Review: Adrenaline Crush by Laurie Boyle Crompton

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.

~ Goodreads

Source: ARC provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux for my honest review

Review:
I have a feeling that quite a few readers are going to be turned off by Dyna’s brash personality at the beginning of Adrenaline Crush. She’s an unapologetic risk taker and teaser of boys but I liked her. She’s the rare, confidant YA female who knows what she wants and what she doesn’t. I have absolutely zero things in common with her (even from when I was a wild teen) and I wanted her to slow down, tell her to stop climbing things, lol, but it was still nice to read about that type of character.

Of course all that changes when Dyna is injured in one of her thrill seeking adventures and she finds herself being cautious for the first time in her life and allows her new boyfriend to take care of and shelter her.

Dyna’s family are also daredevils. They are a little out there but very present in Dyna’s life and recovery. That was another thing I really enjoyed seeing in a YA. I can’t say I really always agreed with their choices for their daughter but they tried to do their best.

The book floundered in two areas for me. The first is the recovery center that Dyna’s mom sends her to. It’s supposed to have the fastest and best results for any center of it’s kind. They approach healing as a mind/body experience so there is both physical therapy and group counseling to overcome the fear of whatever caused your injury. This is where I was like no….these people should be shut down. For example – one man was struck by lightening so the counselor's idea is to throw everyone out in the middle of a thunder storm because hey! statistically the chances are you won’t get hit twice. A lot of these things seemed to be used as a catalyst to instead move Dyna's romance forward with an Afghanistan War vet who lost a leg. He pushes her to step outside her comfort zone and go back to adrenaline junkie ways.

And the romance was problem number two. There is a bit of a love triangle but for some reason it didn’t bother me in the least (and I hate love triangles with a fiery passion). Maybe that’s because I wasn’t feeling the romance with either guy. You know one doesn’t have a chance – but he’s the one we get to know more and he’s really nice. The guy that you know will be “the one” is an ass most of the time. An intriguing, well intentioned, ass but still – we needed to hear more from his side to root for him. That would have been the more interesting story IMO. I just didn’t care either way but it’s not the sole focus of the story so I didn’t mind all that much.

Despite a few bumps, I really enjoyed this book plus it’s a super fast read.