Review: Adrenaline Crush by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Adrenaline Crush by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Publication Date: September 23, 2014
Page Count: 192
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: eArc received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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 wakeup 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.

Have you ever started a book and immediately disliked the protagonist? And then spent the rest of the book trying to find something - anything - to like about them? Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt about Dyna in Adrenaline Crush.

I immediately thought that Dyna was very selfish and self centered. I didn't like that she came off as a major tease who made a point of messing around with guys and letting things go too far, only to put on the brakes and leave the guys hanging. She was also a real adrenaline junkie who was completely reckless in her behavior. She never thought beyond the next thrill. Or at least she didn't until she pushes herself too far and suffers a horrific injury in front of her latest boy toy, Jay.

Jay was a super nice guy. He was really TOO nice, almost to the point of being annoying in his perfection. He was all of the things you think you want in a boyfriend - attentive, thoughtful, considerate, making you feel like their number one priority. But that can come off as being overbearing and clingy, and in this case, it wasn't a good thing. I just never got behind the insta-relationship that they 'fell' into. Get it? Fell? Ha. (Pun intended.)

When Dyna's mother enrolls her in a new age wellness center to rehab from her injury, she is forced to examine her behavior and the actions that caused her injury. I thought the wellness center was whacked! The director encouraged the patients to confront their injuries head on to get over their fears and begin the healing process.

The wellness center is where Dyna is introduced to Pierce, who I thought was pretty complicated. He had been through a lot in his short life, and he was still dealing with how to get back to normal. I thought he was the most interesting character in the story, but unfortunately, he was the least developed! I was really curious about him and I wish I had gotten to know him better.

The romance wasn't the focal point of the story, but I thought it was lacking real emotion between the characters. It didn't seem like Dyna had real feelings for either love interest. I know that I wasn't feeling any of it!

I ended up liking this book well enough, but it was too short to get to know any of the characters very well. After getting over my first impression of Dyna, she did improve the tiniest bit by the end of the book, but that was only because her injury quelled her foolhardy adventures. While the writing was good, there didn't seem to be a strong plot, the characters were not developed, and the romance really fell short. I hate that this book wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars