Book Review: Danger Zone by Dee J. Adams

Title: Danger Zone (Amazon)
Series: Adrenaline Highs, #2
Author: Dee J. Adams
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: NetGalley
Published: February 2012 by Carina Press

In her ten-year career as a stuntwoman, Ellie Morgan has experienced her share of thrills. None compares to the rush of being behind the wheel of a race car for her latest movie shoot. Certain she was born to race, Ellie's ready to shift gears—but a secret from her past holds her back.

Quinn Reynolds is tired of being in the driver's seat of his family's company, Formula Racing Design. He's ready to sell—if he can get his co-owner and brother, Mac, to agree. Quinn's not sure what he wants to do with his future, but almost as soon as he meets Ellie, he knows he wants her to be part of it.

Though Ellie tries to resist her attraction to the charming businessman, she's quickly in danger of losing her heart. But after narrowly escaping "accidents" both on and off the set, it becomes clear that getting involved with Quinn could be downright deadly...

Why I Read this Book: After reading Dangerous Race (my review), the first book in this series, I knew I wanted more. I love romantic suspense and I enjoyed the author’s writing style so I’m keeping an eye open for more books by Dee J. Adams. And I love reading about women dominating in ‘man’s world’ industry, like race car driving. 

What I Liked: The hero and heroine. I liked both of these characters and I liked them for each other. I couldn’t help but appreciate Quinn’s reliability and nobility because he was stuck running the family business when he had no desire to do so. He was never really given the choice; it was just given to him. But he put in his all and made the company successful because his livelihood wasn’t the only one on the line.

I loved Ellie and Ashley’s bond. When Ellie’s own family wasn’t there for her, she found a great support system in Ashley and her mom. Speaking of Ashley, that girl made me laugh. I would love to see Ashley get her own book. After what she went through in Danger Zone, she deserves a HEA of her own.

And can I hear it for the heroine who doesn’t drink? Yay! Okay, okay, this may sound crazy to most but being a non-drinker myself (never have, never will – and no, it’s not a religious thing) I can appreciate this quality in a character.

I got to ‘catch up’ a bit with Trace and Mac (the heroine and hero from the first book) without them hogging up too much page time.

What I Didn’t Like: I didn’t understand the reasoning behind Ellie’s decision during the vehicle accident on the way to Barstow. The accelerator in the vehicle she was driving got stuck. Quinn told her to down shift (car has a manual transmission) but she said “it doesn’t feel right”. When I was reading this part, I was screaming in my head F*CK THE TRANNY, GRIND THE GEARS! and then PUT THE CAR IN NEUTRAL AND HIT THE BRAKES! But Ellie doesn’t do either of those things. She does something so overly dramatic, so over-the-top. (I don’t want to spoil this part so I won’t say what actually happens.) I get that Ellie’s a stuntwoman by occupation, but stunt people take calculated risks and this was out of character for Ellie. It was a minor glitch and I bet most readers will probably overlook this. But for someone like me, who worked in the automotive industry for over a decade, I can’t help but notice these types of things. The scene was intense enough as it was; this extra unnecessary risk wasn’t needed in my opinion. (I had similar beef with the heroine from the first novel for taking an unnecessary risk as well.)

Another thing that bugged me was that the reasoning for Ellie’s handicap was not provided until almost the very end of the book. The handicap itself was revealed pretty early on so every time the handicap was mentioned, I couldn’t understand why or how she had the handicap in the first place and it distracted me.

Memorable Moments: I loved Ellie’s and Ashley’s conversations:

“Oh! My! God!” Ashley’s frantic words brought Ellie out of her date-daze.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“That kiss,” she finally blurted. “Oh my, God, did you see that kiss?”

Ellie exhaled with a smile. “See it? I was in on it.”

Quinn checking out Ellie’s classic Mustang while Ellie was checking out Quinn’s rear end:

“Looks like you’ve done some work to the interior.” he said.

She removed her gaze from his posterior. “A little….”

Overall Impression: Danger Zone held my attention from page one. I was hooked into the plot, the characters, and the outcome. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.

Brianna’s Rating: