What happens when you hit rock bottom and your best friend is coincidently about to headline a summer tour around the country? You take advantage of that epic road trip, of course! Reagan O’Neill is a little, well, out of control. Her family life is less than ideal and her ex-boyfriend hurt her beyond repair. Her summer vacation with her best friend and country superstar Lilah Montgomery is the perfect chance to start over. Add an adorable and handsome opening act to the mix and you get a very unexpected surprise. Even though the premise sounds like the perfect summer read, Open Road Summer was a little less awesome and a lot more genetic than I was expecting.
I was really looking forward to the road trip aspect of this novel. However, despite some exceptions, it was more of a “venue-to-venue” sort of trip instead of an exploration of the cities they visited. While I understand that they had a limit time in each place, I would’ve liked to step away from the bus and experience the different locations instead of feeling like every stop blended into the next. While the tour left a lot to be desired, the characters were interesting enough to keep me reading. Reagan has a very strong personality and she might be a little difficult to like but the over-the-top niceness of her best friend balances this out a bit. Matt (the previously discussed adorable opening act) is dreamy and his conversations with Reagan are funny and/or heartfelt. Even though I didn’t dislike the characters or the book itself, I felt like the story was too predictable. I knew exactly where it was headed from the very beginning and that took away from the few bright moments of the novel.
The one thing that I really loved about Open Road Summer was the friendship. I feel like healthy female friendships are difficult to find in YA so this one gets a lot of brownie points for including one. Even though Reagan’s best friend is a celebrity, there isn’t any jealousy or animosity between them. They have ups and downs but they’re always there for each other and I loved that. I also really enjoyed the music element of the novel. I have a weakness for lyrics and I loved those moments when thoughts and feelings were explained through music.
To be completely honest, I was expecting a lot more from this novel, but I didn’t have a terrible time reading it. It isn’t spectacular and it might not be the most original book ever written, but it was fun. If you like Contemporary and you’re looking for a light read, Open Road Summer is the perfect book for you. Just make sure to leave your high expectations at the door.
Katherine
This sounds really good! The author is visiting my city next month, so I really need to pick this up before the signing.
Kelsey
I probably would have been more interested if they were to take time exploring on their journey. I’m not hugely into travel books to be honest so if I try this it might be next summer if I need a light read. Thanks for the review!
Paola Carolina
You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy it 🙂
Mel
Hi! ♥ I haven’t read it yet, but I want to read it soon! Sometimes we don’t need deep stories and we look for a simple but at the same time fun story. Open Road Summer it seems a kind of that! It doesn’t mean it is bad, on the contrary, on summer (above all) I need fresh stories like this!! The elements of friendship and music have caught my attention of this novel!! 🙂
Paola Carolina
That’s how I feel in the summer! I tend to read simple stories too. This one was lacking a little something to make it special, though.
Morgan
I read this over the summer and agree with you; it wasn’t quite as awesome as I was hoping. But Reagan and Dee were wonderful together, Matt Finch was adorable, and I actually loved the songs included! I usually find songs and poems written within a book to be hokey, but these were believable and pretty great. I also loved the 4th of July part 🙂 The lack of city exploring hadn’t crossed my mind but now that you mentioned it, it’s pretty glaring.
Paola Carolina
Ah, the 4th of July part! I loved it too!!! It was adorable.
Laura
I’ve been looking forward to reading this for a while 🙂 Sometimes it’s just nice to read a fun, easygoing book 🙂
Ari
This story lost me when the main character started giving bad names to all the girls that liked the male interest, when she was doing just the same. And the insta love didn’t help. Or maybe I was just hoping for something else. i do remember liking an emotional side of it – i am not sure if it was about the main character of her friend, it’s been a while since i read it.
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