Open Road Summer

by Emery Lord

Overview

For fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty comes the ultimate summer love story.

What if your best friend were just like Taylor Swift? What if she invited you on her summer tour, to heal your broken heart?

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681195933
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	121,043
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Emery Lord is the author of Open Road Summer; The Start of Me and You; When We Collided, which was a Schneider Family Book Award Winner, a YALSA-ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and a YALSA-ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Books; and The Names They Gave Us. She lives in Ohio with her family and several shelves of books that she considers friends.
www.emerylord.com
@emerylord

Editorial Reviews

"Reagan’s tough, wised-up voice and her burgeoning romance with Matt are the engines that keep Lord’s engaging debut moving along." - Publishers Weekly

"Lord successfully adapts classic elements of adult romance novels into a love story gentle enough for younger readers." - Kirkus Reviews

"Lord’s debut provides an insightful take on friendship, romance, and celebrity culture." - Booklist

"This is more than a love story. When We Collided carefully yet effortlessly puts mental illness in conversation with the beauty and struggle of adolescence. It is a book I wish could have written, but am so much better for having read." - Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of DUMPLIN’ and SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY on WHEN WE COLLIDED

"Searingly honest, gut-wrenchingly authentic, and deeply romantic, When We Collided is a gift of a novel. It tackles tough topics with nuance, and will make readers both laugh and cry, sometimes within the span of a page." - Jasmine Warga, author of MY HEART AND OTHER BLACK HOLES on WHEN WE COLLIDED

"A five-star must-read romance for older teens (and up) that will challenge readers toward a better understanding of a too-often marginalized and stigmatized segment of the population, When We Collided is an important book not only for this generation of teens, but those who’ve come before . . . and those who will come after." - USA Today on WHEN WE COLLIDED

"An absolute tearjerker romance with a powerful message about weightier topics of grief and mental illness." - starred review, School Library Journal on WHEN WE COLLIDED

From the Publisher

02/03/2014
Reagan and Dee have been friends since they were young, and although their lives are very different, they’re still close at 17. Dee, known to her fans as Lilah, is a country music star with a “squeaky-clean” reputation. Reagan may get good grades, but she dresses like a bad girl, drinks, and has an arm in a cast from a confrontation with the boyfriend she met while doing community service. When Dee needs support after splitting with her longtime boyfriend, she invites Reagan on tour; that’s where Reagan meets Matt, a former teen sensation who is Dee’s opening act. The two plot strands—the stresses of Dee’s love life, celebrity, and tabloid travails vs. Reagan’s struggle to accept her past and shape her future—aren’t always equally effective; for one thing, it’s hard to believe a photo of a kiss (in which Dee appears to be, but isn’t actually, topless) would be so shocking in today’s Miley Cyrus world. Nevertheless, Reagan’s tough, wised-up voice and her burgeoning romance with Matt are the engines that keep Lord’s engaging debut moving along. Ages 12–up. Agent: Taylor Martindale, Full Circle Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-02-12
Reagan joins her best friend Delilah's summer concert tour to escape some poor decisions and break some bad habits, finding romance and complication instead. When Reagan finds herself attracted to soulful musician Matt, romance seems inevitable—but the record company has hired him to pose as Delilah's wholesome boyfriend. Reagan and Matt are both good-hearted characters suffering from emotional wounds. A victim of dating violence (described dramatically but not graphically in flashback), Reagan finds curbing her reckless impulses surprisingly difficult. Matt is reeling from his mother's death and struggling to define himself as a person and artist after the demise of his famous band. Luckily, both have the classic supportive friend in Delilah, who shores them up emotionally and encourages their romance—even as she struggles with the pressures of her increasing fame. These characters are predictable, and the happily-ever-after ending is really never in doubt, but romance fans will undoubtedly still enjoy the developing relationships. Lord also deserves credit for plausibly explaining the lack of adult supervision: Their chaperone, Delilah's 26-year-old aunt, is distracted by her involvement with a new tour boyfriend. Even without adult supervision, Reagan and Matt's physical relationship is passionate but, refreshingly, restrained. Lord successfully adapts classic elements of adult romance novels into a love story gentle enough for younger readers. (Romance. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews