I did not finish this book and usually would not review it but I need to express why and give it the rating it deserves. The characters were immature and horrible. I was looking forward to the formula one aspect, but the MMC makes multiple misogynistic comments towards the FMC, the only woman in his male dominated field, and it was just icky. If someone tells you to stop making sexual jokes in the work place and you continue to do so, you are the asshole. Yes this is fictional, so why would you write a love interest that does things like that? The bar is on the floor. Ultimately the choppy prose, the time jumps, and the lack of good characters made this a no go for me.

Double Apex by Josie Juniper is a Formula 1 romance and the first book in the Frontrunners Series. This is the story of Phaedra and Cosmin.
 
Phaedra‘s father owns a Formula 1 team and she grew up in this world and wants part in it as well. She became one of the best race engineers and that was so cool to see. But a lot of people don’t take her seriously and that was so sad because Phaedra is just amazing and strong and so dedicated to her work.
 
Cosmin is a Formula 1 driver, and he lives and breathes this sport. He is charming and a totally bad boy and I immediately fell for him as well. I also liked seeing his Romanian roots and the terms of endearments he used were so romantic. With each page I fell in love more with him and he’s a total bookboyfriend.
 
If it’s a Formula 1 romance, that’s reason enough for me to pick up a book and this story was such a phenomenal one. Both characters absolutely love this sport, and it totally captures the reader as well. These two work together and they have such great banter and don’t like each other much. But behind the scenes they got closer and closer, and their secret relationship was such a great start. Phaedra and Cosmin have the perfect grumpy sunshine dynamic and they become a great team. Absolutely obsessed with this book and I’m already so excited for more from this world.
 
If you like Formula 1 sports romances, Double Apex is a must-read. 5 stars.
 
(Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an arc.)

i had to dnf this one. i just did not meld with the fmc and i couldn’t get past it. thank you for the review copy of this book!

this is my frist racing romance, I dont reallly understand teh draw of the sport or why it makes the drivers hot so I didn't love this but I liked the leads

I’m sorry this just wasn’t for me. Less than 50 pages in and they go from hating each other to making out. The way she verbally berates him is borderline abusive. His constant sexualizing of every woman and his comments to her in the workplace is borderline abusive. I couldn’t get past 35% , and I had to force myself to get that far.

DNF @ 20%

Our FMC is too whiny, the MMC is too horny. Not a book for me. I really struggled to stay invested in this story.

Let me just say, I absolutely devoured this book. If there’s one thing that hooks me every single time, it’s when a main character speaks another language, and Cosmin DELIVERS. You know the drill—I’m glued to Google Translate, eating up every little phrase, especially when one character has no idea what’s being said. The sweet, secret moments? Absolute gold. I live for the swoon-worthy lines that leave me dying because I know what they mean, but the other character is completely clueless. It’s such a fun way to build tension and intimacy, and this book nailed it.

Aside from that, the chemistry between Phaedra and Cosmin was electric. The tension, the banter, and those quiet, vulnerable moments were perfectly balanced. The plot was fast-paced but never felt rushed, and the emotional stakes kept me turning pages way past my bedtime. If you’re into romance with just the right amount of spice, a good dash of adrenaline, and some multilingual sweetness to tie it all together, this book is a total win.

New fave sports genre: Race Car Romance. New life goal: Become the girlfriend of an F1 driver. They seem very fit, good in bed, good looking, and have lots of free time. Plus they are well paid and travel all around the world and stay at nice hotels. How do I get me one of those? Can I be a doctor for an F1 team? Can I be their official smutty book librarian?

Double Apex (great use of sex pun in the book title- no notes) is one of the most perfect romances I’ve read in a long time. Hot, flirty F1 driver hero with a heart of gold. Smart, sassy F1 heiress who is also a STEM nerd and lead engineer for the team (ie- she isn’t allowed to bone the hot driver). Phaedra and Cosmin start out fighting…which leads to eventual anger-banging (per usual)…which leads to these two falling in love and having a secret affair bc NO FRATERNIZING with the hot drivers!!! What a really dumb rule. In the midst of all of this there is friend drama, family drama, race track drama and SO MUCH ANGST!! And you know what I love mixed with my smut? A heavy dose of drama and angst!! I could def have used a more dramatic and injurious racecar crash bc I’m a vile, sadist who loves a near death sick bed scene, but the angst made up for it.

If you love a messy asshole heroine bc you are also a messy asshole and this character gives you hope that perhaps you too could land yourself a sexy hot racecar driver of your own, then for sure read this fast paced, tire burning, checker flagged romance!!

Smut- 3.12 stars
Romance- 4.89 stars
Story- 4.92 stars
Googling “how to get a F1 driver to fall in love with you when you are a smart, messy, asshole in STEM”

First of all lets appreciate the cover of the book!! but I think only that is what can be fully appreciated in the book.

I felt the author tried too hard to make the characters unlikeable for them to have any sort of personality. It was hard for me to read the book as it felt too rude how the fmc interacted with the mmc. Thought the women in sport trope was well played I still couldn't forget all about the characters and enjoy the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the arc, out now.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this. The cover is gorgeous, the premise of the book is one I was super excited for; however the writing is not it. I did not enjoy the fmc nor the mmc. The fmc was so damn judgy of every girl she met. At first, I didn’t like how she criticized the mmc, but when she continuously had said stop flirting and he ignored it, I understood. I didn’t even get to the romance part, but solely with these two characters acting this way in the first 20%, I don’t think I can read any more.

Thank you for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was more of a 3.5, rounding up to a 4 for me.

There was so much to like here - great women in science and male-dominated fields rep, chemistry for days between these characters, a mmc who was both brooding AND a golden retriever at the same time, and all the fun of the F1 season feeling like a big adventure around the world. I loved so much of the intimacy and friendship, then sexy connection between Cosmin and Phaedra.

Where I felt like the book lost me a little bit was in some of the ways that Cosmin was a little domineering that made me pause and go, but no means no and the threads that we started pulling on to give the characters and world depth that we didn't get enough of and ultimately ended up feeling shallow. I thought the subplots obfuscated what was really interesting in this book and I wanted to see Phaedra grapple with some of that as she came into her own. Some of the ending felt like a rom com and that didn't feel very human after the loss and difficulty the characters have experienced.

I loved this book and the dynamic between Phaedra and Cosmin. The love/hate relationship helped fuel the tension and really helped the story flow. I also enjoyed the side stories of Phaedra with her dad and Cosmin with his sister. The side stories helped develop the main characters in a great way and allowed the reader to understand some of their motivations. It was also very steamy, but at times super sweet.

As a formula 1 fan girl this book spoke to my soul and helped me with all of the many fantasies I've had. It's also incredibly charming and such an easy read!

As a fan of F1, I was excited to read Double Apex, but unfortunately, it was a DNF. Something about the writing style just didn't work for me, and I found it hard to connect to the characters.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This one was okay. At first I really liked the set up of a race engineer and a driver and I liked their banter. As the story progressed, I found it dragged on at times and I also found the writing style a bit stilted and awkward at times. There were a few lines in some of the spicy scenes that took me right out of the book and had me actively cringing while I was reading.

I liked how they travelled all around, and I liked the little trip to Santorini that Phaedra and Cosmin went on. The F1 aspect of the story was really cool, and I enjoyed reading about the races.

Phaedra drove me a bit crazy as an FMC. She was quite annoying at times, and I just didn’t really like her character or her decisions. I did think she had decent growth as a character, but it took a really long time to get her there.

Cosmin was an okay character. He was sweet at times, but he used his facade and I never really felt like we got to see beneath the surface. I also didn’t like his “let’s pretend to be in love” idea, and I thought it was ridiculous. I love the fake dating trope, but this was just a way for him to convince Phaedra to be in a relationship after she said she didn’t want one.

The pacing was off in the story for me, and I definitely felt like the ending could have happened much sooner. I really liked the last race chapter, and I thought the excitement was conveyed well.

uma temporada de F1 começou e há diversos desafios na questão de adaptabilidade quando você entra em uma nova equipe

esse é o caso do Cosmin que ter que melhorar sua comunicação com sua engenheira de corrida, Phaedra, e assim conseguir garantir os ponto para a equipe que o dono não é ninguem mais, ninguem menos que do pai da Phaedra

fechamos a sinopse meiaboca da carol e foquemos nos meus sentimentos sobre o livro:
teve momentos em que eu virei tanto meu olho que enxerguei meu cerebro>> phaedra tem algumas falar bem pick me girl e gata, em pleno 2024?? mas a autora me surpreendeu positivamente, ela redimiu esse ato falho da mona e isso fez com que eu gostasse mais um pouco do livros

outra questão é o nosso vettel, quero dizer cosmin: um querido, não tenho nada a reclamar desse querido. por onde pheadra passava tinha um rastro no chão pq ele lambia o chão que ela pisava e todos os pre-conceitos que phaedra tinha em relação a ele vai caindo por terra a maneira que eles vão se conhecendo melhor

amo amo amo

e eu achei plausivel o motivo que eles tinham para nao estar juntos e a maneira com que eles superam essa distância eu achei fofaa

enfim, queria um epilogue deles casando MAS SPOILER, amei ela estar na ultima corrida com um terninho branco

I loved seeing a woman in STEM and an even more male dominated field, F1. The chemistry between the main characters really worked for me. The only thing I did not love was it felt like our female main character would act much younger than her age during arguments and it would leave me confused as to why he would be okay with some of the ways she handles conflict.

I really, truly wanted to love this, but I had quite a few problems. It’s been a while since I’ve encountered a book written by a woman with this much misunderstanding of feminism and an FMC that is so unintentionally insufferable. I actually really gravitate towards unlikeable characters but it needs to be done intentionally and this definitely was not. The whole romance set up is also just straight up workplace sexual harassment, which made me really uncomfortable with the MMC. Generally, I think this book tried to do more than it could in a lot of ways and it majorly disappointed me both as a romance reader and F1 fan.

DOUBLE APEX WAS SO GOOD!!!! This book single-handedly gripped me by my throat and dragged me out of a mental and reading slump. I’ve spent the past few weeks absolutely struggling to get through books and finding any sort of motivation to review or post about reads - but I’m now feeling the itch again and it’s all thanks to Double Apex. The angst is absolutely top tier and I was able to feel so many emotions during the story. I will most likely always simp over Cosmin and the reveal of this true character over time. He’s such a sweet bean and I would DIE for him!! I was a little hesitant with Phaedra at first, but she really grew on me and I see a lot of my own personality with her. Josie has written a fantastic romance that’ll stay with me for a long time. I cannot wait to read more from her!

Thank you to Forever, NetGalley, and the author for sending me an early and finished copy!

🏎️Fast-paced, high-stakes, and absolutely sizzling—Double Apex by Josie Juniper is a breathtaking ride through the world of Formula 1 racing and forbidden workplace romance.

Phaedra Morgan is a force to be reckoned with: a brilliant math prodigy and one of the best race engineers in the game. She’s fiercely dedicated, sharp-tongued, and totally over dealing with cocky drivers—especially Cosmin Ardelean.

But Cosmin, with his smoldering charm and devil-may-care attitude, hides a vulnerability that’s impossible to ignore.

When sparks fly and their secret “arrangement” turns into something deeper, Phaedra and Cosmin have to navigate forbidden love, their own messy emotions, and the relentless world of racing.

🔥 The Chemistry? Unmatched. The banter between Phaedra and Cosmin is electric from page one, with their fiery dynamic evolving into a tender and heart-melting romance. Cosmin’s Romanian endearments? Swoon. Phaedra’s guarded vulnerability? Relatable queen. Their journey from reluctant allies to lovers is as exhilarating as a last-lap overtake.

💔 The Emotional Depth? Gut-wrenching. This isn’t just a steamy workplace romance—it’s a story of grief, self-discovery, and healing. Phaedra’s struggles to prove herself in a sexist industry and Cosmin’s haunted past add raw, emotional weight that left me teary-eyed more than once. Their growth, both individually and together, is messy, real, and oh-so-rewarding.

🏁 The F1 Backdrop? Perfection. The high-stakes world of racing creates a vivid and thrilling setting that amplifies every twist and turn. From team dynamics to on-track drama, it’s clear Juniper knows her stuff. Fans of Lauren Asher or Cross the Line will feel right at home.

✨ Final Thoughts: Double Apex is more than just a romance—it’s a story of passion, perseverance, and the risks we take for love. With its gritty, flawed characters and unputdownable tension, this book is an emotional rollercoaster you won’t want to miss.

Josie Juniper has delivered a masterpiece, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

📚 Read if you love: Women in STEM, forbidden romance, sports romance with heart, or F1 racing vibes.