This F1 romance took a very interesting approach I haven't seen done before. The author chose to tell the story of the drivers through many perspectives, not just our FMC and MMC. While this idea was fresh and I was excited about it to start, I feel that it could've been executed better once we got into the thick of the story. It felt clunky and excessive, instead of adding the layered perspectives on the racing season I think the author was aiming for.

Diana and Miguel's relationship development progressed in a realistic pace and in ways that made sense for their individual characterizations. I would have preferred to see more of the book in their perspectives, rather than adding in a lot of the additional ones, but the bits we did get from them were really good!

I was really interested in a female F1 driver. However, these two were not on page together enough to see a romance. They are competitors not enemies to lovers. All of the POV’s were unnecessary and I loved multiple POVS.
Clearly this book was just not for me.

As some one who loved f1 I could not wait to get my hands on this book. I am happy to report that it lived up to all of my expectations

Full of fun and drama, and racing. It had everything you need in a good story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, for allowing me to read the ARC for this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I really love F1, and have read a couple F1 books before. While I like the premise of the book (a woman F1 driver, which is lacking from most of the other books in the genre) I feel it could've been executed better.

Minor spoilers in this paragraph for the beginning:
I was close to a DNF at the start when Diana is announced to be the driver, for the pure fact I found it entirely unrealistic that someone in F1 would not keep a track of who's in F2, especially when their friend is retiring and rumoured to be replaced by a rookie. And the fact that his sister ( who is his race engineer) is a fan of her, surely she would've told her F1 driver of a brother that a woman was in F2? But he had no clue apparently.

The rest of the book was paced well, and the writing was good. However I wouldn't say it's a rivals to lovers as they claim. I found it trying too hard to be several different things, and didn't really properly do some of them.

(Spoiler for the end)
While I understood the highlighting the misogyny in the sport, I find it unrealistic that a team wouldn't be desperate to keep their rookie that was winning/won the championship in her first year, regardless of gender.
(End of spoiler)

While I liked some of this book, I found a lot of it bothered me, and while it may just be up to taste, the plot holes at the start tarnished a lot of my possible enjoyment. I was however able to finish it, and I do believe this book can be enjoyed more by some.

I had a hard time deciding what to write here because while I was not a big fan of this book, I had no issues with the writing. I feel like the plot could use a little work as the romance felt rushed but the f1 parts were amazing!!! I do think that Miguel’s character should have been a bit less sweet at the beginning as this is supposed to be an enemies to lovers situation but I never felt the enemies part. Diana was well written as I could feel what she felt but overall I give this a 2.75-3/5

I’m not sure why this book isn’t getting the recognition it deserves. It’s high stakes, action-packed, emotional, diverse, hilarious and powerful. If you love seeing women succeed, you’ll love this. If you love f1, you’ll love this. If you love reading about two people destined for eachother, you’ll love this.
This felt like coming home. It felt so raw, so real. When summer break was mentioned, I was filled with dread because I knew that meant i didn’t have much of the book left.
I laughed alongside Diyana and Mig, I cried with them, I couldn’t stop reading because I had to know what happened.
Esha’s writing is phenomenal, to make you feel as if you’re in the moment, right there with the characters - on the racetrack or on the podium - now that’s talent.
I truly am in awe, 6 stars - an all time favourite.

Finally, the representation I needed so bad but never dreamt of it, coz I didn't think anyone would come up with this combination! Yup this is the first book I'm reading which featured an Emirati, and even has bits set in Dubai and then there's Jaipur too! Makes me SO happy, and Patel did an awesome job showing the cultures and settings. I knew about women in Saudi Arabia being allowed to drive only recently, so I think Diana's achievements are super cool considering everything she went through.

I'm not into F1 at all, and by that, I mean I have never shown the slightest of interest in the competitions. To be honest, the only reason I picked it up was because I was hoping for good representation which I got, and along with that some good peeks into the world of F1. I loved Diana (Diyana) and her spirit and enthusiasm; she was a total badass! Her parent's support for her and her ultimate belief in herself made this a good read.

Coming to the romance, I really don't see the point of it apart from showing the misogyny and power play involved in such careers and how they can make or break your life. The book read more like an autobiography, depicting the unseen, not-so-glamorous parts of F1. Miguel doesn't play a huge part in the story, and I think it could've worked if he were a good friend she made along the way, like a caring brother. I didn't notice much about the writing, so I won't comment on that, but I'll say that it was a fairly easy and engaging read that i didn't struggle to get into.

An enjoyable read.

All here for the women in sports vibes, but the romance was more sub plot that main plot - which is totally cool when you’re here for the racing, but felt that the romance and chemistry needed something slightly more.

3 Stars We love women dominating in male-dominated fields! While this book is marketed as a romance, it is more like woman's romance since there's a large focus on Diana's F1 racing journey. Her romance with Miguel is more of a subplot than I was expecting from the synopsis. I also wasn't expected so many POVs, which kept me from fully feeling the chemistry between Diana and Miguel.

3 Stars We love women dominating in male-dominated fields! While this book is marketed as a romance, it is more like woman's romance since there's a large focus on Diana's F1 racing journey. Her romance with Miguel is more of a subplot than I was expecting from the synopsis. I also wasn't expected so many POVs, which kept me from fully feeling the chemistry between Diana and Miguel.

I really struggled with this book, and I ended up DNFing it at 40% . I was so excited for this one as I have absolutely loved other F1 centered romance books, but this one did not do it for me.

Since I've been getting into F1 past two years and I enjoy sports romances a lot, I was super excited when I heard about this new release I was seeing all over my Instagram feed.

Although I didn't have much of expectations going into it, I can't help but feel a bit let down by it. My main problem with the story was so many inaccuracies with whole motor sport in general and situations which were literally impossible (having 10+ seconds pit stop and only losing 2 spots, just to name an example). I understand that someone who isn't directly involved with sport can't know every little detail of it, but some basic knowledge could've been easily researched, and those mistakes avoided,

Yes, this is romance story, and it isn't really that serious, but if you plan to focus more than 70% on the races, with little to no interaction between main characters than you need to do that right (at least to some extent),

I've seen a lot of criticism about romance essentially being backstory to chronicling race season and I have to agree, even though I didn't have a problem with it and enjoyed racing at the heart of it all. But if you're getting into this solely for romance, you might be left a bit disappointed and wanting more (even though it kind of pays out in the end, kind of).

The worse part of it all was <spoiler> that Diana even thought about giving up racing for a man, which was so completely out of characters and kind of insulting to whole racing and sportsmanship mentality (Miguel as well if I am not mistaken) and at one point she didn't want to overtake other drivers because they were nice???? I was baffled to say the least. </spoiler>

One thing I really "enjoyed" reading about (more like I was furious because it is very much a reality) was whole struggle of woman being a part of such a male dominated sport and space. I felt it opened a lot of topics for discussion and showed (I am sure just a part) of the deep problem of sexism in paddocks (and outside of them). On top of it all, Diana is POC, so the race plays an important role in making her life and job even harder and I think it was important that it was addressed as well (although only on surface level).

All in all, it was an okay read, filled with exhilarating racing (maybe inaccurate, but full of tension and speed) and behind the scenes of racing championship (definitely reminiscent of "Drive to Survive").

2.5/5 stars

First off, there are so many POVs in this book! It reminds me of Lauren Conrad’s LA Candy. The story is alone is cute, I really enjoyed the race parts the most.

I feel like this could have been so much more, female representation in a male dominated sport was so nice to see! However the chemistry between Diana and Miguel just fell really flat for me.

Whilst I finished this book I don't feel like it'll be something I reread again.

A must have for every romace and motorsports lover, especially who love strong female leads and something different.

DNF at 17%

I really wanted to love this as a book lover and F1 fan but it just fell flat. Made me cringe and I found it so hard to get into.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a Nascar girly, not an F1 girly, but we don't have any novels that I can find for our little corner of motorsports, so I'll take what I can get.

That being said, I'm kinda conflicted about this one. As a romance novel, it didn't do it for me. There was no romantic chemistry between Diana and Miguel, so I feel like this would have worked a lot better just with them as friends. As a book about a female in a male dominated sport, I think it was a little closer to the mark. I think Patel managed to put to words what it's like to be 1) pandered to as a minority in anything 2) the way people will say everything little rude thing and paint it as "just the way things are" and 3) how even when the people around you know what's being said about you is wrong, they don't always speak up.

I was entertained by the story. But, like I said, I'm not super familiar with F1 so if there are any inconsistencies, I wouldn't know about them. I did feel like some of the F1 specific terms or ideas could maybe have been explained a little bit. Motorsports aren't new to me, but I did find it hard to follow since a lot of the turns of phrase used seemed to be ones that you gotta be immersed in the sport to know what's being talked about.

This F1 romance was filled with high paced races, competitive drivers and a kickass woman who defies every expectation.
The romance being an underlying subplot was something I appreciated in this story. The main focus was on the culture surrounding F1 and the race dynamics on and off the track. Misogyny and sexism in the sport and in the world were dealt with really well and shows the extent that women face in competitive sports like F1 and in Eastern cultures.
I enjoyed the ending of the book and the epilogue as it shows that women can have a career in sports but also be happy in their home lives.

However, I found it hard to want to continue reading the story in the first half of the book. It didn’t quite keep my attention but it did get a lot better. The writing style was a little hard to follow.
Apart of me also wishes that the romance was reserved more, that she didn’t consider giving up her dreams for someone else’s and it’s only because he allows her that she feels able to do so. The entire story was about a strong woman who breaks the glass ceiling in F1 and deals with every criticism and sexist notion and uses that to fuel her but her drive is tainted by a man.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

I am a huge F1 fan so when I requested this, I thought I am going to love this. But I think something just didn’t match. Possibly the writing style. However, I enjoyed the story a bit. I didn’t love it but it was an Okay book. Im sure that other people will enjoy it more. This one was just not for me I think. Diana Zahedan is the rookie F1 driver and she’s female. Miguel is at the top of his game and doesn’t really pay attention to rookies. Miguel begins to see Diana in a different light and the two get closer. They are cute characters and it was a cute relationship.

I was excited to read a romance novel that follows racing. But there were just some issues that made it hard for me to read. First, there were too many POV’s for me. Next, I just didn’t get the chemistry between the characters. It felt very artificial to me. And last, I just couldn’t get into the story. It was more a chore to read than enjoyment. Just not for me.