Racing for the Sun by Amy Lane
M/M Contemporary Romance
April 26, 2013
Dreamspinner Press

Reviewed by Helyce

In Racing for the Sun, we are pulled into the lives of Ace and Sonny who meet when Sonny joins the army and is placed under Ace’s command. Ace sees something in Sonny that calls to him and he finds himself wanting to watch out for him and take care of him. Ace learns that Sonny is a great mechanic and that coupled with Ace’s love of street racing is the genesis of a dream they cultivate while serving their time in the army. They’ll get a car, Sonny will get it race ready and Ace will drive. They’ll go from race to race and win the pot every time. It’s a dream that gets Ace through the rest of his term and keeps Sonny sane while he finishes his term after Ace leaves.

By the time Sonny gets out of the army, Ace has found them a place to live, set up a legitimate shop and purchased a car that is just waiting for Ace to work on. Sonny seems shocked that Ace had been able to accomplish so much and he’s further surprised by the fact that everything is legitimate. He gets right to work on the car and before you know it, they are racing and winning.

As usual, I was pulled into this story from the first page. You know immediately, that Sonny is barely hanging on; he is emotionally damaged nearly beyond repair. The only reason he survives the army at all is because Ace mentors him and then makes sure that there is someone there to watch over him when his time is up.

When the men are reunited, they move forward with their plan to street race. I liked where the story was going at this point. Sonny is still skittish and super distrustful of everything. He needs constant reassurances from Sonny. At this point, the reader is only able to make assumptions of Sonny’s past; it’s not totally clear, but you know it was bad. Ace handles Sonny with kid gloves, but his feelings for him are always there and he has to keep them to himself. I struggled with this. Their relationship was too one sided for much of the story. While I understood the “why” of it all, it just became a bit repetitive with Sonny being too needy.

In spite of that, I enjoyed the character of Ace. While his struggles didn’t compare with what Sonny had gone through, he’d been in a bad situation himself and had to make tough decisions at a young age in order to cope. I loved that he was the type of character that had that big protective instinct and that he never shied away from helping someone less fortunate and never expected anything in return.

When a man from Sonny’s past shows up, we finally learn exactly what had happened that led Sonny to the army in the first place. It’s not pretty, but Amy Lane doesn’t do pretty. She does gritty and realistic and laces it with just the right amount of pain. I was surprised with the way the story went here and I was not entirely comfortable with it. There’s a murder-and while it kind of goes with the “eye for an eye” mentality, it kind of took away from the fact that I’d fallen for a character that in spite of all that had been done to him, he’d grown into a man who was a kind of hero to others. I agree that the character had to die, but I’d have preferred it happen under other circumstances.

There are secondary characters that brought humor to an otherwise heavy story. Jai, Alba and even Burton; all of their lives were enhanced and changed just by the fact that Ace met them, saw the real person behind the façade and accepted them without question. I adored this aspect of Ace’s character; his utter lack and judgment and acceptance of people was beautiful.

Like all Amy Lane books, this one was filled with her trademark angst and deep emotional content that always make me think about humanity and the choices people make. While not my favorite, I’m glad I read it.

Rating: C

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