Review: Crash & Burn by Adell Ryan

Crash & Burn by Adell Ryan

Series: Burnout #3

Publication date: December 30th, 2020

Pages: 373

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Keeping my distance to avoid getting emotionally involved, failed.

Remember that game of car-crew tug-of-war? Well, the rope snapped, leaving me alone in the center, unable to reach either dangling end.

The tension force in the rope and the resistance between the crews? That was my fault.

There is only one solution for fixing things--a modification to the plan that got us in this mess to begin with. I need to distance myself and do what I should have done the day I was forced into the job:

Burnout.

Circumstances initiated the challenge. Grit and determination filled the gas tank. I opened the throttle wide... and lost. But the daughter of the late automotive guru, Troy Delancey, does not give up just because she tasted defeat in the first couple of races.

The time has come to stage a match with my own set of rules and show these crews how to race--and win--like a girl.

This final flag drop is my only remaining hope.

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Review:

Remi has lost everything. Her brother's favor and her the trust of the men she was falling for all in one swoop. Even if she didn't actively betray her men she still conspired to do so and in these men's world that is just the same. Now Remi has nobody to turn to and she must find a way to stand on her own. Her crazed ex is still out there, beaten but not out yet, and she must find a way to escape him while her brother and lovers ice her out. But her guys also kept secrets from her. Crow, most of all. Maybe its time for Remi and the rest of the Gulf Coasters to let the secrets out and find a way through them before they destroy everything they ever built. But that is easier said than done, isn't it?

I feel that this book was a little more scattered than the other two. One minute I was crying over the treatment Remi was getting and the heartbreak she was going through and the next she was making internal side comments about ass play. I had a hard time keeping up with the sudden change. It felt like the author got a little silly with the final book and that made the foundation of her story a little shaky. It felt like Remi was all over the place, wandering aimlessly, with no real destination in mind as far as what she would do for the rest of her life. Granted, all of this happened in the span of a few days to weeks so it is understandable. In that same school of thought I am glad that there was no 'I love yous' exchanged when the relationships were all so new. Obsession, absolutely. Forever love? That's a bit of a stretch. So I applaud the author for not taking that worn and weary path that most insta-love books take.

Remi was a lot more whiny and fragile in this book than in the others. Of course, she was going through three break-ups and the lost of her brother's affections all in the same time frame, so maybe that is to be expected. But when she was portrayed as being a badass no nonsense biker chick you'd think she'd be able to pick herself up a bit more than she did. I think she crumbled and cracked and it took someone getting hurt for things to be brought back together. 

Trenton lost a lot of points with me in this book. The way he cavalierly talked about her when had their last moments together after the fact. I know he was trying to mask how much he was hurting but at the same time, it was just gross. I was really disappointed that the goofy guy turned into one of my least favorite of the trio. 

I also wasn't a huge fan of their manipulation of her in the same manner as the perceived her of doing to them. I know the reason behind it and I am not giving the author a hard time for the choice but, damn, give the girl a break! I felt terrible for Remi and if I had been her I would have smacked the heck out of the three of them for the games they played with her heart as well. 

The book left me on the edge of my seat and I never knew what was going to happen next. There were some revelations that made me even more confused than when I had tried to puzzle it out for myself. But the book, overall, was good. I read it in one night and felt good about stepping away from Remi and her guys at the end.