I was a huge fan of Formula 1 when I was a teenager so I can’t wait to read this book (or listen in this case). I enjoyed it, but I expected a little more. It’s a cute book, of course, but the chemistry between the characters looks artificial, not genuine. It’s more spicy than romance.
However, the narrators are great (especially the woman) and the listening was so much fun.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

It was late in my life when F1 was even on my radar and it quickly because a wonderful part of Sundays in our family but my kids all have different drivers and sometimes things get heated and it’s not always relaxed. Double Apex felt like a night lighter side to racing…with a female perspective! Josie Juniper gives the reader an all access pass to all parts of this exciting…and challenging life that we do not see on our televisions and writes in a way that includes us in all of it! When a new driver joins the crew, tensions run high and things between Phaedra and Cosmin are hotter than the F1 track. This is a great read for those who already love the sport, or are intrigued and want to dive in!

I was SO excited to listen to Double Apex as I am interested in getting into/watching Formula 1 romances. However; I couldn't get over the misogynistic comments made starting at the beginning of the book. I felt that overshadowed my listening experience and thus, wasn't interested in listening beyond the 8% mark as authors, especially females, shouldn't be putting so much hate into their books towards their own gender. I understand if it is a particular plot point however; I was instantly turned off as it happened right away. I was invested while listening to the female's POV (Mackenzie Cartwright) and could understand what the male's POV was trying to do with the accent (Jonathan Lake) but found that at a higher listening speed, the voice sounded muffled and hard to understand.

I absolute love Double Apex and listening to the audiobook made me love it all over again. I thought the narration was perfect. The narrators worked perfectly for the characters. I thought it was immersive and added to the story and made it more interactive. The audiobook felt like I was listening to a documentary on F1 and with a romance story in the middle of it. I loved the characters chemistry and hearing them say the words out loud made the romance that much better. I loved hearing their banter and how they say things. I loved this audiobook and highly recommend this story to sport romance and f1 fans. this is a book you dont want to miss!

This was my first formula 1 romance and really had no idea about the sport. I enjoyed learning a little bit about the sport and how much science there is to it. Being a male dominated sport, I can see how Phaedra felt about her position as an engineer and daughter's owner and how precarious it was.

Cosmin is a playboy race car driver that was new to their team and they instantly do not get along. I enjoyed seeing how their romance developed and the softer side of Cosmin was revealed.

There is a lot of sub plots and some felt unfinished, perhaps it's a set up for the next book.

I enjoyed the narration of Jonathan Lake and Mackenzie Cartwright. I did have to slow down a bit to understand Jonathan's accent and sometimes his narration felt like a whisper.

Thank you @hachetteaudio @readforeverpub for a copy of the audiobook.

Very cute sports romance. Very spicy too! I enjoyed the MFC, she was strong and I liked how she was an engineer. The MMC I felt indifferent about cause he felt like a bit of an asshole and idk why he changed his ways. His voice was a bit hard to understand at 2.5X speed with the accent but I thought the accent was sexy.

So first I’m going to confess - I read reviews before I ventured into this book. Comments about an abrasive/rude/mean FMC, a MMC who doesn’t believe in workplace appropriateness and is a walking HR violation, and how those readers just couldn’t push beyond those items. That’s their prerogative and there’s no shame. But if you’re like me and reading those reviews first, know this. I believe those behaviors were exhibited to show character growth. I believe those behaviors made later interactions more emotional. I liked our two leads by the end. Was it touch and go for a minute ? Absolutely. Are they a little tough to root for? Also yes. But knowing all that, I did root for them by the close of the book and better understood them and their motivations. Not justifying bad behavior, but just taking in all the clues in an attempt to understand. As for the narration, I thought it was an excellent performance. Books featuring characters with accents are always tough in audio. I’ve seen many performed badly. This was not that !

⭐️⭐️.5
🌶️🌶️

🏁F1
🏎️FMC Engineer X MMC Racer
🏁Workplace Romance
🏎️Spice

This was an ALC.

The very beginning of the story was very good. I was hooked in the beginning. I was kind of thrown off by the female main characters attitude towards everyone around her. I didn’t really like that. I also didn’t like that the male main character didn’t listen to the FMC character when she told him not to talk or act a certain way around her regarding sexiest comments.
I’m not too familiar with Formula One romance books, but I do feel that I learned a little bit about the world in this book.
The reason for my rating is because there was a lot of side stories going on that were not completed. I do get that it is probably leading up to sequels, but it was left too open ended. The FMC was not my favorite. When she got defensive she was mean and demeaning.

Overall, I feel like this is a good contemporary romance that I would recommend to certain people that I know would love it.

The dual narration on this book was good. I do love that the male narrator had an accent. The female narrator did a really good job.

Thank you to Hachette Audio for the ALC and Forever for the eARC.

DNF.

I made it about 30% before I quit. Phaedra is just a mean character. I couldn't understand where all her hostility was coming from. Cosmin (and other male characters) definitely had some sexist and misogynstic comments, but Phaedra was still a worse character.

I did enjoy the narrators. Cosmin's narrator had the Romanian accent (he was definitely F1 Dracula) and I loved listening to him. Phaedra's narrator had such a great intonation and I really could feel Phaedra's attitude through her.

Alas, the narrators couldn't save this one and thanks but no thanks.

🏎 F1 Romance
🏎 Enemies to Lovers

This is the first F1 romance novel I have read and the first by this author. Although the narration was good I found the main characters abrasive and the romance a bit surface level. I did not understand the attraction and I thought the romance aspect was rushed.

This one was not for me but if you like spicy sports romance, this one might be for you.

I received an ARC of this audio book from Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this sexy and fun rom-com about two rival race car drivers. I thought Mackenzie Cartwright had a very lovely voice. Her voice sounds similar to another narrator that I love. (However, I do not believe in outing the pseudonyms of audiobook narrators unless they do it themselves).
Unfortunately, I thought that Jonathan Lake's Transylvanian accent was a little bit too strong and hard to understand. Still I enjoyed this story and I thought it was a very enjoyable read. I definitely will look out for more books by Josie Juniper in the future!

Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

********


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Formula 1 is having its moment in romance books but I have yet to read one that does it justice. Unfortunately, this is no exception.

Despite the promise of a woman in STEM, a dashing F1 driver, and their sexy relationship, so much fell flat.

I’m ok with books where there are unlikable characters but I felt actual disdain for this duo.

Phaedra treated everyone around her as if they weren’t worthy of her time. And despite the frustrations of being a woman in science - of which I’m sure there are many - calm down, lady.

And then there’s Cosmin. Yes, F1 drivers are known for being full of themselves, for embracing their elite status and making the most of it, but he read like a sexist caricature of today’s drivers. Also, his behaviors were not hot; in fact many bordered on assault.

I guess maybe it makes sense they fell in love? Nobody else would want them?

The excitement of F1 was well written and the steamy scenes, at times, showed promise, but overall this was a miss for me.

A note for the audio version: the thick Romanian accent made Cosmin’s character difficult to understand.

2.75 out of 5 stars!

Only the cover deserves many stars itself, it's so beautiful! The cover and the tropes were the reasons why I find myself being so intrigued by this book and wanted to find out about it as soon as I could.

I've always loved reverse grumpy x sunshine, and it always makes me beyond excited whenever I come across to a book that has that trope, which is very underrated.

The characters, however, were sadly my biggest turn-offs, especially the main ones. I didn't dislike Phaedra (fmc) exactly, despite her being rude lots of times for no specific reason. Though Cosmin (mmc), I feel like he could've been better overall, his first impression on me wasn't the best. Especially at the start I didn't like him much, he did grown on me. From the third act and onwards was my favorite part.

The relationship happened a bit too fast and early, I was actually shocked and didn't understand at first if I'm the one who's misunderstanding everything.

The friendship between the main female character and her best friend was an interesting one, but it did leave me confused.

Overall, I think the book was alright - it had a big potential, I did only listen to the audiobook, which may be the reason that I didn't enjoy it as much since I always have either a physical or a digital one beside me.

My heart is broken, but for an entirely different reason than most reading experiences. I wanted to love this book and looked forward to immersing myself in a Formula 1 romance. It promised a steamy relationship between a woman in STEM and a fiery racecar driver, and I was all in. Unfortunately, both characters were intensely horrible.

Phaedra treated everyone around her with disdain. I totally understand the frustrations of being continually doubted, but, girl, get over yourself. Cosmin was an unforgivable sexiest pig. Some of his behavior was flat out sexually abusive. Rubbing your erection against a woman who has clearly said, “NO!,” is assault. It is not flirting. And, yet, somehow the author wants us to believe these two miserable individuals fall in love. It simply did not work for me.

I will definitely give this author another chance because she did get some things right. She captured the exciof F1 racing and the steam was well written. I’d like to see what she does with more likable characters.

I struggled through the audio version because of the thick Romanian accent delivered by Cosmin’s character. I found it hard to understand and had no interest in slowing down the narration to better understand him.

Thank you to NetGalley, Forever, and Hachette Audio for the advance copies in exchange for my unbiased review.

Thank you NetGalley & Hachette Audio for allowing me access to this audiobook!
Double Apex in audiobook format is going to be released on Oct 8th.
In this, we follow Phaedra Morgan, a brilliant race engineer who can't keep clashing with the team’s new star driver, Cosmin Ardelean. Known for his talent on the track and his notorious off-track affairs, Cosmin hides a past beneath his carefree exterior. Unfortunately I did not understand why Phaedra was so against Cosmin from the beginning as he was quite charming and nice to her. I liked both voices in the audiobook although the man talking with a Romanian accent was difficult to understand at times. Read this if you want a romance in the world of Formula 1 with enemies to lovers!

I DNFed at 30%. I don’t understand how you can advertise a book as enemies to lovers when they’re both pining for each other from page one and they’re no longer enemies by 15% in. This book felt both rushed and dragged at the same time. Not sure how but that’s how it felt. I’m super bummed because I love F1 romances but this fell super flat for me. The narration was good but the male POV narration’s accent was so thick that it was hard to understand at times.

𝟏 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 .𐦍༘⋆
the synopsis of this book had me so excited! as a huge formula 1 fan i’ve been loving all the f1 romance books coming out lately so i had to get my hands on this arc as well assuming it would hold up to others i had previously read. unfortunately that wasn’t the case at all. this book was like 5% formula 1, 2% romance, 30% characters pissing me off and the remainder was unnecessary smut scenes that were worded so gross i had to check to see if this book was written by a man.

the ending of the book was so rushed and odd that personally it just felt like the author ran out of time. this book did not need them to rush into an engagement at the end, it was completely unnecessary and i don’t see it lasting long.

character analysis wise, i hated the main characters a lot but in different ways. Cosmin is literally disgusting right off the bat and continues to be extremely perverted throughout the book especially in the beginning when phaedra explicitly says she’s not interested and needs him to stop especially at work. this f1 team needs a stricter HR team cause he’s so unprofessional.

phaedra is literally one of the most obnoxious fmc i’ve read in a while. she treats people she “loves” terribly, eg. she talks to her so called best friend horribly for so much of their interactions in this book. i know she’s supposed to be some prodigy boss girl but she’s so unlikeable as a character that i couldn’t care or feel anything for her except the sympathy of when she lost her father.

their relationship sprung so quick it could give you whiplash, there was no real build up or pining that it made it all feel so detached and so made up.
i could not care less about their romance or anything else in this book.

My fascination with F1 racing continues to be fed with Double Apex. Cosmin and Phaedra’s hate to love was everything I needed. Had great tension at the beginning between Phae and Cosmin, and they pushed each other to be better people. The characters had great chemistry and there were emotional family moments (tw). I enjoyed the book although a little more of Phae’s engineering job would have been nice.

Douple Apex🏎️
By Josie Juniper❗️

Review🥰

This book was a delightful surprise for me. It was an excellent enemies to lovers story, which is my favorite trope. The banter started strong and lasted throughout the book. The spice level was also really good! I liked reading about all the women in Formula One; I wish it was true in real life! The Formula One races and scenarios were portrayed realistically and accurately. The happily ever after at the end made me grin. It was a lovely read!

Audio review-
I felt the audio was great, especially the female characters' voices. I thought it flowed smoothly, and the voices blended well together. The male lead's accent was difficult to understand at times. I had no additional issues and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Formula 1 🏁
Sports romance🏆
Sweet and spicy🥵
Race engineer x driver🛞
Forbidden romance🤌🏻
Enemies to lovers👅

4.5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The audiobook is done well. The voice of Phaedra is done well and the female actor's romanian accent for Cosmin is done very well and easy to understand. My issue is with the Male voice of Cosmin. The way he does the thick Romanian accent makes very difficult to understand what is he saying. The other voices he does are well done.
A race engineer and a FM1 racecar driver, what an interesting pair. If you are not a fan of formula 1, there are several terms and moments that will go over your head like they did for me. We love a woman in stem! The building tension is delicious! This book has the fun trope of when the guy falls first and hard. It does kind of lean into the immaturity of when a boy likes a girl so much he teases her and that can be a little frustrating as a reader. I also want to warn readers that there are several triggers in this book loss of a loved one, grief and SA.