Race With Danger by Pamela Beason

 

First Lines: It wasn't even eleven p.m. How could the streets of Bellingham be so deserted?

 

Seventeen-year-old champion endurance racer Tanzania Grey has been running ever since she came home from a Halloween party with friends to find her parents murdered and her little brother screaming. It's been three long years, but now she's an emancipated teenager with a new name and a need to win the Verde Island Endurance Race's million-dollar prize to save the life of her friend, Bailey.

The five-day race traverses a remote volcanic island that's home to beasts that slither, fly, swim, and slink through the jungle. As daunting as that sounds, the wildlife turns out to be the least of Tana's problems when she draws the name of Sebastian Callendro as her partner. Sebastian's personal life has put him firmly in the national spotlight-- a spotlight that Tana absolutely does not need. Not only is her name false, but everything else in her biography is invented, too. She's been running from the men who murdered her parents, and if her cover is blown, she could be next.

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Pamela Beason has a knack for creating interesting main characters who have a penchant for wildlife and the great outdoors. I've read two of her other series, one featuring Summer Westin, a wildlife biologist and freelance writer, and her series featuring Dr. Grace McKenna and Neema, a gorilla who uses sign language. I've enjoyed both, so when I read the synopsis of Race With Danger, I had to give it a try. I'm glad I did.

Tanzania Grey is a bristly, opinionated seventeen-year-old who's spent the past three years hiding from the men who killed her parents. She doesn't know why anyone would want to kill them, and she doesn't know what happened to her little brother. She feels guilty about leaving him behind, but there's no way she could've kept both of them alive. It's a miracle she finally found a good family to take her in. 

Tana may work as a zookeeper, but her passion-- and her talent-- is for endurance racing, a sport that I knew nothing about until I picked up this book. As the author tells us, "Natural dangers are what set endurance races apart from mere marathons," and the terrain Tana, her partner, Sebastian Callendro, and the other runners must cover is extremely treacherous. In many ways, Sebastian is every bit as interesting as Tana due to all the media attention that's turned his life upside down. I enjoyed watching the two of them learn to trust each other as they conquered each new obstacle in the race. 

During this five-day endurance race, Tana is tested many times, not just physically but morally as well. As she reminds herself, "...there's a big difference between being alive and being able to live with yourself." The action sequences of the race are thrilling, but it's watching Tana make these tough decisions, and wondering about the circumstances surrounding her parents' deaths that will definitely have me reading the next book in the trilogy.

Race With Danger by Pamela Beason

eISBN: 9780991271511

Wildwing Press © 2015

eBook, 272 pages

Thriller, #1 Run for Your Life trilogy

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.