Crashing into You is a YA romance novel that comes out on Tuesday!
Leti Rivera loves street racing, and dreams of being a famous female street racer. Her brother, Santos, taught her how to drive so no one could catch her, and driving is how she feels like she is escaping the world around her. But when tragedy strikes after a race, her love for racing is threatened by it. Except, she has promised to win this race for a new friend who she happens to be in love with.
If she can win, he would have the money he needs to save his home, but now Leti is unsure what to do and how to not break the promises she has made to those who are important to her.
This book has two wonderfully complex characters between Leti and Jacob. Leti was always ready to run, but Jacob has started to keep her in place. She has grown up believing that her brother is her saint, but that she is the reason their mother passed away. Jacob has just lost his father, and now the house his father built might be taken away from them. When Leti and Jacob become friends, they start to feel like they are flying while they are in the car together, mixing with Jacob's love for space and astronauts, together they are in a spaceship. When Leti gets expected into a race with a prize that could win back Jacob's house, it's a no brainer to try to help him and his mom.
While Leti is neurotypical, Jacob is autistic, with one of his 'superpowers' being information about space and spaceships. I really how their relationship progresses throughout the story, with Leti learning to understand Jacob and his feelings more, and Jacob learning to be comfortable with Leti. The two characters come together really well, and I thought it was really powerful.
As a non-autistic person, I did think having the POV be Leti's was helpful, in the way that it showed trying to understand someone while also being open to asking what they need. Leti is also a strong FMC, with a lot of depth to what she worries about but also a willingness to stand up for herself and the people she cares about. I don't know much about street racing, but the scenes were very well written and you could feel how the experience affected Leti.
Overall, I think this book did a really good job representing the differences between Leti and Jacob but also showing how they could come together. There was also Latino Rep, with Leti and her 'crew' who work on cars, as well as Jewish Rep with Jacob. The book did a really great job at showing how the characters came together.
A 4/5 Star read for me!
This story is scheduled to be published June 25, 2024.
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