Unfortunately, this was a dnf for me. I didn’t like the writers writing style and couldn’t get into the characters at all. I got 50% thru and just couldn’t push myself to pick it up again. :(

I've been wanting to dip my feet into F1 romance since getting into sports romance and this was the perfect start! Riggs and Camilla get off on the wrong foot from the beginning before realizing who the other is. This sets us up for some great tension and banter. I really loved watching both characters grow into themselves while finding each other and coming to terms with their feelings. I'd definitely continue this series!

This was a fun and quick (only because 3x is my preferred listening speed) audiobook. The story was interesting and made me want to keep listening. The narrators were fantastic and provided a lot to the book. They made it an even more enjoyable experience.

I would highly recommend listening to this!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ALC. I am reviewing this voluntarily.

Thank you so much for the advanced audio copy of Off the Grid by K. Bromberg.

I really wanted to like this book, I love F1 racing and hate-to-lovers. But this book fell flat for me.

I didn't feel the connection between the two at all and I really didn't think they characters grew much during the novel. The story also dragged on.

I did NOT like how the SA was handled in this book. The MMC's "regret" towards how he had been judging her by her looks and clothes did not feel genuine and I did not like how to had to tell everybody about it to save the MMC's career. The MMC was just a dick all around and didn't have any redeeming qualities.

I did like the narrators, especially the male narrator. His British accent was very pleasing to listen to. If I had gotten the ebook version, I would have DNF'd this story very quickly.

I liked the narration of this book a lot, I would give the narration 4.5 stars. I think Carly Robins and Shane East do a fantastic job narrating this bully romance. I do not particularly enjoy bullies and find could not get over the fact that he is only nice to her because of who her family is. I wish the book didn't try to make me like him without him even offering a single sincere apology for the MMCs behavior. I also wanted to mention that in the past, the FMC has been sexually assaulted and I did not particularly like the way that it was handled in the book. So the bully and the SA made me give the story, 2 stars so I landed on 3 stars for the book overall.

TW: Bullying, SA description

Tropes: Bully, neighbors, workplace, and boss/employee

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Select | JKB Publishing, LLC, and K. Bromberg for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

3 🌟

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced listener’s copy.

I have to admit I struggled getting through this story. I had quite a bit of trouble connecting to the characters. They felt very one dimensional, and the story felt like it dragged on and on with not much happening. Camille and Spencer’s love didn’t feel real, they had sex and *poof* they were magically in love. Camille’s friends came across as vapid and unnecessary, while Spencer’s friends were just straight up assholes.

Something about the way the sexual assault was handled also didn’t sit right with me. Having sex somehow fixed everything?

Lastly, the ending in particular didn’t feel complete. A particular incident was insanely satisfying, but nothing was explained. All the loose ends were tied up without explanation or just straight up ignored.

Notes on the narration: Cami’s narrator’s tone was very flat and emotionless throughout the entire book. I would’ve enjoyed this book a lot more if male characters were narrated by a man and female characters were narrated by a woman throughout the entire book, instead of during their individual chapters. Spencer’s narrator was amazing. Great voice, lots of emotion and passion which really came through.

This was a great ride with fast cars while confronting past scars. The two leads had a lot to overcome and they did it together. Lots of steam and lots of heart.
And you don’t need to know much about F1 to understand the book ( for me as a plus one because I don’t understand much)

📚 Off the Grid By K.Bromberg 📚

📌 Basic Info:
- F1 sports romance
- Double POV, 1st person, Single timeline
- Part of a series of standalones

📌 Trigger warnings:
- Death of a parent (past)
- Illness of a parent (current)
- SA (past)

📌 What to expect:
- F1 races
- Dislike to love
- Workplace romance
- Boss' daughter
- Forbidden romance
- Bad boy MMC

📌 Synopsis:
Spencer(H) is a very promissing F2 driver that got an opprtunity to drive for F1. His father was an F1 driver before he got in an accident, so Spencer both loves and hates F1. Camila (h) is daughter of the team owner that invited Spencer to drive for them. Camila doesn't exactly like F1 drivers, and as of now she works for another of her family's businesses in another country, but her father asks her to take charge of the F1 team and she can't say no. In addition to all that Spencer and Camila met in a club before knowing who they are, so let's say their meet cure was not so cute and made their future interactions more of a dislike to love.

📌 My thougts:
The book is not too long and easy to read. F1 vibes are awesome (At least for someone who doesn't know much about F1). Spencer's and Camila's stoires as separate characters are interesting, just as their relashionshipts with their families. There romance could have been awesome, except two main things. First, Spencer is an asshole, he's so much more then just a bad boy and he was so past the line between grumpy and assholish. He juges Camila exclusivly by clothes she wears and when he find out the real reason, his regret was not genuine. It was just because Camila is who she is and not because he has no right to juge anyone's clothes. Second of all, I'm not sure how I feel about the SA representation. I undetand why Camila felt how she felt bout it (even thoug I don't undestand how noone sees that the guilty person is still present in her life), but in general SA wasn't explored enougth. It's mostly talked about in the very end and because Spencer foced Camila to come forward about the SA by beating the shit out of persn who asulted her and to save his career she has to go explain the truth to her family. So yeah, all in all I have some contrary feelings about this book.

📌 Audiobook:
I had absolutely no problem with the audiobook, the narrators habe done a wonderful job and I probably gave the book more stars because I listened to it and not read it.

I recieved an ALC in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, everyone involved in ALC distribution.

I went into this wanting to love it since it's only the 2nd racing romance I've encountered. Overall, it was a good story, and I had a lot of fun at various points in Riggs and Cami's story. However, it felt unresolved. By the time that I moved past Riggs being an insanely obnoxious MMC and began to love him, it was all over. I would have liked to see more of the plot points fleshed out, more of the challenges faced head on and worked through. It kind of felt like a lot of the strife was forgotten and then thrown together last minute to wrap things up.

As far as the audio goes, excellent choices were made for the narration. Shane East is ALWAYS going to be top tier. Carly Robins was new to me, but she certainly knocked it out of the park. As with most audio books, I beg for Duet narration. I understand it's not always feasible but my god, I wish it was. They're respective gender-swapped voices took me out of the moment a few times but it wasn't anything I couldn't work through.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to listen to the audio book of this work in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great ride with fast cars while confronting past scars. The two leads had a lot to overcome and they did it together. Lots of steam and lots of heart. Easy to root for them !!

I liked that it was an entertaining and spicy romance novel about formula one racing. I thought the two MCs were likable and had pretty good chemistry. Shane East's narration was impeccable as always, but I didn't care too much for the FMC narrator, I thought she sounded kind of aged compared to Shane's voice.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Select, and JKB Publishing LLC for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

I'm gonna be honest. I nearly DNF'd this book when they were hinting around Camilla's trauma at the hands of B******, the man that assaulted me has the same name and I just didn't think it'd be good for my mental health to keep going, ya know? BUT the enemies to lovers of it all... I couldn't step away from the trope. And I knewwww when Riggs found out, it'd be worth sticking around. And it was. I will say there were some definite traditional masc and fem roles that were played into a BIT too hard for me -- and I loathe it entirely when MMC refer to their partners as Females... it feels weird and icky. SO. Yes, three stars. Overall, a decent read with some heart warming moments but nothing particularly special.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc of this audiobook in exchange for a review!

First let me say i am not an F1 girlie. But i was sold by the cover and the description! Now im gonna look for more 👀 This book was 4 stars from me, almost 4.5!

I thought about DNF'ing after 2 chapters but i am so happy i kept listening. I really loved this book.

Camilla's character was incredible. She grew a lot over the course of the book and it made me very happy to watch her progress. Hearing how she wanted to learn to dress for herself and not for her ex, and also not for Spencer was nice, and I was a little worried she was going to turn down the road of girl who just wants approval of others, etc.

Spencer was also very refreshing mmc, he was aggressive and assertive, but also supportive, and not gross about how cocky he was. He was there to help Cami and he also let her be there for him when it came to his father.

The spicy scenes were also HOT, and it was so nice seeing Spencer so committed to helping Cami with her physical issues and personal growth within the bedroom. He made her feel safe and comfortable and was just SO committed to helping her finish 🥰

However, since my review is for the audio book, i was a little confused why the fmc didn't have an accent, when the book was set in England, and the family was Italian. the mmc had a British accent, and a lot of the side characters had accents. So i was confused why the fmc just had a normal American accent. It didn't impact my rating, but was just an interesting thing to note!

4 ( based on enjoyment) 2.5 (based on critical thinking)

I sat down to review this as four starts but then I starting critically thinking and the novel fell quite quickly. I enjoyed the reading journey, the audiobook made it easier but it was problematic. I think it reminds me of dark romances in the way where when you read it you aren’t reading it for a realistic romance, a MMC that you would date but this is not just a silly little romance with a morally gray MMC, this is a book that talks about SA a lot, while it is clear what is okay and what isn’t some of the MMCs behaviour is problematic but isn’t discuss which makes this really fall flat.

The pacing was a bit slow in the mid-point of the novel, I wished the formula one was a bit more of a focus, especially as a rookie driver, maybe more F1 politics. Maybe if there was more non-romance action (F1, her personal growth, and family) I would not of felt a bit bored in the middle of the novel. I think listening to the audiobook really helped with the pacing and writing style. The formula 1 felt organic, realistic and good, I wish there was more.

I would say that this was not a enemies-to-lovers romance. I enjoyed the romance, I binged the book. This made me smile, I think this a wonderful romance for someone who just wants to escape from the world but then it was quite dark at some points as well. It felt like it wanted to do two things, bring escape and enjoyment as well as depth but it was done in a not so good way. I wish his own trauma was more discussed. I wish all of it was either more deep or lighter.

**SPOILERS**

Some of the MMC’s behaviour was questionable and made me root for them less. In a way I still eat up the romance, but I would never date a person like Spencer because there was quite a few red flags but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the novel.

-the bar, where he is clearly being an ass (I don’t need to explain)

- his general characters (his POVs where hard, from the swearing to the anger to the big ego.) It felt like he was allowed to be an asshole, a toxic boyfriend because he watch his dad die.

- SAish behaviour (At the party kissing her without asking, then without her consent going to her place and getting naked. He might have been drunk but that doesn’t excuse any of it. After the fight (which he was in the wrong for, she was doing her job) she came to apologize he just fucks her and it felt like at the beginning she did not want to have that happen but I guess you don’t need to ask for consent when you are hooking up on a general bases and if she enjoys the sex.) This behaviour made it feel less honest when he was supporting her through her own SA trauma.

- the fact he only questioned his own toxic behaviour after she shares details of her SA while he already knew earlier. He did not need the details to know that his comments might affect her as while as should not happen even if she had never been Saed.

I feel like their relationship is the type you don’t realise is toxic until they break up. It feels like she, even after everything, is still innocent, still hopeful that man aren’t shit but that’s not reality. She ignores the red flags because it’s not as bad as some men she has had in the past. It feels human in a way, it feels like the author herself doesn’t realise how bad the MMC is.

I also thing that the whole lets change her style was a bit shitty, like baggy styles are cool, and attractive, making a link between being the “least likely to be hit on” and her style with “baggy bar girl” is problematic. And then the link it has with her trauma and her therapist thinking she needs to change this. Yes, she needs to forgive herself, trust herself and love herself, but this can be done with self-compassion and over therapeutic/coping strategies. It feels like there was not research done in trauma-therapy before writing a therapist into the novel. I do think it was good to include therapy to normalise it but it was poorly done and honestly she was a bad therapist. I think this conversation is much more than just this small paragraph and much bigger than just an authors novel, it’s a societal problem. Which is why I might not of seen it as a problem when reading it, only notice when looking back at the novel. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment, it is still slightly disappointing.

The whole conversation over her being broken for not being able to orgasm while with a man was interesting, I felt seen or validated in the struggle people may face with their sexuality but at the same time, it would have been nice to see her be self-compassionate and realise she isn’t broken and he did not fix her.

The fact she had to then tell her father why Spencer punched a guy out of love. It was never on her terms she told her father about the SA to save his ass. And the fact his first reaction to realising it was him was to attack the rapist, to save her protect her, I think that is also problematic, she deserved to have someone by her side not showing violence.

I think tackling SA and the after math, with dealing with trauma should have been done with more care and responsibility.

As a whole I really enjoyed reading this, but it left me unease, it left me wondering if I should ever trust my own first judgement when it comes to romantic partners, if it took me to sit down and write a review to realise all the red flags the MMC had maybe that’s why I can’t seem to see them in my own life lol.

I had decent expectations based on the plot, but didn't connect with this story. The narration was not good.

I liked this one! It was an easy and quick read and I finished it in one day, I flew through it! I liked the characters and the story, but also the narrators of this audiobook. I definitely recommend it!

If you like F1, then give Off the Grid a chance!

As an F1 fan, it's not too bad. I wish there were more racing details from Riggs, such as racing within the race. For example, Riggs takes a corner here, and "x" bumps him, throwing him off. Maybe he wasn't quick on the launch at the beginning, etc. Riggs ended up being "perfect" from the start. No, he didn't place first, but he did what they requested from him. I just needed more of that as an example! lol

Now, here is where the stars started knocking down. Off the Grid is very fast-paced, but not much Character development or scene building. It's minimal. Some things, like the Olive Oil business, had me wondering why this was added when it rarely gets mentioned or touched on. I'd rather have that bit removed and more racing added. Lol

Second, Riggs is an ass-hat, and I love asshole characters with a redemption arch, but when it came time for his transition, it seemed out of nowhere. Riggs bashes Camilla with her looks and the way she dresses. (She has reasons why she dresses the way she does, which I 100% get, and I loved this touch.) But the minute she isn't in baggy clothes, he has the hots for her and makes moves showing up, drunk, naked, etc. And after all, Camilla has been through—Trigger Warning, SA—driver or not, I personally would have thrown his ass out instead of babysitting a naked guy in her bed. Get him a hotel and make his friends drag his ass too. Even though it had been a few years, as a woman who has been SA, this doesn't seem natural, and she should still have a guard up. (Or at least give us more thoughts of her inner struggles, how uncomfortable the situation is, but she feels obligated to her father to make this right, etc.)

With all that said, it's a quick read/listen; only a few parts didn't make sense.

Lastly, as an F1 fan—again—some of the characters are a little too close to "real" people within F1, which I'm not the biggest fan of. Yes, some of the names are similar, but you can tell who they are inspired by.

Audiobook Review: Carly Robins and Shane East are wonderful, talented narrators. Carly Robins gives off a mature voice, like a mother figure, instead of a younger character. She's fantastic! I love her work. It's just a small note: as someone who listens to audiobooks multiple times a week, that's a little nitpick.

Thank you, Net Galley and K. Bromberg, for the audiobook version to review!



Story: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
Audiobook: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) Carly Robins, Shane East
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ (2/5) 18+ Open Door, Angst, Trigger Warning for SA

3,5 ⭐️

Spencer Riggs always dreamed to be a F1 driver. Camilla Moretti is his boss’s daughter.
When they met there was an instant attraction. But this became a hate to love situation with a lot of banter.

I did not like Riggs at first, but there is a development in his character during the book. He helped Camilla with the trauma from her past and she fought for him when it was necessary.

I also did not like was the nickname “casket” at all and the way he treated her at the beginning. He was supposed to be a bad boy but was just annoying.

Tropes:
- hate to love
- F1 workplace romance
- secret relationship
- slow burn
- forced proximity (neighbors)

Triggers: SA, car accident, panic attacks, death of parent

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun, spicy read! I went into this having not a lot of expectations, but I was totally blown away!! Yes, this is a lower-stakes romance novel that features a few tropes; no strings attached to lovers and dating the boss' daughter, but there is actually a lot of heart to this book. The character growth was really special and made sense without making the book too heavy. The spicy scenes were well written a sprinkled into the plot in a way that made sense without being too over the top. Both POVs were engaging and very easy to tell apart based on the tone of the writing.

As I consumed this in audiobook format, the narration was amazing. I really loved Riggs' accent, it was deep and sexy and very easy on the ears, and Cami's narration was great as well. I really appreciated the way she did his accent when it was in her POV.

I am very happy with this book!

A steamy F1 romance where he helps her get to the "finish line" if you know what I mean. Spencer is charismatic and handsome with a smoking body and when he tells you to "drown him" you listen! I really liked Spencer and Cami and how even though they both had their reservations with each other and their past, they overcame that and their relationship benefitted from the character growth.
This book was a fun ride

As stated, this is reminiscent of Lauren Asher's Dirty Air series so if you liked those books, you will most definitely like this one from K. Bromberg.

Carly Robins and Shane East narrate this one well but the standout for me was Shane because his voice is just perfect for Spencer's character.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Select | JKB Publishing, LLC for access to the ALC in exchange for an honest review.