Alice's Review: Fast Track

Author: Julie Garwood
Series: Buchanan-Renard #12
Publication Date: July 29, 2014
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 352
Obtained: Publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Romance, Mystery
Rating: 3
Bottom Line: Good read but forgettable.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Cordelia Kane has always been a daddy's girl—her father raised her alone after her mother died in a car crash when Cordelia was just two years old. So when he has a serious heart attack, Cordelia is devastated, and the emotion is only intensified by the confusion she feels when he reveals the shocking truth about her mother.  Cordelia cant suppress her curiosity about the woman who gave birth to her, and when she discovers the answers to her questions lie in Sydney, Australia, she travels there to get them.  Hotel magnate Aiden Madison is Cordelias best friends older brother. Hes oblivious to the fact that shes had a crush on him for years. When he gets railroaded into taking her along to Sydney on his company jet, hes unwittingly drawn into a volatile family drama. Aiden wants to help Cordelia get answers about her mother, but threats from her wealthy, high-powered family are quickly becoming dangerous. Sparks are flying between Cordelia and Aiden, but after multiple attempts are made on Cordelias life, Aiden realizes he must put a stop to the madness before he loses the thing he values most. ~ powells.com

Review:   Julie Garwood is back with another visit to my favorite Buchanan clan with Fast Track. This time she’s giving Cordie and Aiden their long awaited go at romance. First of all, the beginning of this novel drove me mad crazy. As a reader and (almost stalker like) follower of the Buchanan series, I knew that eventually Cordie and Aiden were going to get together. This does not need a spoiler alert. What I disliked so profusely is how utterly forced their initial joining was. It didn’t make sense to me at all. There was nothing organic about it. I really hate that. Love should be what the characters want, not what the author forces them to have. My other complaint is the name of this novel. It makes no sense. There wasn’t anything particularly fast about how it happened. Fast Track would be a title better suited for the Aiden’s youngest brother Walker, who is a race car driver.

Besides those two fails, I enjoyed the novel. One of the things I truly relish about Julie Garwood is she gives us Knights in Shining Armor and Damsels in Distress. Although let’s be honest, these women really don’t need help anyway. She shows how the rich and elite live and how it’s perfectly reasonable for a women to fall in love with the man who rescues her even if they have nothing in common but the horizontal tango. She provides her readers with a means to escape the boringness of life. This novel is no different.

As you all know, one of my biggest gripes with Ms. Garwood’s female characters is how annoyingly perfect they are. I appreciated that Cordie wasn’t as perfect as the women before her. She was unorganized, yet brilliant. Qualities that were actually charming and endearing. While I liked Crodie, I didn’t feel the same way about Aiden. He was mostly a macho jerk. Of all of Ms. Garwood’s heros, he was my least favorite. I was about a third of the way through Fast Track before Aiden even acknowledged Cordie in a manner that was not of the “my little sister’s best friend” way. That’s a long while in romance novel time.

On a positive note, we got a good dose of Alec Buchanan from Murder List and Jack MacAlister from Fire and Ice in Fast Track. These two strong male characters more than made up for Aiden. I enjoyed the novel, but I can’t shake the feeling that Cordie would have been just fine without Aiden. It’s a good thing she had that crush on him since she was five because I can’t imagine any other women putting up with his pigheadedness ways. Okay, I’ll lay off Aiden already.

All in all, I liked this one. It’s well written, a lot steamier than I expected, and a quick and fun summer read. It started off a bit rough for me but Fast Track gained momentum towards the end. I think the Julie Garwood diehards out there will really enjoy this one. As for the rest of you, well, you might want to skip it altogether.

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