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.

I'd liked Dena's last two books, I was very excited when I read the plot of this book. Being a rev head I thought it would be amazing. But I have to agree with the other reviews that is does seem she has taken a step back with this book. I love mystery books but I hate when it's predictable. Hopefully her next better will be more like her others.

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.

'ARC provided by both NetGalley and The Publisher in exchange for an unbiased review'

**'Never write just for the market because chances are it will not be your best..If the story you're telling,is the story you're telling,you're in deep SH*T..'

Meh!
1.5stars!
Readers who have enjoyed Dena Blake's style of writing from her previous books might find in this new book that there will be lots of moments to wonder as to whether something perplexing is underfoot because of all the switcheroos in storytelling,the disappointment and frustration in it's substance plus there was no inkling as to what this book was really 'about',but at least 'RACING HEARTS' does takes place within the realm of reality. If this is going to be Ms.Blake's track record in how she writes her future books then it is safe to say that this will be my last book from her. Sign!

I LOVE IT, i saw a comment saying it's not up to her expectation so i was hesitant to read it. And to be honest it's not the most perfect story there's small things here and there. Like drew is the worst undercover in history, what happened was unrealistic. Sam was lovely and i got the chemistry between them. I found out who did it almost half the book it was so obvious but it did not destroy the joy of the book. it's beautifully written 

One thing that bothered me personally, the lack of character discerption I need to visualize when i read so when they tell us their age and the way they look, hair color and stuff like that i get to envision a character. here I did not get to do that much often.  

thank you for giving me free copy in exchange of honest review.

This was just an okay read for me. The romance felt disjointed and the story did not flow well enough. The mystery part of the story was easy to pick and the Nascar setting not too exciting enough I guess. Maybe it was just not my type of story.

This is the second book I read from this author. It was a good read. I'm not into NASCAR racing I think it's boring but it would've been nice if she went more depth of how things run. I like the romance between Sam and Drew also Jade and Tommy but it would've been nice to see Tommy react to founding out Jade is a cop. Brad was typical jock. I kinda figure who was behind the accidents. Even though this was a good read I wish the author I got more into founding out if Jade father Jack Barnes was the one to blew Drew cover because it seem he was a little dirty and look like Drew was going to investigate it I thought at least in the Epilogue it been hint at she found who did it.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is the first book I have read by this author and it certainly will not be the last.  I loved the characters of Sam & Drew and I enjoyed the storyline even though I am not a fan of Race Car driving (NASCAR).  During the book I thought I knew who the culprit was but then something new emerges and you are back to thinking who could it be?  The author keeps you guessing til the end.  

I will be checking out this author’s other works after reading this book.

I am not entirely satisfied with this book. For starters, it has many writing flaws, which even I, with my limited English level, can appreciate. I also think that the author has not taken into account the reality of the world of car racing, which leads to situations that are somewhat incredible, such as the duration of the book corresponds to a single race or the car go from zero to one hundred thousands per hour in under sixty seconds, for example. Then, the characters are all very variable in their behavior, I have not come to understand any of them. The story is also pretty ridiculous at times, police infiltrated, engine manipulation, with so much technical knowledge, nobody can think about placing hidden cameras or something similar? And with so much sexual activity it does not seem that they can have time for other productive things, but the sex scenes are nothing extraordinary either. Guessing the villain is obvious at least from the middle of the book, but since Sam and Drew are on a rollercoaster of "I love you / I do not want you to touch me", what should have been the central theme of the story is lost between so much nonsense. I regret to say that this book is not very recommendable.

2.75 Stars. I have read all of Blake’s books. Her debut novel was in 2017, and I thought she was improving with each new release. I’m sorry to say I think she took a step backwards with this book. While I found myself wanting to read to the end, I started to care less and less about the outcome.

Besides being a romance, this is also a mystery. Someone is messing with NASCAR racecars causing them to have accidents at an alarming rate. Undercover police officer Drew is sent in to investigate the prime suspect mechanic Samantha. But what happens when Drew starts falling for the women who could be a black widow in disguise?

I’m not a NASCAR fan but I’m not ignorant when it comes to the sport of racecar driving. I don’t think me not being a NASCAR fan had any impact on enjoying the book. The reason I say this is the setting didn’t feel like NASCAR to me. The whole scene felt more like maybe local state racers, not big time NASCAR.

I remember in Blake’s debut book that I had trouble always realizing who was speaking. I was disappointed to find that was happening again. Even the second main scene, which was in a hospital, was really hard to understand. I had to keep re-reading. This issue went up and down for the rest of the book. I really hope more dialogue tags are added before this book is released.

If you have read a Blake book, you know she adds in a ton of drama and angst. I know that’s how she writes so I was prepared for it. It wasn’t so much that I felt this book had too much angst, it was that I found the angst to be annoying. The whole boyfriend/fiancé storyline I hated. He felt like a caricature, and it just continued for way too long. I just wanted it to be over with.

When it came to the main characters I had trouble connecting to them. I would like both mains half the time and the other half I could not stand them. The secondary characters where all really unlikable which didn’t really help. Because of not connecting with the mains, I struggled with the romance. There was some good chemistry at times, but the angst and the character’s choices kept interrupting the romance for me.

I know Blake has not written a mystery before so I give her props for trying. The problem I had was “the bad guy/girl” was so obvious it made me feel like the characters were stupid for not figuring it out sooner. The other problem I had was there were some unanswered questions just left hanging. I can’t really see this being a series, but maybe that’s why? I just didn’t get why somethings were brought into the plot, like Jade’s father, if it was not going to be resolved.

I’m sorry to say this wasn’t for me so I can’t really recommend it. However, for fans of almost soap opera like angst I can see some people liking this. I enjoyed Blake’s book before this so I will keep reading her and hope her next is more my speed.

The synopsis pulled me in immediately with the promise of romance on a racetrack coupled with a crime drama. The opening scene of the book is an intense rescue of a driver from a burning car wreck. That was the best part of the book. The character development is confusing and disjointed which made it difficult to decipher each character’s significance to the plot. Speaking of which, the plot lacked focus of it’s central themes and tended to jump around from topic to topic with no clear destination. Sam and Drew’s chemistry was a kaleidoscope of moods that sometimes changed from one second to the next. Hot and steamy, then Sam remembers she has a fiancé and goes cold and shoves Drew away when seconds before they’re making out like it’s the Last Supper. This book has so much promise with the intrigue of an undercover sting in a pro-racing circuit coupled with the romance. The author has a lot of great ideas but could use more focus and a better editor to capture that intrigue and organize it in a more cohesive story.

From the stunning cover to the intense chemistry between Sam and Drew, Racing Hearts takes the reader into the intriguing world of racing. Throughout the book, we journey through a series of events, encouraged to help Drew and her partner find out who is threatening the lives of racers on Sam's team. The story opens with an intense screen, drawing the reader into the most recent accident. The detail and imagery in that scene is well written and puts the reader right there with Sam and her brother. The sensory language continues throughout the book and allows the reader to be in each scene. 

The immediate chemistry between Sam and Drew is intense, but confusing at times. The reader is able to follow what is happening between them in each scene, but the overall character development is hard to follow at times. The relationship between Sam and her on again off again fiance is at times awkward, especially when she is written to be a strong woman. Her connection to her father is acknowledged, but not given enough detail to help the reader understand what her goals are and why she would be put on the back burner. Drew’s character development is also vague at times. There was an incident that happened in her past that is mentioned, but not really unpacked. 

Overall, the racing knowledge is evident, but the police, undercover aspects come across as unbelievable. It was an engaging read, but left me with more questions than answers at the end.

I don't really know what I don't like about the book. It's probably the way it's written (it feels too rushed) and too many characters that play a important role. I just couldn't get into the  story. Too fast, not enough surrounding infos. The main characters are okay, but that's about it.