Reagan O'Neill is leaving her rebellious ways behind.
She's finished with her bad-news boyfriends and she's ready to join her best friend Lilah Montgomery on tour. Lilah's a country music superstar, and she's nursing a broken heart of her own. It's the perfect opportunity for a girls-only road trip full of break-up ballads and healing hearts.
But Reagan's vow to live drama-free is tested by the arrival of Matt Finch. He's Lilah's opening act, and his boy-next-door charm is difficult to resist....
Two Best Friends
Two Broken Hearts
One summer that will change Everything - excerpt from book.
Open Road Summer by Emery Lord is a sweet, youthful contemporary novel about a summer road tour for two young girls where one is a superstar, the other is the best friend. This story's perspective is through the eyes of the best friend. She considers herself less than perfect, not a good girl and definitely does not qualify to have a superstar as her best friend. The characters' friendship is explained throughout the book, how strong the bond is and why. Slowly the past of the main character is revealed as well through her thoughts.
This story is about Reagan reinventing herself, finding her one true self. She is flawed yet beautiful at the same time. The mysterious personality is the cause of something deeper that you would get from reaching the end of the book. The side character Lilah is a very cute and sweet girl that comes with struggles of her own. Reading about Lilah is like an instance of Taylor Swift, although I do not know what kind of person Taylor is but it feels like this character is modeled over her. I love that this book allow all the characters to grow at the same time. I very much enjoyed reading their adventures and interactions with each other. My favourite page turning quality are scenes which involved the designated male interest of our female lead. Their interactions are quite cheesy at times but that's how young love is. The male interest himself has struggles and you would want to learn more about him, just like Reagan.
In terms of plot, the chapters are named over cities of Lilah's music tour which pushes the story forward with the timeline of it. It's not the type of plot that is too dramatic, just realistic enough for the characters portrayed. I can't really relate to them but their struggles and resolution still touched me. Emery does a great job in narrating their feelings, it is always quite poetic, descriptive that is beautiful and memorable.
I really loved this book as the author sends across a deep meaning message to the readers through lyrics of songs written by the characters. I always can't wait to read about incidents happening to the lead as I want to know how she would have reacted. If I have to pick a favourite quote from the book it would be difficult because there is just too many. This is the fourth book that I have read from this author and I have not been disappointed, I would definitely recommend this to young adult contemporary lovers. Her writing is just fluid and poetic with good meaning that get you pondering and thinking about life.
