Parents' Guide to

Open Road Summer

By Mary Cosola, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Sweet tale of love and friendship on the road to stardom.

Book Emery Lord Romance 2014
Open Road Summer Poster Image

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OPEN ROAD SUMMER is an enjoyable read about friendship and romance. Reagan and Dee have a strong friendship. They both are going through some typical teen issues, such as testing limits and learning about love, but in an exponential way, which gives the story its excitement. Reagan's character development is good. She's created a tough shell as a way of dealing with her troubled upbringing, but she learns to trust her instincts and open up to other people. She doesn't lose her edge along the way, which is good because her attitude makes her a fun character. Dee's character could have been the one-dimensional Taylor Swift knockoff she seems to be at the outset, but author Emery Lord gives the reader Dee as a fully fleshed-out teen skyrocketing into stardom and struggling to hold on to the things she cares about most in her life.

The reader gets a good glimpse of the downside of stardom, especially in terms of tabloid scandals and record execs micromanaging a star's life. Even though the characters are well drawn, the plot itself is somewhat predictable, especially when the story deals with the girls' past and possible future romances.

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