ARC Review: Adrenaline Crush by: Laurie Boyle Crompton

Adrenaline Crush by: Laurie Boyle Crompton (Sept. 23, 2014)

192 pages

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Source: I received an e-ARC from the publisher through Netgalley. This did not affect my honest review. Thanks Farrar, Straus and Grioux and Netgalley!

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon

Goodreads Summary: When a daredevil teen pushes herself too far, she must choose between two boys: the one who wants to keep her safe, and the one who dares her to return to her old self.

Seventeen-year-old Dyna comes from a family of risk takers and is an avid thrill-seeker herself, until the day she splinters her ankle in a terrible fall. Her whole life goes from mountain biking and rock climbing to sitting at home and attending group sessions at the bizarre alternative healing center that her hippie mother found. The boy who witnessed Dyna’s accident believes her injury is a wake up call and he encourages her mild new lifestyle, but a young Afghanistan War veteran she meets at the healing center pushes her to start taking chances again. Forced to face the consequences of her daredevil impulses, Dyna finds herself in danger of risking the one thing she’s always treated with caution—her heart.

My Review

Adrenaline Crush should have made my heart race. It’s just too bad it lacked the uniqueness and excitement I was expecting from the cover and the description of the synopsis to do so.

Adrenaline Crush is a good book, but it didn’t leave any lasting impression on me as a reader. I read about 100 books a year and Adrenaline Crush isn’t going to be one I’ll remember, it just didn’t stand out in the crowd. It was average.

I liked the main character, Dyna, a great deal. She is a crazy fun daredevil who must deal with a big change in her life after she splinters her ankle one reckless afternoon. Even though I liked Dyna, I couldn’t relate to her very well. I’m not an adrenaline junkie nor am I a daredevil in any sense of the word. I hope to one day maybe do some bungee jumping, but that is about it on my risk taking. I just don’t see the point. Now, I have absolutely no problems with people that love a good risk and are daredevils, it was just hard for me to understand Dyna because she seemed reckless to me.

I also liked the supporting characters in this story. Dyna’s parents are pretty sweet, and her older brother is very much an older brother. I even liked both of the main love interests in their own way, although I never really cared much about any of the romantic relationships that formed in this novel. I did however like Dyna’s support group friends.

Adrenaline Crush is really well written and I plan to give this author another chance to wow me, because I believe that she could have if only I would have connected more with the characters. The only other qualm I had with this book was that I also wasn't a big fan of the length of the novel. At only 192 pages I felt like the story was lacking sustenance, but at least it was a quick read. I love a good quick read when I'm having a busy week.

Would I recommend this book to my fellow readers? Sure. You may have better luck connecting with the characters than I did, and if you do, I think you would appreciate this book a great deal. It was a good book, it just didn't leave a lasting impression.