CRASH COURSE
by Piper Lawson
An aspiring Formula One engineer juggles a love triangle and lies at an elite racing academy.
Twenty-year-old Shay MacDonald is hiding two secrets, both of which threaten to destroy her relationship with her adoptive father. Against her dad’s wishes, Shay has been standing in for him at his mechanic job for Ashford Racing Inc. while he recovers from a medical issue. She’s also transferred from Ohio State to Ashford Academy—a training school for aspiring F1 drivers and engineers. Her father would be furious if he knew she had anything to do with the Ashfords, the prominent racing family that owns both the garage and the academy. Ever since Shay survived the car crash that killed her birth parents when she was 4, her father has forbidden her from having anything to do with the local family whose name is synonymous with racing and risk. Shay dreams of becoming an automotive engineer, though, so it’s all worth the fight they’ll inevitably have when her father finds out. Then, as if she wasn’t under enough stress, she has an unfortunate run-in with racing royalty on her first day at the academy. Ashford heirs Theo and Jameson are both devastatingly handsome, but that’s where their similarities end. Theo is all flirtation and sunshine while Jameson is haughty, hot, and utterly frustrating. Both guys have taken an interest in Shay, but it’s Jameson she can’t get off her mind—even when he’s being a total jerk. As Shay begins to enmesh herself in the Ashfords’ dangerous, alluring inner circle, she realizes their lives might be more connected to her own than she’d thought. The first entry in Lawson’s Ashford Academy series is a hot, slow burn with just the right hint of intrigue. Jameson and Theo’s brotherly feud provides the material for a quintessential love triangle—think The Summer I Turned Pretty meets an F1 racetrack—and Shay is a badass, capable protagonist with an unstoppable drive. And to Theo fans: Don’t fret, a sequel starring the younger brother is hinted at in the epilogue.
An exciting introduction to a sexy new series in the growing genre of race-car romance.