This was such a compelling story that hooked me right from the start! The book opens with a heart stopping crash and Jacob getting into a terrible accident, setting the tone for an emotional, tension filled ride.

The first half of the story is told entirely through Travis’s eyes, and I loved how his storytelling dives deep into the past exploring how his and Jacob’s relationship developed over time. Their secret romance unfolds against the backdrop of the high pressure world of F1 racing, a field that doesn’t leave much room for anyone who dares step outside the norm.

In the second half, we shift into Jacob’s perspective, and eventually, the narration alternates between the two. I thought this structure was so unique and it slowly builds layers, weaving together the past and present in a way that makes the angst between them almost palpable.

There’s a lot of heartbreak here, and at one point, I even questioned if these two should be together. But watching them grow, heal, and ultimately change for the better made their journey all the more rewarding. There is an interesting dichotomy to Travis the loner building a life without Jacob and then Jacob losing what he thought was what he wanted, to then find his true self.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrators did a fantastic job bringing these characters to life. This was also my first F1 romance, and I loved how perfectly the balance of sports and romance played out.

This was my first book by Amy James, but it definitely won’t be my last. If you love emotional, high stakes romance with deep character growth, I highly recommend Crash Test.

Thank you to Avon for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Crash Test grabs ahold of you from the very first page and refuses to let go until the very end. Travis and Jacob’s story is incredibly emotional, vulnerable, heartbreaking, and heartwarming. Even though I’ve just finished reading, their story lingers with me, and I know it’s one I’ll carry for a long time to come. Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite reads of the year, and my only complaint is that I wish there had been more.

Travis & Jacob are new to dating men, and with that comes the challenge of navigating their sexuality, emotions, labels, outside opinions, and the uncertainty of how the racing world will react to their relationship. What they don’t realize is that this is only the beginning. Crash Test takes us on an angst-filled, relentless ride that breaks you emotionally until glimmers of hope and color slowly begin to seep back into Travis & Jacob’s lives. Though they start out facing everything alone, and even continue to do so after their breakup, they eventually cross paths with some truly incredible people who grow into each characters’ support system and chosen family. Watching these connections form, and seeing love and support bloom when it was needed most, was nothing short of beautiful. And, watching the characters reunite and fearlessly profess their love for each other was just the cherry on top.

This book was a genuine labor of love and I can’t thank Amy James, the team at Harper Voyager, Avon Books, and Netgalley enough for allowing me to read Crash Test before it hit shelves everywhere.

PS: The audiobook is phenomenal! Gary Furlong and Patrick Zeller brought Travis and Jacob to life in a way that felt so authentic. I truly can’t imagine anyone else doing it better.

Crash Test is centred around Formula 1 and a budding romance between 2 drivers until a serious crash lands one of them in a coma. Told in Dual Pov that we get a take on the perspectives of both characters. The emotions are intense as one driver not only has to battle through his recovery but also with his sexual identity and homophonic parents.

I loved both the characters in this. Only Jacob was a bit of a douche at times. However, struggling with his sexual identity, well, that's scary so you can actuslly empathise with him a bit His parents were forever using the fact they paid for his racing career to make him feel guilty for going against their wishes, and that was not fair.

Also can we just appreciate Amy James for doing such a fab job highlighting how difficult it is to have any kind of relationship / life in general when youre in the spotlight without it being in the newspaper the very next day.

Definitely recommend for the sports romance fans. This needs adding to your tbr.

I got an eARC of this book previously but struggled to get into it, but once I started listening on audio I was hooked. I finished it in about 24 hours.

We see two male F1/F2 drivers navigating their sexuality and a relationship together. One of them with no genetic family around and one whose genetic family causes problems more than they help. We see them work on themselves and work through the tragedy of a major F2 wreck where one of our main characters almost lost his life.

I loved seeing our F1 driver find his people and support after his (ex)boyfriend's wreck and see the impact that had on his racing. That found family was so sweet. I also loved the therapist that our F2 driver sees and how with her support he finds his own footing and goes after what he wants.

The one thing that I felt like was missing from this book was more time with them together. I think we were about half way through the book before we get the perspective of the F2 driver, which would be fine, but we only really see them together in some flashbacks and through brief stories told throughout the book. I would have liked more time with them together at the end of the book to make their relationship feel more cemented.

When I pick up queer stories I want them to be all about joy, love, finding themselves, etc. This story did not have anything in it that I loved about Red, White and Royal Blue so the false advertising was real. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to be an early reader. All thoughts are my own.

This was so sad and I don't think it was advertised for what it was. I was expecting a rom com but this was mostly just really devastating since Jacob spent most of the book in a coma. I wanted to love it but I was just so freaking sad the entire time. Between the medical stuff and the homophobia and the main characters not actually being together for most of the book, I had a hard time getting through it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC of this book!

I am giving this book a solid 3.5 stars! I really wanted to rate this higher, but I felt the execution fell a little short. For most of the story, we don't even see the two main characters (Travis and Jacob) in their current relationship but for maybe 15% of the book. A lot of the story takes place thinking about their relationship prior to Jacob's accident and a majority of the story centers on Jacob and his horrible family and how homophobic they are. I also feel like Jacob was just flat out mean most of the time and that was really hard to read because Travis was nothing but nice and kind to him. He was just kind of a dick. I wish that there could have been a lot more showing of their relationship and not telling. I think this could have been written differently and I would feel a little better about everything.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️🌶️

This F1 romance is actually a love letter to therapy. There is so much angst and horrible toxic family relationships. After the first half I wasn't sure if I even wanted the two main characters to end up together. But the true hero of the story, *therapy*, really saved the day!

Featuring:
*opposites attract
*secret/forbidden romance
*F1 racing
*found family
*angst x100

This was a good, solid read. I wasn’t drawn into it straight away, I found it difficult to begin with as the jumps in time/POV were not labelled but from about 30% I was invested in the characters and the story.
My favourite part of the story was the found family aspect when Travis finds his people in Heather, Hunter, Matty, Matty’s parents, Erin and Mrs Costa. It was truly heartwarming and I loved how they carried him through his grief of losing Jacob and continued to support him.
I also really enjoyed Jacob’s experience with therapy and the self-reflection that was shown in his section of the book. Part of me wasn’t expecting Travis and Jacob to end up together at the end and I thought I would be okay with that but the more I read the more I was rooting for them. I enjoyed the ending, the only thing that I would have liked was a bit more closure around Jacob’s parents. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the eArc!

Crash Test by Amy James follows Formula 1 driver Travis who is halfway through an incredible racing season, with the championship well within his sights, when a massive crash in Formula 2 leaves driver - and Travis’ secret boyfriend - Jacob in critical condition. Travis is heartbroken with no one to lean on and Jacob’s homophobic parents want him as far away from Jacob as possible. Will the two men find their way back to each other?

I found it incredibly frustrating that the majority of Travis and Jacob’s relationship happened before the book began and, from what I read before I decided to DNF it, didn’t happen on page at all. I want to read about a couple’s romance in a romance book, not be told that it happened. I have nothing against established relationships in a romance, to be clear. One of my favorite series is the Tomes and Tea series by Rebecca Thorne where the romance started before the book began but we get to see the two characters' romance grow and evolve throughout the series instead of being told rather than shown that it happened like in Crash Test.

I decided to DNF because from the reviews I read it sounded like it didn’t get any better as the story progressed. This still has a high rating on GoodReads so clearly people like it! From what I read, I’m just unfortunately not one of them.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this title to read and review. I'm SO torn about my thoughts on this story!

I have to say that it's incredibly well written and packs a huge punch of emotional depth. From page one, we are instantly thrown into the worst-case-scenario playing out in the world of racing: there's a huge crash involving many F2 drivers, and we see that they are all clinging to life, gravely injured - or have already died in the pileup. The first half of the book feels like staying at your loved one's hospital bedside, wondering anxiously if they'll make it through - or if they'll ever be the same even if they do. Because that's literally the case: we meet characters just to love them, and find out their grave fates only pages later.

So while that drama and tension is palpable and real... is it enjoyable? Many times through my reading I thought, hey so this is obviously really well-done, but why do I want to be around so much suffering in my romance reads? I think the romance element could be really powerful too, as we see our lead character of Travis reckoning with his secret romance, but the characters are so unbearably out-of-touch with their emotions, that the journey is TEDIOUS.

The book itself isn't tedious, though: it's a fast-paced read I flew through quickly, and there's obviously tons of things happening plot-wise to help it along, lots of edge-of-your-seat moments and surprise turns, it's like a real race. Without any spoilers, the ending was a letdown for me, and was the make or break moment for this book to really shine.

if you like angsty breakup fanfic, this might be something you like! i thought it was fun overall, but with the ending i wasn't happy with how fast things resolved after all that angst. other than that i had fun with it!

I genuinely loved this book so so much. The writing is amazing and the characters feel so real and well rounded. If I could read this book a thousand times I would.

This was my first formal one book and also one that was an mm and I enjoyed this one. Being able to see the races from there view and also watch the boys earn their relationship back

I was surprised to see so many mid to low ratings for this because I loved it! It got me absolutely hooked in a way a book hasn't for a while and for the last day and a half, I could barely put it down. Whenever I had a few minutes to spare, I was picking it back up to keep reading.

I admittedly did enjoy the first half more than the second and Jacob's chapters were at times difficult to stomach, but I'm deeply familiar with the difficulties of freeing yourself from a painful family, so I could see my own past in some of his struggles. I loved watching them both flourish, together and independently, and while I would have loved to see the end expanded a little more, I ultimately really enjoyed every moment of this read.

Wow! I could not put down this queer romance between an F1 and F2 driver and that surprised me a little since I didn’t know F2 existed before reading this book, lol. Starting with a horrific crash, these complicated characters find their way back to themselves, and each other, while hiding their truth from the world. James doesn’t shy away from the real world challenges they would face yet manages to keep it from getting too dark. So good!

4 ⭐️ i have been ripped to pieces. when i finished, i had to hold this book to my chest & take a lap. i have said before, but i am not normally a second-chance romance, but this one?? dear god.

(spoilers ahead!)

okay, so first off, i really loved the pacing and setup of this. we get flashbacks to how the boys were before the accident, & then when they break up, we see them have their own equally important self-growth & journeys before they come back to each other.

travis, my god, i just want to HUG him. very “i can do it with a broken heart” coded in a way that made me want to absolutely break apart. it was brutal reading his panic, his fear, his anxiety in the beginning after the crash, and equally heartbreaking to see how he realized how unequal everything had been, and how he deserves better, and the family he formed with heather & hunter and the others. he deserves the absolute world, & each detail we learned about him made me love him more and more.

jacob…oh, jacob. he was selfish & a little self-absorbed, & reading about how he held travis at an arm’s length & jerked him around in the beginning was hard to read. but also, with passion & full disrespect, jacob, your family can eat glass. i was GIDDY reading him telling them to go to hell. i was cheering for him as he went to therapy (she needs a goddamn raise) & did his soul-searching & genuinely become better. he is playing “but daddy i love him” (without the returning home, because again, his family can catch my hands) but seeing him choose travis and actually do the work to become better for him had me in shambles.

(also, ps, there was not a ton of f1 in this — like it was the setting, but if you are like me & are only a casual fan, there is not too much that goes over your head. if you are a die-hard fan, you might be disappointed by the small amount of f1, just be forewarned)

i know i am going to reread this book and really crumple to pieces again and again. thank you so much @ netgalley and avon books for the ARC (sorry this review is a bit delayed, but holding it in my hands, i FLEW through the pages!)

I have very mixed feelings about this book...

Despite one of the main characters being in a coma for the first half, I genuinely enjoyed that half more. Which is sort of a problem because I was sold this book as an F1 romance and it's just... not? It's queer and deals with the consequences of being queer and in a queer relationship while being a public figure but I personally don't consider this a romance novel.

I also just didn't enjoy the second half as much. Maybe the POV switch was too much for me after being in only Travis's head, I didn't enjoy being in Jacob's head nearly as much.

I understand why people like this, it just didn't have the special sauce to make me fall in love, which is probably why it took me over a month to finish. I just never wanted to pick it up, even when I had a good time while reading it.

This is a tough one to rate, so in the spirit of Amanda’s thought exercises in the story, I’m going to break down the good and the bad.

Like Jacob, I’ll start with the bad.

1 - For those of us of a certain age, there was a period of time when every queer story was about AIDS. A central feature of many of those stories was the exclusion of lifelong partners from medical decision making and being present during sickness and death because the biological relatives, even if they hadn’t seen the sick person in years, had the legal rights. Kids, if you don’t understand why marriage equality and general equal legal rights are important, seek out some of these stories and/or ask your elders. The first half of this book, with a few minor changes, could be one of those stories. By starting the book with that scenario before we’ve even had a chance to meet any of the characters in better times, the lightening of tone as the story progresses feels somehow forced - which is unfortunate, because the actual story the author is trying to tell here is an important one.

2 - I listened to the audiobook, but also had access to an ebook copy. In the written version, it seemed pretty clear that Travis is a young British man. So it was rather jarring to hear him voiced by an American who sounds like he’s smoked 4 packs a day for the last 30 years. The dynamic between Travis and Jacob comes across very differently when they’re presented as both being American and Travis being significantly older. Since the narrator adopted a British accent for Heather and Hunter, and since the first half of the book is almost difficult to understand at times since Travis is voiced in a teary, choked tone, this seems to be an intentional choice rather than a case of deciding to just read the book rather than doing voices (an approach that I’m fine with, by the way).

The Good:

1 - Most traditional romances end with the couple skipping off into the sunset alone together with the promise that they won’t ever need anyone else since they each provide everything the other needs. Anyone who’s ever been in a real life relationship knows that is…not optimal. Even (especially) the happiest couples need friends and/or family (found or blood) for all kinds of reasons. But toxic family or friend groups can break up even the strongest relationships. Ultimately, that’s a big part what this story is about, and while Jacob’s family is cartoonishly horrible, Travis’s journey to his own circle is wonderfully done, with characters interesting enough to hold their own in any future installments.

2 - Jacob’s family is straight out of one of the 1980’s-90’s queer tragedies from the first item on the list. But in the second half, we get past them to the really relevant issue - Jacob’s own internalized homophobia and lack of understanding of what a healthy relationship should look like. And it’s even done in a way that seems fairly plausible for a privileged 23 year old - believe me, if you e ever had the pleasure (?) of listening to a boy that age, straight, gay, or otherwise, try to talk about their feelings, you will be lovingly rolling your eyes.

So in summary - read the printed version, if possible, to avoid the narration issues. And the overall experience will feel like someone wrote the first half in 1985, set it down for 40 years, and did the second half with no revisions to the first. But overall, the five star second half is worth the two star first half.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

OMG! What a debut! I've become obsessed with getting my hands on anything F1 related and I knew just by reading the blurb for Amy James' Crash Test I would not be disappointed! There's definitely elements from Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue in Amy's debut, but Crash Test stands on its own, cementing its place in the romance genre with the yearning between Travis and Jacob, the sweet and tender moments shared in private, the breaking of boundaries in a somewhat toxic masculine industry. If this doesn't make you want to read Crash Test, let me tell you a little more about the book.

Travis Keeping is a F1 driver with impeccable dedication to the sport. He's *this close* to the championship when Jacob Nichols, a F2 driver, is involved in a serious crash, leaving him in an unstable and critical condition. No one knows that Jacob and Travis have been in a relationship for the past year and everything Travis has worked for is put to the test as he battles his desire to win a championship and his immense love for Jacob, the only man he's ever loved.

I loved the dual timelines, showing the readers the development of Travis and Jacob's relationship as well as the demise of it. There were so many sweet moments between Travis and Jacob, and I rooted for a happy ending for the both of them the entire time. I also loved seeing how Travis opened himself up more, making friends and learning that it's okay to let people in. I also loved seeing Jacob coming into his identity more and learning that there's nothing wrong with being exactly who you are. And Amy handled the mental health representation in her book with such care and dedication.

Without a doubt, you should pick up Crash Test if you love yearning and a dual timeline romance. I devoured the book in just over a day and it would be the perfect book to round out your summer!

Thank you to Avon for the e-ARC!