Read of the Week: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

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.

Sometimes the incredible picks you.

Sometimes, you’re sitting there minding your own business and wearing your favorite high heels when your best friend gets a hit single and your name just happens to be in it.

Sometimes, that best friend picks you to go on their twenty-four city long summer tour with them, and you do just that.

Sometimes, you get on that tour bus and Matt Finch walks in.

Sometimes, you go on tour with your Taylor Swift-like best friend and fall in love.

This is what Open Road Summer is, and I absolutely loved every page.

If we put Sarah Dessen, Gayle Forman, Taylor Swift(respectably), John Mayer and maybe, maybe a Jonas Brother all together, we have ourselves Open Road Summer, and maybe this isn’t the best way to actually advertise the book but no matter what you feel about any of the people I listed up there, there is no possible way to dislike this book. No. Possible. Way.

What teen hasn’t dreamt of going on tour with their best friend? It’s been in everyone’s head, one point or another. Open Road Summer takes us on that wondrous journey and brings love into the picture, making for, what I think at least, is going to be one of the most talked about books of 2014. I’m putting down my money right now, and I can do that because I’m a bit ahead of the regular reader world, I’d like to think.

This book will, yes, be the book of summer, but it will also undoubtedly be the book of the year.

Open Road Summer.

Top 5.

It’s happening.

I guarantee it.

Emery Lord gives us fun, but down to earth characters everyone can relate them and puts them into situations we could all only ever imagine. Some good, some bad, all great reading material. Matt Finch is wonderful, and in my head a cross between John Mayer and Nick Jonas, only because of the way he was presented. One way or another, he was great and broken and beautiful and I can only hope that most of the boys undergoing stardom are as perfect as he is. Superstar/best friend of all trades Dee, AKA Lilah Montgomery was so much fun to read about, and she really topped off Open Road Summer for me. This book isn’t just about budding love, it’s about friendship at it’s highest and lowest points and the things best friends will do for each other just to ensure happiness. The unlikelihood of her and Reagan’s friendship was adorable and balanced and I’ve never met a better pair myself. I loved that we weren’t just bombarded with an epic love story, we were added a heroic sidekick/partner in crime and their story was just as important as Matt and Reagan’s.

My all-time favorite element of Open Road Summer has to be the travel! I loved how nothing ever took place in the same location and there was virtually a new adventure in every new city. It made the story refreshing and much more entertaining, in my person opinion. Note, though, I am still disappointed that the gang didn’t make it to Miami because we all know that would have been all sorts of fun in itself. I might actually hate this place myself but that doesn’t mean that other people don’t have too much fun down here. All I’m saying is that it would have made for an uproarious turn of events.

I honestly loved this book so much that I’m having troubles writing a review because I know it’ll never be half as good as what I’ve just read. I can’t do it justice. I just possibly can’t. I could sit here and write a one-thousand word review and I still probably can’t convince you just how good this book is, so here is my last word:

If you like music, love, travel, and best friends who put one another before all else, Open Road Summer is just the read for you.

Rating: 10/10