Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an egalley of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Formula 1 racer Dev Anderson has his career on the line. After a social media disaster he's looking to rebuild his image. When his best friend's sister, Willow Williams, steps into the picture with her recent college degree in sports management, he knows she's the perfect person to fix the problem. Willow has pined after Dev all her life but she knows he's off limits. When the two are forced to spend time together through their agreement, their short make out mistake a year ago comes roaring back to the forefront forcing Dev to realize his new found feelings for Willow and for Willow to see her crush on Dev is more than she ever though it would be. Can the two work together and avoid feelings getting in the way?
It's only recently that I have been engrossed by the power that is Formula 1. I love the fast pace of the races. I love learning about the drivers. It's intense and fun and one day I hope to see it in person, rather than on my TV screen. And I've been looking for romantic fiction, reminiscent of movies like Days of Thunder, Gran Turismo, and Rush. This one fit the bill!
I enjoyed the tropes set out in this one: childhood friends to lovers, brothers best friend, best friend's sister, off limits. These tropes are always fun and always bring fun drama and suspense to a romantic story. The need for the characters to try and stay away from each other, despite their attraction. The build up in chemistry and romance. The secretive nature of not letting anyone know. All great hooks for a story.
I enjoyed Willow's character. She's a bit shy but at the same time has no qualms letting people know her needs. At the same time, she is strong to almost a fault given her struggle with hypermobility which I assumed was EDS. I liked this representation that was woven into the story. I did think it might potentially cause an issue somewhere along the lines, but it didn't. Which was a bit disappointing. I feel like if you're going to include this aspect, there should be a plot line too encompass it's being there in the first place. The reader is just told about it through Willow's eyes but it never causes any issues at all throughout the entire story. Seems unlikely to me.
Dev was a hard one too pin down as far as liking him or not. It seems he's a bit of a self proclaimed playboy, but I don't really see any of that in his personality. If anything, he's definitely more of the brooding and protective type. I was a bit surprised with how fast he went from not having any kind of feelings for Willow to being almost obsessed with how much he cared for her and wanted her. It caused me a bit of whip lash. I needed more of an unfolding and that wasn't really there. I also wanted more from his races and being a racer, since it's very central to the plot. But I felt that was a bit lacking, as well. I did love his relationship with his friends who are also ensconced in Formula 1.
I enjoyed the author's inclusion of different cultures. I always like too see this in books as it's important to show a more inclusive view of the world. I would have liked to see more of how this affected the characters, though. Dev does talk about being a minority and touches on how this has been hard for him as a driver, but I really don't see it explored enough given the author chose to include his background and skin color into the story.
I saw many parallels with Formula 1 as we currently know it. I could see the author did some research and tried to understand many of the aspects of the sport: the drivers, the teams, the set up at races, the pressure for the drivers, the competitive nature of the drivers and their teams, and the politics involved with the sport. Though the names of the drivers and the team names are changed, it was very obvious to me who they were modeled after. As a fan, I enjoyed that aspect yet at the same time would have liked to see the author take it into her own hands and really create characters and teams that were all her own.
I appreciate the no third act break up the author took. The epilogue, on the other hand, seemed kind of thrown in, like she had to include Willow and Dev would definitely be a forever thing and the only way to do that was with the cheesie scene given. I just would have liked to see a little more of that.
Finally, it's dual POV and that always makes me happy. I love watching the story unfold from both characters. It's fun too be in their heads and see how they are seeing things with each other.
I can see the side characters getting stories in the future, thought this one is definitely ok if it turns out to be a stand alone. There are some fun moments with humor and some cute spice but nothing over the top. I'm interested to see where the author might take future installments in this series and which characters she chooses to include.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

The pulse in her neck is fluttering against my wrist, or maybe it's my own racing. Because if she decides that this won't work, I don't know what I'll do. I can't let her go now that I know what it feels like to hold and kiss and touch her. How it feels to love her. To be loved by her.

This was a really good F1 romance, or as my husband calls it, Ride to Survive 😂🤣😂🤣

I had a couple smaller issues with some of the characters and their motivations and whatnot, but this was still really entertaining, especially since I'm a huge F1 fan. Always so cool to read about what goes on behind the scenes at these races and in this sport.

I liked both characters, and Dev was such a softy 😍 It was nice to sort of see them build a relationship first as adults and then take it to the next level (always my preference though I know not for everyone 😌).

I should say it was very reminiscent of Throttled but there were definitely aspects I liked more about Cross the Line. The MMC not starting off as a complete douchebag being one of them.

Would recommend for any sports romance fans, especially those who enjoy F1.

This was sooooo stinking cute. Willow and Dev were so perfect. I appreciate the lack of toxicity this romance story had. It made it 10000xs better. The only reason I gave it 4 stars was because I found myself skimming a little and thought some parts were a little drawn out especially since we didn’t get to our “big” ish conflict until pretty deep into the book but other that it was an amazing read. I had a great time.

Personal enjoyment: 4 ⭐️
For it’s written purpose: 4.5 ⭐️

Overall: 4.25 ⭐️

The biracial rep was EVERYTHING! As someone so is also biracial, it was so freaking cool to see it so well written in this book. Not overdone, not tokenized, but a wonderful and realistic look into what it’s like

Also Dev is the perfect male love interest and he's so cheesy but it's charming as hell.

Willow was a lot of fun— she's surprisingly mature in a lot of ways and very smart while still having her own insecurities and working around her joint disorder (with was also extremely well written! Much better than the "I can push through it" BS that another very popular book described) I loved her drive and her passion for her job. I didn't love how often the author emphasized how "tiny and small" she was, but I gave it a bit of a pass because I assume it pertains to her joint disorder rather than trying to be the quirky-and-small trope.

F1 is a passing interest of mine and I thought the inclusion of the sport and lifestyle was really interesting to read about!

Overall I had a great time reading and devoured in just a day

thank you to berkeley and netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

i LOVE f1 romances so much, yet can never ever find any to read. when i saw this cover i immediately requested it knowing i'd love it.

i'm a very casual f1 fan, rather than the races i'm more of a fan of the drivers themselves and the engineering behind the cars, so even if you aren't very familiar with how f1 works, this book really does a great job of explaining and incorporating it in a way where people who have loved f1 for years and people who know nothing about it can both equally enjoy and understand what it happening.

dev and willow are the sweetest ever!!!! their relationship had me blushing and kicking my feet, so adorable. and yet, this book also had the perfect amount of tension and spiciness. it was a great balance of the two.

brothers best friend is always a great trope to read, and this book made it incredible. maybe i'm a bit biased because i love childhood friends to lovers but UGHH this book just did it for me!! it was basically all my favorite tropes in one book written beautifully.

four stars from me!!
(p.s. i also learned some hindi and gujarati words and increased my bollywood knowledge with this book, my friends were very impressed with me hehee)

A solidly cute sports romance perfect for fans of F1 and romance novels. F1 driver Dev is struggling after a minor scandal has tarnished his image. Willow, hoping to break into sports marketing, would be the perfect person to help him rehab his image. The only problem is the two of them have a lingering attraction to one another after a stolen kiss at a party last year. Which wouldn't actually be a problem if Willow wasn't the little sister of Dev's best friend Oakley, and therefore completely off limits. But as the two start to work together more closely, sparks start to fly, and they will have to decide whether to act on their attraction.

I was pleased to see F1 being represented in a romance novel! There've been a lot of hockey romances lately, so it's nice to see some other sports getting the spotlight. As a newly casual F1 fan, the sports aspects felt accurate and it was fun to read about that. There is biracial representation with both the main characters (Willow is Black and Dev is Indian), and Willow also deals with chronic pain issues. Although I can't speak from experience on either of those points, the representation was nice to see and felt authentic.

I kept waiting for there to be more drama in this book. As other reviews mentioned, I appreciated the fact that there was no third act breakup, but overall the stakes felt really low here. The main conflict is just them deciding to act on their feelings and sneaking around a little to protect Willow's brother's feelings (which didn't feel like very high stakes) and to protect Willow's future career (higher stakes but ultimately nothing really happened here). The author kept dropping in hints about larger F1 team drama but ultimately those threads felt dropped--for example, Dev's teammate hates him for some reason, which is mentioned several times (enough to make it feel like it will be important) but then not really explained or explored.

I would say this isn't the best sports romance I've ever read, but solid. I believe this is a debut novel and sometimes the writing felt a little unpolished, but the premise was pretty solid and I think this is a sign of good things to come from this author (/this series?).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 | 🌶️🌶️🌶️

"𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒏, 𝑫𝒆𝒗. 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔."

Absolutely adorable.

I love a good sports romance, and the fact that this one was Formula 1 just upped the ante in terms of pressure and danger. The race scenes had me flipping through the pages in a frenzy, needing to know that our boy Dev was going to be okay in the end.

Dev and Willow’s friendship turned relationship was the sweetest thing I’ve read in a very long time. I’m so used to grumpy/sunshine novels that I didn’t realize how refreshing it would be to read a book where both characters were full of sunshine and smiles.

The only thing preventing this from being a five star read for me was the beginning of the novel. The sheer number of characters and job titles that were introduced in the first part of the book was impossible to keep up with. I was spending so much time trying to remember who everyone was that I couldn’t focus on the story line.

Overall, I highly recommend this for anyone looking for:
🏎️ Sports Romance
❤️ Brothers Best Friend
🏎️ Diverse Characters
❤️ Childhood Crush
🏎️ Workplace Romance

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A book about racing? That can be sexy right? UHM Yes! I'm not a car/racing fan at all, but this book was fun, engaging, and I couldn't put it down! Simone did an incredible job in her descriptions and the wild ride the MCs go on. I absolutely ATE IT UP!

I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about Formula 1 racing. I know NASCAR, but I am not a follower or anything so I had absolutely no clue what I was getting in to.

This book was so much fun though! I love that the main characters were childhood besties and this was such a good spin on the brother’s best friend trope! I loved that there were diverse characters. I love that there was disability rep. All of these little pieces played together seamlessly to make such a great story.

The main characters, Dev and Willow, are such great leads. Dev is a stand out racer, racing for a less than stellar team. Willow is a recent college grad struggling to find work in her field of sports marketing. Dev sees an opportunity and takes it, and offers Willow a job rebuilding his social media image. While this trope could have easily come across as overplayed and easily expected, the story between these two was fantastic.

This book also had an interesting side plot (really more of an underplot?) about discrimination and favoritism and I think that was so fresh to read in the way the author wrote it. She never was HEY LOOK AT THIS, but more the pieces were there if you were willing to pick them up. On more than one occasion, I paused, thought, and considered how I think about people. It was so well done.

Overall, this is not a sport I see myself exploring, but I will definitely dive back into this genre of sports romance. I loved it.

This was my first F1 sports romance and I loved it! The slow burn and tension hooked me. The chemistry between Willow and Dev was so adorable. I love Dev! He’s the sweetest! I really enjoyed the cultural representation in this book as well. Simone Soltani did an excellent job writing about F1 and gave the story lots of context. I will be picking up the physical copy when it releases because the cover is adorable. 🏎️

Everything about this book was lightning in a bottle. The characters, the slow burn, the pacing, the diversity. It was magic. Cross the Line has just entered my top favorite books of all time! It was an easy 5 stars, and I don’t give those out very often. Picturing Dev watching Bollywood movies with Willow is my new favorite comfort reel in my head. I wish I had more eloquent words for this one, but I’m at a loss because I just keep replaying it in my mind! There was action, there was forbidden romance, there was a slow burn, there was disability rep, there was hotties in F-1 cars, there was surfing, traveling the world, and there was Dev, the best book boyfriend ever.

Fun and flirty workplace/forbidden relationship romance. I had not seen a F1 romance before so this was new! Even my husband is wanting to read it!

I'm in my F1 era and I loved every minute of this book. I loved this sooo much! A total must read! Go read this now!

The heady world of Formula 1 racing is all about not only winning, but how social media spins the story. When race car driver, Dev Anderson, gets burned by his former media handler, his career threatens to tank especially if the team and sponsors’ drop him. Dev’s best friend since childhood and former racing buddy, Oakley, has brought his recently college graduated sister, Willow Williams, along to a sponsor party in Monaco. The year previously, Dev and Willow shared a kiss that neither can seem to forget.

Dev’s image needs repairing and Willow has had no luck finding a marketing job so the perfect solution seems to be a temporary professional relationship benefiting both. As Willow follows Dev on the Formula 1 circuits rigorous schedule of fast cars as well as rich and glamorous people at wild parties, she has a harder time keeping things strictly business. Dev is equally conflicted because Willow’s brother has threatened him against any funny business with his beloved sister.

Dev has more problems besides his desire for Willow with his race team owner while she is very conflicted about her feelings for him. This story is high on angst, intense longing with the backdrop of the race world where million-dollar cars and racers’ lives constantly in jeopardy. This story has a very YA with naughty language vibe that seems mostly about Dev and Willow's efforts to stay away from each other. and then, hiding any relationship from family and friends.

I'm not going to lie, F1 is a giant mystery to me. I had not the foggiest clue going into this book about anything to do with the sport. So I was a little apprehensive going in, but I am so glad I did because I loved this book! Simone Soltani definitely did a great job of showing the atmosphere and rules of F1 without just information dumping it all in one place. But at the heart of the book is the romance between Dev and Willow, which I absolutely adored. Typically, with brothers best friend romances I don't usually feel like there is a good enough reason why the romance is "forbidden," but I really feel like Soltani created some reasonable obstacles for them to have to overcome. The romance between the two was just so precious. I love how absolutely gone they both are for each other, and how they both have each other's back in all things, especially career wise. The communication between them is also top tier.

I also loved the friend group, and I hope we get to see their stories in the future.

The only real criticism I have of the book is that the ending/epilogue felt a bit rushed and out of place. I would have liked to have seen those events happen slightly earlier in the book. But all in all, I really loved this book and am excited to see what Soltani writes next!

Cross the Line is a fun sports romance. It was my first F1 book and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. I don’t know much about the sport, but I was fascinated by the team/driver dynamics and the competition. I found myself absorbed in the racing scenes.

I also found myself totally invested in Dev & Willow as the main characters. I wanted them to succeed in their careers and find a way to be together. Willow has had a crush on Dev since they were kids. He is her brother Oakley’s best friend, and they all grew up together, but Dev didn’t know about her feelings until a year ago when they shared a drunken kiss.

Fast forward a year later and Dev needs some help repairing his image after an issue with his form social media manager. Willow has recently graduated college and is looking for a job in sports media, so they agree to help each other out. Their attraction is obvious, and they start flirting, but agree to keep it professional because of Oakley and Willow’s career.

These two pine and lust after each other HARD! The buildup to when they finally give in, along with Dev’s races, kept me completely engaged. After that, the book felt a little slow and disjointed to me. There were several situations set up to possibly be the main conflict, but none of them felt fully developed even though they were all resolved.

The wedding scenes with Dev’s family were some of my favorites (his sister gets married near the end of the book). His mom does some not so subtle matchmaking and I thought it was adorable and funny. Their friend groups are also amazing. I hope the series continues with one or more of them getting books.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and will read more from this author.

Love the diverse backgrounds & as a wife of a race team owner this was an interesting read. However, I didn’t love the first 10ish chapters with Dev constantly saying he needed action…. Cringe. But it did get better as the story progressed.

3.75 stars

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC!

Cross The Line by Simone Soltani is a fun sports romance centered around Formula 1 driver, Dev, and his best friend’s sister, Willow. After hiring Willow to manage his social media, Dev and her find it difficult to keep their relationship professional as their feelings for one another grow into something more heated.

This dual POV romance was an exciting peek into Formula 1 and a sweet story of childhood friends becoming something more. It’s a quick read that had me nervous for Dev and Willow while also patiently waiting for them to give into their true feelings! Soltani did a great job exploring and explaining Formula 1- I knew nothing about F1 going into this read, but I still understood what was happening perfectly fine. I’m a sucker for a heartfelt friend group with good banter, and we had two in this book! The characters were all so incredibly well done. It felt a little drawn out in some parts, but since it’s a fast read, I didn’t mind at all. Definitely pick this one up if you want to get into F1 or if you just love the “she fell first, he fell harder” trope!

Thanks, again, Berkeley & NetGalley for this ARC!

My first F1 romance! Cross the Line is a childhood friends to lovers story that follows Willow and Dev. After sharing a secret kiss in the past, these two come together again after Dev offers Willow a job as his social media manager.

Some elements I enjoyed;

- Brother's best friend longing/ I've always had a crush on you hehe
- Forced proximity/workplace romance
- Sneaking around!
- Chronic illness rep
- No third act break-up
- Slow burn

3.5 rounded to 4.

Thank you so much to Berkley publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

Maybe it’s because this is my first F1 Romance read but this was such a breath of fresh air as far as sports romances go for me. It was fun and cute read that’s perfect to read while poolside this summer. Dev was an absolute gem of a hero that falls into the cinnamon roll category without being bland or annoying and Willow was a fun and well developed heroine. I’m excited to see upcoming titles from Simone Soltani!

Thank you to Berkley for the e-ARC and finished copy!