Books: Fast Love & Text Messages to My Son
Me - Fast Love by Kerry Lockhart is an adult romcom about Bobbi, a racecar driver who recently broke up with her cheating ex, and Julia, a writer who’s engaged but not in love. The two of them have a brief meet cute at an airport and sparks fly only for them to meet properly the next day when they discover their respective siblings are marrying each other. Unfortunately, Julia wants to stop the wedding for the good of her sister and Bobbi needs it to go off without a hitch.
This book was not for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing at all, for multiple reasons. For one thing, there were so many comments degrading certain types of women for no reason– for example, when Bobbi and Julia first meet, Bobbi sarcastically asks if Julia has watched Pretty Woman too many times to which Julia becomes annoyed and responds, “Are you saying I’m the type of woman to sit around filing my nails, streaming rom-coms, and reading romance novels on my Kindle?” I’m sorry but last time I checked, nothing about those assumptions would be insulting. I especially found the belittling of reading romance novels to be ironic coming from a character who is a romance author. Later on, a side character describes a woman he dislikes as smelling like hair dye and goes on to add, “Yeah, ya know, plastic.” I thought we left the unnecessary bashing of femininity in the 2000s so the many comments like these really rubbed me the wrong way.
I also had an issue with the dialogue, which all came off as very unnatural. Whether it was between Julia and Bobbi, Julia and her best friend, Sandy, or any other combination of characters, practically every line spoken was trying so hard to be quippy, amusing banter that it did the complete opposite and just felt awkward.
As for the romance, I didn’t feel a connection between Bobbi and Julia at all. They locked eyes and immediately fell for each other. There was no development or emotional connection; it felt like nothing more than physical lust. This wasn’t helped by the fact that it felt like every other sentence for at least the first 20% of the book included one of them describing how hot and sexy the other one was. Bobbi also commented excessively on how tiny Julia was which didn’t bother me the first couple times but quickly became irritating when it didn’t let up.
The characters themselves were okay. I didn’t dislike any of them but they felt like caricatures. Bobbi was cool, collected, and confident and Julia was a frazzled spitfire. I felt like I knew nothing about their interests or personalities outside of those vague traits and their careers. The side characters were even more one-dimensional. Sandy especially didn’t feel like a real person to me. He was there to offer snarky commentary to Julia when it suited the plot and beyond that he was nothing.
I can see how the plot of this book might be appealing to certain people. If you're into car racing you might enjoy Bobbi’s story, as certain aspects of her career– especially misogyny in the workplace– were discussed a bit. There were also wedding hijinks and family drama on both Bobbi’s and Julia’s sides for people who enjoy familial relationships in books– Bobbi had issues with her selfish, overbearing father and Julia’s mother seemed to care more about money and appearances than anything else.
Overall, I wouldn’t say this book was inherently bad. If the synopsis appeals to you and you’re looking for a short, lighthearted, unserious sapphic romance, then maybe give it a chance. However, I think there are many books out there that share similar elements with far better execution and I personally don’t think this one is worth the read.
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