datemi dell'altro!
L'unico pregio è che almeno si fa leggere, ma per il resto lo riscriverei completamente!

Poteva venire fuori un ottimo romanzo se si fosse concentrata sull'amicizia tra Dee e Reagan, perchè metterci il ragazzo di mezzo, PERCHE'?

Haya

This is a very cute book to read during summer time that talks about friendship, moving on, being a better person and stepping out of your shell

Open Road Summer

Reviews