I am a lover of a sports romance and i love the idea of F1 romances.
I enjoyed this read and it had good characters, i do believe that the book could have given more and more development to the characters but on a whole it was an easy fluffy read and enjoyable :)

Thank you to Avon Books UK, NetGalley and most importantly Author Esha Patel for allowing me access to an advanced reader copy of Offtrack.

Plot:

In male dominated sport, newly promoted F1 driver Diana Zahrani is ready to push her limits for her passion of racing in order to achieve her dreams, not only a place on a formula 1 team, not only getting to pole position, but also a hope of winning the F1 world championship!

Along the way Diana meets the infamous Miguel De La Fuente, a fellow racer in the top team that comes from a long line of championship drivers. So for Miguel, the pressure really is on! As we follow the journey of these characters their worlds not only collide on the track but 'Offtrack' too.

Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Offtrack. I was brought up in a household that highly appreciates the Motorsport that is Formula 1. I remember watching many racers with my father as a child and well into early adulthood. I can objectively say that Esha Patel has such an extensive knowledge on the sport which really shines through. From the abbreviations to the policies and procedures, it's pretty much spot on (from what knowledge we have as fans that is).

I was very easily able to connect to both main characters Diana and Miguel in a way that I genuinely felt every emotion flowing from them, excitement, the thrill, the anxiety upon each race, their passion and their heartbreak in certain situations also. It was a very well crafted story with great execution.

One thing I will point out though. If you're interested in this title looking for a romance heavy plot, then you may feel the title to be a tad anticlimactic. For me this wasn't a problem at all, as I loved the focus on the characters (pardon the pun) and their drive. The romance that does feature however, is very sweet and somewhat sensual in some places also. I'd probably say this has. 2/5 spice level rating, but honestly I don't feel this story needed any more. The tension and the need was enough and worked well.

This really was an enjoyable read and one that pleasantly surprised me as to how much I would enjoy it. I would be happy to purchase this title upon release and would absolutely recommend it to others. Especially if you're a fan of Formula 1.

Okay so I loved all the characters, I loved the story and the drama and the buildup with the championship. I loved (and hated in anger) how a woman in F1 was addressed and written about. I thought it felt super horribly accurate but made me so hopeful for the future!

Honestly what didn’t work for me was the romance! I just saw basically no connection between Diana and Miguel, I couldn’t even fathom that they were actually interested in each other at any point. Once they were kinda together, it was nice, but I didn’t really believe in their relationship. They had very little one on one time leading up to them getting together.

I was just a bit disappointed with the actual romance aspect, but otherwise it’s another fab F1 read!

unfortunately I didn't love this book, I finished it however I found it really difficult to get into and the writing style just wasn't for me. couldn't engage with the characters. I liked the plot but because of the writing style it wasn't for me

I tried, I've really tried getting through this book. However, the format, as well as the spelling mistakes/grammar made it impossible for me to get to finish it. I think the whole concept was nice, cute even, but it needs a lot of more work. I hope that the copy we all got was the unedited version, otherwise...

I had high hopes for this book but sadly found it a little flat... I haven't read a F1 romance before so wasn't really sure what to expect and couldn't speak to the accuracy of those depictions. In theory I like the idea of the multiple POVs however in practice I found it a little confusing and hard to keep up with. I didn't dislike this book but just didn't love it either!

dnf.

i wanted to enter my f1 era with this one but idk if the format of the book threw me off or if the multiple POV changed threw me off but i jsut couldn't find my groove in this one. i'm hoping to snag the e-book of the finished copy to give it a second chance because i feel like once i have the finished product i will be able to get through it a bit easier

Not a new favourite but a fun read nonetheless! I think there were possibly too many POVs in this story which meant it was hard to connect. I loved that the FMC was the F1 driver.

This F1 romance took a very interesting approach I haven't seen done before. The author chose to tell the story of the drivers through many perspectives, not just our FMC and MMC. While this idea was fresh and I was excited about it to start, I feel that it could've been executed better once we got into the thick of the story. It felt clunky and excessive, instead of adding the layered perspectives on the racing season I think the author was aiming for.

Diana and Miguel's relationship development progressed in a realistic pace and in ways that made sense for their individual characterizations. I would have preferred to see more of the book in their perspectives, rather than adding in a lot of the additional ones, but the bits we did get from them were really good!

I was really interested in a female F1 driver. However, these two were not on page together enough to see a romance. They are competitors not enemies to lovers. All of the POV’s were unnecessary and I loved multiple POVS.
Clearly this book was just not for me.

As some one who loved f1 I could not wait to get my hands on this book. I am happy to report that it lived up to all of my expectations

Full of fun and drama, and racing. It had everything you need in a good story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, for allowing me to read the ARC for this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I really love F1, and have read a couple F1 books before. While I like the premise of the book (a woman F1 driver, which is lacking from most of the other books in the genre) I feel it could've been executed better.

Minor spoilers in this paragraph for the beginning:
I was close to a DNF at the start when Diana is announced to be the driver, for the pure fact I found it entirely unrealistic that someone in F1 would not keep a track of who's in F2, especially when their friend is retiring and rumoured to be replaced by a rookie. And the fact that his sister ( who is his race engineer) is a fan of her, surely she would've told her F1 driver of a brother that a woman was in F2? But he had no clue apparently.

The rest of the book was paced well, and the writing was good. However I wouldn't say it's a rivals to lovers as they claim. I found it trying too hard to be several different things, and didn't really properly do some of them.

(Spoiler for the end)
While I understood the highlighting the misogyny in the sport, I find it unrealistic that a team wouldn't be desperate to keep their rookie that was winning/won the championship in her first year, regardless of gender.
(End of spoiler)

While I liked some of this book, I found a lot of it bothered me, and while it may just be up to taste, the plot holes at the start tarnished a lot of my possible enjoyment. I was however able to finish it, and I do believe this book can be enjoyed more by some.

I had a hard time deciding what to write here because while I was not a big fan of this book, I had no issues with the writing. I feel like the plot could use a little work as the romance felt rushed but the f1 parts were amazing!!! I do think that Miguel’s character should have been a bit less sweet at the beginning as this is supposed to be an enemies to lovers situation but I never felt the enemies part. Diana was well written as I could feel what she felt but overall I give this a 2.75-3/5

I’m not sure why this book isn’t getting the recognition it deserves. It’s high stakes, action-packed, emotional, diverse, hilarious and powerful. If you love seeing women succeed, you’ll love this. If you love f1, you’ll love this. If you love reading about two people destined for eachother, you’ll love this.
This felt like coming home. It felt so raw, so real. When summer break was mentioned, I was filled with dread because I knew that meant i didn’t have much of the book left.
I laughed alongside Diyana and Mig, I cried with them, I couldn’t stop reading because I had to know what happened.
Esha’s writing is phenomenal, to make you feel as if you’re in the moment, right there with the characters - on the racetrack or on the podium - now that’s talent.
I truly am in awe, 6 stars - an all time favourite.

Finally, the representation I needed so bad but never dreamt of it, coz I didn't think anyone would come up with this combination! Yup this is the first book I'm reading which featured an Emirati, and even has bits set in Dubai and then there's Jaipur too! Makes me SO happy, and Patel did an awesome job showing the cultures and settings. I knew about women in Saudi Arabia being allowed to drive only recently, so I think Diana's achievements are super cool considering everything she went through.

I'm not into F1 at all, and by that, I mean I have never shown the slightest of interest in the competitions. To be honest, the only reason I picked it up was because I was hoping for good representation which I got, and along with that some good peeks into the world of F1. I loved Diana (Diyana) and her spirit and enthusiasm; she was a total badass! Her parent's support for her and her ultimate belief in herself made this a good read.

Coming to the romance, I really don't see the point of it apart from showing the misogyny and power play involved in such careers and how they can make or break your life. The book read more like an autobiography, depicting the unseen, not-so-glamorous parts of F1. Miguel doesn't play a huge part in the story, and I think it could've worked if he were a good friend she made along the way, like a caring brother. I didn't notice much about the writing, so I won't comment on that, but I'll say that it was a fairly easy and engaging read that i didn't struggle to get into.

An enjoyable read.

All here for the women in sports vibes, but the romance was more sub plot that main plot - which is totally cool when you’re here for the racing, but felt that the romance and chemistry needed something slightly more.

3 Stars We love women dominating in male-dominated fields! While this book is marketed as a romance, it is more like woman's romance since there's a large focus on Diana's F1 racing journey. Her romance with Miguel is more of a subplot than I was expecting from the synopsis. I also wasn't expected so many POVs, which kept me from fully feeling the chemistry between Diana and Miguel.

3 Stars We love women dominating in male-dominated fields! While this book is marketed as a romance, it is more like woman's romance since there's a large focus on Diana's F1 racing journey. Her romance with Miguel is more of a subplot than I was expecting from the synopsis. I also wasn't expected so many POVs, which kept me from fully feeling the chemistry between Diana and Miguel.

I really struggled with this book, and I ended up DNFing it at 40% . I was so excited for this one as I have absolutely loved other F1 centered romance books, but this one did not do it for me.

Since I've been getting into F1 past two years and I enjoy sports romances a lot, I was super excited when I heard about this new release I was seeing all over my Instagram feed.

Although I didn't have much of expectations going into it, I can't help but feel a bit let down by it. My main problem with the story was so many inaccuracies with whole motor sport in general and situations which were literally impossible (having 10+ seconds pit stop and only losing 2 spots, just to name an example). I understand that someone who isn't directly involved with sport can't know every little detail of it, but some basic knowledge could've been easily researched, and those mistakes avoided,

Yes, this is romance story, and it isn't really that serious, but if you plan to focus more than 70% on the races, with little to no interaction between main characters than you need to do that right (at least to some extent),

I've seen a lot of criticism about romance essentially being backstory to chronicling race season and I have to agree, even though I didn't have a problem with it and enjoyed racing at the heart of it all. But if you're getting into this solely for romance, you might be left a bit disappointed and wanting more (even though it kind of pays out in the end, kind of).

The worse part of it all was <spoiler> that Diana even thought about giving up racing for a man, which was so completely out of characters and kind of insulting to whole racing and sportsmanship mentality (Miguel as well if I am not mistaken) and at one point she didn't want to overtake other drivers because they were nice???? I was baffled to say the least. </spoiler>

One thing I really "enjoyed" reading about (more like I was furious because it is very much a reality) was whole struggle of woman being a part of such a male dominated sport and space. I felt it opened a lot of topics for discussion and showed (I am sure just a part) of the deep problem of sexism in paddocks (and outside of them). On top of it all, Diana is POC, so the race plays an important role in making her life and job even harder and I think it was important that it was addressed as well (although only on surface level).

All in all, it was an okay read, filled with exhilarating racing (maybe inaccurate, but full of tension and speed) and behind the scenes of racing championship (definitely reminiscent of "Drive to Survive").

2.5/5 stars