Speed Demons by Gun Brooke

Speed Demons
by Gun Brooke
Pages: 264
Date: November 1 2012
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 27 2016

My fifth book I've read by this author. Giving this book 4 stars brings my average rating for books read Brooke to 3.5. A far fall from the first book I'd read, or the rating I gave it, 5.5. The 3.5, though, is actually an increase over my previous overall rating of 3.3 for the combined average of the four books read before this one.

I've recently been testing some of those authors I'd somewhat pushed to the side along the way for one reason or another, and found some good things, which is how I ended up reading this book here.

So, what can I saw about this one . . . hmms. Evie is a race car driver on the NASCAR circuit. Blythe is a photojournalist who is doing a photo book about Evie. This is where the book starts. Blythe watches through her camera, then her eyes as Evie races around on a race track in a Dodge Viper. Screaming. Clouds of smoke, flames, crashing explosions – two of Evie’s fellow race car drivers have crashed, and Evie’s right behind them . . . following her pit bosses instructions, going low, until she rams into the side of one of the crashing cars and is herself engulfed in flames. Blythe, who happened to have her camera pointing the right way, keeps pushing the button to take pictures, until she can’t any longer and rushes toward the crash.

The book opens as above. It’s now a year later and the very shy 43 year old Blythe has worked herself up to approach Evie about a proposal – continuation of that book they had been working on, with Blythe following Evie as she attempts her comeback from the tragic accident which had claimed two lives. A certain amount of tension and mistrust occurs, but an agreement is reached. They will continue with the project. This will include some rather close living quarters . . . because that’s just what you do in a situation like this, apparently.

So, while Evangeline ‘Evie’ Marshall is working on her comeback, Blythe Pierce is basically living in her pocket (I’d make a short joke, since Blythe is tiny, but she might gut me – she’s kind of fierce). Certain ‘feelings’ develop.

Meanwhile there are other characters and issues occurring in this book. Family: Evie’s dick of a father and, to a lesser extent (appearance in the book wise), grandfather make several rude snide undermining appearances (Brooke sure doesn’t like father characters); Blythe’s family itself also plays its own little role – well, largely the role being so abusive that roughly 25 years ago, Blythe had to run away. So that’s happening.

Nice enough book. Those looking for detailed long stretches of car racing should look elsewhere. I kind of knew that going in so that did not have an impact on my rating (good or bad). I think I’d rate this somewhere around 3.70 if I still rated using decimals; otherwise this book gets marked as being 4 stars.

July 27 2016