CRASH AND BURN by Rachel Lacey

This book was not the usual Rachel Lacey book and I should know, I've actually read all of them.  This is a story I've not read before and it puts to light what your brain thinks about when you think that you're about to die.

Isa Delgado is terrified of flying and now she has to step foot into her first ever plane ride to help a rescue dog that only responds to her.

The rescue is a husky dog named Maya who likes to run away when things get rough.  This does not help Isa with her fear of flying but the hunk who was her pilot might help matters a bit.

Take off was not so bad and it relaxed Isa to see Maya calm during the flight.  Just when she thought that flying might not be so bad, everything goes horribly wrong.

Nate lives to fly.  He's been flying for as long as he can remember. That's why he did not foresee any problems in flying a lady and her dog to their destination.

Things don't go as planned when in the middle of their flight, shit hit the fan and Nate was forced to land in the middle of a lake.  He was able to get everyone out okay, but another complication arose when it became glaringly obvious that they landed near a bush fire.

Now Isa and Nate are stuck with a nervous dog that can take off at any moment? How are they to survive with barely and food and water?

This book was a different approach than the other Rachel Lacey books and I thought that is had potential.  I know how that sounds, but she missed so many opportunities to push this story to new heights.

First off, there was no conflict in this story.  The only obstacle was that they were walled off by a fire and they had to keep moving or die of smoke inhalation. That's good and dandy but she could have played on the part of how Nate wife left him and used that as a shield of a growing romance between them.

It can also be used as a reminder for Nate why women are bad for him at the moment and start a fight anytime he finds himself wanting to kiss Isa, and no matter how mad they are at each other, they have to work together to survive. This would have made the story way more interesting.

Also, I think that it was unnecessary for Nate to be rich. Rich playboy had been done to death and it did not add anything to the story. It would have made more sense for his job to be a pilot and that his plane was his only source of income and that would have been something that was constantly on Isa's mind that made her feel guilty on Nate's behalf.

I know that it's totally easy for me to say this since I did not write the book.  And judging by my five unfinished novels, I know how hard it is to write a book, much less to finish it AND get it published.

Don't get me wrong, this book was still a lot of fun to read, it's just that I could not help noting so much missed opportunities to make this book much more tension filled and exciting both emotionally and physically.

I really love Rachel Lacey and her work and I can't wait to read the next book in the series, since 'Crash and Burn" was a good start to an interesting series.