Red, White and Royal Blue meets Formula 1... sold!

Kian Walker is painted as the golden boy of F1, and Harper James is the wild card rookie.
I do love a good enemies to lovers trope. They were both distant for their very different reasons however the chemistry is there from the start!
I LOVE the character development that happens over the story. It was a great balance of sports and romance without giving up any of the backstory and insights to what makes them who they are.

There were little things here and there that weren’t perfectly fleshed out, but the way the third act was so good. It hooked me and I was so happy with the ending.

Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook!! Joshua Chase and James Joseph are a dream team😍🤤😍. On top of their dreamy voices, they did a fantastic job setting the atmosphere and tone of the book. It was a well-paced and immersive experience. I think they were the perfect choice for this book, and it was a seamless performance.

Many thanks to HarperAudio, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.


--- Side note that was not included in my Goodreads review: the book may have been like 3.5 stars if I had just read the book but I cannot speak highly enough of the audio casting. It made the book experience great in my opinion!

this was a cute story!! self sabotaging playboy Harper and work focused black cat Kian made quite the pair. Harper had the biggest character growth throughout the book and Kian was the perfect person to pave that way for his journey of self discovery. so much drama happened, both between MMCs and in their own personal lives, but it wasn’t overwhelming to the plot. their chemistry was spicy yet slow burning and i loved it!

do i see a book 2 in the future with Jo & Jackson?? they were both being super sneaky and what better pair than hooking up with your friend’s partner’s best friend. confusing, but im holding to them being a pair lol


for the audiobook itself— i loved both narrators! at times it was hard to hear Harper’s POV as the narrator would lower his voice almost to a whisper during times of emotional expression, but overall very well spoken! no comments!

this was a cute and quick read! handled so deep topics without overwhelming the reader. the banter between to main characters was fun and the f1 aspect was a good time for me. listened as audio and the narrators i think sold it for me for a four stars without probably been a 3 stars! love the accents 🤭

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity for this arc!

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.

Kian has been racing for years now, and, as one of the best in the world, expects this year to be another amazing year with his team. But when his partner is injured and they bring a rookie to take his place -- a rookie who is doing one hell of a job -- Kian gets more than just a teammate. Harper is a rookie who is crushing his races, but he's been known as the bad-boy who parties way too much. As the two of them work together, they start developing feelings towards one another.

I kind of hated Harper from the beginning. I felt like he was one of those guys who just has to show off all the time and was too good for anyone and anything. But as his walls come crumbling down and he lets Kian in, he becomes likable. Kian was sweet, a little rigid, but from the moment we meet him I was ready to die for him. He's such a sweet cinnamon roll. The spice was hot, the romance was sweet, I loved the Grumpy/Sunshine dynamic between the two, the slight age gap worked for them, and there were some moments I teared up. Overall, an extremely enjoyable book. Highly recommend.

Actual Rating:4.5 stars

This book is so stinking cute! I know nothing about F1 and honestly, that probably helped me enjoy this even more. I could just focus on these two emotionally stunted boys falling in love despite themselves. Nothing about this book is groundbreaking but I didn’t need it to be. It was silly, emotional at times and cute as hell. Honestly, a great time.

I would formally like to request that Joshua Chase and James Joseph narrate all audiobooks from here on out because their voices are everything.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for an arc in exchange for my review!

Received an ALC of from Netgalley.

I made it 13% and had to call it quits. This story is being DNF'D.

Kian is very egotistical it's not even funny and he's a dick to Harper. Kian wants things done how it was with his previous partner, and since it's not going that way he chooses to ignore and be irritated with Harper.

Harper is new to the professional track and somewhat oblivious and a big fan boy of Kian. Like why would you shake someone awake to start talking when you clearly see they have their eyes closed in a reclined position.

The audio book narrator for Harper was...ok. He would whisper words that had no indication of whispering (I verified with the KU ebook). This felt often enough to note. It would be normal talking then I would have to turn up my volume just to hear what he was saying. Bugged the crap out of me.

There are definitely better F1 MM romances out there. Due to being a DNF I'm not going to rating this book on goodreads.

I think this book promised to be something very different than what it was. The audio performance, to me, made every line and attempt at banter/ angst feel corny and ingenuine. I wasn't rooting for either of these character so I could not buy into their romance, unfortunately. I wish I felt differently but personally I wouldn't recommend this book.

This book is a fun and quick read/listen, and it would be great for vacation/beach reading—the banter between Kian and Harper is off the track, and the writing is *chefs kiss*. If you're a hardcore F1 fan and expect this book to be F1 first, you might be disappointed, but give it a chance because it's such a fun book to get into!

Thanks to HarperAudio, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for the audiobook!

I loved F1 romance books growing up so I was definitely excited to be able to jump into this one. Overall it's a decent story, the narrators did good but sometimes sounded too much alike so it was a bit confusing unless you read along as you listen. Harper was....a bit much and the third act break up was something that could have been resolved with more communication. Actually a lot of the scenes between needed more communication, I understand the enemies thing is part of the plot but some of it was over done in my opinion. I do love how it's clear the author is either an F1 fan or did research to get things accurate which is much appreciated.

3/5 Stars!

Holy Miscommunication Trope Batman!

This book is one of the run of the mill romance novels where the enemies become lovers and that pesky miscommunication third act comes along - only it seems to have happened every time Kian and Harper talked! Especially in that in-between part where they were more than enemies but less than friends. This book did have its cute moment and the spice is REALLY good but if miscommunication isn’t your favorite this read might not be for you and that’s okay!

Since this was an Audio Arc, I will mention that the two narrators, Joshua Chase and James Joseph, are hard to distinguish between and there were many times I couldn’t figure out if we were with Kian or with Harper. Not to mention they have very similar accents! I think this led to me being a little turned off from this book early on because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out who I was following. Literally spent a whole chapter thinking it was Kian but it was really Harper!

Overall, very average story with racing terminology mixed in which I did not mind! It was very intuitive so it wouldn’t isolate the reader who may not follow racing!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this Audio Arc in exchange for an honest review!

Such a cute and fun story. This was such a well written book I loved every minute of it. These two could not have been more opposite yet, work so well together. I loved the banter. Loved that they weren't rushed into a relationship, it gradually progressed.
I absolutely loved the narrators. They both did a fantastic job and had lovely voices.
Thank you for the opportunity to listen to their book/audio.

I really enjoyed the audiobook! I think the narrators did such a great job bringing the story to life. I will definitely be recommending the audiobook along with this one!

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Adult Audio/One More Chapter, and Harper 30 for providing me with an egalley an audio arc of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I've been looking for a good F1 book. I'm a huge fan and follow pretty closely so I know a lot about the sport, the teams, some of the technology and engineering, even. This is not my first F1 book and so far they have all let me down in one way or another. I picked this one as it made sense to me to read a book in a male dominant field with the main characters as two males. Sadly, this book did not live up to my expectations, either.

Let's start with the audio part of the book. I'm unsurprised the narrators use British voices but I will say Joshua Chase and James Joseph were similar enough that it was sometimes hard to tell them apart. This was annoying if I missed the title of the chapter saying who it was. I could usually pick it out once it got going as the narrators did make the voices of the characters unique enough with tone and inflection, plus the author definitely showed each personality of the characters. The narrator that did Harper's voice had a very low quality of his voice. Almost a whisper at times and I found myself having to rewind to hear what he said.

If the narrators not being to my liking wasn't enough, the entire story and plot line just fell short. I feel like the author needed to do a lot more research into F1. You can see some if it there, while at other times it's severely lacking. It's not believable that two F1 drivers would share a trailer for weeks on end while touring. It's not believable that a reserve driver is brought up and has zero understanding about how to talk to the media; he's getting his first trainings now? Seems highly unlikely. Finally, F1 is an expensive sport. You don't really see poor, orphaned kids who have zero support racing. Where is the money coming from? it just makes zero sense.

As I said above, the author did a good job making the two characters distinct. Kian as the stuck up, regimented driver who doesn't want to deviate from his schedule or be friends and Harper who is carefree and not caring who thinks what of him. He does as he pleases and has no inkling of how his actions hurt or injure others. This was truly the only part of the story that might be believable.

Did I feel the chemistry between these two? Not at all. Was their relationship (love/hate, I guess?) believable? Not really because the attraction they talk about (what the author tells us, rather than shows us) just didn't feel like it was really there. And, since this was the entire premise of the book, the growth of the characters felt stunted and overall underdeveloped. I felt zero connection or empathy for either of these characters. Even when the author gave us a bone and look into the background of the characters, which I would hope would help me connect, I just didn't care enough to feel badly for them in any way.

And the pacing was so slow! I just kept waiting for something to happen by even by 60%, when the characters have finally gotten together in some capacity, it was still just stunted. It dragged and I had to push and push and push to even care to finish it. Once I got annoyed enough with the narrators, I switched to Kindle version. But it did nothing to improve the story.

Overall, I'm completely underwhelmed with this title. There is a lot wrong and I feel like it needs another round of edits to point out where pacing could be picked up, characters could be developed, and story line could use some tweaks.

4⭐️ 2.5🌶️
Contemporary Sports Romance
Tropes: Forced Proximity, Grumpy/Sunshine, Dislike to Lovers, Found Family

Text-
This was a fun read. I haven’t read much formula 1 racing romance and to be honest I know nothing about the sport. I heard there’s some plot holes but I was here for the vibes so I didn’t notice. 🤷‍♀️

The attraction going back and forth between these two was pretty entertaining. They both have family issues/hangups that they needed to deal with.

Audiobook-
I love a duel narration. I thought both narrators did a good job. It looks like James Joseph is based in London so a win with the authentic accent!

The plot itself is so interesting but the narrator’s tongue kept sticking to the roof of his mouth as he read and I just couldn’t get past it. The mouth sounds and my misophonia were not vibing. Giving it three stars because I loved the plot but couldn’t get past the mouth noises.

This is a cute MM romance set with the backdrop of F1 racing with teammates/rivals-to-lovers. The character development both Kian, the reserved veteran, and Harper, the swaggering rookie, go through is wonderful. The audio is incredibly well done and both voice actors do a great job emboding their characters.

You don't need to know F1 racing to understand that aspect of the story. The author does a fine job giving you enough information to understand the implications of the sport. The story contains a great mix of sport and romance.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Adult Audio for the advance audiobook copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is would hit the sweet spot for someone who loves romance and has a casual interest in F1; as someone who loves F1 and has a casual interest in romance, it was fine. There were some great little F1 tidbits, like reference to Alonso's age, and a team principal calling someone "the muppet", but there was more that took me out of the story to put my "um, actually" hat on. The initial antagonism that underlines the enemies to lovers trajectory wasn't well established enough for me, we just have to trust that it's there, but it lowered the stakes of the turn around; what I assume is the teaser for a second book also wasn't developed enough for me to feel invested. The relationship arc hits the standard plot points, but there was enough that was a twist on the usual that the romance plot felt solid.

Probably one of the steamiest books I’ve read all year. Definitely the best F1 romance. There are some minor plot holes and a few minor “ick” moments. Overall, it’s a heartwarming and spicy read!

Plot - 3
Writing and Editing - 3
Character Development - 4
Narration - 5
Personal Bias - 4
Final Score - 3.8

3.5 stars. While I loved the premise of this book, it fell a bit flat. Kian was just so nasty to Harper for so much of the book. Then it just flipped so fast. It is not a bad read by any means but I think could have been polished just a bit more. I would definitely read this author again as I think the writing has a lot of potential! Thank you so much for this ARC in return for my honest review. My opinions are my own.

If you can believe it, I wanted to read this book because I really enjoy F1. I also thought one of my friends read it, but I don’t think she has.

Thank you HarperAudio Adult, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for letting me listen to the audiobook. If you want to read this book, I absolutely recommend going audiobook. Both MCs are narrated by British narrators and they are FANTASTIC 🥵 They both sounded very similar though; would have loved a narrator with a French or Italian accent…

I think I had a difficult time with this book because it felt like the author got her background information of F1 from Netflix’s Drive to Survive. There are just discrepancies that would bring me out of the story sometimes. Also, I felt that the tension, drama, and Kian’s family issues were just not… compelling enough for a story. I could not be bothered to care. I almost wish Kian’s family wasn’t in the story at all.

This story between two F1 teammates, Kian and Harper, was fine. The spice was SPICY 🔥, but I somehow could not feel genuine connection between our MMCs (and from our author). It felt like I was reading a story of the author’s desires, instead of a realistic relationship between two men.

Loved the title name, but did not love the story. Could only recommend if you were looking for something spicy (4 🌶️) set in F1, but you better do that audio. 2.5 ⭐️ rounded up because the prose is good, and the audio helped to redeem it.