Review : Adrenaline Crush by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Adrenaline Crush
Author : Laurie Boyle Crompton
Publication Date : September 23rd 2014
Publisher : Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble 

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.

Personal Thoughts

Adrenaline Crush could have been a decent read had the book been longer, allowing for the characters to develop and the romance to flow nicely. What we have instead, at 192 pages, is a rushed book that doesn't manage to turn into a memorable story in any way.

The main character, Dyna, as the title of the book states, is an adrenaline junkie. She craves that adrenaline rush and is always putting herself into situations that non-junkies would find scary and completely dangerous. Her latest activity leads to Dyna winding up with a leg cast who has to refrain from any kind of life-threatening activity. Dyna could have been a great character, had she been properly fleshed out. Because of the short length of the book, there is no time for the reader to become accustomed to her voice and to get to know her on a personal level. Her character is only brushed upon, without the author delving into the vast possibilities of her personality. Ultimately, this disappointed me because Adrenaline Crush aims to be a character-oriented story. I was also let down by how her family members weren't fully developed because they seemed like really cool people who I would love to have gotten to know better. Similarly, I did not feel any connection to Dyna's love interest and former military man, Pierce, either. In fact, I didn't care for their romance because there was no time to flesh their relationship out.

Add to that a pseudo love triangle and some cheating. Obviously the romance didn't work for me, but what's worse is that while I was reading those things didn't bother me because I was so indifferent to this book. Then there was the healing center with all the people with issues. There was a lot of potential to turn that into something epic, but it fell flat for me and we never got to know the secondary cast that well. It's sad that this was such a disappointment because Adrenaline Crush could have been a splendid story had the characters been developed, the writing tightened and the plot more solid. Crompton has the talents for sure, so it's a shame this book wasn't longer.

The short length of Adrenaline Crush was to its detriment. Unfortunately, this isn't a book I would recommend buying. If you want to check it out, I suggest getting it from the library first or read a preview. That should give you an idea if you want to read the book.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 2/5
Characters : 2/5
Writing : 2/5

Thank you to Macmillan and NetGalley for the e-ARC of Adrenaline Crush.