Review: One Sweet Ride – Jaci Burton

Race car driver Gray Preston enjoys fast cars and an uncomplicated life, until political aide Evelyn Hill enters the picture and complicates the hell out of it with a request that he help out his estranged father’s political campaign. Racing and politics don’t mix, but Gray and Evelyn’s sexual attraction sizzles like asphalt in August.

Series: Play by Play #6
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Source: Provided by Publisher
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

From the minute I met Gray in THROWN BY A CURVE, I’ve been dying for his book.  There was just something about how this man sat at that lodge drinking with his best friends that had me.  While Gray

Grayson Preston is a star of the NASCAR circuit.  He’s kept his racing life very separate from his personal life because of a falling out with his father.  However, with the Presidential race heating up that wall he built between work and personal comes crashing down when political aide, Evelyn Hill, becomes a thorn in Gray’s side and the only woman he can’t lives without.

As I said above, I loved Gray and so looked forward to his story.  Most of it lived up to what I had built up in my mind.  Gray appeared to be a laid back kind of guy, but he was so much more and one that would do anything for those that he loves (both his family and his friends).  He  has a lot of issues when it comes to his father.  We know their big falling out came from Gray choosing a path that was not what his father wanted and some pretty harsh things being said.  So while he hasn’t spoken to his father in eight years, despite his father’s attempt to contact him, he never cuts himself off from his mother or sister.  And regardless of how he might act towards his father or say, you could see that Gray was a man that loves his family and will do anything for them.

Then there was Evelyn.  Gray was firmly in the camp that he wasn’t going to settle down.  He’d hook up with a woman to satisfy his sexual needs, but he doesn’t do a relationship or fall in love.  Evelyn crashes into his life with her own vow that she wasn’t looking for a relationship, which he thought was perfect.  But you could tell that Evelyn was going to be a game changer for Gray.  Despite what he said, Gray became that alpha male that absolutely refuses to let his woman out of his sight or out of his life.

Evelyn was a strong woman, more like Alicia Riley from THROWN BY A CURVE than Liz from CHANGING THE GAME.  She was determined to make something of herself, despite what others may have said about her when she was growing up.  And while she may say she doesn’t want a relationship, she know very early on that Gray was going to be a game changer for her.  He would tell her that she could have a family and her career aspiration and made her believe that she could.  That was something no one had ever done for her and it was one of the first things that won her over.

The romance between Gray and Evelyn was fun, sweet and hot all at the same time.  And while they were hot, I was really hoping Gray was going to be down and dirty like Mick, Gavin and Ty.  In the earlier Play-by-Play series books, we got a great story between the characters with a lot of hot, dirty sex.  I enjoyed what Jaci Burton gave us with Gray and Evelyn, but I have a feeling these two could have seriously been down and dirty and I really missed that they weren’t.

This is still one of my favorite series and one that I can’t wait to get  my hands.  Jaci Burton still manages to create great characters that readers fall in love with and who beg you not to put down the book until you get to the last page.