Jean Brashear, you always come through. Up 'til now, my experiences with Nascar Romances have been disappointing to say the least, but you managed to bring just the right touch of humanity to a group of folks who too frequently come across as...well...rather unlikeable in their fictional forms. ( )

The premise of the book was interesting enough, although I'm not a huge fan of "long lost kids" stories. Will and Zoe could have solved most of their problems if they'd just sat down and talked to one another, which is another plot device that I dislike, but then again, they were young and stupid at the time, so it wasn't too unbelievable. And I hate the "we had sex one time and used protection, but there's still a baby" storyline, ugh. Okay, sure, I'm sure this has happened to someone...but certainly not as often as it happens in soap operas and romance novels.

I liked the character of Will, who is reeling from his best friend's death (a suspected suicide) and the knowledge that he has a nine-year-old son, along with the fact that his father is a big-time crook who is going to be in prison for life for swindling people out of their money. In spite of everything, he was a pretty good guy, and he definitely was trying to do right by his family. Maybe he got over his anger towards Zoe a little quickly, but category romances only have a certain number of pages to tell the story, so whatever.

I didn't really like Zoe, however, who came across as a big jerk. I could understand that she'd be a little wary about trusting Will to be a part of her son's life, considering the way that they parted years ago, but she was bound and determined to hurt Will any way she could. I couldn't emphasize with her choices at all, and by the end, I thought that Will (and their son) deserved someone better than her.

Altogether, this isn't a bad book, but it's not particularly good either. I'd probably give the author another chance since there were some genuinely good/funny moments in this story, but I really wouldn't recommend this book. ( )

I really enjoyed this one. It was a typical storyline I think. Boy meets girl, girl marries someone else (in this case, boy’s best friend), and then the rest of the book is about boy and girl trying to get back together again. But the great part is in the detail. It has a NASCAR setting, which is always a plus for me, but the pace, the dialog, and the characters were great. I think my favorite was Sam, the little boy, although the two main characters were well suited and had a great back and forth. I was honored when the author not only came by my blog, but left a comment. She told me she was working on a sequel involving the brother right now, and I can’t wait to read it! ( )