Tag Archives: Open Road Summer

Jul

Summer Showcase: Cute Contemporaries

This summer I wanted to share with you a collection of posts to feature a few books that I just absolutely have to recommend to you for fantastic summer reads a well as books I plan on reading this summer myself! Summertime is a fantastic time of year for so many different kinds of books. I don’t know how many people out there are mood readers or even “season readers” but I feel like summer is the great time for epic books, cute contemps, and emotional roller coasters — basically any book you can totally and completely get lost in. Enter: feature.

Missed the first edition of Summer Showcase? Check out which blockbuster books I’m recommending for this summer (and reading myself) here!
Summer Showcase: Blockbusters

THE CUTE CONTEMPORARIES

One of my favorite types of books to read in the summer are the cute contemporaries. I just LOVE a cute, summery, light read in the summertime. They’re just perfect for kicking back and relaxing, reading on the beach, chilling on the porch, or just letting your mind relax with something cute and cozy!

There’s just something about contemporary books that scream summer and I just love all the light and fluffy and/or cute and/or swoony reads paired with warm weather and cold drinks!

Open Road Summer – Emery Lord

OPEN ROAD SUMMER is the perfect summer read. I mean HELLOOOO it has the word “summer” in the title! But seriously, folks. I read this one a few months ago and I am still swooning over it. I read it, fell in love, and then immediately ordered my hardcover copy because I NEEDED this book to stay on my shelves. I already want to do a re-read. That’s how much I loved it!
What you need to know about this book is that it’s about teenage country & pop superstar Lilah Montgomery and the story spans the course of the summer during her concert tour (hence the title) but the book isn’t actually Lilah’s story. Yes, that’s a very big part of it, but OPEN ROAD SUMMER is very much Reagan’s story. Reagan and Dee (short for Delilah — Dee to her friends, Lilah to her fans) have been best friends for years and after a very rough patch in her life, Reagan spends the summer with Dee on her multi-city concert tour. It’s a story about redemption, friendship, love, and finding oneself. OPEN ROAD SUMMER is one of my top recommendations for summer reads because this book really has it all!

Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins

Now is the perfect time to read ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS if you haven’t already with companion novel ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER coming out in August! I read ANNA a couple years ago and instantly fell in love. I really related to Anna in so many ways and she also happens to fall in love with one of my favorite book crushes of all time, Etienne St. Clair. ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS takes place at a boarding school in France and not knowing much about France (and not being a Francophile like so many of my friends), I was scared I’d get lost in French culture and references… but it was just the opposite. I ended up learning a lot and quickly fell into step with Anna who also knew absolutely zip about France before she was shipped off there.
ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is adorable, enjoyable, and one of my favorites. Read it or start a re-read this summer! Now is the time!

Meant To Be – Lauren Morrill

MEANT TO BE actually takes place over spring break, but I think it’s a wonderful light read for summer as well. I felt like it was very reminiscent of ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS when I first read it which was all positive for me! I really connected with Julia who was a total book nerd and someone who always felt like things would fall into place, especially when it came to her love life. I loved Julia’s story of figuring out that sometimes you need to work at the best things in life to make them happen and that life can be a great balance of both Fate and choice. The romance is cute and so much fun to watch develop and MEANT TO BE also has some really funny lines and slapstick comedy which I don’t always enjoy but Lauren Morrill did it just perfectly!

The Summer I Became A Nerd – Leah Rae Miller

THE SUMMER I BECAME A NERD is one of the most underrated cute contemporaries that I’ve read. It’s not a bigger title and it’s from a smaller publisher so I really feel like this one really slipped under people’s radars but I absolutely loved it! The book is an almost Cinderella story in reverse… Instead of a transformation from geek to chic, we get the story of Maddie, a closet geek who slowly starts to turn from popular cheerleader into the nerd she really is. I thought the book was so much fun and it has a great nerdy-hot love interest!

On the Fence — Kasie West

ON THE FENCE was just plain adorable. Kasie West is a contemporary mastermind and this book did not disappoint me whatsoever. I loved reading about tomboy Charlie (short for Charlotte) and her day-to-day life growing up in a house full of men. The book was just plain fun and I loved the best-friend-to-boyfriend romance (I always do) between Charlie and her neighbor Braden, who’s practically a part of the family. ON THE FENCE is light, adorable, and just plain fun!

MY SUMMER 2014 CUTE CONTEMPORARY READS

MY LIFE NEXT DOOR by Huntley Fitzpatrick

I KNOW. How have I not read this yet?! I’ve heard nothing but good things from everyone and I just haven’t had the time to sit down and really enjoy it. I’m constantly working my way through ARCs and review copies that my backlist copies tend to get pushed to the side but I REALLY want to read MY LIFE NEXT DOOR sometime this summer! It’s been on my list for years and it just needs to happen!

A LITTLE SOMETHING DIFFERENT by Sandy Hall

A LITTLE SOMETHING DIFFERENT is one of my review copy reads but I’m also really excited to get to it! I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about it and just how stinkin’ cute it is. I’m really excited to pick this one up for summer and just kick back and relax with an adorable book.

How about you? Do you love cute contemporaries for summer? Which ones are climbing to the top of your recommendations lists this year?

Apr

Open Road Summer – Emery Lord

Title: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
Publishing Info: April 15, 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing
Source: Netgalley
Genres: Contemporary, Music, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: April 11, 2014
Related Posts: The Start of Me and You, When We Collided

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.

I don’t even like country music but somehow I end up falling in love with books about them. I was in the middle of a few super heavy books and wanted to start something light to combat the book hangover I was about to have… OPEN ROAD SUMMER was the perfect feel-good book but… well, it also gave me a book hangover because it was just SO good!! I had heard SO many good things about this book from my fellow lovely blogger friends before I had started so as I usually am, I was a tiiiny but scared that the hype of it so far would make me not love it as much. Thank GOODNESS that wasn’t an issue. Really from start to finish, I enjoyed every aspect of OPEN ROAD SUMMER. From the characters to the plot to the places the book could have gone but thankfully didn’t… And every scene just felt so incredible and magical. I was pretty much swooning the whole time — and that was even before I got to read about Matt Finch!

OPEN ROAD SUMMER follows Reagan as she spends the summer with her best friend Dee. And oh yeah, Dee just happens to be country superstar Lilah Montgomery and spending the summer together entails a 24 city concert tour. But this summer is exactly what Reagan needs to step away from her life and the decisions she needs to reconsider and try to start the next year with a clean slate. I really liked Reagan and I appreciated that she was really trying to turn her life around. She’s had some hard times in her life with her mother leaving their family when she was young and as much as she loves her dad, she isn’t a huge fan of her stepmom and they really just don’t get along.
I absolutely loved the celebrity and music super star aspect of this story which is not something I really would have ever expected. I really felt like I got an insight into the “normal” side of the celebrity life. I feel like celebrities are so built up in our minds that we often forget that they’re just normal people and it was really interesting to see the other side of that. Dee (to her friends, Lilah to her fans) loves what she does but that doesn’t mean she leads an easy life. She works hard to maintain a good, clean image to appeal to children and adults alike, so when a misleading scandal hits the news, Dee’s publicist decides to invite long-time friend and all-around good guy Matt Finch to open for Dee on tour.

Oh, Matt Finch. Count me in the Matt Finch fanclub for sure. I was nervous when we first met him, hearing that he had such a clean reputation and he didn’t even like lying even when helping out a friend — I was worried he would turn out to be a little too good for my tastes but don’t worry! There are many, many facets to Matt Finch and he easily had me swooning. Major swoons, guys. Major swoons. He and Reagan had such fantastic chemistry and don’t EVEN get me started on the forbidden romance aspect. It just KILLS me. See, part of the deal with Matt coming on tour is that he is supposed to be leading the press into thinking that he and Dee/Lilah are dating to help combat the bad press and rumors going around. Matt and Reagan have amazing chemistry but they can’t allow themselves to date because, well, Matt is supposed to come off as Lilah’s new love interest. AHHH. The tension. I died.

Okay, I don’t want to give away the whole story, but it’s so hard to write all the things about this book and not just GUSH. I absolutely loved it with very, very minor issues involving Reagan’s former path of rebelling and self-destruction. Overall, I really loved the characters, loved the romance, and loved the entire feel of the book. Each scene just really felt so genuine and I really felt like I was experiencing it as well. It’s everything I could possibly imagine that the perfect summer would be like! Great friendships, great romances, great adventures. I could honestly gush about this book so much more, but I’ll leave you to go pick it up yourself… (Which I hope you’re doing as soon as you finish reading this. GO! It’s okay. I’ll wait.)

“The View from Goodreads” is a new featured section in my reviews that I decided to incorporate! I tend to update my Goodreads status a LOT when I read — reactions, feelings, notes — so I thought it would be fun to share the sort of “reading process”! All status updates are spoiler-free (no specific plot points will be revealed) but will contain reactions to certain pages and/or characters!

Reagan O’Neill // Character Obsessions: Shoes, boys, making a clean start.
I loved Reagan. She has so much going on in her life and got this new opportunity to turn her life around and it says so much that she took it. She didn’t have the easiest life but she also didn’t make it easy for herself and it was so awesome to watch her figure everything out and take control over her life again. Not to mention she made a GREAT choice to end up liking Matt <3
Delilah Montgomery // Character Obsessions: Music, her guitar, Jimmy, a good image.
I also loved Dee! She is SUCH a great friend to Reagan and she’s sort of like that friend who’s kind of like a mom. She’s always looking out for Reagan and tries to steer her to make good decisions but supports her even when she makes the wrong ones. They rarely fight and have such a wonderful friendship. The fame never goes to her head and she’s just a really good person.
Matt Finch // Character Obsessions: Music, his mom, his friends, Reagan.
I thought about just writing “SWOOOOOON” but I guess I should put some real words in here. Matt Finch is the good guy that girls hope exist but deep down think will they will never meet. Of course he has some flaws (what guy doesn’t) but please, they’re minor because Matt Finch is a ball of amazing. (Yeah, I can’t do it. SWOOOOOOON.)

Kept Me Hooked On: Music-themed books. I don’t even like country music and somehow books involving country music JUST GET ME. I just really loved the tour aspect, the song-writing aspect — just so many parts involving the music and how it played such a big role in the book in so many ways.
Left Me Wanting More: MATT FINCH. Just always more Matt, right? Right.