Review: Pole Position
Contemporary Romance
Released: February 12, 2016
Acelette Press

Reviewed by Sheena

Favorite Quote: “Lying in bed next to the wrong woman isa million times lonelier than lying in bed alone.”

When bad covers happen to good books….this book’s cover is something I’d expect to fall from the knapsack of a breakfast clubber….the 80’s called and they want their book covers back…heh, I trust my point is well taken.

Pole Position has a sort of dated new adulty feel. Some of the language and slang is very nuanced and I had to re-read for clarity s few times but it was a minor ail and had a negligible impact on the reading experience.  Jon begins as a playboy race car driver who is burying his broken heart in every bimbo he can get his hands on.  Anita is a gifted horse trainer and rider who was left so emotionally damaged by her ex that she is all but rendered incapable of maintaining a physical relationship. They meet by happenstance when he nearly runs her over.  She has no idea he is a famous race car driver, he is smitten by her ethereal and honest innocence.   It is all very sweet and interesting and I’m there, in the thick of it enjoying all the good feels of it all. There are multiple POV’s.  I love dual POV’s.  There is a built-in haste to the story, the chapters are short and begin and end with a little punch of action.

Jon and Anita are stinking cute.  He is a gentleman, a genuine good guy and a realistic fit to Anita’s cocoon shedding, butterfly evolution.  They have met one another at just the right time in their lives. Kismet even.  Everything is gravy, I’m shit-eating grinning because things are flowing and I am already waxing poetic prose about how cool and throwback the vibe is…..and then I slam into chapter four. And.All.Hell.Breaks.Loose.  In what feels like a bucket of ice water to the face, I am suddenly foisted upon Anita’s roommate, Colette’s POV and it’s not pretty.  Quite matter of factly we learn that Colette is embroiled in an affair with she and Anita’s other roommate, Danny, who is also their landlord.  Danny is Anita’s childhood sociopath friend who harbors a twisted affection for Anita that is the primary obstacle to her and Jon’s relationship.  Colette gets wise to Danny’s obsession and in a deft maneuver that is equal parts pathetic and cringe-worthy she buries her head in the sand and throwing herself to Danny as often as she can immune to even his most blatant luke warm receptions and mooning over Anita.

Aside from the lunacy that is Colette and Danny’s dynamic, Jon and Anita are actually both pretty likable characters.  I grew rather impatient with Anita’s a little too wide eyed innocence, completely obtuse to Danny’s shenanigans- and boy were there some douche moves pulled in an effort to break Jon and Anita up. Forcing myself to shake off how weird things were becoming, I read onward, once again lulled into a false sense of security by  more good feels and some really nice burgeoning relationship dialogue and then not quite as suddenly but just as disconcerting…things fail to add up.  Jon has a “day job apparently that takes him to London with his father in what served no purpose than to allow absence to make the heart grow fonder?? Then Danny displays some pretty obvious creeptastic behavior and Anita’s sense of loyalty and gratefulness prohibits her from recognizing how much of a weirdo he is…. Jon is living back home with his parents in the wake of his divorce and while he is on the cusp of entering Formula 1 Racing royalty- he still sneaks his girlfriend up to his room so mommy and daddy do not hear. *Thud* I am all for propriety and  appeasing parental sensibilities, buuut I draw the line when the hunky race car driver I have in my head is texting mom and dad to see if the coast is clear for a little nookie.  Then a series of absolutely silly and had bewildering events occur- spoiler alert- a pregnancy occurs and by now I am only reading because my face is stuck in the squinty ‘hunh’ expression, as I try to reconcile these characters that have done complete one-eighty’s and none of whom I recognize- with the exception of Anita who withdraws back into the wounded bird that always lay just beneath her surface anyway. Danny has a covert lobotomy and has a new personality and discovers he does, can, will love Colette after all and they become engaged. (Yes, join me in my “hunh??”)   and Anita in an effort to give Jon more of the life he always wanted- hides her pregnancy and moves in with her parents to get a freaking grip.

*Sigh*  I am all about preggo HEA’s.  I am miles ahead of my romance novel characters at the Babies R’Us and buying baby gear if I even suspect a pregnancy.  I hear the faint sound of hero condoms breaking in my sleep.  And if there is a heroine who forgets to take the pill or naively ingests antibotics while on birth control rendering it useless- let the church say- Amen!!  All this to illustrate, seldom am I put off by a pregnancy, but in Pole Position it was sorely misplaced and felt like a plot device ploy rather than a genuine turn in the story.  After one ridiculous misunderstanding after the other and no one using the brain cell seemingly hared between them, Jon and Anita break up and are never on the same page at the same time when it comes to reconciliation.  He goes off to his F1 glory while she is a shadow of the shadow of herself and only when the unstable Colette and Danny intervene are they able to come back together for an HEA that ended with a door slam to the face.  Pole Position is full of abrupt starts and stops. There was something good in there…somewhere but it was far too disjointed.  I do not think this is a series.  This is good news.

My head hurts.

Grade: C-

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