My Take in Brief: Enjoyable, but drastic u-turn in last 10% took points off. Also, hero makes a claim about women and “pulling out” that I have never heard in my entire life. Is it true?
Series? Yes, this is the second book in her stock car racing series (Fast Track)
Setting: Present day Charlotte, North Carolina, stock care milieu. Did you know what a stock car looks like? I did not. Here’s one:
(Psst. It’s not real. It’s from one of those funny fake news stories. Maybe you have to be Jewish to pee your pants laughing at this?)
Heroine and Hero: Imogen is a serious, nerdy grad student in sociology, Upper East Side upbringing. Ty is a stock car racer who is dyslexic.
Plot: Two people date and fall in love.
Conflict: For the first 90%, this was the most conflict-free romance I have ever read. Then, bam.
Word on the Web:
Tracy’s Place, 3.5 out of 5
Lurv A La Mode, 3 scoops out of 5
Babbling About Books, A-
Stacy’s Place on Earth, 4.5 out of 5 (link is to blog home. I couldn’t find link to page)
All About Romance, Katie Mack, C+
Breezing Through, Nath C+, Ames B-
Dear Author, Jane, B
Amazon.com 4.5 stars after 9 reviews
RomanceNovelTV, Maria, 4.5 out of 5
Romance Rookie, Jill D, A
Sportpickle manages to review this book without actually reading it, calling it “This Weekend’s Book Not To Read”
Fun factoid: I had never heard of this author prior to Flat Out Sexy, and thought she was a newbie. It turns out she has written 24 single title romances in 7 years.
Racy Romance Review:
I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at the idea of attempting to say anything new about this book after so many reviews have been written. I enjoyed reading this book, as I did the first one in the series, Flat Out Sexy. Sometimes reading a romance really is like reading a People magazine or watching an action movie. Just passing entertainment. This was a nice, steamy story of two people who seem quite different (the brawn and the brain) falling in lust and then love.
A number of reviewers have mentioned the pacing, and I agree it was all over the place. We have already been introduced to these characters and their flirtation in Flat Out Sexy, and in the first scene of Hard and Fast, they end up kissing in the rain on a porch things proceed pretty quickly from there. Then, things kind of stall. Then get crazy. Like many readers, I appreciated Imogen’s honesty, Ty’s charming personality and their fun (if not, for me, exactly “sparkling” — it is this book’s misfortune that I read the fishing scene in Hard and Fast only a couple of weeks after the incomparable fishing scenes in Jennifer Crusie’s Manhunting) dialogue. They were just a normal couple without any real conflicts. Makes great use of Shakespeare. For the first 9/10′s I really enjoyed it.
But Hard and Fast took a nosedive for me at the end and the HEA turned into a HFN for this reader. After a fairytale whirlwind courtship, Imogen and Ty suddenly wake up and realize they don’t know anything about each other and are very different. That would have been fine if they had had more than a few pages to work this out.
Spoilers follow:
Ty is dyslexic and has been hiding it. Imogen doesn’t react the way he wants, and they have a huge fight. A fight is fine, but Ty derided Imogen’s career choice, as a useless academic specialty that has no value and no one’s interest, and claimed that academics observe life rather than live it. Clearly, I identify with Imogen, as I am a useless academic with a specialty no one cares about.
But I believe that there are some things, that if you love someone, you do not even allow yourself to think. And if you think it, you do not say it. And if you are so very stupid as to think it AND say it, the groveling must be long and intense. Did not happen.
So, while I think it’s a really intriguing idea to follow this type of couple past the honeymoon phase, this fight showed me that these two are not ready for prime time, and it took the edge off the book for me.
********End Spoilers.*********
Three more points:
1. A tiny one: Ty apologizes to Imogen for not “pulling out”. No, not because of birth control (she is on the pill). But because women don’t like to get messy. I confess this flabbergasted me. Is this the new thing?
2. This author used the old “male academics are unsexy nerds” in the last book so I was ready for that. But Imogen’s research project would never have passed the Institutional Review Board at any US University (she planned to date stock car racers to find out about courtship patterns). Ty asked her the same question I would have, “What the hell is that? A doctorate of dick tease?”. Anyway, suffice to say that in this book, as in the last one, academia is unrecognizable. JMC raises some additional interesting questions.
And, because I cannot resist, look at this picture and tell me if you think ALL stock car racers are super hot and super masculine:
3. In the first book we were introduced to an unhappily divorced couple, Ryder and Suzanne, and their unfinished business continues in this one. I am guessing we’ll get their book next. Suzanne was so vulgar, harsh, and unlikeable in this book that I went from really looking forward to her story to thinking I’ll skip it.
Related posts:
- Review Irresistable Susan Mallery Cover comment: Boring, and not related to text, but easy to buy without embarrassment Setting: Contemporary Seattle, switching between a...
- My Beach Vacation with 7 Contemps and 1 Historical Read on for mini-reviews and lots of Kindle-on-the-beach pictures of these: Talk Me Down, Victoria Dahl (2009, HQN 352 pages)...
- Review: Market for Love, Jamaica Layne In which my inner bitch is unleashed upon the blogosphere. Previously published as an ebook with New Concepts Publishing (yes,...
- Review: Club Dead, Charlaine Harris My Take in Brief: A terrific third installment, although I was slightly less enthralled this time out. This review contains...
- Review: Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris My Take in Brief: A terrific second installment. For background on this series, and introductions to the main characters, see...
- Review: Jacob, by Jacquelyn Frank My Take in Brief: A promising premise, but the central relationship was not compelling. I won’t be continuing with this...
#1 by Jill Sorenson on May 22, 2009 - 11:28 am
I wasn’t a fan of the nerdy academic portrayal in Flat-Out Sexy. I didn’t find it believable that the heroine would try to “force herself to like” a boring, unkempt professor with yellow teeth and no skillz in bed. She also seemed to think that her body wasn’t sexy because of motherhood. Normally I find self-consciousness sympathetic, but this time it raised my hackles a bit.
#2 by Jill D. on May 22, 2009 - 12:49 pm
Yes, I completely see your point about the abrupt ending. While some of the things Ty said to Imogen where cruel, when people are hurting they lash out. I felt there was a realism to their conversations. I could believe that a hurt man would say those things. Yep, more grovel would have been nice. I love a good grovel scene. Overall, I would say that the dialog between Ty and Imogene had to be some of the best I have read in a long while. I love the quote you chose, there were many other good ones, as well. I wish I could remember some off the top of my head, but I can’t.
The first book I read by Erin was Heiress for Hire. It features a spoiled heroine who eventually gets cut off from Daddy’s money and has to learn to provide for herself. She takes a job as a babysitter for a 7-year-old girl. Danny the father happens to unexpectedly find out he has a child. Danny of all things is a farmer and is the complete opposite of the heroine (can’t remember her name). Anyway, it’s a good story. You first might think that it would be hard to like the heroine, but as the story unfolds so does the depths of her personality. I suggest it if you liked McCarthy’s writing.
#3 by Laura Vivanco on May 22, 2009 - 1:30 pm
“Ty derided Imogen’s career choice, as a useless academic specialty that has no value”
What JMC said about Imogen’s response to finding out about Ty’s dyslexia made Imogen sound very arrogant and patronising but looking at Ty’s comment out of context, I think my instinctive and deliberately hurtful response to it would be “don’t you think that’s a bit rich coming from someone who earns his living driving round in circles?” And things could only deteriorate from there.
“claimed that academics observe life rather than live it”
Right. Because we’re all born as adults via parthenogenesis, walk straight into the groves of academe, and remain as virginal as Athena herself.
“Ty apologizes to Imogen for not “pulling out” [...] because women don’t like to get messy. I confess this flabbergasted me.”
Does seem rather odd to me. Maybe he thought that because in the past he’d tried to avoid using condoms and some woman had thought up this as an excuse so that he’d put one on?
Also, if he had pulled out, where was he planning to ejaculate so as not to create any mess?
#4 by Jessica Kennedy on May 22, 2009 - 1:47 pm
About the pulling out….
If we, my husband and I, weren’t trying to conceive I would TOTALLY prefer the pull out. It IS messy. I hate it.
Where else? His hand. Let him get ickified. Or a towel on the bed. Or the floor. Anywhere but “the obvious”.
I have this book in ARC format to read. Thanks for the heads-up about the conflict at the end.
#5 by Jessica on May 22, 2009 - 2:59 pm
Jessica Kennedy wrote:
Thank you for sharing your view on this. I guess Ty is on to something.
But … now … when a person experiences the Big O, it seems to me that it is a moment when one cannot or does not want to have to achieve any other end. It would seem kind of … er .. disruptive to have to remember to do something in the moment prior.
So, I guess what I am saying is that I commend the thoughtfulness, fortitude, and self-sacrfice of men who do this at their partners’ request.
#6 by Ann Somerville on May 22, 2009 - 6:04 pm
See, this is a classic example of a book starting in the wrong place. If I was writing this, I’d start it after the conflict at the end, break them up, and have them work through it. Because what you’ve described as coming before all that sounds uninteresting and unrealistic.
Also, on the pulling out thing – that’s something you see in gay fic, talking about blowjobs. Messy it might be, but any woman who tried that on her man for any other reason than dubious contraception, would find the man walking pretty fast. Who the hell wants to stop mid orgasm and change position?
#7 by carolyn crane (CJ) on May 23, 2009 - 9:32 am
Okay, I’m not Jewish, but that race car is totally hilarious! And somehow, it’s even funnier here on your blog, I don’t know why. Maybe it was your set up. I haven’t read this book or FLAT OUT which apparently must get onto my list here at some point. Nevertheless, I found your review interesting. Race car drivers!!! I did read and Erin McCarthy paranormal and enjoy it.
Yeah, the pull out thing? Maybe it’s just shorthand to establish his gentlemanly ways? I shouldn’t comment without reading the book. However, I’ve heard men (NOT my husband, just FYI) talk about the glory of depositing their seed in a woman, almost like it’s a precious gift and a dog marking territory all bundled into one. According to that, this fella really is missing out. My husband doesn’t concur with this description. If I had male readers I’d do a poll.
#8 by FD on May 23, 2009 - 8:30 pm
I enjoyed this as a bubblegum type read, but I will admit, was distressed by the lack of research into academia – those thesis topics? Says to me that the author has heard of people doing their dissertation on Harry Potter or Buffy and thought that means anything goes.
I liked the ‘big mis’ re Ty’s dyslexia – makes me think that that’s where the author focused their research, because Ty’s workarounds are very functional and in RL that sort of somewhat patronising ‘trying to help’ reaction IS very common.
I also thought that the pacing of this book was borked and that Flat Out Sexy had the same problem. Unlike Ann I wouldn’t suggest completely changing the format – the charm of it is in the dialogue and the sweetness of the courtship. Just needed to come earlier in the book.
Re the pulling out thing – I have a female acquaintance who was on the pill, but had her boyfriend wear condoms anyway because she disliked dealing with the mess.
I suspect that the author included that tidbit as another nod to the difference between Imogen’s ‘straightforwardness’ and the studied artificiality of Ty’s previous girlfriend.
#9 by willaful on May 25, 2009 - 1:23 am
Oddly enough, right before I read this post, I was reading a blog about sex in which a woman talked about being revolted by men ejaculating in her, something I don’t think I’ve ever heard of before. It’s an instant meme!
#10 by Jessica on May 25, 2009 - 10:27 am
willaful wrote:
Really! I’ve been talking about it all weekend with everyone I see. The majority seem to think it is an unusual request, but maybe people are just not willing to admit it.
I guess my view on it is that (a) I don’t think it’s gross, but (b) if I did, I would have to balance my need not to be grossed out with my partner’s need to have an uninterrupted orgasm. I would say that latter is a more compelling need (a stronger claim), and I would defer.
#11 by Theresa on May 28, 2009 - 12:01 pm
As a NASCAR fan, I can tell you that (in my opinion, at least) there are very few smokin’ hot drivers. Yes, there are some with nice bodies such as Carl Edwards. I read an interview with him a couple of years ago and it had a picture of him with his shirt off. He’s got a nice body.
I’ve never seen any pictures of other drivers without their shirts, but as far as faces go… there are some very nice looking guys.
However, I’d say that the majority of the drivers aren’t drop-dead gorgeous. Cute, yes. Attractive, yes. Modeling for the cover of this book, probably not that many.
#12 by Jessica on May 28, 2009 - 9:34 pm
@ Theresa:
Gasp! You mena that’s not a real NASCAR driver on the cover?
I agree. Obviously, there are good looking folks and unattractive ones, macho men and less macho men, in every field. I just wish this author didn’t give the impression that male academics are all unattractive, unconcerned about their appearance, and not masculine.