I was excited for this originally but I think it fell a little flat for me - I'm not someone who knows much about F1 and was excited to see that there seemed to be lots of action in this book. Unfortunately, I think there was a little too much information - at times, it felt like it was word vomity and there were so many names/teams to keep track of that it got confusing. There also didn't feel like there was much chemistry, and the way the dialogue was written was hard to read at times. I think I wasn't a fan of the writing style and unfortunately I just felt like I was forcing myself to read it at times. It has the potential to be interesting, but fell flat for me, and I dnf'ed it around 60%

Thank you NetGalley for this Arc!

i wanted to like this so badly and i just didn’t ): i ended up having to dnf at 56%. i am so grateful to the publishers, netgalley, and esha patel for sending me an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review, it just missed the mark for me, i’m afraid.
i will say that this rewrite is probably much better than the original draft and i give the author props for that! i did see the chemistry between diana and miguel in a romantic light and i think that’s what saved it for me the tiniest bit but for the most part, i found myself utterly confused. maybe that’s on me as it is my first F1 read, and others may feel differently, so i encourage anyone that is into that to give it a chance!
diana was a great female main character and i loved the aspect of her being part of a male dominated field, and I liked being able to see her handle the conflict that comes with that. i’m all for women empowerment!!
i just think the rivals-to-lovers trope doesn’t necessarily pinpoint the relationship between the two as although they were competitors, they very much got along and supported one another when one or the other was in the lead or higher up on the award podium. it would’ve been nice to see more rivalry between them rather than camaraderie.
(i also hate to say it but miguel being engaged to someone else for over half of the book was such an ick for me and incredibly off-putting as he was meant to be the main love interest. it just kept me from really diving into the relationship.)
i can see others really loving this read i just don’t think it was the one for me🩷

*** MILD SPOILERS BELOW***





People complain about sports romances where the sport is barely a part of the plot, but to me this was a sports romances where the romance was barely a part of the plot. And I know nothing about F1 and also don't care about it, so that was bad for me.

There were definitely pacing problems. As in, they didn't even kiss until 74% but then had sex at 79%? That was 0 to 100, which I guess is funny considering this is a book about fast cars.

There were a few lines that had me swooning and that redeemed the book for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360/Avon for the ARC.

This book was average to me. I finished it, but it didn't necessarily hook me. I loved the dual POV and I wish more romances had this, however, the romance wasn't that believable. The chemistry was lacking. I picked this up not knowing a thing about F1, but I do love a good sports romance. The author did a really good job of explaining the F1 world though so at least I wasn't confused there. Just confused on where the chemistry was.

DNF at 30%

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Not all fan fiction should be published. As a fan of F1, I was genuinely looking forward to this story. Unfortunately, the characters felt completely one dimensional and the dual-POV voices were not distinct enough to keep me engaged. Ultimately this felt like a fan's creative writing exercise, which is totally fine and there's certainly an audience for that. However, I am not among that audience.

Additionally, there were some severe editing oversights that just made me put it down only 1/3rd of the way in. Just one example - the main female protagonist makes a point to say she's never even been offered a reserve spot, despite being the F2 champion. About 3 chapters later she describes driving the car as feeling so different that when she got to drive reserve. Also, the fact that F1 drivers would have no idea who the F2 champion was, let alone that it was a female - I can suspend my disbelief to an extent, but it feels like an insult to the actual athletes within the sport to characterize them all as that clueless and out of touch.

3.5/5

Super fast-paced! You’re immediately thrown right into the action.

And there is information given at the very beginning to help you understand what’s going on sport-wise, so if you don’t know much about F1, you can still read this book and understand. But it is very F1-heavy, so you’ll definitely enjoy this book more if you already are into F1 (luckily, I am very much an F1 fan).

There’s a page of the teams and their drivers, the race schedule and locations. Such a nice touch! I really appreciated that little detail.

I am pro woman in F1!

And the feelings on period pain were so funny. So relatable and made Diana so likable to me. We can all bond over a shared hatred of periods.

The drama of politics within sports! Always entertaining to me and I’m glad that was included.

Unfortunately, this read super YA to me and that can feel a bit flat at times. This was still fun and enjoyable, but definitely felt like it was aimed at a much younger audience (writing style and content-wise).

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book! My review is already up on Goodreads and my review on TikTok will be up at the end of the month with my monthly wrap-up.

okayyyy sports romance era. i enjoyed this for what it was- it was def a fast paced cutesy romance with writing that was easily digestible and i was eating up every second of it i cant lie! i highly recommend for people who love their sports romances and are looking for a quick fix after, say, windy city

Not my cup of tea :( Even though I really like books about F1, this one didn't work for me. The writing was definitely not my style and the multiple povs really bothered me. The main reason for my rating was that I didn't like the romance at all, I didn't feel any chemistry between Diana and Miguel and throughout the entire book I didn't find myself rooting for them to get together.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book!

This was my first F1 romance so I was really hoping to love it but it just fell flat for me. I DNFed it about 30% in.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited when i got approved for this ARC because it’s my first F1 romance. I went in not having any expectations, but somehow felt slightly disappointed. I felt like the book was good enough, but it there seemed to be some plot holes. I couldn’t quite figure out the connection.

Okay so I love a good F1 romance. I did really liked the F1 parts and they were well done. The rest of it was meh. I unfortunately didn’t connect with the characters and their POVs were kind of hard to read. This was somehow an instantly love and the longest slow burn. Additionally, there were other aspects of the story that I didn’t jive with and just made the book hard to read. While it is kind of long, if you can read it in one go I would recommend that. I read 60% in one day and then had a super hard time getting back into the story.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC.

My first F1 romance so went in not really knowing what to expect. It was an enjoyable read, though frustrated with the gender stereotypes (maybe that was the intention?) and felt the couple’s progression ultimately fell short.