Review: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Open Road Summer
Author: Emery Lord
Release Date: April 14, 2014
Publisher: Walker Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Personal Copy
Review by: Jenn

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.

3 stars out of 5 stars

Here's the thing, I really want to like Emery Lord's book because I feel like everybody loves her and her books. But when I read When We Collided, it wasn't love at first chapter. I decided to forget about it because it happen sometimes. So I went in with high hopes to fall in love with Open Road Summer. And I did. For certain parts.

For the first few chapters, I was hooked on the story line and on Reagan and Dee's friendship. But then I started to dislike Reagan. She's mean and bitchy and judgmental. I excused it when I first saw a glimpse of her personality and once I learned about her mother abandoning by her dealing with high school bullies. She hates other girls for dressing with low cut tops and flirting over top with boys, all the while she did the same thing. I figured it would be addressed later on and/or she would come around and realized how she was acting. But I didn't see any growth from her. Even towards the end, I didn't feel like there was any character growth. As much as I didn't like When We Collided, Emery did write Vivi in a way that she realized that she screwed and that she needed to fix things. In Open Road Summer, I didn't get that from Reagan.

Aside from my dislike of Reagan, I really enjoyed the friendship she shares with Dee. I love that Emery wrote such strong female friendship and that Dee isn't on the back burner, only to come out to give her friend perspective or be in a filler chapter. I honestly haven't seen such friendship like his since the sisterhood of the traveling pants books. Also, I really loved the music portion of the book. I thought it was really creative and unique.

With this being my second Emery Lord book, and still not falling in love with her work, I have to admit I'm a little hesitant to pick up another of her books. I think I'll give her one more try and if it doesn't work, then that'll have to be it.