Description:

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller McCrumb (_St. Dale_; Ghost Riders) returns to the world of NASCAR in this middling tale of modern celebrity. Badger Jenkins, a shy, good old boy from Marengo, Ga., whose days of racing stardom have come and gone, is recruited by a syndicate of women investors to drive their new car. The car's primary sponsor is Vagenya (sounds like Virginia), a Viagra-like product for women, and the team will field an all-female crew. Besides the inscrutable but lovable Badger, there's Grace Tuggle, the gruff crew chief; Melodie Albigre, Jenkins's predatory agent; and Melanie Sark, a duplicitous publicist who's secretly planning to write an exposé of NASCAR. Add the competing agendas to an inexperienced pit crew, and Team Vagenya seems to be headed for a pileup long before it gets to victory lane. NASCAR fans will enjoy the time spent at the track, but the pedestrian plotting and unsurprising outcome hinder the novel like sugar in a gas tank. (June)
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From

It's almost a giant step for womankind--an all-female NASCAR pit crew sponsored by the female equivalent of Viagra. But they still need a driver. Enter pretty boy Badger Jenkins, the poster child for passive aggression. With his polite, Southern, laid-back manner, Badger will agree to anything but never follow through. Once he puts on his fire suit, however, he morphs into the dangerously handsome, daredevil race-car driver who has stolen the hearts of females everywhere. McCrumb, who canonized NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt in her novel St. Dale (2006), imagines yet another contemporary racing legend. This book is populated with strong female characters, from the tough, competent crew chief to the determined attorney to Badger's ruthless manager. And McCrumb's detailed descriptions of the pit crew at work are so strong you can almost smell the motor oil. Readers who can't get enough of Pamela Britton's NASCAR series, including On the Edge (2006) and To the Limit (2007), will be happy to add McCrumb to their list of must-reads. Shelley Mosley
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