Speed Bumps by Ken Casper

Gabby O’Farrell was a rookie driver on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. Vaughn Steiner was a former driver who found himself injured and unable to drive and Gabby has lots of potential both on and off the track. Unfortunately, Gabby’s mother has plans for her daughter and they don’t involve her driving a dangerous stock car or spending time with Vaughn. But Gabby is determined to win the championship, but Vaughn won’t settle for anything less than Gabby’s heart.

I was looking forward to reading a NASCAR book written by a guy, but I was seriously bummed by the large number of errors. A couple of errors I could forgive, but this book had so many it totally ruined the story for me. From what I could tell, Ken has never seen a NASCAR race in his life and I’m not even sure he even bothered to read any of Pamela Britton’s books. The book didn’t have a NASCAR feel in the least and I’m surprised NASCAR let it get published.

While some readers might not notice the mistakes, to a real NASCAR fan the mistakes stood out like a cowboy putting a stainless steel saddle on his horse or arming a police officer with a bow and arrow. One example of Ken's many errors has a driver doing wheelies after winning a race instead of the expected burnout and donuts. While the idea of watching a race car drive around with the front wheels off the ground sounds nice, it’s impossible to do with a race car from any NASCAR series. Assuming that Harlequin continues to publish NASCAR books, I suggest they hire someone who understands racing to find and resolve these problems before the book hits the printing press. However even if you ignore the NASCAR errors, the overall plot was still very weak with almost no conflict between the cardboard characters. If you love Ken’s books and don’t know anything about NASCAR then maybe you’ll like this one, but if you’re a NASCAR fan, I’d suggest waiting for Pamela’s next book.

Details: Harlequin Rush, May 2007

Excellence Rating: Okay

Steaminess Factor: Sensual