Sophie
dreams of becoming a racer, but as she’s a girl, she counts herself lucky just
to be working with racers like Ace and Kenny. Ace is her current boyfriend, but
sometimes he seems to be more in love with himself than with Sophie. New driver
Kenny would like to take pole position in the races - and in Sophie’s heart.
But he’s got to compete with Ace, and it seems like the only thing to Kenny’s
advantage is that he has a proper name.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy this or not. My entire knowledge of racing comes from the animated film Cars, and I can’t even drive a normal car, so I was worried a lot of the story would go right over my head. On the other hand, I do like sportsmen, and they’re a bit thin on the ground in BookByYou. So I decided to give Racing Hearts a try.
I really loved it. I understood nearly all
the racing and driving terminology, and even though you wouldn’t catch me in
any kind of fast car in real life, I really got caught up in the excitement of the
races. It didn’t matter that I have no idea how the points and pole positions
work. You don’t need to understand that, though it probably adds something to the story if you do.
I also loved the ending. Obviously, I’m not
going to tell you what happened, but the story seemed to be heading in a
certain direction. Then the writer, Wendy Pickett, did something different. It
was exciting, believable and romantic. Then there was another moment that could
have been clichéd (again, I’m not telling you what), it’s been done so many
times before. But again, Wendy Pickett took the story off in a different
direction, and it was great.
Even though the main character, Sophie, is
nothing like me (I hate fast cars nearly as much as I hate her dress sense),
she is a great character, and I could definitely do worse than pick up a few of
her characteristics. Even though she is a sort of wag of the racing world,
she’s sensible, intelligent, and she knows her stuff.
Kenny is one of the most gorgeous heroes in
BookByYou. He really is sweet. He gets nervous before races, he gets upset if
he drives badly, and he’s about as far from that arrogant **** Ace as you can
get. He’s obviously a strong and confident guy in some ways, but it’s clear he
really needs someone like Sophie to encourage him and reassure he’s doing okay.
He is so my type.
I named Sophie’s friend after Jade. She’s a
lovely character- she isn’t as developed as Sophie and Kenny, but she’s great,
even though she doesn’t get a personalised boyfriend. Ace is so wonderfully
annoying, The only problem is I have no idea why Sophie ever got within ten
yards of him, but he’s the perfect villain character.
You already know not to call your hero Ace,
though surely no self-respecting BookByYou fan would ever do such a thing.
Kenny has a friend called Slate, so you’ll also need to avoid that name, and
Sophie’s boss is called Leland (I’m not even sure how to pronounce that, but
‘Layland’ sounded good in my head). As usual, BookByYou does a great job of
choosing very unusual names for the secondary characters.
And as always, it’s a great book.
