Not a sports romance girl but this was an enjoyable and surprising one for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this arc.

Ride with Me is a gorgeous romance that learns to trust again, to takes risks, and dares to pierce the heart faster than any racing car. This is a love story that will have you giggling, laughing, cheering, screaming, and swooning throughout every single turn of page. Stella and Thomas, take a bow!

After Stella is left at the altar by her fiancé, she finds herself at the last place she wants to be: a joint bachelorette-bachelor party. Wanting to support the bride, her dear cousin, she attends and decides perhaps she should go against expectations and find herself some fun. Enter scandal-riddled Formula 1 driver Thomas. Thomas is attending the joint party and, much like Stella, wanting to be anywhere but there. But one conversation together turns into a hazy night spent together (not quite how you may think!) and a morning filled with questions...and a marriage certificate. With recent controversy storming them both, Stella and Thomas decide to pretend their accidental marriage is quite real...and along the way, it may become just that.

Arghh! I just loved this one. I adored Stella and Thomas- they're an explosion of electric chemistry! Whewww! I swooned, I curled my toes, I twirled my dress in glee (wasn't wearing one, but oh boy, if I had been!), I blushed constantly, and I sighed oh so dreamily and happily. If romances were made of bones, this one has a spine of steel, because there simply is no denying how fabulous the chemistry is between our leads. For me, it elevated this entire story in magnetic fashion. I could not take my eyes off Stella and Thomas' dance of feelings.

I love how they become smitten with one another. I love how Thomas eventually and brazenly leans into this, seeking more, to claim those words "my wife" (screams!) in truth. Stella is much more reluctant and does her best to drive out any of those pesky feelings. And I appreciated how Thomas made himself clear without ever pushing any boundaries or testing limits, he always left the ball in Stella's court, to ensure any decisions made were all of her own. He reads her so well in such little time. The level of consideration Thomas' places for Stella is something she is so deserving to experience. While she may guard her heart steadfastly, she sees Thomas beyond the controversy that surrounds him and places herself on the line to help him see through the storm. She stands at his side with such inspiring strength and conviction. The heart just needs to follow suit. And when it does? Fireworks!!!

This is the story of two wounded hearts finding healing together. To take the chance, make that leap of faith, run the risk, that what they have - however shakily it may have started - can take root in the most powerful of ways.

Ride with Me is the second installment of Simone Soltani's Lights Out series, but if like me, you haven't read the first, fret not- this is very much a standalone! While it does interconnect with the the first book, Soltani does a lovely job in ensuring we understand any prior connections and characters. If anything, by book's end I was clamoring to go read the first book! Not because I felt my reading experience for Ride with Me was missing anything, rather I felt I'm missing out on more rich storytelling from an author I have become instantly charmed by! Gimme more!!!

I loved every bit of this one!

Thank you to Berkley Romance and NetGalley for this fabulous advanced complimentary copy, I leave this honest review voluntarily. 4.5

Read This Book If…you love a Vegas wedding!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Ride with Me by Simone Soltani

Genre: sports (F1) romance
Series: Lights Out # 2
Spice Level: 3/5🌶, 1-2 explicit scenes
Setting: Las Vegas, London, and around the globe
POV: dual, 1st person, present tense
Tropes: woke up married, marriage of convenience, one bed, just one time, “good girl” “my wife”

My Thoughts:
I love a romance where a significant chunk of the book is their first meeting/date, so this started off amazing! The first 20% is their night out in Vegas, with the classic woke-up-married trope in the morning.

These two had so much chemistry and I loved how their personalities brought out the best in each other. I was expecting a bit more spice based on their swoon-worthy first night, but overall I still enjoyed this.

I loved how down bad Thomas was from the beginning, and he really put in the work to make Stella feel safe and secure again. They are both fiercely independent, but stronger together. I will definitely be continuing with this series!

Memorable Quote: “Acts of service are my weakness, and he keeps throwing them at me like grenades.”

Thank you to the publisher for my advance copy!

Thanks so much to @berkleypub @berkleyromance or @acebookspub for the free book!

I’ll give this one a 3.5/5. While I did read it pretty quickly…I don’t think I particularly liked the main characters as people? Thomas at times seemed immature to me and I found it hard to believe that Stella really liked him in the end. I also thought the miscommunication/the other can’t know my true feelings lasted way too long into the book - to 90%! There was also not enough time spent in reconciliation; it happened so quickly. Overall the story did keep my interest but felt rushed in places.

This was a fun sports romance in a new (to me) sport. I suspect there were some details about F1 racing that went over my head but that didn't diminish my enjoyment! A little too will they won't they towards the end but all in all a super fun, easy read. Would definitely read more by the same author.

Ride With Me was such a surprise! I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, but Thomas and Stella stole my heart.

This was such a fun book! Both of our main characters were so well written, and their chemistry was off the charts. They held so much care for each other, and that was evident throughout their relationship.

Read this book if you love
🩵 Sports romance (Formula 1) where you don’t need to know how to sport works
🩶 Accidental marriage of convenience
🩵 Strangers to lovers
🩶 “My wife” in every imaginable context
🩵 Only one bed
🩶 So much love and care

I do wish there had been 5-10 more pages of resolution and seeing Stella and Thomas’s relationship thriving, but what we *did* get makes me want to read more of Simone Sontani’s books! 4.5 stars!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the ARC and the opportunity to leave an honest, voluntary review. Ride With Me is out May 20, 2025!

Awwww this was such a cute story. I was just captivated by everything that was taking place. It was just so easy to get into these characters lives and you just can't help but fall in love with them. I can't wait to see what's next from this author.

Thank you to Berkley Romance for a chance to read an arc of this book! 🖤

5⭐️ I need a man to be this obsessed with me! They really rode for EACH OTHER! |
tropes: Marriage of Convenience, F1 Driver MMC, Slow burn | medium steam | digital

Overall Thoughts 💭:
Where do I even start... I loved this book so much. This was one of my most anticipated reads this year! I enjoyed Cross the Line, but this was somehow even better! I loved Stella and Thomas individually and even more as a couple. The core of this book is two people who have made very public mistakes, trying to do better while healing each other. I loved how much Thomas supported Stella and how she supported him in return. Marriage of convenience is one of my favorite tropes, and mixed with their intense attraction not only to each other physically but a deep emotional yearning for the other as people was perfection. While their love was the focus, it was a bit of a slow burn, but I liked how the story juggled the F1 plot, the almost-wedding, familial problems, and them both being public figures in different countries. It was all done very well. I procrastinated finishing it because I didn't want Stella and Thomas's story to end! I can't wait to see what Soltani has in store for us next!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for this free e-ARC
I absolutely loved the writing of this book it was purely fantastic, which made this book an enjoyable read. I rated it four stars.

Stella and Thomas meet at a party in Vegas, and instead of a drunken hookup, they drunkenly get married. They decide to stay married for a year for PR reasons, appearing together in public.

Thomas was the perfect character. He was all in from the start, and his commitment was genuinely sweet.

Stella, on the other hand, was more complicated. She was smart, confident, successful, and undeniably a badass. She would have been easy to love, if only she didn’t treat Thomas the way she did.

I get that she had been hurt in the past and was wary of commitment, but her constant back-and-forth was frustrating. Her rules and barriers kept putting their relationship in jeopardy, and I just wanted to smack her with my Kindle. Thomas truly deserved so much better.

That being said, I see a lot of potential in this author’s work, and I’m excited to read more from them.

Stella was such a strong independent confident character I loved her dynamic with Thomas!
she
drove me mad after a while because girl, THAT MAN LOVES YOU! But I understood where she was coming from. Still love my girl Estelle Margaux Wilhelmina Tyrell Baldwin Maxwell-Brown! (Baby that name was a mouthful-praying for their future kids lol)
Thomas "If He Wanted to He Would" Maxwell-Brown the man that you are. I loved him & how down bad he was for his QUEEN!
• His brother and me were
about to throw down, but literally he was the only family member that irritated me. (Not included she who shall not be named)
I did find it extremely wordy in some parts, but it didn't take away from the story for me honestly.
Sometimes, for me, simpler is more.
It was great fun. I love being in the F1 world & Simone makes it so digestible that even if you don't know anything about the sport you can still have an understand of what's going on!
Thank you to Berkley for an opportunity to read this early in exchange for an honest review!
Read from: Apr 04, 2025 - Apr 08, 2025

This book was just so much fun!! I absolutely loved book one in this series (so much that I now regularly wake up at 6am to watch little men drive around a track and high speeds!) and I was foaming at the mouth to read book two, and it definitely didn't disappoint.

In this installment we follow Stella and Thomas who meet at a combined bachelor/bachelorette party, get the major hots, get majorly drunk, and wake up the next morning to find out they have gotten married. Since they both really can't take the PR hit, they decide to stay married for a year - a tale as old as time!!

Both Stella and Thomas were gems. Stella is this powerful woman with a heart of gold who is afraid to get her heart broken again. Getting to slowly watch her open up and trust again was simply lovely (did I throw in a Max Verstappen quote? I absolutely did!). Don't even get me started on Thomas. He is a dream boat! We love a mild mannered man with a filthy mouth!

I also really loved having a hefty amount of spice right at the beginning before we get that delicious slow burn! Absolutely perfection. Also the strip club scene is burned into my brain. It's never going away and I wouldn't want it to!

So yes, this was wonderful and I'm so excited I got a chance to read it early, but I guess that just means I have to wait even longer between books, because Simone is definitely an auto-buy author for me at this point!

Thomas you wonderful soft boy. I am aaaaaaalways a sucker for he falls first (and harder) and this did not disappoint. Our man was down bad immediately and unapologetically and we love that for him (and also for Stella).

And Stella!!! A smart, savvy, sometimes sharp woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. I do not blame her one bit for her defenses and neither does Thomas. They were both so obviously heart-eyes emojis that it made me question how these otherwise very smart people could not recognize this in each other. But also, mood.

I wanted more??? Give me more of Thomas’ racing career, give me more of Stella’s London bakery. Also, they are both so forgiving I would have fought my family if I were either of them tbh

Ooo I enjoyed this it was so fun to see different characters and tropes done unexpectedly and uniquely. I love seeing a strong powerful business woman female main character get her happy ending and build her empire and he’s just there his job is drive and love her and we love that for him

I will be the first to admit I don’t know a lot about car racing but I thought this was a great book and I really liked the setting. I love books set in Vegas and while I sometimes thing the waking up in Vegas married storyline can be cliche I really liked this one.

Another great addition to the world of racing romance! I loved the nods to book one while keeping the story original. It's not super common to find a Vegas marriage in books these days, and I enjoyed every minute. A man who is simping over his fake wife?? SOLD. An independent business girlie ready to stand on her own? YOU GOT ME. This is a sloooooow burn. There's yearning and fake-puts, and "maybe just this onces;" these two actually kind of suck at being fake married with the intent to not fall in love. Simon Soltani, you've got yourself a long-time fan.

it was so good to have Stella be the main character!!

I also loved the way the trope of accidental wedding was written.

4/5 stars.
Not realizing this was book 2 in a series. I definitely need to go back and read Across the Line. That being said, you do not need to read book one before reading this as these are interconnected to standalone‘s.
Our MC’s meet in Las Vegas at a wedding. Both are kind of down on their luck. One was left at the altar—Stella— the other got bad press for wishing one of his competitors ill will. Needless to say they kick it off very well and find themselves the next day married.
This book is an:
F1
Accidental marriage/marriage of convenience
Slow burn romance

I will say I have been reading a lot of F1 romances lately and this scales to more mentioning of F1 and not a lot of racing on the scale of the F1 romance in my opinion and is more place than an F1 world more than anything. I did like how our author turned an accidental marriage into a marriage of convenience. I really liked how our characters relationship progressed overtime. And I really liked just watching them fall for each other more overtime because a lot of time marriage of convenience. They still might be that spark, but this starts off with the spark very much established in the very beginning of the book. I can’t wait to go back and read book one and I can’t wait to continue to read the author as they continue to release more titles.
Thank you so much Berkeley for providing me with an advanced reader, copy and exchange for an honest review

I adored book 1 and this one did not disappoint either! Cute, funny and racing galore! This author knows how to write romance and fast speed stories! This one will knock your socks off! The characters were so cool!!! 😎

3.5 ⭐️ I loved Cross the Line so I could not wait to jump into this one! Unfortunately, I did not love this one as much as I did the first. I absolutely LOVED Thomas, he was the absolute sweetest and the perfect love interest in my opinion. Stella, however, was a bit of a let down. I loved how she was an independent, successful business owner, but her actions in the latter half of the book did not make a lot of sense. There was absolutely no communication between her and Thomas despite their supporting one another and their relationship development up to that point in the book. It seemed like miscommunication thrown in solely for a third act breakup that felt disjointed and out of place. I wished their relationship started earlier than 70% of the book and that we could have seen more of them together because that part felt super rushed. I did really enjoy getting to know both characters and seeing their relationship develop, but the book just left me wanting more! I still would love to continue reading books by this author, they are a really fun time and I love F1 romances!

Features:
💜 F1 MMC x Bakery Owner FMC
💜 Accidental Marriage/Marriage of Convenience
💜 Forced Proximity
💜 Obsessed MMC
💜 “My Wife”
🌶️ 1/5

Publishing 5/20/25

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This dual POV F1 romance features quippy language and reads quite quickly. It's intriguing and made me very interested to keep reading. It's cute, fun, and indulgent -- with some spice content, but not too much that overpowers the plot. Plus, there's a teeny, teeny little glimpse of Willow and Dev's HEA if you've already ready this author's "Cross the Line." But, if you haven't (like myself), don't worry, you aren't missing a crucial piece to the puzzle of Stella and Thomas' marriage of convenience story. It's a perfect summer beach read, or perfect to read during the actual F1 season -- whichever is more applicable to your preferences.