I never knew how much I like foreplay and the romantic chase in contemporary romances until I suffered through this book which has neither. A high-maintenance 32-year-old and a laid back guy, reminiscent of Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw’s characters in the movie The Blind Side taken to the max, toss all the trappings of courtship out the window which makes for a pretty dry, unromantic story.

In this sixth book of the Fast Track series, Eve Monroe, sister of race car drivers Elec and Evan and daughter of a legendary driver, is her brothers’ PR agent, having been dissuaded from becoming a driver by their father. Eve is sharp-tongued and portrayed by everyone as being a blunt ball buster.

Evan’s jack-man Nolan Ford, one of the pit crew who raises the car to change the tires, is so laid back that no one notices that he’s been lusting after Eve for over a year. When his jumpsuit splits during a pit change and the video of his bare butt goes viral, Eve sees this as a PR nightmare while Nolan sees it as a joke.

Eve resists every blunt overture Nolan makes until he dares her to go out with him. This she responds to and discovers at the Oktoberfest that she can let go and have fun. More taunting ensues with Nolan helping Eve get ready to drive in a demolition derby, something she’s never done before but thinks might be fun, which she discovers it is.

(This next is not a spoiler because it’s prominent on McCarthy’s Web site description of the book even though the event occurs over two-thirds of the way into the book.) When they end up in Las Vegas over Eve’s birthday, not only does Nolan throw her a surprise party, but he asks her to marry him. She agrees. Problems ensue.

So what the book boils down to: Eve’s scathing insults and worrying about her misspent life, Nolan’s baiting Eve and interest in her breasts, and bloodless rounds of sex.

Eve is a neurotic mess who reacts to those around her more like someone in her early teens while Nolan for all of his aw-shucks, good-ole-boy attitude thinks like a randy high school kid. That either is good on the job seems hard to believe. But romances have been written about more disparate couples and have been believable. This one, however, defies belief, mainly because there is no discernible spark between the two.

While I’ve read good reviews of the previous Fast novels in the series, I’m not tempted to try them after having read this one. I’ll wait for another writer to fire me up about car racing instead.