Fast Love
Book 1: Fast Love series
by Kerry Lockhart
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Pub Date Aug 24 2023 | Archive Date Sep 23 2023
ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op | Keen Jean Books LLC
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Description
A witty and lighthearted queer romantic comedy about instant attraction and taking a risk—with caution flags along the way.
Escaping her writer’s block and crumbling engagement, historical romance novelist Julia Shaw heads to Los Angeles as maid-of-honor in her sister’s hasty wedding. Her brief flirtation with a charismatic stock car driver, Bobbi Yoshida-Barnes, at the airport bar, promises to be the highlight of her trip.
But the irresistibly charming Bobbi is the best woman at the same wedding. The two are firing on all cylinders until they disagree on the wisdom of their siblings’ plans to marry. While Julia plots to derail the ceremony, Bobbi needs the wedding to go off without a hitch or lose her race car sponsorship.
In a race against Bobbi’s career demands and Julia’s agent threatening to destroy her, can love cross the finish line first?
Fast Love is the first book in the Fast Love queer romantic comedy series. Kerry Lockhart’s delightful debut has sparkly female characters, an adorable floppy-haired dog, a big romantic gesture—and drag queen sumo wrestlers thrown in for good measure. Get your motor running for this hilarious tale of love at first banter.
Advance Praise
Amazon Reviews:
Amzn Cstmr
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a Scream!
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
Fast Love combines the "Stop the Wedding" trope with the zing of "Instant Attraction” and is packed full of laughs and capers. It’s brimming with humor and offers just enough insight into serious family dynamics to make the characters and story both likeable and compelling without taking away from the pure delightful absurdity of the rest of it.
Julia and Bobbi often hurl genuinely irritated but good-natured verbal jabs at each other, yet neither stoop to the level of hurtful punches—beneath the banter it’s clear each woman respects the other.
Without sounding preachy, the author touches on the infuriating condescension and oppression caused by sexism, racism, and homophobia. Since I despise being preached to, I’ll reiterate for those who need to hear it again—the author didn’t overdo it. The mentions were appropriate for the story and the genre. Just a touch added to the realism and complexity of Bobbi and Julia’s world, and Lockhart lightened it by adding dry sarcasm. Very well done.
The story has an emotionally satisfying ending, but Lockhart leaves a couple of threads open for potential spin-offs for secondary characters. (Even though Mack, Bobbi’s passionately loyal crew chief, isn’t what many would consider a classic rom-com hero, I'd love to read his story, so I hope he'll have one.)
The romance: Opposites do indeed attract, and Julia and Bobbi couldn’t be more different. When Bobbi suggests that Julia, bodice-ripping romance writer, goes for a ride with Bobbi in her racecar sometime, Julia’s reaction is priceless.
The chemistry: Woo! Julia and Bobbi have an instant, scorching attraction that culminates in a couple of very satisfying, uh… situations.
The author skillfully laces together different kinds of humor and the combination of them is sure to appeal to rom-com lovers. There is slapstick and dry sarcasm. There's character-based: Julia is a classy klutz, which results in some embarrassing but hysterical goofs. Situational: licorice and rhubarb, anyone? Visual: a particularly striking mental image of a wedding bouquet for sale in the Flower District will likely stay with me for a millennium. And from my favorite scene in the book—absurdist: Kitty and Betty, the drag queens, play memorable bit parts, and the story simply wouldn’t be the same without them.
The often clever and witty wordplay is delightful to read: “…the flop sweat from her guilty conscience…”. Lol—can’t say I’ve ever read *that* metaphor before.
And, finally, there’s Moonshine…
In conclusion: Fast Love is a scream, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I can totally see this as a hilariously zany movie someday too. Highly recommend.
Ohio Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Buckle up for this fast and fun debut novel!
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2023
Verified Purchase
Fabulous debut novel! This entertaining rom-com is fun and funny with a madcap pace, an unconventional cast of characters, and a whirlwind scheme to break-up a lavish California wedding. The main characters are everything you could want with wacky romance novelist Julia's struggle with writer's block and determined race-car driver Bobbi's stress over her recent losing streak at the track. And of course, they've both had horrible luck with love and relationships.
After meeting in an airport bar, their immediate attraction defies explanation and appears doomed as they discover their diametrically opposed weekend goals. Julia intends to break up her sister's ill-advised wedding to Bobbi's brother, but Bobbi has promised her father she'd make sure the wedding goes forward as planned. Their journey includes a bevy of shenanigans. Other family members, career issues, and a kidnapped dog interfere with the eventual HEA, but it's a wild ride getting there. Buckle up and enjoy!
I received an advanced reader's copy of this book.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9798988540403 |
| PRICE | $5.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 276 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Jessica R, Reviewer
⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️🌶️
💒📚🏎️🐕🚿
Fast Love is about a romance author and a race car driver meeting at their respective siblings' wedding. Julia, the romance author, and sister to the bride-to-be, has writer's block and relationship issues with her own fiancee (and agent), Nicole. Bobbi, half-sister to the groom, is a race car driver, who's going through a breakup with her ex-girlfriend Taylor.
The plot of the story is great. Basically, Julia sees her sister do something that makes her believe that the marriage should happen. She does everything she can to try and stop it. Meanwhile, Bobbi is tasked by her father to make sure the wedding goes through, or else his sponsorship will be pulled. (her father is awful by the way). It was funny the way things were done, and how Bobbi seemed to always be present to try and stop Julia's plans.
It meant that they were constantly together, and the wit/flirting between the two were great. Julia had to make a big decision about her loveless relationship with Nicole, and Bobbi had to deal with the drama of her ex.
The characters were great; the humor, the flirting, the wit, the characters themselves. The rep was great, two lesbians (Julia and Bobbi), a gay best friend (Sandy), two sapphic side characters (Taylor is either bi or pan, not sure about Nicole), and a trouple (FFM). Bobbi is a Japanese-American.
This was a great debut from the author.
Thank you to Netgalley and Kerry Lockhart for the cope of the ebook. This review is left voluntarily.
Riley H, Reviewer
I absolutely loved this book. It definitely kept my attention with everything that was going on. loved that everyone had layers to them even if they were side characters.
Lindsay O, Reviewer
I truly enjoyed this! All the twists and turns!! Such a cute romance!! I can’t wait to see what’s next!!
Thank you to Netgalley for the arc!!
Kerrie V, Reviewer
Romance novelist Julia Shaw is suffering from writer's block when she heads to LA to be the maid-of-honor in her sister's hasty wedding. But she plans to do everything she can to derail the wedding, since she thinks her sister is making a big mistake. She's very much at odds with the groom's hot sister Bobbi, who needs the wedding to work.
The dynamics between Julia and Bobbi are hilarious. I loved their relationship. This is a great debut from a new author, and I can't wait to read more from her. The banter is witty, the characters are fun, and the story was really entertaining. This is the first time I've read a book about racing. Delightfully fun read!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!
Noel T, Reviewer
I loved Fast Love! It's my first sapphic romance read and I read it in one sitting it was so good! This debut novel is about Julia, an author struggling with writer's block. She meets Bobbi a stock car race driver. The sparks are instant and the story follows the two of them as Julia's sister is about to marry Bobbi's brother.
Pros: They both ended up being what the other one needed. I love F1 so seeing a book involving a female race car driver, sign me up! Sandy added great comic relief and I loved it! All of the family and friend content was sweet! A lighthearted, romcom and in my opinion low-stakes quick read.
Cons: I felt like the different POVs should have been labeled as I got a tad confused since they weren't. I also felt like all of the different side plots made the main storyline hard to follow.
I really enjoyed this one and definitely recommend it. What a great debut novel for Kerry! I look forward to reading more books by Kerry.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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