Lacey is an ex-NASCAR photographer haunted by her memories of a fatal crash. Kip Sellars is a troubled NASCAR driver with a bad reputation and a death wish. The two have almost nothing in common except their mutual contempt, lust, and complimentary backstories (both involving witnessing the brutal death of a loved one in a racing accident).

When they are forced to work together to rehabilitate Sellars’ public image, Lacey and Sellars have no choice but to confront both their traumatic pasts and the undeniable attraction between them.

The first thing to mention is that – as a title for a romance about racing – Dangerous Curves is a great title. It’s been used by authors many times before (fair warning, there are some bizarre books at that link), but I think this is probably the best context for it.

This book bills itself as “erotic romance”, but that’s not strictly accurate. The argument over the fine distinctions between romance, erotic romance, and erotica is an intense and ongoing one that I have no desire to get in the middle of, but broadly speaking, for a romance to class as an erotic romance, sex has to play a central role.

That’s not the case here. While the characters are very much in lust with each other from the off, sex does not really get much time or focus in the story. Instead, the author and characters keep on getting distracted by backstory and side-plots. It’s actually quite endearing; the author clearly had all these intentions of sizzling prose, but each time two characters start smouldering, she suddenly remembers a key piece of characterisation that simply can’t wait and must be addressed right now. This rapid shift in focus isn’t just confined to the bedroom either – it also happens in the middle of death-defying late night races.

This means that a lot of the narrative consists of flashbacks or ruminations with the occasional slightly jarring reminder that a character is either half-naked or seconds from crashing into a tree. You can feel the author’s warring intentions as you read through, attempting to turn up the heat but then deciding that – unless you fully understand Lacey’s work with the homeless – the passion is all a bit wasted. In the very, very nicest possible way, it’s a bit like reading a romance written by the dog from Up.

I’d like to stress again that I don’t think this is at all a negative trait; romances genuinely don’t work unless you care about the characters and understand them as people, so I have no issues whatsoever with the focus being on that rather than on what the book thinks it’s about. I did find it quite amusing though, every time the narrative shifted course so rapidly. There is passion without the flashbacks in places, of course, but it’s clear that the author was far more interested in other aspects of the story.

At its heart, this is a redemption story: two damaged people realising that they need to teach each other their own ways of coping in order to heal. It’s not just a book about love, but about racing, photography, family, and – more in depth than I was expecting – the social issues of homelessness and the corrupting power of guilt. It handles these ideas sensitively and effectively, with some allowance made for the scope of the book and the rosy-spectacled resolution that romance demands.

The book’s biggest problem is the amount of exposition. As already mentioned, I don’t mind it interrupting the action, and I generally have a lot of patience for backstory (not everything needs to start in medias res, and things that do still owe their readers an explanation at some point), but it goes a bit overboard here. Almost anything serves as a trigger for Lacey or Sellars to drift off and reminisce about their career choices, childhood holidays, or close (but mostly irrelevant) friendships. Sometimes this works – there are traumas and moments that the narrative needs to explore – but sometimes its just a gentle trip through details that don’t really support the core plot.

Coupled with the amount of exposition comes a second problem: it’s not always the right exposition. On several occasions, a character’s actions or reactions caught me off-guard, despite having spent the last several pages in that character’s head while they pondered about similar situations. The details that I thought were going to be relevant just didn’t connect, and the reasons behind a character’s emotional surge were dismissed in a single line. When Lacey first meets Sellars, she’s absolutely furious and it’s not really that clear why; already, you know a huge amount about the character, but not the core piece guiding the current scene.

It sounds like I’m complaining a lot here, but I don’t really mean to; I quite liked this. It was a little confused in places, and definitely tried to jam too much complexity into the space available, but I did find the main characters quite compelling and fully-realised. They’re definitely rounded people with complexities and edges, and that’s really what I look for in a romance. I found my mind drifting back to this quite a bit after finishing it – despite the swaying focus, there’s a solid core here and the final resolution is actually very sweet.

Dangerous Curves is a deeper and more thoughtful book than it wants you to think, trying to be sultry but constantly diving sideways to grapple with trauma and how to cope with loss. It’s a quick and slightly disorienting read, but it hits all the points a romance needs to hit and is best described as “endearing”.

This is an erotic love hate romance with a Nascar theme. Lots of drama with the main characters because of some significant baggage they're both carrying. It makes for some intensely descriptive scenes. It is hard to fathom how so much hostility can lead to such hot sex scenes, but to each their own. A solid book from a great author. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Stevie‘s review of Dangerous Curves by Larkin Rose
Contemporary Lesbian Erotic Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 16 Apr 19

I find motor sports romances hard to resist – even knowing how cross I get if I spot plot-holes or inaccuracies – especially when the heroine is a driver. Throw in a second heroine who’s a photographer – and a former motor sport photographer at that – and there’s no way I’m going to refuse a review copy, regardless of my pre-existing reservations. Lacy McGowen turned her back on NASCAR after her bad luck meant she was the closest photographer to the scene of a fatal crash. Since then, she’s restricted herself to making money taking portraits and society wedding pictures, staying close to the money in LA rather than to the track and all her former friends in Pittsburgh. Except, that is for the one month of the year when there’s no racing: then she spends a much deserved break with her racing driver best-friend, his wife, and their daughter. This year, however, Lacy’s friend has a job for her. One of his fellow drivers has an image problem, and he’s sure Lacy is the one person able to fix that issue.


Kip Sellars always wanted to be a NASCAR driver, but an adolescent crash robbed her of her girlfriend and sent her off the rails. After a short career in Formula One, she’s finally in with a chance of competing in the series she loves most. Unfortunately, her behaviour off the track has already led to her being banned once, and it looks like another ban is looming after she’s caught street racing on a night out. Fortunately, the older driver who already took her under his wing has a friend who can help her out, and her grandfather – and main sponsor – is always willing to shell out money for whatever Sellars might need.

Lacy is unimpressed with Sellars before they even meet – more so after – and takes an instant dislike to Sellars’ grandfather. She takes the job anyway, never one to refuse her best-friend or the opportunity to funnel funds into a beloved project with the potential to help some really deserving people. As the pair begin the rounds of high-profile media events that have been lined up for them, it becomes clear that not only is Sellars her own worst enemy, but also that what she needs isn’t what her grandfather has planned for her. Lacy soon has Sellars meeting up with the volunteers and beneficiaries at a local homeless shelter. The two women start to grow closer and open up to each other about their respective pasts. Confronting the deaths hanging over both their memories brings its own set of traumas, then they both have stumbling blocks to confront before they can achieve their respective ambitions and potentially reconnect with each other after a little time apart.

I found a lot to like about this book, but also a few niggles. I have my doubts about the very sketchy backstory of Sellars having raced in Formula One with no apparent seasons in the more junior series of international motor sport to bring her to the attention of even the most junior of teams. I would have liked to see more about her actual NASAR races too and something about her relationship with the pit crew and other members of her racing team wouldn’t have gone amiss. On the other hand, I really liked all the characters and enjoyed watching Lacy at work on her day-job photography and on her project to help the homeless through publicising their artistic endeavours. While there was a fair amount of sex – obviously – it didn’t feel nearly as gratuitous as those scenes sometimes do in romances – erotic or otherwise. All in all, this is an author I’m going to look out for again.

Grade: B

I was rather excited for this one but ultimately the romance did not work for me and the characters were not enjoyable at all

Not my favourite book by this author - the NASCAR setting was interesting but I found one of the two leads quite off-putting as a character, she was rude and swearing constantly. In fact, my main problem with this book was the extreme level of hostility between the two main characters that seemed to come out of nowhere when they first met, and got worse and worse. I like a good love/hate story and I can see how it might lead to fabulous sex scenes but the level of animosity and disrespect was just too much in this book, disturbingly so. It saddens me to leave this review as I loved the author's previous books.

I didn't like the tw main characters and so I couldn't connect to them and to the story. And there is not much romance, not really, they call each other bad names and then fall into bed tgetehr. Not my book!

Lacy McGowen and Kip Sellers both are trying to avoid facing their demons but somehow with the help of each other, they are able to face them. 

The premise of the story intrigued me but although I didn't hate this book, I didn't love it either.  Overall, it was just okay as I didn't believe in their romance, no matter how much I wanted to.  They were always either arguing or having sex, besides having one real conversation in the whole book.  Their character progression was stagnant until three quarters of the book.

I did like the ending more as I thought it was a nice ending.

Dangerous Curves is more erotic and less plot. Love hate relationship. The sex is not and the plot is cold.

I found this book odd. The main characters seemed quite similar in respect of having a huge amount of baggage that prevented them from having normal relationships. And surely you’ve got to like someone a bit to be attracted to them? These two hated each other for most of the book yet couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It just didn’t really ring true.

That being said the writing itself is of a high quality and the setting was interesting. If you like your sex scenes fast and furious then give this book a try.

This is a short review, but all that’s needed! Dangerous Curves is an erotic romance, written around main characters Lacy McGowan and (Kip) Sellars. The reader gets some standard lesfic romantic themes in this book, including the HEA, but Larkin Rose adds a couple of interesting plot ideas and overall, the story is completely enjoyable. Add in some very well-written and hot love scenes, and we have a solid four-star read. I certainly enjoyed reading this book.

This was one of the lest enjoyable books I have read in a long time. I was going to give up on it, but it was really short, so I read the entire thing. I have several issues with the book the first being Lacy's potty mouth. I actually don't mind tasteful cursing, but I felt like all of the cursing in this book was unnecessary and it also felt a little forced. The premise of the book is that a photographer sees a tragic event and gives up on life, and a racer driver experiences/is the cause of an incident and gets angry at everyone for bailing her out and so she continues to get in trouble. Overall both characters were incredibly annoying to read, they spent the majority of the time whining and the rest of it having pretty disturbing sex with each other. I ddi not think they had chemistry and I did not like the romance in this book. This is my first book by Larkin Rose, and it was not a very good read for me. The plot was pretty nonexistent, and neither character had redeemable characteristics. Also why would Lcy go visit Billy to go on vacation with him, if he then leaves her alone at his house while he goes to visit his parents. It was a really weird part of the overall plot that made zero sense. Not my favorite book, but it was a quick read, and even though I hated the characters the love scenes were actually not that poorly written.

Fast cars and romance what more can you ask for. From the beginning to end all of it was great. The bickering back and forth made me laugh but the romance was hot so you will not be disappointed.

Photographer Lacy McGowen works the NASCAR scene. Everything is going just the way she wants but when she shoots a picture of a accident involving the death of a race car driver she decides it’s too much. She can’t handle it so she packs her bags and heads to LA where she works taking wedding pictures of some of LA’s fashionable but spoiled young up and comers.
When Kip Sellars was younger her first and only love was killed in a accident while Kip was driving. Since that time she hasn’t done anything to try and overcome the horror she feels she’s responsible for. But she has the talent and skills to be one of the top race car drivers in NASCAR. But she keeps making mistakes that can cost her that dream.
Lacy’s job is to try to clean up Kips image so she has that chance but when the two meet it doesn’t go as well as others had hoped.
One thing I do know from reading some of Ms Rose’s works is the fact that she does erotica very, very well. So if you want to read a books with lots of hot, steamy love scenes this is the book for you. The plot, like most of Ms Roses books appears to be a afterthought. Just a way to bring the two women together but not the main draw. So, all in all not a bad book. A nice read.
ARC via NetGalley

Count me among the Larkin Rose fans who is glad she's back! After reading the synopsis I expected this book to be not much in the substance department, but more of a means to link some hot sex scenes together. I really enjoyed the storyline of helping the homeless tied in to a textbook enemies-to-lovers story. For me this book was well written and I only found a couple of editing problems (Lacy's name was spelled wrong once!). The ending was a little fast, but having the MCs work out their past individual issues was fulfilling. A nice, angst-free way to spend four hours.

Larkin Rose has always been a favorite author of mine and after a few years of not writing or publishing she is back better than ever. Larkin Rose acclaim is the eroticism she puts into her stories. She is an author who clearly does not ‘fade to black’. While there is incredible heat in Dangerous Curves there is also a storyline that is complete, intriguing, and very well developed.
Billy, a race car driver, befriends an upcoming and very dangerous race car driver , Kip Sellers, who is suspended from driving Because of her reckless activities. Billy asked his good friend Lacy McGowen to come to Pittsburgh and help Sellers improve her image in the media and tried to keep her out of trouble so that she can return to racing. Both women have deep affection for Billy and his young daughter Gabby, but sparks fly with these two women meet for the first time.
Because Lacy is working on a project with the homeless people in Pittsburgh she reluctantly takes the job to try to work with improving sellers image Because she needs money for her new project working with homeless people. Both women have demons which have overtaken their lives and makes it impossible for anyone to break through their barriers. Yet given what’s at stake both Sellers and lacy do try to work together, they are just as attracted to one another sexually as they are repulsed by the other. The sexual heat between the two is off the pages however neither of them seems to be able to unravel the demons and unravel the damage each woman has.
As Sellers begins to show some improvement the frustration that Lacy experiences makes her throw in the towel and leave the job and go back to our home in California. Will these two find ways to heal themselves and find a way back to each other? Will Lacy’s project with homeless people ever get off the ground?

This book is so well written, I hated to get to the end of the story. I highly recommend this book as it has incredible HEAT and is a terrific story line.

Dangerous Curve is a good book if you're looking for that hate-love romance, with a little erotica thrown in.

Lacy and Sellars are both likeable characters, I like the fact that they are not your usual one soft one, one strong opposites, these are both strong personality that clash, which is great to read.

Great book, good to read, good story and like=able characters. Once started I found difficult to put down

Bonus points....I love that author LR isn't afraid to use bad language.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44453454-dangerous-curves" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Dangerous Curves " src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1552855192m/44453454.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44453454-dangerous-curves">Dangerous Curves </a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1256070.Larkin_Rose">Larkin Rose</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2786128977">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I rec'd an ARC from NetGalley/Bold Strokes Books for an unbiased review.<br />A storyline set in the "macho" world of auto racing with leads Lacy (photographer) and Kip (race car driver). The speed and adrenaline rush coupled with heavy angst, emotional baggage and (naturally for Ms. Rose) steamy sex makes this a good escape from everyday life.<br />Almost up to Larkin speed, I look forward to her next book and once more I'm happy she's writing again!<br />3.5 stars
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

Oh, the twists and the turns. What fun this book was. You will have trouble putting this title down. Everything was in here, sex, speed, trauma and finally LOVE.

I thought I had worked out what I wanted to say about Dangerous Curves, but as I start this review I am not so sure. This is the second book that I have read by Rose. At the time of that review, I said I would take a closer look at some of her other books. When I had the opportunity to read Dangerous Curves I jumped at the chance. I have to admit that I was disappointed.

So the MCs Lacey and Sellers are not very like able characters. Initially I thought I was going to like Lacey because she is a tell it like it is sort of character. After a few chapters of her foul mouth (especially in front of a child), I became turned off. I thought I was going to really dislike Sellers but she sort of grew on me by 75% because she at least seemed to be a human being. Another turn off was how they insulted each other continuously but as they are telling each other off they are thinking about how they would love to have sex with the other person. That just wasn’t realistic. I have never seen two people who hate each other have sex or want to have sex. I admit I am a slow reader , but I kept putting this down because the character grated my nerves.

Now this book was not all terrible. The sex scenes were hot (even though I could not understand why they were having sex) and I liked the interaction between Lacy and her homeless friends. Deep down she seems like she is a good person, but you really only get to see it when she trying to help the homeless community. I also liked the turn around that Sellers made.

I will rate this one 2.25 stars

It has been several years since I have read any of Larkin Rose’s books. Although I am not a big fan of erotic-romance novels, I was looking forward to reviewing her latest book to see how her writing style has progressed.
The book is set around two main characters. Lacy McGowan is a photographer who covered the NASCAR circuit until she witnessed a tragic accident. She switched genres and now photographs weddings on the west coast. Kip Sellars is a up and coming race car driver who is trying to get the privilege of racing on the circuit despite her behavior and antics.
Lacy returns to Pittsburg to visit her good friend, Billy. During her visit she meets with Kip’s grandfather who asks her to help clean up Kip’s image. Although Lacy and Kip are instantly physically attracted to each other, they immediately butt heads. Working together seems to be impossible, but they try.
Although this book is listed as an erotic romance, I did not find much romance. The interaction between the two characters was based primarily on sex. In addition, there is a lot of swearing in this book and I found it difficult to read. It seemed whenever Lacy opened her mouth, the F-word was being used. The sex scenes were rough and not romantic at all.
Upon reading the description of this book, I thought the plot would be interesting. It would have been good, but Ms. Rose did not develop the story. Instead, she got caught up in the interaction between Lacy and Kip. In my opinion, if the plot was developed fully, readers would find this book more enjoyable.
For those readers who are interested in erotica, this book might meet their needs. I can only give Dangerous Curves 2 out of 5 stars.
I was given this ARC in return for a fair and honest review.