NASCAR romance book offers new scandals

Scandals and Secrets
Author: Ken Casper
Series: NASCAR
ISBN: 978-0-373-18519-1

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Description:
Tara Dalton is determined to interview Adam Sanford for her new racing biography. Problem is, the enigmatic team owner is frustratingly private—he refuses to have anything to do with the project. Is Adam hiding something? Because if he is, Tara will do whatever is necessary to find the truth!

Sanford Racing is Adam's life. The last thing he needs is Tara's pretty little nose sniffing at the skeletons in his family's closet. But even as Adam grudgingly lets her into the NASCAR world, he realizes he may have made the biggest mistake of all—falling for a woman who could ruin both his family and his reputation….

My View:
I’ve been reading this series since the beginning and the stories are all a lot of fun to read. Readers should keep in mind that the romance in these stories is usually second to the sport of NASCAR. When you read one of these series be prepared to learn more about the fan favorite sport. I’ve been a NASCAR fan for several years now, watching the sport every Sunday. I’ve learned a lot about the sport over the years as a fan, but since I started reading these books my knowledge of the sport has grown greatly.

That being said, even those who aren’t NASCAR fans will enjoy this series, especially now that Harlequin has decided to connect the story and add a little murder, mystery and intrigue. Scandals and Secrets started the off the month providing readers with a glimmer of what is come in the next 16 books.

The book starts at the infamous NASCAR awards banquet, beginning where the last book left off when Dean Grosso won the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Immediately after the dinner Grosso’s car owner is killed. What is to be believed as a mugging may be more sinister.

A few new NASCAR families are introduced in Scandals and Secrets giving viewers a look at some of the new characters they will be reading about in the next few books. This story centers on the Sanford family. The three brothers have grown up in the NASCAR world. The hero, Adam Sanford, is the owner of the racecar that his brother Trey is driving. Another brother left NASCAR under a cloud of suspicion several years before. Each brother will be featured in one of the Harlequin books.

The heroine is an author who is set to write a book about NASCAR families. She chooses the Sanford family to write about. The book itself isn’t bad, but the couple really didn’t work well. I was a little disappointed with that aspect of the book. Being the true fan of NASCAR that I am though, I really liked all the information the author shared about the pre-season setup of NASCAR, so the author scored some points with me there.

As with all first series books, authors have to take some time for readers to get to know all the players and provide the mystery, etc. This doesn’t leave a lot of time for character development. Maybe if this couple had a little more time we would have been able to like them as a romantic couple a little bit more??