Book Blurb
The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.
Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.
But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.
Toot's Review by Stacy Sabala
Rachel is the youngest child in her family, well by a minute anyway. She was born as a replacement to her older sister who died of cancer. It seems that she is the sole person in the family that holds her mother’s happiness. It is too bad that she has to hide herself in the process. She isn’t her sister Colleen and trying to be her is going to kill her. She likes fast cars and working on them. In fact her Mustang is her baby and no one touches it but her. Everyone thinks she is weird, even her family, so she hides her passion.
She has four older brothers who are very over protective. She is weak in their eyes and they think they have to protect her from life. She is suffocating and she doesn’t know what to do about it. She has been hiding panic attacks so no one will hover more than they already do.
Isaiah is a foster kid. His mother went to prison eleven years ago and he has been bounced from one home to another. He has an arrangement with his current foster parents, they get the monthly check and he can live with his best friend on his own.
He looks the part of a punk. He has piercings and tattoos, wanting to look as tough as possible. No one messes with him.
After giving a speech and having a panic attack for her mother, Rachel escapes in her car. She is determined to do something for her. She decides that drag racing in her car sounds exciting. She talks two college guys into taking her with them to find a race. There she meets Isaiah. He needs money for rent otherwise he wouldn’t be racing on the street. When he sees her get out of the car, he instantly worries about her. He tries to talk her out of racing but she is determined to do it. He wants to protect her, so chooses to race against her.
After they race, the cops show up and they have to flee. Rachel is frozen and doesn’t know what to do. Isaiah has her follow him. Then when his car gets a flat, she refuses to leave him behind. They flee together and escape. Isaiah is shocked that she would put herself in danger for him. He owes her for this. She has earned his respect and protection. As the night progresses, she earns more.
Then when the race turns into a dangerous situation and Rachel is blamed for money stolen, Isaiah takes on her debt. They work together and grow closer. However, when family gets involved everything blows up and their lives will never be the same.
I absolutely love this book. There is so much angst and family dysfunction, you could cut it with a knife. Despite all of it though, Isaiah and Rachel are great with each other. Their attraction and relationship makes perfect sense. The author does a wonderful job bringing them together and nurturing them. They end up supporting each other above all else as a team.
Of course, the reader feels sorry for both characters with the cards dealt to them in the family part of their lives. Isaiah really doesn’t have any and Rachel is supposed to be someone else. In fact Rachel’s situation was probably the one that made me the maddest. The author made the pressure that Rachel had to deal with feel real. Her responses were believable as were her inner emotions. The story hits home that appearances aren’t always what they seem.
I give it a 5 out of 5
Excellent!
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