Pin-Up Dolls & Classic Cars

A COVID Love Story

Set in the Pacific Northwest on the eve of lockdown, Pin Up Dolls and Classic Cars is a dark romantic thriller about desire, betrayal, and survival when the world stops making sense.

She's a Pin Up Doll navigating autonomy and a culture that demands she smile through the chaos. He's a veteran gearhead with rust in his past and grease under his fingernails – haunted by choices that don't wash clean. Their connection ignites at car shows and in late-night conversations that refuse to resolve simply.

As COVID-19 shuts down the world, isolation fuels obsession. Every stolen moment crackles with electricity. Every touch carries consequences.

But the virus is only the surface threat. Families fracture under pressure. Children become weapons in custody wars. Secrets surface, bad behavior spirals, and the past refuses to stay buried. In a culture of fear and control, their attraction becomes raw, reckless, and impossible to ignore.

The closer they grow, the more dangerous love becomes.

This is a story about people who don't get reset buttons – just consequences.

Gritty, unfiltered, and emotionally intense, Pin Up Dolls and Classic Cars explores:

• Automotive subculture and retro Americana
• Working-class lives lived without safety nets
• Forbidden love under impossible pressure
• Parental alienation and family betrayal
• The thin line between passion and destruction

Written by Army veteran Kenny Dupar – a survivor of heart failure, command, and war – with the unflinching clarity of someone who knows how easily a life can end, and how lies are born.

For listeners who crave stories that don't flinch; this is not a safe love story. This is about what happens when desire collides with survival and choosing who to betray becomes the only way forward.

©2022 Kenny Dupar (P)2022 Kenny Dupar

Interesting listen

The book takes you into the polished chrome and perfected coifs of the pin-up and car show scene in the Pacific Northwest. A quick look under the hood reveals not all is glistening though and the behind the scenes grit and tragedy are quickly revealed. The politics and pageantry of the scene are fascinating but the the characters’ struggles resonate as true to life experiences. The names of some of the pin-ups were so terrific but some of the car lingo was out of my depth. I would have liked to hear some of the characters as I imagined but the trade off is being treated to the gentle crooning of some classic songs by Mr. Dupar. If you’re not quite ready to reminisce on the time of Covid, you’ll be happy to know the story does not languish there. Some of the more memorable moments-the great toilet paper hoarding- are touched upon and a narrator’s opinion on the period as a whole may be deduced.