Full disclosure: I did not finish this one. However, I am not sure if it is due to the fact that the book itself is lacking or to the fact that mention of the protagonist accident and injuries triggered memories of my sister's horrific accident and permanent injuries.

I struggled to finish this one. Couldn't relate to the characters, especially as they seemed to be all over the place in their action/reactions, and the angst and drama was way too heavy handed for my tastes. This one was a miss for me.

I have previously read a book by this author and enjoyed, but this one doesn't seem her best.
I found the whole book confusing, a bit all over the place and if i had not been reading as part of a review I think I may have given up at a 3rd of the way through.
There were characters brought into the story but they didn't lead anywhere., Jade, her dad, Drew's sister nothing seem to link in nor conclude.

Not a book for me but don't be put off by this author as I know she has done better

Another mediocre lesbian romance. I'm really struggling to find a lesbian romance that I enjoy and this did not help. I realised that I don't enjoy romances that have the hard-headed, angry female lead. It was just quite underwhelming overall.

When I read about this book I really expected a high octane racing story. It was really disappointing because there was very little racing to be enjoyed.

All the action seemed to take place off the track.

It is a mystery but kind of simple to solve. That also disappointed me. There were so many threads that could have been elaborated on that would have made to book so much better.

overall it was a nice read but it just disappointed me. Enjoy!


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2586956973

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2FRTLM086DN4A/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Stevie‘s review of Racing Hearts by Dena Blake
Contemporary Lesbian and Bisexual Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 11 Sep 18

I’m always on the lookout for good motor sports romances, particularly those with women as drivers or crew, but I’m also very picky about the details within the stories. While I don’t know as much about the US-based championships as I do about UK and international formats, it’s still an issue if characters act in ways that don’t gel with my knowledge of how things work, without good reason at any rate. Then again that’s an equally big problem for me in any subgenre: plots set in our world have to run, for the most part, according to real-life rules if I’m to accept any minor fantastical, or unlikely, elements required for the story to work.


Samantha Kelleher is chief technician for her father’s NASCAR team, and her brother was one of the team’s drivers until a crash left him paralysed from the waist down. Sam carries physical scars from burns sustained as she tried to rescue him from his burning car, as well as guilt that her rescue may have added to the extent of his spinal damage. While Sam is oblivious to the fact that her brother’s accident is the latest in a serious of suspicious incidents involving cars she’s worked on and drivers she’s been close to – Sam is in a long-term relationship with her team’s other driver, but he regularly cheats on her, and she often reciprocates – an investigation is underway and two detectives have been sent undercover to infiltrate Kelleher Racing.

Drew Thompson is the second of those detectives. Initially posing as a driver for a rival team, she soon gets herself hired by Sam’s father – the only non-cop aware of the investigation. At this point I found my suspension of disbelief severely stretched: surely no one gets into NASCAR without having raced in feeder series first? And surely anyone involved in NASCAR is keeping an eye on who is doing particularly well in those feeder series in order to get a feel for who their rivals will likely be in future years? If I were Sam, I’d be cheekily asking Drew to let me see her racing license.

Nevertheless, Drew joins the team and begins an intense flirtation with Sam, almost managing to seduce her even before she realises who Sam is. While Sam keeps trying to resist Drew’s advances out of loyalty to her arse of a boyfriend, the two are soon heavily involved – even though Sam is Drew’s top suspect in her case. Meanwhile, the saboteur is hard at work, and Sam eventually becomes aware of Drew’s true identity as well as that of her fellow cop, who is now deeply immersed in both the team and in a relationship with Sam’s brother.

Unethical relationships all round not withstanding, I found much of this book’s plot hard to swallow, and when the culprit was eventually revealed, their motives came from out of the blue and had nothing to do with any of the foreshadowing that had pointed to that character being responsible. I also had a lot of difficulties with everyone’s conviction that Sam’s brother had no future as a driver and no other career options within motor sport. If double amputees can make it onto the podium after motor racing accidents – and transfer to Olympic sports after retiring from motor sports – and if tetraplegics can run F1 teams (not to mention the many racing drivers out there with other physical disabilities), then I don’t see why someone didn’t think to tell the bloke some of that.

All in all, this book was a bit of a disappointment for me, to put things mildly.

Grade: D

I was really looking forward to this book, as I liked the idea of the whodunnit element within the NASCAR setting and I have enjoyed other books by Dena Blake. Sadly, I felt the book didn’t live up to my expectations. Samantha Kelleher is a mechanic whose wish is to be a driver, but sabotage is resulting in the team’s drivers are being injured and killed. Undercover detective Drew Thompson joins the team to find the culprit.
They were some parts of the story that just didn’t make sense to me (Sam’s cold) and I felt the reason for the sabotage just wasn’t given enough explanation.
Despite thie fact I felt this book was rather jumbled and not fleshed out enough, it will not stop me from reading more by Dena Blake.

2.75 stars. I enjoyed the NASCAR and racing parts, and especially the fact that one of the main characters was a female technician. But overall, it was a bit... scattered. Enjoyable story, but lacked some character consistency and originality.

3 Stars. This book was mostly just okay, not great, just okay. This book is about Sam, a race car technician, whose brother gets paralyzed in an accident. Drew, an undercover police detective, who is investigating the crashes, as there are more than one in the last couple months, all related to the one racing team, Sam's family's team. Drew goes undercover as a race car driver and tries to investigate the accident with the help from her partner, Jade, who is undercover as a physical therapist for Sam's brother. They both try to figure out if it is Sam tampering with the race cars or it is someone else. Drew starts to realize she may be getting in over her head as she starts to flirt and spend time with Sam.

This book seemed to move pretty fast between Sam and Drew. Throughout this book, Sam is engaged to another male race car driver and that doesn't really seem to be a plot point very long in the book. People around her just seem to accept the fact she is cheating on her philandering cheating fiance with a woman. It is obvious something is going on between the two of them and that they are having some kind of affair. This book had some character development but I did not really feel the tension and passion between the two characters, Sam and Drew. It was more like boom, they like each other instantly. I am not sure I would recommend this book, it was not my favorite.

The writing is well done, but the plot is too focused on the romance rather than the crime.


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Anyone who follows my reviews know how much I hate giving a bad review. Not being a writer myself doesn’t keep me from appreciating the hard work and talent it takes to tell a story. Ms Blake does know how to tell a story but this isn’t the best example of her work. Samantha Kelleher driver who is a good enough driver to compete on the NASCAR circuit. She knows just how dangerous it can be. Problem is that someone is killing off drivers sabotaging the engines of their race cars. Detective Drew Thompson is a undercover cop who comes on board as a racer herself trying to find out what’s happening and who’s behind the killings. This pace of this book is uneven and poorly written. Not something I can recommend. But still I look forward to reading Ms Blakes in the future.
ARC via NetGalley

Great story. Great chemistry between Sam and Drew. Well developed secondary characters. Good mystery and tension during the course of the story.

I have enjoyed all of Dena Blake's books, including this one. That said, this was my least favorite. I will say, honestly, that I chose this book out of author loyalty and less about the sport topic. I have read other race car lesfic books before and enjoyed them, so it wasn't exclusively author loyalty. The book starts off with a dramatic scene, which is nice because it helps sink the hook, so to speak. However, after that things got a little muddled for me. The timing between when Drew is brought on scene to go under cover and investigate potential murders in relation to the exciting beginning is not made clear. I agree with other reviewers that the character descriptions could have been fleshed out a bit more. I'm not sad about this and it's not like some that I couldn't even finish. But this book just left me feeling neutral. This won't stop me from buying Dena Blake's next book though...

I really wanted to love this book and I thought the premise was pretty good. Unfortunately the characters esp Sam weren't well drawn. I couldn't fathom why a person of obvious intelligence and talent would let any man push her around so much. She was a wimp in my book. It's hard to root for wimps who seem to only exaggerate their problems by not dealing with them properly.

I wish there was enough time to change crucial portions of the novel or rewrite parts of it. Alas the review was allowed too late.

I give This book 3/5 stars.

The author, Dena Blake, is an incredible writer, which is why i was so disappointed with the endless cycle going back and forward with the feelings of one character in particular.
The dialogue and story telling was great. I think the killer story line was unnecessary and predictable. The book could have been a great stand-alone-romance without that story line.
The book is written in third person and you get the view from both main characters which is always good. The chemistry between the characters was well develop and it made sense; however, as i said before some of the writing was very repetitive and it made it a bit boring, unless that is what you like. I also think that more driving could have been included since that was one of the main subjects of the book.

Overall, it was a good story, although a bit boring. That is why i am giving it only 3 stars.

This is the first Dena Blake book I've read. The cover was eye-catching and the premise sounded great. The first chapter was exciting and drew me in. Then the story ran off the rails for me. Why in the world would Samantha stay with a fiance who has treated her so poorly for years? I couldn't think of one redeeming reason for that story arc. The whole middle section was a back-and-forth "please stay/no go away" that seemed way too long. The "mystery" aspect was easily solved. I think the idea for this story was solid, but it needed a lot of editing to make it enjoyable and readable.

Someone is sabotaging and killing drivers on the NASCAR circuit and Drew Thomson is going undercover as a driver to find out who is responsible. But, one of the suspects is the beautiful Sam Kelleher who Drew is finding it impossible to resist. Is she risking her heart and her life?

This book needed to have a good 40% edited out because it got extremely repetitive. The middle half of the book was a real struggle to get through because the same thing happened over and over again. Sam's struggle to break up with Bran could have been majorly condensed while still keeping it a struggle and then the characters just move on. The relationship between Drew and Sam was solid however if you ignore the Brad thing, their chemistry was steamy and sexy and they had a natural way of talking to each other that showed up really well in the dialogue. The dialogue and the relationship between Drew and Sam was the only thing that kept me reading through that middle section. The secondary characters were all interesting and filled in the story nicely, and definitely helped me past some of the repetitiveness.

The mystery side of it all was a little hard to believe and it was fairly obvious who did it, but it was nicely paced out and well written.

I really wanted to love this book, because the writing style itself was perfect for my taste, but the story side of this book left me frustrated.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I always try to give works the benefit of the doubt and probably rate in the high end because I understand how much of a challenge it is to write a book so I look for anything to justify an elevated score. I will start with the positive and my first thought is that there is a good premise here. A mystery of why race cars are falling apart and are killing or maiming their drivers. Two police investigators, Jade and Drew, are sent undercover to solve the puzzle and to successfully gain enough evidence to prosecute the culprit that is tampering with the vehicles. Unfortunately both detectives become unethically romantically involved with suspects and victims and skew the investigation. This is very bad but oddly both detectives act nonchalantly about their unscrupulous actions. How is this okay?

Here’s where the story definitely derails, the main characters, Samantha who is the crew chief and Drew, are wildly inconsistent. In addition, the narrative does some outrageous time and story jumps that make it hard to stay interested in the story, let alone the main characters. I also felt that both Drew and Brad, Sam’s boyfriend, were sadly the same manipulative/abusive romantic partners to Samantha with only differing genders.

When the book all starts to come together at the end, I just don’t care because there’s not a truth there. The truly best chapter is the first one because Samantha in all her bravery and bravado is hell on wheels and if that voice could have been maintained instead of the victimized one displayed throughout the book, it might have changed everything for the better.

A new author to me and I really liked this book very much and will look forward to reading more from you from this author thank you for my arc

I read two other books by this author and both had good storylines with interesting characters and engaging dialogue. Racing Hearts had the potential to be a good story, but something happened from that developing stage to the final copy that veered this story off course.

There were so many inconsistencies throughout the story with the characters’ actions and behaviors. While reading this story, it felt like trying to put a large puzzle together, but pieces didn’t quite fit and some were missing. It was disconcerting at times because the ideas were there, but it was not presented in a coherent manner.

I think the level of angst between Sam, Drew, and Brad was a little overdone, while the fractured relationship between Drew and Lt. Barnes, her dead wife’s father, wasn’t addressed enough- leaving unanswered questions. This was another aspect that diminished the quality of the story.

The title, Racing Hearts, was a good fit for the characters’ demeanor throughout the story. But, unfortunately, there wasn’t enough good to make this story recommendable. Hopefully, the next one will be.