Customer Reviews

Hot Finish (Fast Track)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the third book into the series and this one has got to be my favorite one so far. Ryder is incredibly hot as well as flawed and clueless as any man can be. Suzanne tries to put up this tough front that she is a strong woman, but her weakness has always been Ryder. When they get together the sex is HOT, HOT, HOT. Since their divorce two years ago Ryder has still loved Suzanne, he just doesn't know how to get through to her. When they find out that they really aren't divorced, Ryder decides to pursue Suzanne into trying again with their marriage.
This book had me laughing and then some parts almost made me cry. I was waiting for these two to have their story told and i am glad that Erin McCarthy did not disappoint me.

I really didn't care for this book all that much.

I've been awaiting Suzanne and Ryder's story since Flat Out Sexy and to say "I'm disappointed" may be a bit of an understatement. The only thing this book did for me was make me understand why their marriage never worked in the first place. Suzanne and Ryder's lack of communication defies description (and it doesn't really get any better throughout the book). They definitely have a passionate relationship, but I can honestly say that this is one of those couples whom I doubt would ever "make it" in the real world. Suzanne has some major emotional problems that she is not dealing with, and Ryder is too passive when it comes to Suzanne. This is a couple who was doomed from the start of their first marriage, and I believe is doomed for the same fate with their "second chance" marriage.

Bummer.

I was looking for growth and maturation and all I got was a psychological example of a dysfunctional couple.

I really liked the previous books in this series as well as other books by this author, such as the Vegas Vampires series, The Pregnancy Test, Mouth to Mouth, and You Don't Know Jack. Erin McCarthy typically does a great job creating a laugh out loud funny romance that's both sweet and sexy. But this newest installment didn't *quite* live up to expectations. It's not bad--it's just that her other books were really very good so my expectations were high.

The storyline is about an estranged husband and wife Suzanne and Ryder (who we know from the earlier books in the series). They had serious communication issues, which ultimately resulted in their breakup even though they both had feelings for each other. I liked Suzanne and Ryder in the earlier books, and had looked forward to their story.

What I usually love about McCarthy's books are that they are humorous, light reading--perfect summer beach reads to relax with. This book didn't fit that. They argued all the time and I kept getting frustrated with the characters. Their problems primarily boiled down to bad communication. While some of the arguments were funny, they also kept stressing me out. I enjoyed seeing some of the characters from the earlier books like Elec, Tammy, Ty, Imogen, etc. And Ryder is a great leading guy. Yes, he has some communications issues, but when he finally shared his feelings he was oh so sweet.

And I'm not normally one to like book covers showing a guy with his shirt off (too cliche romance), but I have to say that whoever picked the models for the covers of this series did a great job. Love those abs! LOL

Erin McCarthy's stories can pretty much do no wrong. Her books might be quirky and out there (a cute deaf heroine gets her hot cop hero via an online dating site, a pregnant New Yorker falls for her possibly-murderous boss, a hot surgeon suffers a debilitating accident yet still wins the girl in the end, a community of vampires make Las Vegas their home, etc.), but McCarthy always seemed to create very unique, entertaining, and HOT stories. 'Hot Finish' is honestly such a hot mess, I barely finished it at a snail's pace. (Please disregard those awful puns.)

Granted, each of the Fast Track novels so far has started out on a negative note (Tamara dumping her loser psuedo-boyfriend, Ty and Imogen 'meeting' in a car), but I should have known this story would be pretty bad from the first line "I banged the bride" until the last eye-rolling "gossip blog" blurb (seriously, was that part really necessary?). I'm sorry to admit this, but with all the one-liners and whining, 'Hot Finish' seemed like it was trying to emulate Sex & the City (and not one of the better episodes).

Suzanne and Ryder's story was a very frustrating read, and I'm sorry to say this but it had none of the heart that the previous Fast Track novels did. I *still* don't understand why Suz and Ryder stayed married for as long as they did in the first place, or what initially motivated Suzanne to walk out on their marriage; also, I could be wrong but I thought that the previous novels already hinted at their "exes with benefits" relationship. Needless to say, it was very confusing and difficult to focus. The "happy ending" (I also couldn't understand how they could go years with no results, and yet suddenly get that easy fix) could be seen from miles away and didn't do all that much to make the characters more likable.

I still want to read Evan's story, but I'm definitely not expecting to be swept away anymore. 'Hot Finish' was certainly disappointing compared to the deeper, deceptively mature storylines in 'Flat-out Sexy' and 'Hard and Fast.'

Erin McCarthy: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get back to writing those amazing stories like you used to!

I've always enjoyed Erin McCarthy's books. While a little on the graphic side (often spilling into raunchy territory), they have a surprising depth and intelligence that elevates them over the average romantic comedies.

Unfortunately, this one does not have any of those qualities. The characters were annoying and frustrating, Suzanne the more immature of the two. She is one of those women who lash out first and never bother to try reason to solve a problem. I kept waiting for her to have a mature moment you might expect to further the story, but that never happens. It's just sarcasm and insults toward Ryder. It's a puzzle why he would still love her after being treated like that. McCarthy gives us steamy scenes galore, but no real development for either character. They are both stuck in this junior high behavior that goes nowhere.

And, honestly, I am getting so tired of these books where the couple finds "true love" (rolling eyes here) IN THE VERY LAST PAGES. Why is it that this author cannot give us any kind of adult relationship that might occur, oh, say, in the last quarter of the book? Is that too much to ask?

A waste of time, really.

This is the 3rd in the Fast Track series. Suzanne and Ryder's relationship has been a staple in the first two books and in this one it comes to the fore front. They are divorced, but still have a hot relationship. Although the last two years have mostly been hot with arguments, there is still a spark between them that isn't about anger. When news arrives that their divorce was never finalized, things take a strange turn. Both start to question their relationship and wonder what really went wrong between them. As Suzanne coordinates a wedding for Ryder's race car buddy, Jonas, and his crazy fiancee, marriage and relationships are constantly on the brain.

The last two books have been leading up to this one. I've been so excited for Suzanne and Ryder's story that I could barely wait for it to be released. I started out reading this with such enthusiasm. The attraction and sexy bantering was fun and exciting. Ryder's buddies were funny and the bride-to-be was outrageous. I couldn't help but laugh and some of the craziness.

Suzanne is funny with her dark sarcasm and Ryder plays right along with it. They have great chemistry that just made me root for them to work things out.

At some point, I started to get a little annoyed. The sexy banter stopped being sexy and became a little raunchy. All they seemed to do was talk about sex--more specifically oral sex--and body parts. It seemed to overwhelm the story and ruined it a little for me--I didn't really need to read the phrase, "mossy balls". Along with that, there was too much thinking about them not communicating, but none of them actually communicating. They really were a little messed up.

The story itself was a little contrived and predictable. It was plainly obvious the way the story was going to go from early on in the book. I didn't quite mind, but it ruins the allure of the story. It made it easy for me to put the book down and go do something else.

In the end, I was happy to see a conclusion for Suzanne and Ryder, but it just failed to meet my high expectations.

Evan Monroe, the lead in the next book, The Chase, was given more face time and I am interested in watching him fall for the right woman.

Sensuality: Burning - includes lots of sex, oral sex, and sexy banter

Suzanne and Ryder Jefferson were first introduced as a divorced couple in Erin McCarthy's Flat-Out-Sexy. These two would snarl and verbally spar at each another, but underneath all their blustering, they still had feelings, or at least lust for one another. Now in Hot Finish, they're in the "hot seat", so to speak. Suzanne and Ryder are on friendlier terms, although Ryder wants Suzanne back as his wife and in his bed. Suzanne feels the opposite. She wants to be start a new phase in her life. That's why she's going into wedding planning and working with the Bridezilla of the century. But Suzanne has no choice, because she's out of money and Nikki, the beyond ditzy bride-to-be, who is marrying one of NASCAR's finest, Jonas Strickland, is ready to hand over a nice pay check for the wedding of her dreams (even if in entails dressing like Priscilla Presley and recreating her wedding to Elvis with high hair and baby blue tuxedos). Suzanne grins and bears it, and actually doesn't mind that Ryder is there to lend a hand because of his friendship with the groom.

Things become even more difficult when Ryder is sent a letter from their divorce lawyer. It seems they are still married and have only been separated after two years since Ryder never did his part with finalizing the paperwork for their divorce. Suzanne is now stressed out beyond belief because not only does she have to be in charge of this weeding from hell, but when they file for taxes, there's bound to be even more headaches. Ryder doesn't see what the big deal is. He's actually quite pleased and this will give him the perfect excuse to win Suzanne back.

While Suzanne navigates through bridesmaids and wedding dress fittings, including searching for the perfect wedding cake for Nikki, Ryder tries to keep her calm and help her relax through hot sex. Since Suzanne is in desperate need of stress release and Ryder is such a sweetheart in helping her out in more ways than one, she takes him up on his offer, making sure he knows that their "friend's with benefits" situation can't go any further than that. Ryder is all for it and has a plan to make Suzanne fall for him all over again where she'll want to tear up those divorce papers instead of signing them.

Hot Finish was a much anticipated book for me since Erin McCarthy is one of the best contemporary romance authors writing today. Unfortunately, Hot Finish felt flat in so many ways. Ryder and Suzanne do engage in some steamy animalistic sex together, but other than that, I can't see this couple together in an emotionally stable relationship. There is a major lack of growth on both their parts that doesn't improve by the end. Ryder is very laid back, perhaps a bit too much. Even when he has an emotional break through with Suzanne because of something heartbreaking that occurred in their marriage, it rang very false to me. Suzanne, who in the first two books of the Fast Track novels came across as a cunning and intelligent women. Here she is more of a shrew and a worrier if anything. I guess you can chalk that up to all the stress she has to deal with. But then why would she play around with Ryder knowing he wants her back and will do whatever he can to make it so? Suzanne actions left a lot to be desired.

I couldn't root for the Jeffersons in the way I wanted to and there were still many unanswered questions in regards to trust between these two. Yes, Suzanne and Ryder have a go at it with too many sex scenes to count, but even with that, I felt there was no tenderness or understanding, just two people relieving their frustration with one another.

Hot Finish is a steamy romance with some moments of humor and outlandish behavior, mainly on the part of the character of Nikki, who became a bit too grating. Hot Finish does end in a way that should make most readers happy, but I can't help but wonder how long it takes until Suzanne begins to second guess her decision to be with Ryder, while he just acts uninvolved to the point he'll take her to bed to make her forget.

Katiebabs

Flat-Out Sexy (Fast Track)
Hard and Fast (Fast Track)

What a disappointment to finally get the third book in this series and have it be a complete dud. It was so annoyingly dumb that I couldn't even finish it and sold it as soon as I could. The situations were just plain idiotic and so were the actions of the characters. Who really acts like these people?? I know this is fiction but come on. We all deserve way better than this from this author. Maybe she figured that we'd all be on the hook waiting for the third book.

I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I haven't found what I thought of this book in any of the other reviews, so I'm leaving one.

This book was what I imagine reading a porn flick to be like. Sure, sex is usually in romance novels. That's fine, great even. But this was porn. Several mentioned no emotional connection between Ryder and Suzanne, and I agree. Not only was there no real emotional connection, but really it seemed to me there really wasn't much of an emotional fueled passion either. Yes, they were "divorced", so I didn't expect anything except lust-driven sex at the start, but even as they had sex more, it never changed from thinking/acting with just their genitals to their hearts. Or if it did I didn't see it. Suzanne even makes mention that she likes sex with Ryder because he's a "sure thing".

***Spolier***
This may be something most don't care about, and maybe I'm an old prude, but the sex in this was far too extreme for me. I've read some of her others and some of them have pushed the envelope a little, but this one had direct mention of Ryder double stimulating Suzanne... This was alluded to in the previous book,Hard and Fast (Fast Track) but in this one there is a rather graphic description and there were a few other things that put me off like him calling her demeaning names while they were having sex, and her like that. Ick. Not for me, thank you.
***End Spoiler***

Aside from the sex, which filled no less than half the book, I just didn't find any emotional bond between these two. He seemed scared of her, and she was extremely domineering and intimidating. I also thought the humor that was in the other two in this series was gone. Suzanne and Ryder had a lot to do with the humor that happened in Tamara and Alec's story and Imogen and Ty's, but in this one neither of them were very funny. The only somewhat funny character (and I use this very, very loosely) was Nikki--the nutjob Bridezilla who somehow snared poor Jonas.

The overall theme of the book felt real to me. A LOT of people struggle to make their marriages work due to poor communication skills. They make the same mistakes again and again. People jump to conclusions and say things in the heat of the moment they wish they could take back. And sometimes, love can drown in a sea of animosity and unfulfilled expectations.

Suzanne is not your typical heroine. She is brash, opinionated, snarky, and has a short fuse. And she is proud of it. Ryder is not your typical hero, either. He's laid back, almost passive. Together, they are a great couple when they aren't railing at each other, or more accurately, when Suzanne isn't railing at Ryder. Suzanne and Ryder have been thinking they were divorced for 2 years, when it turns out they actually weren't divorced, after all. Mayhem ensues.

This book had a lot of seriously laugh out loud lines, which I always expect from this author. The cake tasting scene was classic. Very funny. But Suzanne's southern sayings flew a little too fast and furious sometimes. It felt forced rather than humorous.

Although the emotional issues of the characters were mentioned, they never had a conversation in which anything was resolved. That was unsatisfying, as I think having Suzanne and Ryder sit down and really get to the heart of their communication issue would have been an emotionally wrenching gold mine of a scene. However, most of their problems were caused by lack of communication, so maybe it was true to the characters to not address it. Which will only lead to more communication problems later...I'm getting dizzy trying to puzzle out whether it was a deliberate move for them not to have any meaningful disclosure or whether it was a question of space.

Overall, the story resonated with me. Suzanne and Ryder remind me of my husband and myself early on in our marriage, personality wise. Maybe that's why I liked it so much, I don't know. Ryder finally getting it right at the end was very satisfying, as well. All in all, I enjoyed the book very much.