Loved the idea of racing, particularly for a young woman to face her deepest fears and compete at the one thing she is terrifically good at doing. However, was unable to read more than a few pages without becoming mired in decent-enough writing, awkward insertions of fact, and general tone of overexcited. The worst part of it was knowing that there was a terrific story beyond the actual words on the page. So sorry to give this a pass. Maybe the next lap around the track will go better?

Drive by Susan Strecker, 298 pages.
Koehler Books, 2019. $19.
Language: R (121 swears, 12 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: HS – NO
AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW
Piper is Planter Pierson’s daughter – and everyone knows it. Pierson Racing is a very successful NASCAR team, and Piper grew up knowing that driving and racing would be her life. Until that disaster in Tennessee. Now Piper is just trying to survive and stay as far away from that dangerous life as possible. What will it take for Piper to start living again?
The message of this story is great: living means taking risks. I also thought the ending came together very well in a way I wasn’t expecting. However, I didn’t enjoy my time reading this book as much as I wanted to because I couldn’t stand Piper – especially her self-centeredness which made it difficult to sympathize with her when things didn’t go her way. The timing was also difficult to follow, sometimes making the story feel choppy with Strecker recounting what happened to Piper rather than showing those scenes to readers. Mature Content rating for partial nudity and sex.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

drive: A NASCAR novel is an enjoyable read. The subject is one that is dear to my heart as I grew up in North Carolina watching NASCAR. The story is about Piper, a princess of NASCAR whose father owns a racing team and was previously a stock car racer himself. Piper is scarred by an event that happened years before and will not drive a car at all. She meets up with Colt Porter, a new driver for her father's team who is basically a star in the world of racing. They go back and forth with trying to date because of her issues and his career. There are other complicating factors at play as well which keep throwing up roadblocks which prevent their relationship from developing the way it should be able to.

I found the storyline to be interesting with some original elements. I was drawn to it because of the topic and am glad to have read it. My only comment for improvement would be that I craved more of an emotional connection to the characters. Even though I liked both of them, I never truly felt their connection to one another which made it difficult for me to feel invested.

This book is the first that I've read by this author, but I'm glad to have discovered her and look forward to reading more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a story that you could really sink into, one that takes you away and pulls you into the journey with the characters making you fell apart of the story. The characters felt real, what they were going through, you went through; I shed some tears while reading.
That being said, it felt like there were times in the story where months would pass with out you knowing it, but would be referenced by something along the lines of "Sasha and I joined the gym and played racket ball for weeks until I hit her in the face" and then the narrative would keep moving forward. It felt misplaced, if that much time was going to pass without much reference it had me question why a detail like that would be included (as it didn't feel necessary in the first place). The back and forth and sometimes childish behaviors of some of the characters got a little frustrating and felt misplaced; it was beneath the character the author had created and didn't seem cohesive to the story line.
Overall this book sucked me in, connected me to the characters and made me feel right along with them. If you want an easy to get into and read type of book, this would be it!

Predictable, easy-to-read, elusive, heartbreaking.

Drive was an interesting read, but boring for me. Quite predictable and I didn't like how the main character couldn't drive a race car because of her fathers accident. On a side note I found it irritating that Piper the main character kept calling her father "Daddy." It made me think I was reading a teen novel.

The writing style was interesting and that's the only reason why I finished the book. The romance was lacking emotional content. I would've liked more details about racing, and the character development lacked depth.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the early e-read on Kindle, this is my honest review.

I've waiting 3 years for Susan's next story and it was so good! I'm with her husband about the ending but the ending followed the theme of the entire story. It's better to live for a short time and love what you do and who you are with then to live for 103 years and never experience joy!

Having recently finished “d r i v e: A NASCAR novel” by Susan Strecker, I am happy to have had the chance for the preview; thank you NetGalley and Koeler Press!

Even though I have been a fan of NASCAR for several years and was initially drawn to the cover art of this book when I selected it, I was not able to enjoy “d r i v e: A NASCAR novel” as much as I had hoped. It was obvious that the author knew the subject of racing well and I loved all that information throughout the book. Although the emotions came across the pages strongly, the dialogue felt contrived and the character interaction jumped all over the place. It was such an emotional story, but too many “hot-head” moments from Piper to completely enjoy this book. I did love “Piper’s FS” ending… that was a smile as I finished this story.