This sport romance follows a Phaedra one of the best race engineers in Formula 1, following in her father’s footsteps. Her assumptions on the new hot driver; Cosmin Ardelean affected her work and her ability to do her work but what happens when they grow close?

I would recommend this to any sport-romance lover. I picked it up for enjoyment, which it accomplished. The formula 1 knowledge was appreciated as well. I wish the romanced felt real and not so superficial, I don’t think they would last.

The main character wasn’t particularly lovable, I did feel compassion and empathy towards her, but it didn’t measure up to the annoyance. I felt compassion towards the majority of characters but it felt forced. I did not like her friendships that much nor did I like the whole conversation around relationships and work and being a women in such a male dominant word, I think it tried to mention it but then failed to actually show the challenges or at least empower women.

The plot felt a bit loose, with potholes and certain parts that felt irrelevant and were there to make it dramatic and bring some darkness into the story. It felt like a romance you would read on Wattpad which can be good for enjoyment and if that’s what you are looking for, please read this.

The audiobook was lovely, it felt like listening to a movie. I would recommend you listen to the audiobook any day.

[ARC Netgally - 8 Oct 2024 - Hachette Audio]

DNF….I don’t understand how this became a book. The female main character is extremely rude and immature. The male main character basically does sexual harassment and is way too much of a playboy. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish this book and refuse to give a rating on social media.

I’m not vibing with the story the narrators aren’t bad but I will have to soft dnf this book for now. It’s putting me into a slump

This was a SIZZLING dual POV, forbidden workplace romance debut set in the fast-paced world of FI racing that is absolutely perfect for fans of Lauren Asher or Cross the lines by Simone Soltani. I couldn't get enough of Phaedra and Cosmin as the try to fight the sizzling chemistry and attraction between them as they work as track engineer and race car driver. Steamy, full of heart and unputdownable, I loved this and can't wait for more by this new romance author!! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I was excited to get into this one but unfortunately this was one I didn’t enjoy and had to DNF.

The beginning of the book made me uncomfortable with our MMC since our first introduction is him making a sexual innuendo towards our FMC in a professional setting for others to hear, despite it being mentioned our FMC has requested for this to stop on multiple occasions. Which, is difficult to bounce back from in general, but it’s even harder when our FMC addresses it again on page and our MMC laughs and makes another inappropriate/sexual comment. Later we have him taking her glancing at him as an invitation to initiate sexual contact when the direct and clear communication given was a no.

Then we have a DV incident in which our FMC was the aggressor and that is when I decided it was time to throw in the towel and tap out on this one.

Additionally the writing style was a bit odd and clunky, our characters behaved immaturely as if they were young adults in their early 20s when they’re 30+, and the MMCs backstory felt forced in for shock value and little else (although that could’ve improved later on and I just don’t know because I didn’t finish).

Overall this was marketed as a fun almost romcom-esq contemporary but I think it belongs in the dramatic romance category more than anything else and this one just wasn’t for me.

I didn't like the narrator of the male character very much, and I think that ended up harming a lot of the book for me. I didn't feel much chemistry between the characters, which also affected my grade.
One of the things that irritates me in the novels is the third act, but in this book I think it was well explored and the situation was easily resolved.

I originally read this as an indie ARC and I loved it. I read it again now as a Forever Publishing book. I still loved it! I also had the ALC.

Cosmin Ardelean is the new driver on the Emerald F1 racing team. Phaedra Morgan is one of the best race engineers in F1 and also happens to be the team owner’s daughter.

I enjoyed Cosmin and Phaedra’s banter and his trying to get under her skin. He was sexy and their coming together was intense…and inevitable…and forbidden per company rules.

I can’t wait for Klaus and Natalia’s story in the next book.

I tried listening to this, but ended up giving up and just reading it. The male narrator, with the Romanian accent he was using, was too difficult to understand. He, at times, seemed to mutter, too. I even tried slowing down the playback just to understand him. I would not recommend the audio.

Thank you to Forever Publishing for the advanced readers copy. Thank you to Hachette Audio for the advanced listener copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was so damn excited for this one, I have yet to find an F1 romance that I truly loved. I thought this would be the one, but no. I couldn't stand the characters, their dialogue was very cringe, they had absolutely no chemistry, I couldn't believe in their relationship and they were both so horrible, it was just a huge no no for me.

This was a solid 3 star for me.

I enjoyed the F1 world, obviously, and that was well done.

I also loved the representation of women in F1, and how important every piece of the puzzle is in running a winning F1 team.

But really, I struggled with the romance of it all. I know it was supposed to be enemies to lovers, but I found their general interactions to be either cheesy or just overall lacking in chemistry.

This was not a bad book by any means. I did like it, I just didn't love it.

I couldn’t finish this book. Both of the main characters were awful and the dialogue was cringe. The spicy scenes were weird. The book also felt oddly dated? Just overall a no. Stopped around 35%. Disregard star rating.

The audiobook quality was not part of the problem, that was fine.

As an F1 fan, I'm always on the lookout for romances that do it justice. I was excited to this on NetGalley and thought I'd give it a try. I enjoyed the story overall and appreciated that it did F1 justice by including details about racing team hierarchy/staff, engineers, and racing strategy. It did seem like there were several side plots that felt a little extreme, but I imagine they were there to likely set up upcoming books in the series. I enjoyed Phaedra and Cosmin as a couple, and I can say with certainty that I didn't think Romanian was hot until now.

Having read the ebook before listening to the audio, I was curious about how the story would come through with one narrator, especially at points when we hear Cosmin's accent. Overall, the sound quality is good and clear. This allowed me to comfortably speed it up to 2x, which is an audiobook requirement for me. Cosmin's accent is also handled well and doesn't come off as inaccurate. Character voices are differentiated enough to spot easily and not confuse the listener.

Thanks to Forever, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for an ALC of this book for an honest review.

I don’t think I have read a Formula One romance before and I actually quite liked that aspect of it, which is surprising as I don’t like car racing IRL. The FMC is the team owners daughter and a badass engineer. I enjoyed all the strat chat and behind the scenes look into the world of F1. I wish there was more about the excellent places they were travelling to, but I guess they probably don’t have much time for tourist shit while they’re travelling for races.

The audiobook/narration was good. The MMC is Romanian so his POV does have a strong accent.

CN for death of a parent, grief.

Thanks to #NetGallery and publisher for a copy of this book.

Genre: Romance
Format: Audio
POV: Dual
Tropes: Formula One, driver/engineer, coworkers, secret dating, duolingo, taking over the family business, world travel, do you want to hear about my secret pain?
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ /5
Age suggestion: 18+

For context, I already read the e-book version of this book and absolutely adored it, so this review will mostly focus on the audiobook performances of the narrators and less on the story itself.

The short version is: If you love a grumpy x sunshine, hate to love romance with explosive chemistry balanced with moments of tenderness and authenticity, you want to read Phaedra and Cosmin's story. I love them both, and I love this book. Josie Juniper has solidified me as an auto-buy reader with this book. It's excellent.

As for the audio performance: The narrators do a good job of capturing Cosmin's swagger and softness and Phaedra's journey from exasperation to amusement to hesitant feelings to love. While the male narrator's Romanian accent feels a bit campy at times, there's nothing like hearing his endearments from a rough, raspy male voice. "Draga mea" will undo you. Trust me.

The experience of listening to the audiobook made the story feel new to me again, and I enjoyed listening to it. I definitely recommend it.

Thank you, Hachette Audio, Forever Publishing, and NetGalley for the ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 ☆
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The cover art deserves 5 ☆ by itself! The characters were insufferable and very unlikable! I just couldn't do it. I tried and tried, but I just couldn't; they got on my nerves.
The audiobook was okay. I listened at 2x speed, and it was a little hard to understand the male narrator, so I slowed it down, and it was perfect. However, I can't listen at a slow speed, so it's definitely a "me" problem and not a narrator problem. Both narrators did a good job telling the story.
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Thank you, Netgalley, and Hachette Audio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an ALC of Double Apex in exchange of my honest opinion.

I was quite interested to read my first F1 romance specially with a woman in STEM as main character. Working on STEM myself I was ready to see very interesting discussions about this topic in this book but unfortunately I couldn't get pass the 40% mark.

Phaedra, our FMC is an engineering staff in a F1 team and look, she will not let you forget about that. I'm all for women appreciate and feel confident of their success, but Pheadra used her status and role to belittle people as if she was Einstein reincarnated. Even if someone pass on chauvinistic comments to her, I was expecting to see some civilized discussions but she just yells and explodes in an immature behavior that in my opinion doesn't get her fired only because her father is the owner of the team. Not to say that she hates when the MMC call her beautiful or any other nickname when she herself calls him "legs" non stop. Why would you expect respect if you don't give respect in return?
She is so extremely unlikable that even her relationships with her supposedly best friend comes as a ongoing war. They trade insults as if it's a funny banter but its's just plain mean and that already tells me everything about her personality.
On the other side we have Cosmin that is portrayed as a Don Juan but just comes across as a slimy don't-get-a-hint character. He is supposed to be super in love with Phaedra from the get go but keeps treating her as a little conquest even though it's clear that she doesn't like that approach.

Lastly, as a mainly audio reader I love that more and more books are coming with good productions for audio. Although I appreciate the dual narration I just thought it didn't work for me.
My point is that the male narrator tries to emulate a Romanian accent to portray the Romanian origin of the MMC but I couldn't understand his lines at all. Look, I love accents and I thoroughly enjoy them but in this case I had to re-listen to see if I could understand the narrator better because not only he makes a super thick accent but he whispers and tries to do a "sexy" voice but that just compromises clarity.

Overall I'm bumped down that this didn't work for me.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an audio galley of this title to listen to and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I was very excited for this title when I was approved. I love F1 and follow it pretty closely. And the idea of a female engineer (give me some women in STEM) was the thing that really drew me in. Add enemies to lovers and forbidden love on top of that and it sounds like a recipe for a great romance.
Unfortunately, it wasn't great and I couldn't even get through the entire thing.
My first issue was with the narrators. The female narrator was ok, but just sounded angry all the time. There was nothing endearing in her voice at all. And she was super robotic. And the male narrator? Ugh! I know the character is Romanian but there were so many times I could not even understand what he said due to his accent he was using for the character. Sometimes his speaking was so low I had to rewind several times to even hear what he said. I just was not a fan.
Do you want a female character to hate? This is that book. Phedra (never heard this name before) was just angry at everyone. There was nothing that made me feel she was relatable. She didn't adequately represent a woman in STEM at all. I wanted to see her struggles but I didn't. She accepted all the mysogynistic things that were thrown her way. I thought it would get better, that she would help change things as part of the plot point. However, she never fought for herself. And she did not come across as smart at all, despite her telling us more than once what a prodigy she is. Plus, I can't get with a girl who is an abuser and then blames her victim. Why would we want to put this out into the universe when we are trying to educate people about this topic and make them see it's not ok?
Do you want a a male character who embodies a sexist and chauvinist? Then Cosmin is your guy! The number of times he makes sexual innuendos and advancements in this book was gross. And the fact that there was sexual abuse in his family's past made this even worse. He was be told no but did things anyway was ridiculous. Also, by halfway through the book I really didn't have much of his background as to how he became a driver. I needed that to understand his character.
And don't get me started on the romance between these two. I felt zero chemistry. Apparently he's been pining after her, but I didn't feel that at all. And she hates him but why? He's cocky? Ok, that's par for the course with F1 drivers. But he never did anything to her and you barely see their background of interaction to make this so. They have already been working together so you don't see any build up at all.
The book's pacing was super slow, as well. I felt like nothing really happened. What was the point of the story? I wanted the characters to learn and grow but it was just not happening. The narrators did a lot of telling rather than showing me the story.
One other point, the language. I understand the main male character is not American, but some of his comments really turned me off. Specifically when he said this: Are you fertile? And then the female characters says this: I expect him to pry my hand off that massive steel hot piston… These things were just a turn off for me.
I'm disappointed in this book. I feel like it could have used a bit more editing and fixing before being put out into the universe.

Dislike to Lovers, Engineer, and F1 Driver romance, Drama/Death of a Parent, Happily Ever After, Book one of the series. I loved the plot, the twists, and the cringe Hallmark love vibes! I would love to read more by the author!

Made it 21% in but wasn’t feeling it. Didn’t like the Hero at all. I appreciate the backstory the author was building for him but the disrespect for a woman in authority and the sexual harassment was not coming across in any way charming or flirtatious. It was. Sexual. Harassment.
And the Heroine seemed to abandon her convictions incredibly quickly and just switched to lust motivated faster than the F1 vehicles on a straightaway. I had no desire to continue.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook.

I was really excited by the premise of Double Apex, I’m a huge Ali Hazlewood fan and between the description and cover I was expecting a similar vibe of book. I was woefully wrong. The characters are super flat to a point that the FMC felt really dumbed down. I also picked this one up for the women in STEM vibes, but think those looking for a sports romance may find this a better fit for them.

I also think the audiobook did a huge disservice to the story as well. The dual (not duet) narration with heavy accents for all characters felt super campy and was honestly extremely difficult to understand at times. The female narrator also sounded very robotic and it felt almost like an AI voice.

I did enjoy it a tiny bit more as an audiobook. I did think these two were cute but a lot of other red flags came up the second time around reading it. Like it still felt like an abuse of power relationship, or they tried so hard to be apart because it would "ruin" her career. Like I don't know.

I was yet again icked out by the "Are you Fertile?" before being intimate. Like ew, I want that whole sentence gone, like yesterday. I did get emotional when the dad passed away. I can't wait for Klaus book.

I got an alc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.