DNF at 10%. This was a tell, not show, writing style that I absolutely do not mesh with. Also, these characters are supposed to be in their 30s but are acting like teenagers. Phaedra, the FMC, gave off huge NLOG energy. Very much not for me. Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC!

I was so excited to read this Formula 1 romance after my husband got me into it by having my watch Drive to Survive! (Who knew there was so much drama in F1?!)

Anyway, really enjoyed this book by Josie Juniper! It centers around Cosmin who is the hot new driver for Emerald Racing, and Phaedra who happens to be his race engineer and daughter of the team's owner. Loved seeing their relationship develop as they had good banter from the beginning - although at times they could both be a little too intense (especially Phaedra)...but to be fair, she was going through a lot.

It was also so fun with the racing bits thrown in. I'm a relatively new F1 fan so I feel like I learned something too!

Definitely recommend if you enjoy :
- Formula 1
- enemies to lovers
- forbidden romance
- some spice!

Thank you Netgalley & Forever for the opportunity to read & review this book! Excited to read the next book in the series!

ugh. the sexist comments were just not it. please don't do that to the heroes in books. dnf @25%

the mfc was also very whiny. I understand she was putting up with a lot of shit at work, but her sudden attraction to the hero (who treats her like garbage) just gave me major ick vibes.

DNF @ 7%

Thank you so much to Forever and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this. All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

I'm a big proponent for DNF-ing, but this was a fast DNF even for me. But these opening pages/chapters left me so uncomfortable and there was just no way to redeem this hero or romance for me.

I love a good tension filled, hate to love romance. And I especially love a woman engineer. What I don't love is sexual harassment in the work place that is brushed off as "just who he is".

This opens up with the hero making uncomfortable and undesired sexual innuendos to the heroine over the radio, for all other team members to hear. Despite the heroine saying she has asked for this to stop multiple times.

When the heroine brings it up with her boss/father he tells her "not make such a big deal out of it". That he's their best driver, etc, etc.

When she brings it up with a coworker he tells her "that's just his personality" and that the other employees are talking because she "obviously only cares because 'sexual tension'".

And the cherry on top, when she confronts the hero - he laughs and makes ADDITIONAL sexual comments.

Which was enough for me to DNF. But after reading other reviews from people got further into the story, it sounds like the harassment only gets worse.

This is not cute, or funny, or romantic, or honestly redeemable in any way. It's harassment and it's gross. Made only worse by the fact that her employer and colleagues brush it off as "guys being guys".

Who knew where the story was going when an engineer and FI racecar driver enter into a spicy romance. Great read for fans of Formula One racing and of course romance. This book is full of information on race courses, car mechanics and race basics too!

I wanted to like this book but I just found a lot of aspects of it to be frustrating. Phaedra just seemed instantaneously childish and mean (even to Nat) and it was hard to sympathize with anything she was going through. The instantaneous sexual chemistry felt unearned because there wasn’t enough background relationship between the two of them and then weeks would go by between chapters, causing any buildup to really lose momentum. It made it hard to get invested and stay interested. Overall it just felt like the story had such potential that was never quite fulfilled.

For me, this seemed to want to rush to be published among other f1 novels, a “craze” if you will. The FMC seemed to act more like a teenager than someone in her early 30’s- she was childish, rude, and ignorant. Her decisions made no sense and honestly went way beyond what was necessary sometimes. (Tweeting about a leaked sex tape because the guy made a rude comment.)
There’s also parts where she is violent towards the MMC and when he tries to get her to stop SHE makes herself the victim ? no thank you.

So... I have mixed feelings about this.

I can see the potential and the appeal but unfortunatelly, it fell flat for me.

I will admit I mostly read it because as a Romanian who never sees our people mentioned in books or Romanian characters who are not vampires lol (we are more than Dracula, people!!!) I was intrigued.

So the use of Romanian phrases and customs were sometimes fun and endearing, other times... a bit cringe. Lol

We do not say 'draga' or 'iubi' in a positive way, we do know who Scooby Doo is, we watched the same cartoons we are not from the stone age and we do not use some of those expressions unless we want to seem a walking dictionary or come from a different era lol. I did enjoy seeing the ILY and endearments and declarations though. I mean, we can all agree that pet names and saying in a different language in certain moments hit differently, right? 🫶 loved that.

So I guess I took it all a bit personally and with a critical eye, for which I am sorry. (I know it's fiction but I still want to keep it realistic. I'm pretty sure this will not be an issue for anyone else).

Fun fact: Vlasia House does exist (it has a different purpose but this is fiction so it's okay. I don't know how Josie found that little treasure but it's perfect. 👏👏 I drive by it sometimes and I wish everything she described here could be done and repaired in real life but alas... )

Regardless, those are just small details that I guess don't count much in the grand scheme of things/full story. My real issue is with the characters, their relationship felt superficial, instant and unrealistic. How did they fall in love? Why? When? It's like there were some missing pieces. It was bickering, F1 lingo and racing, sex, I love yous, moping but no connecting pieces between the acts.

Cosmin was great and dreamy once he showed his real character but I couldn't relate to Phaedra sadly. She was self centered and impulsive and she grew on me as a character closer to the end...

To close this on a positive note, I don't like being harsh: this is my favorite quote:

<i>“The difficult real-life shit is going to happen anyway. The thing that makes it bearable is love. We don’t forgo love because bad stuff is going to happen, or because love might fail. We take the risk because when it does work, it makes the struggle worth it. It’s why we wake up and keep swinging every day.”</i>

P.S. edited to add that I loved we had a woman in sports/STEM vibe from the heroine and how the very real struggles women working in a men world face.

*thank you Forever for the arc in exchange for my honest opinion. I'm sorry it's not a more positive one. But we rarely get F1 romances so I'm sure this little book will find its people, it is a cute sports romance

I have been quite desperate for F1 romances since I got into the sport via Drive to Survive in 2021. If you had told me four years ago that I would be watching cars drive for hours out of my weekends, I would have told you that you were crazy, but here we are.

This particular book was largely not for me, however, which made me very sad. I liked the author's writing and the sport writing itself seemed pretty solid to me, but the dynamic chosen--woman who has an active role within a team and driver, is just not my favorite given the structural inequalities that face women in any sport. Should an engineer be allowed to bang their drive like a tree if everyone is a consenting adult? Yeah, probably. Would it absolutely ruin things for any other women who want that role? Yeah, definitely.

All that said, I'm really curious about the journalist/team principal romance that is on dock for the next book despite the fact that I also don't like women sports journalist/sporting person romances very much, so that was some very good set up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an early copy of this book in exchange for a review. Thanks to my brother, I’ve recently become an F1 fan (Go Ferrari! ❤️😂) so I was really excited to read an F1 romance. I thought that this was enjoyable, but I struggled to connect with the characters. Sometimes they kind of annoyed me.. and I needed more backstory. I also, thought this was often a little more romance heavy than I was expecting. I wanted more F1 content and more descriptive race scenes!! This was a quick, easy read and perfect for F1 fans!

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and Josie Juniper for the opportunity to read the e-arc of Double Apex in exchange for an honest review!

F1 Romance & STEM Romance? Sign me up! As soon as I read the synopsis for this book I knew I had to give it a shot. I have read my fair share of F1 inspired novels, and to some capacity they all meld together - but this one felt unique.

Although I generally enjoyed this book, I wish the pace was juuuust a touch slower. In saying that, it could very well just be a "me" thing. What can I say, I am a real sucker for a slow burn romance. As much as I love a little bit of spice, I feel like I just wasnt prepared for the amount that I was about to experience - and I really think that this might be because I personally thought that the characters needed to develop a little bit more before they took their relationship from enemies to lovers.

In saying that, it was an easy quick read and I did generally enjoy it. Overall, I just think that when I finish reading a book (specifically romance), in a perfect world I want to leave feeling like the two MCs are going to basically live happily ever after - although I know this isn't always the case - but with Phaedra and Cosmin, I honestly feel like they could breakup at any time. I think their relationship should have just developed a little further.

The concept of this book was everything I wanted and more. As an engineer myself, I LOVE to read about women in STEM. This seemed like it would be a cross between Ali Hazelwood and The Dirty Air series by Lauren Asher and I was so excited... I'm so sad to say, that this is one of the worst books I have ever read. This book should contain trigger warnings.

The FMC of this book was a terrible representation of women in the workplace. She was extremly childish for someone in their early 30s. As an engineer myself, this is not how you should conduct yourself in the workplace. Regardless of anything your male coworker say to you. It was honestly insulting to read. There is a part in this book where someone in the industry made a comment about a "lady engineer" referring to the FMC. Her response is to tweet about a leaked sex tape this man was involved in and sexually shaming him on the internet.

In my opinion there is also some very blatant consent issues. Where the MMC is trying to stop and FMC just doesn't. There is also a scene where the FMC physically hits and kicks the MMC pretty violently. The MMC is trying to get her to stop and she is thrashing around so much that he ends up smacking her. It is abundantly clear that the MMC was just trying to get her to stop hitting him, but HE ends up apologizing to HER. He ends up with claw marks and is bleeding. She has no physical harm from the "slap".

The FMC is also constantly saying extremely rude and targeted comments to people she considers to be very close to her. Every line of dialogue from the FMC was also extremely cringy.

READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS AND TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY

I wanted to love this book, I really did. My husband is a big F1 racing fan and I've gotten into it over the years - but this book did not do it for me...

One of the biggest flaws of this book was that I felt NOTHING towards the characters, even with all of Phaedra's problems that she went through, I still felt nothing towards her. She pissed me off more than anything and she was very abusive to the MMC, Cosmin.

There was also no back story to the two and it was just sex and that's how the book should have been about. I don't think Phaedra was capable of loving another human being and she had 0 growth throughout the novel.

The one good thing I like in this novel where the names, Phaedra and Cosmin are really cool sounding.

Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me. It seemed a little disjointed and was jarring. I found that the characters were very frustrating and that there was too much telling and not enough showing. It may be my lack of knowledge concerning the sport but I didn't understand the reasoning behind a lot of the characters actions.

God… this book pissed me off so much. F1 is one of my special interests so you know I had to try and get this ARC when I saw it. But, boy… I didn’t realize the storm I had coming. Both of the main characters were wildly unlikeable in their own way. However, I must admit that it was easier for me to warm up to Cosmin than it was Phaedra. 

Phaedra is painted as this prodigy boss babe engineer, but in reality… she’s nothing more than a traumatized abusive piece of shit. Not only is the way she speaks to Cosmin borderline verbal abuse, but she does end up physically abusing him halfway through the book. No justification or trauma or feeble reasoning will ever make that okay. The mental gymnastics she goes through to justify the way that she acts is INSANE to me. 

This book had so much potential in the beginning and it felt like the author said “fuck that” and threw it all away. 

These two needed counselling not hate sex and a flimsy relationship built on lust rather than anything substantial.

I am officially an F1 girlie so I was really into this premise of a F1 racer and his female race engineer/owner of the team getting together. So I was 100% sold on this book. I’ve seen a lot of people say that the main character Phaedra is unlikable, but I think that’s part of her story -in a man’s world sometimes a woman is deemed unlikable, and that is the only way in which she can be respected. I thought it was a really nuanced look at the male dominated sport of F1 and it made me root for Phaedra and Cosmin to get a happily ever after. Because two people with hard outer shells dealing with trauma/misogyny still deserve that happily ever after. I thought this forbidden romance was very good and I recommend this to all the girls out there who also love to survive!

Thank you #Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Sinopsis en español:

Un ingeniero brillante y una pareja arrogante de pilotos de carreras entran en un arreglo prohibido en este picante romance de enemigos a amantes. Phaedra Morgan es una de las mejores ingenieras de carreras de la Fórmula 1. Es una prodigio de las matemáticas con una habilidad deslumbrante, un ingenio de corte y sin paciencia para los asuntos del corazón. Por supuesto, su trabajo sería mucho más fácil si no se siguiera metiendo la cabeza con el nuevo conductor arrogante y exasperantemente caliente de su equipo. Cosmin Ardelean es intenso y comprometido, pero tan famoso por sus hazañas románticas fuera de la pista como por su magia en la pista. Sin embargo, su fachada del diablo oculta un pasado embrujado. Cuando la pareja llega a un "arreglo" secreto, y emocionantemente prohibido, para mejorar su comunicación y su vínculo de confianza, el calor de su atracción se convierte en algo más... Pero ningún secreto permanece oculto durante mucho tiempo en el mundo de las carreras, y pronto las cosas se están saliendo de control. Con todo en juego, ¿podrán despojarse de todas sus defensas e ir a todo gas para tener la oportunidad de amar?





Reseña:

2.5⭐️

Tristemente no conecte con la historia ni los personajes, no soy fan de la fórmula 1 por lo que todo el libro estuve perdida con la que pasaba ya que no hay mucha explicación sobre el tema.

DNF 45%

I wanted to like this, I think F1 is an untapped cornucopia of potential, but this book is not it.

The characters were shallow and not at all entertaining. They have no background, and really the entire world of the Formula circuits needed to be explained (consider it world building if you will), because this just jumps in. I was expecting either a fully built explanation of how the races work and teams are built and drivers are made OR absolute surface level, laymen terms, in it for the romance and not the sport; this assumes a level of knowledge that fans would have but someone looking to enjoy a surface level romance would never know.

It’s also not written particularly well. Overall, it’s not for me and I won’t recommend it around. I didn’t even get to some of the deeps TW content, but could see how there were tangents written into the beginning of the story which are clearly meant to lead to future books.

Until Next Time,
MC

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for access to this eARC.

I wanted to like this book so bad because I am such a big fan of f1. However, I couldn’t connect to the characters or the story.

This is going to be a tough review to write. I want to begin by saying that the content warnings note at the beginning of the book is like a 10% of what it should be. This book deals with some HEAVY things that to be honest, felt like a bit too much for the way it’s marketed. This isn’t a romantic comedy by any means.

That said, at the beginning of the book I could see myself enjoying the story. I really enjoy F1 romances and this one being a driver and his engineer had me super pumped, but the execution wasn’t good in my opinion. The dislike between Phaedra and Cosmin (probably the rarest names I’ve read in a book so far) was a bit too intense on her side, and there was no development that made me say ‘’oh she’s starting to like him’’. By the end of the book, I still didn’t believe she liked him aside from the sex. However, I don’t think it was a problem in the romance, but in Phaedra’s character. She was… toxic. A lot. Her friendship with Natalie made me so uncomfortable. Again, I doubt they even like each other. Most of the time they were fighting (uglily) and when they weren’t fighting, they were competing and/or picking at each other. Overall, the common denominator in everything I disliked in the book was Phaedra.

Cosmin’s sister side plot was very weird and unsettling. It gave me the worst vibes and I feel like it doesn’t go with the rest of the plot. Natalie and Klaus… I have my reservations. I am very interested in their book and will probably read it (not as ARC though), but I could see the same toxicity between them that I saw between the MCs in this book so I don’t know how this can be fixed.

TW: Child abuse, child trafficking & sexual abuse, grooming, cancer, death of a parent

Rating: 2/5
Steam level: Open door, 4-5 scenes, high level of detail

ARC provided by Forever and NetGalley. Opinions are my own!