Offtrack is a fun contemporary romance set in the fast-paced world of Formula 1 racing. Author Esha Patel had a hefty task of balancing a romance and a strong narrative about the difficulties women face in male-dominated sports, and for the most part, she was successful.
The story shifts perspectives between Miguel De la Fuente, a high-performing F1 racer from a family of drivers, and Diana Zahrani, a rookie, to F1, looking to prove herself in the just-beginning racing season. Readers are taken through the season as both characters face obstacles and fall for each other.
This is my first time reading an F1 romance, and I was pleasantly surprised! While sports romances tend to have similar themes, I appreciate the uniqueness F1 brought to the story with the different settings worldwide, the danger of the sport, and the unique focus level for driving. The sports aspects felt realistic, and it seems like Patel researched to help the story feel immersive and believable.
I liked both of the main characters, but I did have a favorite and that was Diana. Her experiences fighting sexism to live her dreams got me choked up at times and angry on her behalf at others. To me, this is a sign of a well-crafted character arc.
While a lot happens in the book, it is still a slow-burn romance. The juxtaposition of pacing of the overall story with the amount of plot we cover and the pace of the romance did feel jarring at times. This wasn’t a glaring issue, just a minor one for me.
My rating is 3.75/5 stars.
Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for a free advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I would give this novel a 3.5/5 stars! I really enjoyed their romance and the rising conflict in the later half of the book, however, the beginning felt kind of slow to me. The tension and dramatic elements of the story were very well written, and I would love to see more books from the rest of the team!

I'd say it's more of a 3.5/3.75 star! I have never read an F1 romance but I was pleasantly surprised! While this book wasn't perfect, I think overall it was a great plot with amazing romance! I loved the tension and wished we honestly had more of it! I found myself so involved when the racing scenes came into play and honestly loved that we got dual POV so I could see the races from both Miguel and Diana! I liked all the different characters too, but wish they were a bit more introduced or portrayed as close friends with Miguel so they seemed more prominent! There were times when there was Spanish or Spanish locations that I wish as an North American I knew what they were or what was being said, but about halfway through the book I actually stopped caring and started liking it as I felt it added more to the characters and I enjoyed reading a character who wasn't just American or English for once! I would definitely read another F1 romance!

**Spoilers below! **

The only issue I really had with the book is how Mig and Diana knew each other. I don't get how they don't remember each other if they meant that much to each other when they were younger.
Maybe if they hadn't known each others names but both had secret crushes or something it would've made more sense but they knew each others names and had pictures together so it just seemed a little forced when they "didn't remember" and then fell in love again. I also wish they would've made it a point for all their other friends to start calling Diana by Diyana since that is her name. It shouldn't be Americanized unless people don't know! ! don't know I feel like it was just a missed opportunity for Miguel to stand up and be like "her name is Diyana!" or "is Diyana okay?
Where is Diyana" and everyone else is like who? That would've been cool, but again my personal preference so I don't think it ruined the book at all, just would've made it even better! Other than that, I actually really liked it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Diana Zahrani has always wanted to join the ranks of F1 racers, and when the opportunity presents itself, she jumps on it. She enters the male-dominated sport with every intention of winning and showing everyone that she means business. What she doesn't account for, however, is driver Miguel de la Fuente. As the two battle for the world championship, sparks begin to fly, and not just on the track.

As someone who knows next to nothing about F1 racing, this was pretty enjoyable. I loved the diverse cast of characters and the fact that they each brought a little bit of their culture to the story. It made everyone seem much more real, and it made it so much easier to fall in love with them. The way that they all talked about their passion for driving and how they felt winning races tugged on my heartstrings more than a little. I was also pleasantly surprised with the portrayal of male vulnerability. These were definitely men written by a woman, and I loved it.

There were a couple of things that I didn't love about this book. As I said, I know next to nothing about F1 racing. By the end of the book, I was able to basically figure out what all of the terminology meant, but the beginning of the book was an absolute nightmare to get through. I was basically juggling google and my kindle the entire first 100 pages because Esha Patel just dropped new slang and terms without any kind of explanation. Also, and this may be an unpopular opinion, I didn't care for Miguel and Diana's relationship. They felt more like really good friends than romantic partners. I probably would have enjoyed their relationship more if it was more platonic.

Overall, this books gets 3.5⭐ from me. This is probably geared more towards people involved in the F1 world, but it was still very sweet.

I was so excited for this read, but unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it. I thought it was a mood thing, so I took a break and tried again, but for a book about such an exciting sport, I found it a little boring. So much of the writing was inner monologue and exposition when I wanted more action and excitement.

I love you so fucking much and I am glad to have you in my life as my long distance desi friend 🥺🥺

OMG reading this book was like experiencing #drivetosurvive but just in text form, it takes a while to get a hang of all the characters since the premise of F1 often has a lot of side character but once you start recalling all the main/important side characters this book is something you won’t be able to put down…

The slow burn was burning and I was like please please please I won’t be able to take it anymore 😩😩

I loved the Rise of Diana in the F1 world 🏎️❤️ SHE IS THE QUEEN, THE “DANGER”

As someone who loves F1 books, the racing parts of this book were done incredibly well, by far the best scenes. Unfortunately I felt the plot just took too long to develop, and the characters had almost no growth.

Although not my favorite mostly given the writing style it was hard to follow at times, the book felt like it completely turned around at a point in the second half and I almost couldn't put it down.

First time reading an F1 romance, and this book really throws you to the races from the beginning. Enjoyed the POV changes, it was easy to keep track of and allowed you to feel both sides of a situation. Characters feel like real people, actually fleshed out a bit with family backgrounds, their own culture, and you can tell why they make choices. This book took me longer to finish than expected. Normally a romance book for me is read in one or two days, but this one took around a week of reading small parts at a time.
Would like to read others by this author, this book was a solid four star read.

Thank you to Esha Patel and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!

I was super excited to try another F1 romance book, but unfortunately this book missed the mark for me. To me, this read as a “Drive To Survive” book with a romance subplot that wasn’t great. I feel like if it was an F1 fiction book (with no romance), I might have rated it higher. And thats surprising from me, as all I tend to read is romance!

Formula 1 - I do appreciate how the author clearly is an F1 fan/researched F1 heavily, as a lot of the things relating the F1 were very accurate. I’ve read F1 books before where things about race weekend, engineering, etc were SO off, so this was a breath of fresh air.

Romance - The two MCs (Miguel & Diana) had zero chemistry in my eyes. By the halfway point of the book, the two have barely interacted aside from some stray touches & quick conversations. Not to mention, Miguel is betrothed to someone else, and the Diana spends more time flirting with a side character than Miguel? I feel like those two plot lines could’ve been nixed, which could potentially lead to the MCs meshing a bit more.

Writing Style - The writing style wasn’t great but it wasn’t horrible. I was able to follow along pretty well, but some portions of the book were very random and I found myself skimming them because they had no impact on the plot. I also love short chapters when they are written well, but the shorter chapters (back to back to back) just felt a bit clunky and like we were jumping all over the place.

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.

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.

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.

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.