The Ride of Her Life by Natasha Moore

TITLE: The Ride of Her Life
AUTHOR: Natasha Moore
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 51k)
GENRE: Contemporary romance
COST: $4.50

With her life about to change for the worse due to a terrifying diagnosis, Sarah Austin is looking for a little adventure in her boring, sensible existence, and the bad boy crush from her youth has just walked into her bank. About to return back west on his Harley, Dean Bastian represents everything Sarah has always yearned for – freedom, adventure, and passion. She asks him to let her hitch a ride with him, unknowing that he’s calmed his wild ways. Dean agrees, but Sensible Sarah isn’t exactly what he expects. Much to her delight.

I’d heard a lot of good things about this book, and reading a contemporary with real problems sounded like a nice change from some of the other material I’ve been reading lately. Plus, the cover reeled me in. Guys with long hair and scruff? The description of every other crush I had before getting married.

But as I started the book, I couldn’t sink into it like I’d hoped. Oh, the writing is solid enough, and since it’s a Samhain title, the editing was top-notch. The characters seemed real enough, too. I knew a lot of Sarah and Deans growing up. But as their adventure on the road unfolds, I kept coming across scene after scene that felt like I’d read it a thousand times over. There was a checklist quality to their relationship that nagged at the back of my mind the entire time I was reading. Hot makeover that makes Dean notice Sarah? Check. Getting caught in the rain? Check. Quaint encounter with older woman/couple to remind Sarah of the happily ever after she wants and won’t get? Check. It just all felt like I’d read it a hundred times over, which, okay, I primarily read romance so it’s all been done a hundred times over, but if the story engages me, I don’t care about that.

Other than individual scenes that felt very unoriginal, though, there’s nothing I can find direct fault with to credit my boredom with this story. The characterization is reasonably rounded without sliding into stereotypes. The logical arc makes sense. I did have issues with Sarah ignoring her diagnosis and the implications of it in order to put her health at risk, but that was minor. The fact that she’d only found out the week before meant she was still in denial. Of course, that also raises the question of why she was also in such a fatalistic mode so quickly, but when I wasn’t emotionally invested in her behavior anyway, that became a moot point.

I’m left to conclude that this is one of those unfortunate books that falls into a gray area for me. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has it. It’s that area where it seems like all the elements are there but for whatever reason, it just doesn’t engage you emotionally. It’s a shame. I still think the guy on the cover is hot.

Readability	8/10 – Easy and error-free, it just didn’t grab and hook me in.
Hero	7/10 – There’s potential here, but my inability to connect emotionally to the story kept me at too much of a distance.
Heroine	6/10 – I had issues believing she’d put herself at so much risk, but at least she didn’t spend the book whining too much.
Entertainment value	4/10 – The elements were all there, but the constant nagging feeling that I’d read those kinds of scenes a million times kept me from investing.
World building	8/10 – I liked the details of the times they were on the road, very nicely done.
TOTAL:	33/50