Conflicting feelings on this one…
This was just okay.
I’ve never read a F1 romance before, so that was interesting. But, I just feel like overall this one wasn’t for me.
The romance was just okay, I did however, enjoy the F1 race setting and am now interested in reading more formula 1 related romances.
Overall, this was a good way to spend an evening, but I don’t think I would recommend this one.

Unfortunately my hopes were set a little too high for this book. I was really excited to read an F1xEngineer FMC romance, especially since I am a female engineer myself, but I just couldn't connect with the characters. I found that the FMC's actions didn't really match her age and she was just difficult for me to like. I also found her actions to be super unprofessional, and just incredibly rude. The MMC on the other hand, was just cringe and I didn't really feel the chemistry between him and the FMC. I will say there was some good banter, but for me the cons outweighed the pros in this book.

DNF at 20%....

First off, the cover of this is absolutely beautiful. I started reading this in preparation for an F1 race (to really feel the vibes) but then I was so utterly disappointed. First off, I love a woman in STEM main character, but Phaedra was so deeply insufferable and gave a little too much in terms of "not like other girls" vibes. I didn't really understand why she was beefing with Cosmin so much, but he also gave paint drying as a character so maybe that's why.

Also, I worried this book was going to dip into insta lust territory and I really didn't think I was going to be able to root for their relationship because of how insistent Phaedra was that she could never like Cosmin. I also really wasn't jarring with the writing style, so overall not the book for me.

Unfortunate that I didn't like this because I do enjoy formula 1, but hoping there is a F1 book out there for me!

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for this ARC of Double Apex in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, I had to POWER through this book. It took all of my willpower to do so and even then, I do wish I hadn't. Double Apex is a new installment in the sports romance sphere of Formula 1 that advertises a cocky driver and a whipsmart math genius/engineer assigned to his team. Unfortunately, our protagonist is utterly unbearable and the guy was... well. I love a good mean girl main character but there was just no rhyme or reason to why Phaedra was acting the way she was. In all honesty, I just couldn't justify any of her rudeness, which just ruined the reading experience for me.

This is a DNF for me (40%). If you follow me at all you’ll know that I have a pretty strong rule against rating books I DNF at less than 60%. In my humble opinion I don’t think it’s fair to rate a book on a public platform when you haven’t read more than half. But thats just me being me.

Double Apex is an exception to my rule.

I cannot be convinced to appreciate/like/lust after a contemporary romance MMC that acts the way Cosmic acts.

Examples…
Phaedra tells him more than once to stop making sexual style jokes/comments to her in the workplace and yet he continues to do so. Not ok in my book, she said NO bro!

The kitchen coffee scene on the first day of arriving in Santori…

In what world is rubbing your erection on someone, who has…
1. told you they aren’t interested
2. asked you to stop flirting with them
3. NOT F**KING INVITED YOU TO RUB YOUR DICK ON THEM, something OK to do?

I read for another 6 chapters after this scene and still couldn’t get it out of my head.

Actually, I went back and re-read this scene while writing this review, thinking maybe I missed some invitation she gave him…

I didn’t…

In my humble opinion “a playful smirk” is not an invitation to rub your dick on someone who previously told you they were not interested. Also, “Quit,” - followed by her “sidestepping” so much to get away from him, that she runs into a counter, and then “Oh my God, Ardelean, let go…” are also clear indicators that you should LET FUCKING GO, and also NOT RUB YOUR COCK on her.

to top it all off, this behavior is coming from an MMC who’s sister was sexually assaulted as an adolescent by their uncle…

What the actual f**?

If the MMC’s behavior and straight up sexual harassment wasn’t enough, I also really disliked our FMC. I love flawed characters, I think they make books realistic and relatable... Phaedra, however, was insufferable. Rude to everyone around her, treated her best friend like shit, acted like an immature child, not the 30 year old genius she was supposed to be, and generally just sucked as a human.

Additional issues
- choppy prose, especially Cosmin’s POV
- the time jumps made me feel so disconnected from the characters

If you like reading romances where the guy is a complete asshole but his internal monologue suggests otherwise, you don’t mind dubious consent in your contemporary romance, and love to hate you FMC this could work for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Publishing) for sending this book (eARC) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the premise of this book but I couldn’t get into it. The story was short and sweet but I felt like the writing was all over the place, making it hard to follow what was going on.

I loved the premise of Double Apex, but it was a struggle for me to read. I couldn’t keep the characters straight and never felt very invested.

Thank you, Josie Juniper and Forever for an ARC of this book via NetGalley.

3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed the storyline of the book and all the characters throughout, It was just lacking on the romance side for me personally! I wanted to see more of Cosmin and Phaedra's relationship unfold. What got them to those 3 words?

Rating: 2.25/5

Thank you Josie Juniper and Forever for an ARC of this book via NetGalley.

The premise of this book was promising but unfortunately fell flat for me. 

Overall, I found the pacing to be too fast. The progression of Phae and Cos' relationship felt disjointed and their transitions from hate to attraction to love felt sudden and underdeveloped. By the time they confessed their feelings for each other, I simply didn't believe them. The emotional depth was lacking and I really felt its absence.

And along those lines, the bulk of the relationships suffered the same fate. I felt like I knew the facts of the MCs' relationships with the people in their lives but it felt like an empty shell without substance. I hate to mention it but Phae's friendship with Natalie left me esp disappointed. I adore strong friendships and LOVE good female ones but theirs felt... superficial. The way they treated each other felt so undermining and I hated that. Did they even care about each other? I... don't know? Maybe? I mean, by the end, yes but it felt almost forced.

As for our MCs, Cos was fine but didn't inspire any strong feelings one way or the other. Now Phae, I really wanted to love Phae. I love a strong FMC who puts the patriarchy in its place, and in STEM no less! But... I didn't love how she spoke about some of the women she encountered. It felt unnecessarily mean and condescending. And that kind of felt like her general attitude for the majority of the book. And I wanted to understand her. Why was she like this? Why did she put up this wall? But her chapters didn't give me enough to empathize with her.

All that said, I will acknowledge that towards the end, there was some character growth and a handful of heartfelt moments, moments that had a level of depth I wish we had gotten more of earlier. But bc so little before then endeared me to either of our MCs, these moments just didn't have the emotional punch they could have had.

CN: open-door romance, illness and death of MC's family member, nondetailed mentions of past childhood abuse

This was beyond terrible bad. Truly the writing is awful with characters who suck. And not suck in the way of potential growth, they flat out suck. The plot makes no sense and needs so much work to it, the characters are a disaster with pacing that was a mess. Don’t recommend at all

As a fairly new Formula 1 fan, I was excited to read an F1 romance! Double Apex was such a fun and emotional read, and honestly just made me more excited to watch motorsports. This story follows Phaedra a race engineer for her family's F1 team, and the team's hotshot driver Cosmin. These two have a flirty relationship both on and off the track, but Phaedra knows she needs to keep things professional because it's likely she'll be the team owner one day. But of course their flirting and banter eventually leads to a steamy and passionate secret romance, that they both try to deny is happening.

This book was so good and very spicy. 🥵 But it also dealt with some pretty heavy topics throughout the story as well, and I feel like they were handled with a lot of empathy and compassion.

If you're into F1, I definitely pick up this book when it comes out later this year. I'm already looking forward to the next one in the series!

Thank you Forever and NetGalley for the ARC!

REVIEW✨
Double Apex
By Josie Juniper
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
I loved this book! So I know nothing about F1 expect that it involves racing cars and I learnt so much from this book and never felt lost at all. It starts off with a bang, and it doesn’t really stop. I love a woman in a male dominated field, and Phaedra is just that. She’s one of the best race engineers in Formula 1 and she’s also not afraid to speak her mind. Cosmin is the F1 bad boy, and of course Phaedra needs to work with him. Need I say more…

🏁 He falls first and harder
🏁 Woman in STEM
🏁 Sexy & Angsty
🏁 Greek Getaway
🏁 High-stakes

Romance: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Plot points: 💥💥💥💥
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you @readforever and @Netgalley for an ARC in exchange of a honest review.

Please check TW
TW (Family member with Cancer)

Out everywhere October 8th, 2024

<b> Personal Compatibility: 3.5 ⭐️
For it's written purpose: 4 ⭐️ </b>

I think the thing I enjoyed most about this book is how it made me do some internal reflection early on when I wasn't vibing with the FMC.

I thought she was too brash and quick to anger, overly cruel for the sake of being a Girl Boss, but what it really turned out to be was the author doing an incredible job of creating a flawed, realistic human being.
Phaedra was homeschooled, is a genius, and essentially grew up with no actual socialization from her peers in her age group. This shapes and molds her character and you can see it shine through in every interaction (and in her character growth!) It was so freaking cool to have that balance of realness, and the entire plot felt highly realistic too.

Things happen, good and bad, and you do what you can to get through them even if you make shitty decisions.

<b> Now on to what felt lacking: </b>

Phaedra's one friend was a massive letdown. No spoilers, but I don't think she was a well written character (but that may change as we hear her story in book 2) and her contribution to this book was lame.

Cosmin was a bit underwhelming. He felt repetitive after a while, and his pov felt juvenile at times. He had a rich backstory and it felt like the maturing that he did during his difficult childhood doesn’t always shine through in the way he is written in the present

Phaedra's inner monologue felt very wannabe gen z, which felt really weird since she's a grown, mature adult.
I felt that for as much of a genius prodigy that she's supposed to be, her internal thoughts would sound more intelligent.

I also did not vibe with the way the spice was written. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it was included, but I found myself cringing at some of the dirty talk and the way that the scenes were written.

<b> Overall </b>

I did have a good time with this book and found myself tearing up multiple times, rooting for their relationship, feeling the pain of a family that doesn't entirely understand you, and the sinking letdown of rocky friendships.

I would have loved to get more “screen time” of Phaedra being an engineering mastermind rather than just her role in supporting the driver

I'll definitely be reading more books in this series and getting my hands on any and all racing romances!

I want to put together a longer review for this book on Goodreads and I’ll come back on this as well. But I just am beyond addicted to this story. I actually am already preparing to read again this fall.
The plot, characters, STEM rep, strong female that didn’t apologize for swearing or being herself…this was a true gift to read. Sure I’m gushing, and I’m not really a fucking gushing kind of reviewer.
Phae had so many qualities that I also have and reading this helped me internally talk to myself and reflect and learn.
Cosmin has entered top 10 boyfriend for me now. He was written so carefully and I loved every second there would be more insight in to his head. I loved his passion and resilience.
Can’t wait to read so much more from Josie.

I gave this a go even though I have never read an F1 romance before! I do love sports romances, so this was a good one to try just a little out of my comfort zone.

I almost wish I waited and read this via audiobook because I would have loved to hear the mmc's romanian accent. I think this would have elevated the story even more for me.

My main qualm that stopped me from rating it higher was that I just did not find either main character very likable. in fact, I found her behavior to be incredibly problematic.

3.5 stars

I have been looking forward to a F1 book and this one was a great way to jump into the new F1 genre! I liked the dynamic of a driver and a team member forbidden romance. I also liked how she was extremely intelligent. The little twists were super cute. The FMC was a little frustrating by thinking everyone was against her, but other than that I did enjoy the book.

Thanks to Netgalley & Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for access to this E-ARC! So good! Loved the characters & the F1 vibes. Great debut! Will definitely read more from this author.

this took the backseat for awhile, as life picked up, so it probably altered my review a bit.

I was not the biggest fan of this book, but it's perfect for those who love F1 racing, and romance! For someone who had very little knowledge, I was confused for a only small portion of it regarding racing,(didn't know about racing engineers but they must be geniuses!).

I would've had some more criticisms regarding the main characters, but these were explained away, and they eventually grew past these over the course of the book.

I must now hear a romanian accent so I can stop hearing Cosmin as dracula in my head!

thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

I am such a big F1 girlie so to see more F1 romances is a dream! Double Apex was a wonderful debut from new author Josie Juniper. Full of action, adventure, and a double layer of love! Highly recommend to fans of Lauren Asher's Dirty Air series!

Spicy romance set in the world of Formula 1. I’ve never had any interest in the racing world, but I definitely got pulled in!