Rebecca J. Caffrey’s Pole Position is a veteran/rookie contemporary romance set in the fast-moving world of Formula 1 motor racing. It’s not a sport I see written about all that often in romances (it’s only the second F1-set one I’ve read, although I know there are more out there) which is what attracted me to it, but while I liked the way the author writes about the sport itself – the technical aspects, the qualifiers, the teamwork, the preparation and training and so on – the romance is not particularly satisfying. It hits all the right beats of a rivals-to-lovers story, but it lacks – for want of a better word – warmth; there’s no real chemistry or emotional connection between the leads and the romance feels very rushed. Plus, a lot of page time is devoted to misunderstanding and miscommunication, which made it hard to like either of the protagonists until well into the story.

Four-times World Champion Kian Walker is at the pinnacle of his career. The son of a former racing legend (whom Kian has worked very hard not to emulate), he started racing in F1 when he was nineteen and his incredibly focused, meticulous and dedicated approach to the sport saw him rising quickly to the top. But, as happens to many athletes as they age, rumours are starting to circulate that, at thirty-three, Kian is thinking about retirement. He isn’t – or not in so many words, although he has been feeling for some time that he should be stepping up to help his sister and her husband, who have shouldered the bulk of the caring responsibilities for their mother (who has Parkinson’s Disease) – and the constant speculation that this will be his final season is pissing him off. More bad news comes in the form that his teammate, Elijah, has broken his leg and will be out for the season – and things go from bad to worse when the team principal tells him he’s called up Harper James from the lower category (I’m assuming this is F2 – if so, why not call it that?) to take Elijah’s place. Kian is Not Happy. He doesn’t know Harper well -they’ve only met briefly once or twice - but he’s everything Kian dislikes, a reckless, irresponsible party-boy whose drunken exploits feature frequently in the press and overshadow anything else he’s achieved in his career. Kian worries that having to be around him constantly – on planes, in locker rooms, in pits and simulators – is going to negatively affect his performance.

Harper James almost can’t believe it when he gets the call. He’s had his eye on making it into F1 for years, and this is his dream come true. And not only will he be competing with the big boys, he’ll be driving alongside Kian Walker, his motor-racing idol and the man who fuelled quite a few of Harper’s teenaged fantasies. His enthusiasm is curbed, however, when his idol proves to have feet of clay; Kian is a judgmental prick who shuts Harper down whenever he tries to be friendly or initiate a conversation and no matter what Harper says or does, it’s the wrong thing.

Things come to a head when their first joint interview goes wildly off the rails, and the two of them are ordered to do some media training - which Harper, aggrieved and defiant, doesn’t bother to go to. Needless to say, this cavalier attitude irritates Kian even more, and the more pissed off Kian is, the more annoying Harper gets.

For the first few chapters, I wanted to bang both their heads together. They jump to conclusions about each other very quickly and then dig their heels in; although I will say that the author does a pretty good job of showing us that they’re both as bad as each other in the misunderstandings stakes. Kian thinks Harper is too undisciplined and doesn’t take anything seriously (he’s not wrong, to be fair), and Harper thinks Kian is stuck up and regimented (again, not entirely unwarranted). I admit I found Kian easier to sympathise with because chaotic personalities like Harper set my teeth on edge – he has no sense of personal space or consideration for the needs of others, and I just couldn’t believe he had the necessary mental discipline to be a successful F1 driver. Kian isn’t blameless however, because he doesn’t bother to actually tell Harper that he needs his space and quiet time. And unfortunately, because Harper thinks Kian disdains him (which he does rather by this point) he continues to go out of his way to piss him off as much as he can.

This push-and-pull does eventually settle down as the season gets underway and Kian and Harper find themselves turning to each other through their various ups and downs. A tentative camaraderie begins to develop – which swiftly turns into a sexual relationship, but there's so little build up I thought I must've missed a few chapters! It’s clear Harper has a bit of a residual crush on Kian but it takes a long time to see anything like reciprocal attraction from Kian, so when they hook up for the first time it feels like it happens out of the blue. And then (a few weeks on in terms of the timeline of the story, but actually in the next chapter or so) we find out they’ve fallen into a pattern of sleeping together every night (they’re sharing a trailer at this point), spooning, cuddling, sometimes having sex, sometimes not – but we never see any of this, we’re just told it’s become their routine.

Thing is, I did quite like them as a couple once they’re actually together. Harper starts getting his shit together and behaving more responsibly, and Kian gets to know more about why Harper is the way he is, that his tendency to self-sabotage stems from a childhood bouncing around foster homes after his parents abandoned him. Harper’s struggles to believe anybody could want him lead to the main point of conflict in the romance when Kian wants to talk about where they stand with each other and Harper just freaks out. His inability to communicate with Kian and his blow hot/blow cold behaviour becomes repetitive fast, and then he does something really horrible to get Kian to break up with him for good. By that point, I was starting to think Kian would be better off with someone else - which is never what I want to think when I’m reading a romance.

The other thing that bothered me is the number of plotlines that are introduced and then just dropped, never to be seen again. Someone from Harper’s past crawls out of the woodwork with video evidence of a foursome he had a couple of years back; Harper worries about it for a bit and then it just… goes away. Kian’s father seems to make an appearance with the sole purpose of saying something homophobic about his son, but the biggest plot hole is Kian spending almost all the book insisting he has no plans to retire – only to suddenly decide he’s ready to retire after all and eh, it’s no biggie.

All this is so frustrating, because the parts of the story that work – the races and everything that goes into them, the team camaraderie, the quieter, more intimate parts of the relationship between Kian and Harper, and the brief sections dealing with Kian’s family situation – work well, and the story itself has good bones. But the execution is off – there are big time jumps and wobbly transitions, and there is ultimately too much telling and not enough showing in the romance.

I suspect there may be a story in the works for Harper’s best friend Johannes and another of the secondary characters in this book, and if there is, I might pick it up. Pole Position is one of those books that has me on the fence; I can’t quite recommend it for the reasons I’ve stated, but I might be prepared to give the author another try to see if she can iron out some of the bugs that have tripped her up this time round.

Possibly one of the best Formula One romance books I've ever read! It truly is RWRB meets The Hating Game but in F1 and I've never loved anything more.

Give me rivals to lovers, age-gap mixed with F1 all day long. Especially if it's Kiana and Harper! Harper is a season rookie who’s been brought in to be Kian’s teammate. Kian is a driver who's been around circuits since Harper was in school and they don't have too much in common. However once they stopped hating each other their banter was incredible.

A massive addition of brownie points for ACCURATE F1 INFORMATION. My biggest pet peeve is incorrect info surrounding sport and you can tell Rebecca is a fan! I have already pre-ordered the audiobook, it comes out in July! Can't wait to re-read Kian and Harper's story.

Wow, just wow.

Pole Position has wormed its way into my heart and has lived rent free in my mind for a good while now since getting this as an arc. Many thanks to @onemorechapterhc for allowing me to read this through @netgalley

This MM F1 romance had a beautiful blend of sports and romance in that one didn’t trump the other. There’s some incredible banter and overall it felt really cute and fun to read!

I do have little critiques about this, such as the miscommunication was a bit too much and almost borderline infuriating. The spice level for me was a bit low and the one scene we did get felt a little rushed.

However those critiques are purely personal preferences and come from a place of love because I really did enjoy sitting reading this.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5

I had so much fun with this one. It was a great pride month read! Formula 1 is a genre I am here for. And the tension was *chefskiss*

I'm a huge Formula 1 fan, so I couldn't pass up Rebecca J. Caffery's debut romance. I fell in love with the cover of this book. I've been looking forward to reading this story, thanks to NetGalley and Rebecca J. Caffrey for the ARC.

Kian Walker is a Formula 1 legend. Harper James is a Formula 1 newcomer. They are complete opposites of each other. I liked how their relationship didn’t work out at the beginning, they constantly bickered and competed. But in difficult moments, all hostility disappeared and they took care of each other. At these moments, attraction and tension were very strongly felt. However, I didn’t have time to notice how their relationship suddenly began to develop. I couldn’t feel when their feelings and love began to arise.

I had high hopes for this book, and perhaps my expectations were too high, as I didn’t particularly like it, because at some moments the characters behaved like children, their relationships began to develop too quickly. I would really like more moments about Formula 1, I love it when sports novels pay a lot of attention to sports.

Pole Position review

Rating: 3.75/5

🏁 MM romance
🏁 grumpy x sunshine
🏁 F1 romance
🏁 anxiety rep, childhood trauma, healing
🏁 (slight) age gap

this was a RWRB meets F1 MM romance and ngl, it wasn’t perfect, but it was just okay!! It was an overall cute storyline, with the right blend of sports and romance, with touches of anxiety rep, childhood trauma (check TW’s!) and healing from this. However, the miscommunication trope is STRONG in this one (so maybe avoid if you don’t like that) and even I felt myself getting triggered at times but it dragging on the storyline unnecessarily!

*I received an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review*

*4.5

I always love a good f1 romance, especially when they are both drivers. Both of them were asses at the beginning but I grew to love them. Harper had a lot that he had to work through in order to be in a relationship with Kian. The two of them were really cute together. I did want to see how Harper found out about Kian's dad not being great because we didn't know that he knew until he yelled at him in the airport.

I received an arc through netgalley.

My dad has always loved F1 and I work within the car industry so I was eager to dive into this book. But boy was I disappointed. I was looking forward to a mix of high-speed racing and romance, but this felt more like a romance novel with a sprinkle of F1 racing. The racing scenes were sparse.

The characters were mediocre. Kian, who is supposed to be in his mid-thirties, came across as a teenager. His lack of maturity made it hard to connect with him or believe in his supposed experience and depth. Harper, being younger and more immature, made more sense. Regardless, I still didn't connect or like either character. I usually enjoy two POVs, but Harper and Kian often sounded so similar that I had to check the chapter headings to remember who was speaking (or use context clues).

The relationship between Harper and Kian lacked depth. They had no chemistry and seemed to have nothing in common. Their interactions were driven by physical attraction rather than genuine connection or passion. The lack of communication and the constant hurt they inflicted on each other made their relationship feel forced and unhealthy.

The pacing of the story was all over the place. Just as I was getting into one part of the plot, the story would abruptly jump to something entirely different in the next chapter or even in the next paragraph. This inconsistency made it hard to stay immersed.

Overall, Pole Position missed the mark for me on several fronts. The characters weren't my favourite, the integration of Formula 1 was superficial, the pacing was weird, and their relationship lacked chemistry and depth. While the premise had potential, the execution left much to be desired. If you're looking for a F1 racing romance, this book might not be it.

As an F1 fan, I was thrilled about this book because I will always read an F1-related book. Pole Position follows Kian and Harper, who become teammates after Elijah's injury. The chemistry and angst between them were palpable, and their relationship development was captivating. The spicy scenes were well-written, highlighting their passion for each other.

I enjoyed the racing aspects and appreciated the additional plot elements, such as their friendships with other drivers and their families. Despite the numerous characters, each one was distinct and memorable. I hope other characters in this book get their own story in a future book!

Overall, Pole Position was an engaging read with a well-flowing narrative and high emotional stakes. I’m giving it 3.5 stars and can't wait for Rebecca J. Caffery’s next work!

Thank you to One More Chapter for the opportunity to read Pole Position by Rebecca J. Caffery via NetGalley!

This was the cutest book, it’s definitely got me into F1/racing romances and I’ll certainly be looking out for more from Rebecca in the future!!

In the beginning, I really favoured Harper over Kian, but as the story went on and the two characters became more vulnerable, I ended up adoring them equally.

The way they fell for each other, going from rivals to lovers and accepting all their flaws was not only beautiful, but believable. Both characters felt so real and their development was just a pleasure to read.

Overall, I was hooked, I felt all the feels and I got the happily ever after I was rooting for. Fab read!

Would have preferred this just to be a romance without the F1 aspect because it felt a little hamfisted and incredibly inaccurate and as a fangirl that was tough. Otherwise very cute!

this just didn't really work for me - too much miscommunication and the dual-POV was more repetitive than insightful. i was so interested in the build-up of the relationship but the actual moment they finally got together was so lackluster, i actually thought "this is it?"

i don't even like f1 but i feel like this could have been so good exploring how their relationship would impact the sport but nothing really happened there.

overall, this was just meh

I have been watching F1 since Zandvoort 2021 and I started reading again in januari 2021. Almost 3 years further and this is my first F1 book! I was so exited when I got accepted by Netgalley to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Some (F1 related) things are well written:

- The F1 calendar, Bahrain at the start (and testing), Europe in the summer (and Montreal), Qatar and Abu Dhabi as the last two races.

- That there is practice, qualification and the race.

- The shoey, but instead of a shoe a helmet (hahaha) “I once watched a video of Tyler Heath chugging a beer out of a racing helmet - a sweaty, used racing helmet. It was disgusting, but I loved it.”

- Yorris spinning out in front, just like Lando in Russia. :(

A few things that are neither good or bad (just personal preference):

- The names of the drivers. I understand that “Kian Walker” and “Harper James” have to be new names and that you can’t use the names of existing drivers. But why is there an Alonso that is over forty, which clearly is Fernando Alonso and then there is also a Yorris, which is clearly Lando Norris.

- “It’s a rarity in the sport for drivers on other teams to be so close, but we really do embrace it.” It’s not.


The things I didn’t like:

- Halfway the book there is a crash (a car careered into the barriers ending up on its side) and the yellow flag is up. How is it possible that Harper can overtake someone under the yellow, because “they must be distracted”. You can’t overtake under the yellow flag. Everyone has to stay in the same position and drive slower so the marshals can work safely to get the driver out of the car.

- They have to race every other weekend for nine months of the year, but in those months they are barely home?? I understand that for the story it is convenient that they have to be together on the road 24/7. Kian went home one time during the year. There was no summer stop or weekends where they didn’t race and went home. It wouldn’t be very good for your mental health.


Would I recommend the book? Yes and No. I would recommend it if you have no knowledge of F1 or won’t mind if there are some things that are not right. I wouldn’t recommend it if you watch a lot of F1.

MCs 25/33
Team mates/adversary to lovers
Secret relationship
Bisexual rep
Medium Salsa level spice

TLDR: If you’re a big F1 fan this may not be the book for you. If you know nothing about the sport you’ll like it.
——

I’m a F1 fan…I know a ridiculous amount about the sport and this book wasn’t written for someone like me.

I wish this was a hockey romance situation where things are different enough, names are changed to protect the innocent yada yada yada. But instead there’s name dropping in this book, so it’s meant to be our current existence, but so many inaccuracies and tiny give aways that highlight that the author may not know as much about the sport as they think they do. It feels like the author saw the hubhub surrounding F1 at the moment and said…”I can work with that”.

So much sport content... I don’t really care about qualifying I watch real F1 for that. I wan’t to know about the dudes falling in love.

Around 75% it starts to pick up. Maybe because it focuses more on the characters rather than racing?

CW: Parkinson’s, death of a parent, homophobia

——

**Harsher critiques**

3% and there is a foundation story line with disability rep that doesn’t track with the very first Google result…🤦‍♀️

Also dude is a 4 time F1 world champion but his sister is the full time carer for their mum…hire someone to do the job so your sister can enjoy not working working while spending time with her mum. Plus the author has suggested that his mum was/is a famous pop star. Let’s not pretend money is an obstacle for these people.

Give me all the sport romance especially the formula 1

This girl is in her formula 1 era and I regret nothing

These two are complete opposites in terms of character and somehow the pairing of them just works so well. I liked Kian but Harper has my heart - he seems like a lost puppy for so much of the book and he just needed someone to love him.

— 3.5 stars (rounded up)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I fully expected to enjoy this book and I’m so glad to have proven myself right! Whilst it wasn’t my favourite romance book out there, I still had fun with it and would definitely reread in the future. The dynamics between our two main characters was definitely difficult to navigate at the beginning, however I was glad to see the development as things began to soften the more they opened up to one another. Difficult topics such as grief and loss are well explored and explained. The thing that let this book down for me was the little backstory or explanation as to why our main characters hated each to begin with, and the actual enemies-to-lovers wasn’t as well paced as I’d hoped.

Overall a still enjoyable read that I’d recommend and re-read in the future.

I did not expect to like this book as much as I do! Kian and Harper were impossible not to fall in love with.

Upon first glance Harper is the kind of character that I tend to grow tired of fairly quickly - He’s self destructive, a partier, and seems to lack awareness (or care) for how his actions affect those around him. The balance between Kian and Harper in POV really aided in my experience with these characters and it let me warm up to Harper at relatively the same time as Kian and let me tell you - like Kian, once I loved Harper, there was no turning back.

The romance in this was sweet - very hurt/comfort fic if you will, but that was a fantastic thing in my book as a connoisseur of the hurt/comfort tag myself.

I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely be on the lookout for more from this author!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the arc of this book! I am leaving this review voluntarily!

dnf

i tried so hard to give this book a real shot and see it through because i love formula one, but both mmcs just kept butting heads. i found harper to be particularly arrogant and unlikable.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read but definitely unpolished.

I loved the main couple and the relationship they built towards the end of the book. I do think their early on interactions could’ve been better, the reasons they disliked each other early on felt superficial to me. Then they magically found everything out about each other.

I loved the F1 backdrop and the racing, I loved that it was accurate in terms of F1 domination and not forced drama. And all the representation was so good. I also liked that Harper was an actual play boy since he was described as such.

This was just soooooo cute. As an avid F1 fan and MM reader this was right up my alley and it delivered!! I can’t wait to read more of these two