The Fast Lane: A totally hilarious friends-to-lovers, brother’s best friend romantic comedy (Two Harts)

The Fast Lane by Sharon M Peterson is the second book in the Two Harts series. Alicia Ramos needs a ride to her oldest brother’s wedding in Portland after her mother went overboard and there is no room for her in her parents’ car. Family friend, Theo Goodnight, is the man to give her a ride. However, a big problem! Ever since she proclaimed her love for Theo many, many years ago, their relationship has been lukewarm. After a recent break up, she was taking a dating sabbatical. He’s the last person she wanted to be alone with on a six day road trip, especially when he only sees her as a sister. However, as the trip begins, they fight over the playlist, banter and flirt. The close proximity and two thousand miles has her heart race. With each mile, she can’t help but wonder if Theo feels the same?Sharon M Peterson has become my new auto-buy author. The Fast Lane is another hilarious friends-to-lovers, second-chance, brother’s best friend romantic comedy. I laughed. I sighed. I cried and I grinned ear to ear as I read well into the night. I could not put this book down. I loved Alicia and her antics. I loved the sibling banter between Alicia and her brothers. I also loved Alicia’s “note to self” notes at the beginning of each chapter. It added to the humor in the story. There was a bit of family drama as well. What is a wedding without family drama? I also loved Theo and his love for Alicia. He just gets her. You do not really need to read the first book, The Fake Out, to enjoy this story. However, I highly recommend reading it as it is another enjoyable story. I highly, highly recommend The Fast Lane.The Fast Lane will be available in eBook on June 19, 2024

By the first few paragraphs of The Fast Lane by Sharon Peterson, I was already laughing. I kept laughing through most of the book – except for the various times I had to pause to have a good cry over something sweet or touching that happened.This book was a fun and wild ride.There was a lot going on so I just decided to hold on for the ride and enjoy myself.It wasn’t hard to enjoy myself with delightful main characters like Theo and Alicia (Ali).There were moments when things would slow down a bit for me and then pick right back up again, making it impossible for me to put the book down.Our story kicks off with Ali getting herself in trouble – again. We learn that stirring up trouble in her small town isn’t something new for Ali, though this might be the first time she’s chained herself to a tree and then needed help from her friend (and longtime crush) Theo to unlock her. It is not, however, the first time she’s needed him to help her.What can I say about Theo? Sigh.He’s handsome, charming, sweet, mysterious, funny, and complex and once you meet him you won’t be able to forget him, that’s for sure.That’s probably why Ali carried a torch for him – her brother’s best friend – for so many years, embarrassing herself many times when she was young trying to capture his attention.She’s an adult now, though, and her childish crush is . . . Nope. Not gone. She tries her hardest to pretend it is, though.It doesn’t help that Theo is always rescuing her – including that time a few months ago when she had a seizure alone in our house, fell and hit her head, bringing back her fear of the epilepsy she’s dealt with since she was a teen. He was even nice enough not to tell her over-worrying and protective mother.Once you throw her and Theo in a car alone for a cross-country trip to attend Ali’s brother’s wedding, with a few pitstops along the way, you’ve got the perfect, swoony setup.What is great about this book is that you also have the perfect setup for absolute hilarity to ensue and leave you holding your side from all the laughter.As if the situations Theo and Ali find themselves in aren’t hilarious enough (is that camper naked?), they pick up Ali’s grandfather, Mack, who is still grieving the loss of his wife Grace and has adopted a frighting little mongrel named Karen to help him feel less alone. Karen is possibly a chihuahua, possibly the devil, and she hates Ali, which slaps yet another layer of potential side-splitting situations onto the story.There were times I felt like there was a bit too much going on in this book and would have loved some of the side stories to have been held back for a future book, but, as I said above, I just held on for the ride and enjoyed all the extra storylines and craziness.And, as I said when I started this review – this book was a fun and wild ride. I loved it. I’d be willing to take a ride like this with Sharon again in the future.

Hmmm, let’s see how I can quickly describe this book… a story about a road trip traveling with a teenage crush, who just happens to be her (estranged) brother’s best friend, who is estranged from the family due to an incident that stemmed from her that ripped her whole family apart. Mix in a meddling grandfather who owns an obnoxious dog and the fact that they are all headed to another brother’s wedding where the whole family will (hopefully) be together again after 11 years… yea, this book was so good!Sharon M. Peterson has done it again and knocked it out of the park with this book! I loved revisiting the town of Two Harts, Texas and feeling those small town vibes and reading about some of the town’s characters once again. This story is hilarious (like laugh out loud funny) with pranks/interesting situations included (gnomes and nudists to name a few), but also touches on sensitive topics as well (epilepsy rep and family dysfunction).Ali and Theo are quite the pair… with a long history. Ali has constantly tried to forget about her teenage crush/feelings for her brother’s best friend Theo by claiming “he’s just like a brother to her”… but does anyone really believe that?! Theo is as caring, kind, protective and has an amazing amount of patience that only the best book boyfriends can. Ali is a little quirky and feeling a little lost… but after this life changing road trip… anything can happen! If you enjoy hilarious romcoms with big messy, involved and meddling families/small town, I highly suggest you read this book as soon as it’s available! I know you’re going to want to figure out what happens… and let me tell you, you won’t be disappointed!