ContempConvos: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Introduction:

Open Road Summer is the perfect book to start off my rereads week. I remember finding it so freaking adorable the first time around. Two Sundays ago, Kayla and I did my birthday dinner thing and as part two of my birthday celebration evening, we spent over an hour at Barnes and Nobles because what is a Birthday Celebration without a trip to the bookstore? I was set on getting my own copy of this book since I had borrowed Kayla’s copy originally. I hadn’t planned on rereading Open Road Summer for this week, but in the end, it felt like the right decision after I bought it and oh boy it was!

Goodreads 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.

Review:

Matt Finch… Matt FREAKING Finch. What will I do with that boy? He has completely captured my heart once more and he isn’t even real.

 

Let’s go back to Matt Finch later or else I will get emotional… My feels are already out of control.

The first and foremost thing I love the most about Open Road Summer is the music in it. I played music for over 10 years and Gosh Darnet I’m a sucker for musicians. Everyone knows it. It’s not a secret. Every single crush I’ve had in my entire life has been a musician except for one. That says a lot. It’s probably why I fell so hard so Mr. Matt Finch and why it made this book that much sweeter to me.

I really really loved the friendship between Dee and Reagan. It is rare to see such a good friendship on paper. Most YA novels have great friendships, but this one is one of the rare ones and that amazes me. It’s amazing how loyal they are to each other. It is rare to find friends that are that loyal. As someone who has had people stab me in the back, seeing this perfectly imperfect friendship just warms my heart.

What I saw this time reading it for the second time that I didn’t see the first time is how mature Reagan is. The first time around, I just saw her recklessness and sassy-ness because this girl is just PURE SASS, but this time, I saw how much she really hesitated and how much she wanted to grow and be a better person, not just for those around her, but for herself. She saw that her rebellious and destructive behavior was getting her nowhere except into a hole that would be really hard to get out of one day.

Matt Finch. That man… Gosh. He surprised me more this second time around. I was able to truly see how broken he was, the pain he was in, it made my heart hurt. At work we can listen to music or podcasts while we work, and I was listening to the ORS audiobook and I almost cried there staring at my computer screen because it was just so sad and heart-wrenching. My heart literally hurt. It was painful.

This second reread of Open Road Summer was purely amazing. I think I fell in love with this book a little bit more and it bumped down other favorites on my list. I’m still amazed at the fact that this is Emery Lord’s DEBUT NOVEL. Mind Blown.

Rating: 5 out of 5