EVANGELINE JENNINGS - RIDING IN CARS WITH GIRLS (2015)

I don't usually give books a hard sell, but on this occasion I'm happy to make an exception. 

Riding in Cars with Girls goes on sale today and for the first fortnight the e-book is available for 99p/99c. Click here! 

Not sure? Maybe the trailer will help you make up your mind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwEzwfsnxHw

Synopsis/blurb…….

A transgressive and cauterizing crime fiction collection with more twists and turns than a high mountain road, Riding in Cars with Girls is a hard, fast, and beautifully dangerous read. Consider the evidence:

FIREBIRD -- A small town cocktail waitress. A glamorous stranger behind the wheel of a stolen muscle car. A raging forest fire. What could possibly go wrong?

ESCORT -- A high class hooker fucks a Mafia Don to death and the fallout forces an undercover Fed to make the toughest call of her career. Should she do her job or the right thing?

911 -- Alex is doomed. Nikki's along for the ride. Something about fjords.

AUDI -- South London's finest teenage car thieves stake their lives on an illegal road race.

TRANS AM -- A widow hunts her husband's killer across America. Route 666.

CROWN VICTORIA -- Two young runaway lovers with a steep price on their heads take a savage road trip through every kind of crazy.

Riding In Cars With Girls -- Dangerous curves ahead.

Evangeline Jennings is another new author for me and another fresh voice and welcome addition to my reading list. She’s an English lady from Liverpool who now resides in Texas.

Riding in Cars with Girls does exactly what it says on the tin, a collection of 6 long short stories or novellas, each featuring girls and to a greater or lesser degree cars. No two tales are remotely the same and our settings vary from London, Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia to the good ol’ US of A.

Harsh themes explored…….abuse and betrayal, sex, violence, the damaged and bruised, but never broken fleeing, re-grouping and plotting a payback, death, prostitution, a road race, revenge, fire, waitressing, bars, restaurants, drugs, robbery, gender confusion, incest…… on the flip side – we see friendship, loyalty, resilience, strength, steel, hope and in a few of the tales, a sort of justice; in others a real twist at the end which left me surprised, bewildered, laughing, and one story with a certain ambiguity at the end, but no less satisfying for that.

Great lines every other page…..

Killing is like comedy. Timing is everything.

Barstow…….This is one of those towns that exists so people and goods can pass through on their way to somewhere else.

He offers me his hand. I take it and make sure not to count my fingers when he releases me.      

  

Miss Jennings ticked every box for me with this collection………characters, setting, plot, pace, action, resolution. Shorter tales sometimes leave me indifferent to the outcome, as it is difficult to effect an emotional connection for the characters in a short space of time – no such problems here.  

Rather than dissect individual tales, I’d rather you read them for yourself. Highly recommended.

5 from 5 and March’s pick of the month.

There will be more from Evangeline Jennings on the blog tomorrow.

She was kind enough to send me a copy of this for review.