OVERDRIVE

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.