Friday 18 October 2019

Book Review: FAST LANE by Kristen Ashley


About the Book




“Once he met her, it was and always would be Lyla.”

They were the gentlemen bad boys of rock. Forming in a garage in a small town in Indiana. Taking their licks on the road. Going balls to the wall until they made their big break.

And then Preacher McCade and the Roadmasters redefined rock and roll.

Guided by their tortured lead singer and songwriter, the Roadmasters changed the face of music in the 80s and 90s. And on their journey to becoming one of the most enduring bands in history—dogged by rumors and myth and fueled by drugs and booze—the Roadmasters had one touchstone.

Lyla.

Preacher’s muse, the love of his life, and the band’s moral compass, from the beginning, Lyla is along for the ride.

But with fame and acclaim in their grasp, they’ve entered the fast lane.

And they didn’t know it, but they were headed for a crash.




My Thoughts



The story of Preacher McCade and the Roadmasters in Fast Lane is chronicled by means of an oral history. A book will be written and an unidentified interviewer has been recording her discussions with various band members about their history as a successful band; the ups, downs and where that life has led them. These interviews are interspersed with flashbacks to the past where readers become part of the action.

As a whole, the storyline works. We get an intimate and personal view of a highly successful band that people have followed for decades. At the end, I felt the story arc was complete. I didn’t have any large unresolved questions. However, it’s in the detail that I felt the book often derails.

What works against this book is the author spends too much time trying to build momentum and waiting until the final quarter to make many of the big reveals. Instead of revealing information throughout, we get waffling and vagueness and repetition and irrelevant details to pad out the story. There are a SIGNIFICANT number of teasers along the lines of ‘I just saw and I knew...’ [character looks off into the yonder]. OK, but what did you see? What do you know? I understand such teasers are meant to elicit interest but frankly, I felt I was treading in cliché filled water for a large part of the book; we are kept in the dark too long.

If you are a reader already familiar with Ashley’s books, and someone gave Fast Lane to you to read without telling you who wrote it, I would bet money you would know it’s one of hers. I recognise readers may find comfort in knowing what to expect from an author. The flip side of this is when you’ve read as many of Ashley’s books as I have, it becomes deeply unsatisfying to read yet another book with regurgitated scenes and similar characters with the same mannerisms, speech, and even dress sense; does a non-Henley wearing hero even exist in her world? The oral history style is certainly new to Ashley but she hasn’t pushed those boundaries far enough. In fact, I would argue, she has barely pushed at all. Fast Lane reads like a typical Ashley book being stuffed into a different format; square peg, round hole.

And yet, I didn’t hate the book. There are flashes of creative writing excellence. There are scenes so intensely emotional, they did bring me close to tears. The characters aren’t two-dimensional - even factoring in the uncomfortable similarity to previous KA characters. I enjoyed reading about their lives and their history. And for me, without doubt, Preacher McCade is the focus of this book, and I enjoyed his characterisation - but not as a hero. I thought he was a manipulative, controlling arse who was anointed as a saint by those around him. I actually detest him as a character but that’s also what makes him interesting. I didn’t need these characters to get a happy ever after, but you can relax. This is a romance book after all.

In summary, the framework is sound but the final construction falls short – even including the goodly amount of toss pillows.






About the Author



Kristen Ashley is the New York Times bestselling author of over sixty romance. She’s a hybrid author, publishing titles both independently and traditionally, her books have been translated in fourteen languages and she’s sold over three million books.

Kristen, born in Gary and raised in Brownsburg, Indiana, was a fourth-generation graduate of Purdue University. Since, she has lived in Denver, the West Country of England, and now she resides in Phoenix. She worked as a charity executive for eighteen years prior to beginning her independent publishing career. She currently writes full-time.



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