A high-octane romance with drama and heart. I enjoyed how well the leads fit together and their journey to happiness, but the big surprise here was how much I enjoyed the family and friend dynamics. The people in Chiara and Mason's lives are integral to their stories and actually fun to be around — while also being complicated and messy, as family and friends usually are. So I didn't begrudge time spent on them, as I sometimes do in a romance series with overlapping couples. Friendship and family are important pieces of our lives, and it's often downplayed in favor of the Big Romance (both in fiction and in life). Here, it felt just as important, and I was rooting as much for the leads to resolve those relationship issues as I was for their love story to work out.

My thanks to NetGalley and to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review

CW: child abuse (past), alcoholism, multiple concussions and after effects,

This is the third book in the series. I have not read the prior installments. I was able to follow along so I do think this can standalone

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f insta attraction
-forbidden romance elements
-just a hookup
-long distance

This book was a twist away from things that I normally like and would expect. What if the person you loved and crushed on your entire life wasn't the one you ended up with? But you were still close. This book was complicated, full of angst and just complicated relationships. Two people who were fine being in the shadows of others and just doing what they wanted, caring about others and not asking much for themselves. Until they met each other.

Chiara and Mason seem like opposites but they were the same in a lot of ways. Both not looking for love, but unable to fight the attraction, having fun with each other, being able to be themselves. I loved their chemistry, how much they both fought to be with the other. This book deals with a lot of heavy topics.

My biggest frustration though this is personal preference is a lot of scenes cut away or things were summarized that I wish were on page to give me the fuller picture, to see what was going on. In certain instances I understood later why but in other places it got frustrating that certain things were told rather than shown. Katie Golding is an auto buy, auto read for me and overall I enjoyed this one.

Steam: 3.5

I was provided and ARC copy of the book for review. You will not be disappointed with Katie Golding’s Relentless. The story of Memphis native Mason, a playboy who loves his whiskey, and Chiara, a beautiful, wild Italian, takes off from page one. You immediately find yourself loving these main characters. The world of Moto racing brings them together, but it could also be what keeps them apart.

In some romance novels the dialogue, especially during more spicy scenes, can be awkward and even cringe worthy. That is not the case with this book. Both the external dialogue and internal thoughts of the characters seems natural and believable.

The alternating viewpoints really allow the reader to invest in both Mason and Chiara. All of the secondary characters are also very well developed, so a strong theme of friendship and family bonds is maintained throughout the book. When conflicts arise, the reader feels torn and conflicted because of the emotional investment in all of these characters.

The plot takes off, but never feels like it is rushed. Golding’s pacing is perfect; it rises and falls in a way that hold interest and never lags.

As far as the spice goes, you will not be disappointed because the chemistry between Mason and Chiara is palpable. The tension between the two leaves you wanting more immediately. When the spark finally ignites, look out. Steamy scenes are perfectly placed throughout the rest of the book. There are enough of them to keep you burning, but not so many that it takes away from the actual plot.

This book really does have it all: lust, love, past demons, overcoming obstacles, multicultural relationships, travel, excitement, and the importance of strong friendships and family. You won’t be able to put it down!

This one was fun! I stayed up waaaaaay too late to finish it. The main characters are both people we have met in the previous books: Mason, Billy's younger brother; and Chiara, Massimo's best friend. It's complicated, with all those personalities and team-mates and rivalries getting thrown into the mix, so Mason and Chiara are determined to have a little fun, but keep it quiet. They ARE NOT in a relationship. (Yeah, you see where this is going.) A lot of the internal and external conflicts the characters face are driven by these interpersonal relationships, and watching them fight for what they want and navigate the various interpersonal currents definitely kept me turning the pages.

I have read the first two books in this series and Golding just keeps getting better and better. I could not put this book down even though it was so hot it singed my fingers.

Mason and Chiara are the sweetest, sexiest, and most charming chaotic disasters I have ever had the joy of obsessing over. They find each other when both are at significant crossroads in their lives. Mason is struggling with self-doubt and languishing in his brother's shadow. Chiara has just lost the love of her life, her best friend, her guardian and defender, to another woman. What Mason and Chiara need more than anything to heal, even though they'd never admit it, is each other. At first, this need is purely physical, a distraction, a way for both of them to move on and have some fun while things in their lives are so heavy. Of course, it doesn't stay that way.

Watching Mason and Chiara grow closer through the physical first (in bonkers steamy perfection) is the best trick of this book. You KNOW these two are in love well before they do through the descriptions of how well they care for each other in intimate scenes, especially King Mason, holy hell. The friendship that develops from their physical connection is heartbreakingly sweet and so satisfying. Golding is never afraid to tear our hearts out, but the way this is managed in Relentless is a masterful twist on what love and family really mean.

Relentless is a scorching hot and wickedly fast-paced ride all over the globe that definitely left this reader begging for more. As one of my absolute favorite romance novels of 2022, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

“Relentless” made me mad. It had the same problem as the previous book in this series, Wreckless, but in this one it was magnified. The main problem with this book is Chiara and Massimo’s relationship that overshadows everything else. It robs the reader even of actually getting to know Mason and Chiara. We never get to know what makes Mason tick, how he overcomes feeling second best to his brother, how he feels invisible sometimes and how he deasl with that feeling and those who make him feel like that. We never actually get to know about Chiara’s past in any sort of meaningful way or her hang ups, nor do we get to know how she overcomes or deals with them. Everything is overshadowed by this dysfunctional and, frankly, WEIRD relationship between Chiara and Massimo. Everything is about their friendship and how she had to keep her relationship with Mason a secret from Massimo, even if it ultimately hurts Mason. The whole thing is kind of stupid - the main conflict in this story is stupid, It makes no sense as not only are all of the characters adults, but also the conflict depends upon miscommunication (and it’s not a miscommunication between the main couple’s relationship, which we are supposed to be rooting for, but a secondary relationship).
Nor only that, but I strongly disliked how both main characters slept with other people (not shown) while they were also sleeping with each other, despite their agreement to a casual, just sex relationship. It’s a romance novel, I don’t know how or why that was necessary to include, even if it was just mentioned and implied. Which also brings me to another thing that bothers me about this novel: there is a lot that is implied and not outright said or shown in this novel, like the (SPOILER) fact that the characters got married in Paris and then Italy(END SPOILER). I don’t know why the author would rob the reader of scenes like that? I know that it is kind of a trick to keep the reader interested by keeping them in the dark, but… It mostly irritated me.
This book made me mad also because the potential for a great book is there, but the characters are underdeveloped in favor of a plot point that is not interesting or good. So many things could have been done to make this a great romance novel, adjustments that a beta reader or an editor could have suggested, but it fell short because of an insistence on something that did not even need to be there. However, I will say that I liked Mason and that I didn’t think that the book was boring - it had good pacing. But, gosh, WHY, oh, WHY make Chiara and Massimo’s friendship so important??? That is a choice that frustrates me to no end.

4/5⭐️
3.5/5🌶

I was provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely enjoyed this story from the first page to the last. The main character Mason's overall character development was good and well-paced to the plot. Reading through him working through his inner conflict of feeling second best to his brother and seeing how having somebody believe in him shifted his self-worth.

The connection to the female lead was perfect. They complimented each other in such a positive way, giving growth to each other's story. Seeing how their story evolved from pure spice to sweet & spice was well-paced and nice since we get the progression from both perspectives.
I honestly did feel a little bad for how she kept putting Mossimo over Mason during the whole story, constantly hiding their relationship BUT in the end, it works for the overall storyline. But still, Mason deserved somebody who wouldn't hide him like that, even though I can understand why she did and how it progressed the story forward.

Overall a great read and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a good spicy read. (And def any Moto romance fans.)