Review ~ Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

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.

At First Sight

From the minute I saw this book and read the synopsis I knew it was for me.  The cover is gorgeous and fits the book extremely well.  I love books with musical elements so this one definitely fit right in.  

Characters & Relationships

I love the life long friendship between Reagan and Lilah.  This kind of relationship is something I think is hard to find in almost anyone's life.  I know very few people that still have the same friends they had as a child into even their early adulthood.  You could tell that they had been through a lot together which helped them deal with the different situations, whether easy or difficult that arose while they were on tour.  

Matt Finch was an awesome character.  I absolutely LOVED his snark and sarcasm and how he was able to give Reagan a hard time without pushing too far.  He was an absolutely fabulous, well rounded character that any girl could swoon over.

Is This a Kissing Book?

This is a kissing book.  I enjoyed watching the relationship between Reagan and Matt develop and their kissing scenes were just hot enough for YA to keep it for what I feel is appropriate for the genre.  I love finding romance books that work for teens and adults alike and I would be happy to recommend this to pretty much any age group.

Don't Leave Me Hanging

No cliffhangers to this one.  I love stand alone novels.  For some reason they seem to be few and far between for me lately.

The Best Gems

• On tour with your best friend for the summer
• Snack stops for strawberry milk and twizzlers
• Picnics
• Music elements of all kinds
• Hanging out with young fans of your BFF
• Sunsets

The Sum Up

I loved Open Road Summer.  This is 100%  my kind of read.  I love it when I am reading a book with musical characters and I wish I could turn on a CD and listen to an actual soundtrack of the songs they are performing.  It makes you feel like you are right there in the book with the characters which is something not every author has the ability to do.  This book is about so many different things and has such a positive message I would recommend it to anyone.

Waiting on Wednesday ~ Rough Waters by Nikki Godwin

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by 

Jill at Breaking the Spine 

that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating!

Haley's future has been waiting on the west coast for the past year, but she isn't the only new face in Crescent Cove this summer. When Colby Taylor's parents locate him and interrupt his surf competition, the surf star spirals out of control, dragging Drenaline Surf's reputation through the mud and into the ground with him.
With Colby's secrets plastered across surf magazines and tabloid headlines, Haley takes on the job of playing damage control for Drenaline Surf - which isn't easy when Colby breaks everything he touches, Topher breaks the law, and Miles breaks his leg.
Instead of chasing dreams of forever, Haley spends her summer chasing the unraveling careers of the hottest new faces in the surf world, and she's about to learn what happens when forever doesn't last.

Why am I waiting?  I am so excited for this book I could scream!  Book 1 in this series, Chasing Forever Down, was my favorite book last year.  I love this character driven, beach and surf series so much that I can't wait to see what happens when Haley moves back to Crescent Cove.  

Release Date for Rough Waters is June 17, 2014

What book are you waiting on this week?  Leave me your links so I can visit and see what fantastic reads you are looking forward to!

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Books About Friendship

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by 

The Broke and the Bookish. 

This weeks topic: 
Top Ten Books About Friendship
With this topic I felt like it was appropriate to intermix some children's books.  I love them so much and I feel like there is a lot we can learn from them.

#10 ~ Open Road Summer
by Emery Lord

This book is loaded with friendship vibes.  I loved the life long friendship between Reagan and Lilah throughout this book.

#9 ~ The Rainbow Fish
by Marcus Pfister

I love The Rainbow Fish.  It teaches so much about giving and sharing with people which are important qualities in a good friend.

#8 ~ Chasing Forever Down
By Nikki Godwin

I talk about this book a lot because it has so many amazing elements and one of them is a most unlikely friendship that develops throughout the story.  I absolutely love it and if you haven't read it yet, believe me when I say it is definitely worth your time!

#7 ~ Women's Murder Club
by James Patterson

This is a series I started when #6 came out.  I love this series because of the bond of friendship these ladies have with each other.  I look forward to reading Lucky 13 that just came out this week.

#6 ~ Frog and Toad are Friends
by Arnold Lobel

I didn't read very much as a kid, but this book I remember reading cover to cover more times than I can count.  When I think of books about friendship this one definitely makes the list!

#5 ~ The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton

I devoured this book as a teen even though I wasn't a reader.  It still remains one of my favorites to this day.  The friendships in this book were amazingly strong and so well written.

#4 ~ Leonardo the Terrible Monster
by Mo Willems

This is the all time favorite book for Coconut!  I don't know how many times we read it to her before she could read, then she memorized it and "read it" to us, and now of course she can read it herself.  Leonardo is one of the best friendship books for children I have ever read and it had to make my list.

#3 ~ Charlotte's Web
by E.B. White

This book was a childhood favorite for me.  I love the friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur.  It is such a beautiful story.  Unlikely friendships are something I always enjoy reading about.

#2 ~ The Harry Potter Series
by J.K. Rowling

I probably don't need to go into much detail with this one.  There are more friendships in this book than you can count.  Laced throughout the entire series there are even friendships between the bad characters.  Friendship and loyalty are everywhere.

#1 ~ The Infernal Devices
by Cassandra Claire

The friendship between Will and Jem in this series is probably one of the strongest and well written I have ever come across.  This series is definitely my #1 when it comes to friendship.  


That's my list for this week!  Leave me your links so I can check out your top ten books about friendship!