Review : Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
Pages : 342
Genre : YA, contemporary fiction
Stand alone
My Rating : 3.5/5
About the Book :
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 Thoughts :
I love road trip novels, and tales of friendship, and music, and a touch of love doesn’t hurt; so Open Road Summer looked liked it had pretty much everything neatly wrapped together under a pretty cover, and I couldn’t pass it up!
I hve to say, I did mostly enjoy it; I felt for Dee (Lilah’s “real life” nickname) and the pressure she lived with. I also really enjoyed Matt, who didn’t act like a star or some unattainable bad boy, but a simple and nice young adult male. I could easily see why Reagan almost immediately fell for him, and their chemistry was good, too.
But when I think back on my reading of Open Road Summer, I am still a bit torned by one issue, and that is an important one : Reagan. Reagan is the narrator and a pretty good one, too. From the start it is clear she has her own issues; heartbreak, abandonment from her mother, trust broken, etc. I felt for her, I really did.
But I also felt she was way harsher than she needed to be, almost to the point of being mean and hateful at times; calling other girls sluts and skanks for the way the dressed or acted, for instance, which is something that really really irks me. Reagan is far from being a saint, too, which also makes her a bit of a hypocrite. And I wouldn’t mind this if she either owned up to it, or had some kind of epiphany about her attitude. But neither of these really happened.
This being said, I still really enjoyed the book. I loved being on tour from city to city, reading about Dee’s struggles on and off the stage, and most of all, I really liked the girls’ friendship. They connected really well, and I thought the author did a great job of writing them different while still making sure they worked well together.
All in all, Open Road Summer was a really fun novel with a few hints of aw-worthy romance. Even though I had a few problems with the main character, I absolutely enjoyed Emery Lord’s writing and her honest point-of-view. Her next book, The Start of Me and You, is coming out March 2015 and I am looking forward to reading it too!
This sounds like an intriguing read. I definitely like books that mix so many of the things I enjoy: road trips, romance, and music! However, an irritating main character can be a bit of a buzz kill for even the best of books. I would definitely also take issue with hurtful/hateful judgments from a narrator unless she was also self-analyzing where all that hurt was coming from. I especially take issue with girls calling other girls sluts. But I guess that’s just a bit of my inner feminist coming out.
Yes, that’s a big issue for me. It also felt slightly hypocritical because Reagan spends her time mentioning her low-cut tops and tight tees etc. Nothing wrong with that, but when she then criticized others for dressing pretty much the way she did, I couldn’t help rolling my eyes a little!