Overdrive

July 15, 2016
The thrill of boosting muscle cars in Las Vegas nearly exceeds Julia's main objective of getting herself and her younger sister, Emma, out of foster care.After 43 car thefts in nine months, 17-year-old Jules has earned the street name the Ghost. Her white hair and pale skin add to her legendary invisibility. But when she's finally caught and faces five years in juvie, she gets a reprieve. In a twist on the typical plot of troubled kids in the foster-care system, Jules and Emma are placed with a wealthy white philanthropist, Roger Montgomery, along with three other teenagers highly skilled in the criminal arts: Nick, a sexy, blue-eyed, white muscle-car aficionado; red-haired, white Chelsea, an expert lockpick; and Mat, a Latino computer hacker. Roger, a man with a decidedly creepy fixation on collecting rare cars, offers them a deal: steal a particular seven cars in seven weeks and he'll give them each $100,000. A heavy suspension of disbelief is in order for readers to go along for the ride in this exciting but thinly plotted tall tale. A massive amount of detail about muscle cars outweighs the preposterousness of the teens' car-boosting abilities, Roger's ulterior motives, and even Julia's other extraordinary skill as a ballet dancer. But adventure and romance--and family loyalty--rule the day. A thrilling joy ride for car lovers. (Thriller. 14-17)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Full of action, mistakes, retribution, and some teenage angst, this high-octane novel about stealing cars is a memorable read to race through. Jules has made one big mistake and thanks to her selfish ex-boyfriend has been caught and revealed to be the infamous car thief known only as Ghost. The moniker describes more than Jules's ability to disappear with a hot car without a trace; it epitomizes her struggle to be a person all her own while dealing with having no parents and hopping from foster home to foster home. What truly drives the protagonist, and even her crimes, is the need to keep her and her younger sister, Emma, together. When she's caught, Jules is given one last chance in the form of Roger, an eccentric millionaire willing to take in the siblings, but only if Jules agrees to continue her life of crime for him. She agrees for Emma's sake and teams up with three other teenagers living with Roger to steal some of the rarest cars. As the action unfolds, readers will have little time to catch their breaths before Jules is thrust from one dilemma to another. VERDICT Fans of thrillers, cars, and fast-paced novels will keep this off the shelf.-Ashley Prior, Lincoln Public Library, RI

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.