4.5 ⭐️

I’m not even an F1 girly but I still devoured this book.

This was my first time diving into the world of Formula 1, and honestly? I think this book might’ve made me a fan. Even without any prior knowledge, the racing backdrop was exciting without being overwhelming, gave the perfect amount of information to fully understand what was going on, and it served as the perfect high-stakes setting for the romance and drama to unfold.

The story follows Lilah, a documentarian suddenly thrown into the chaos of filming a Formula 1 team after her business partner-slash-best friend-slash-secret boyfriend blindsides her. Cue Arthur Bianco, the broody, sidelined reserve driver with something to prove. What starts as a mutual scheme for revenge slowly morphs into a fake relationship with very real tension and repercussions.

I loved the enemies-to-lovers, the slow burn, and the found family dynamics. It also included quite a few of my favorite microtropes, like “what’s wrong?” and “only one room left.” What surprised me most, though, was the emotional depth. It brought more weight to the storyline than I expected for a sports romance. There was real sincerity woven into all the drama, and it worked so well for both the plot and the character’s growth.

Overall, Slipstream is a fast-paced, heartfelt, and entertaining ride with great characters, sizzling chemistry, and a plot that blends the thrill of racing with the vulnerability of falling in love. Even if you’ve never watched a single race, this one’s worth the ride.

And let’s be honest… the cover alone deserves a trophy. 🤌🏻

And finally - thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I love that more sports means more opportunity for sports romance! This was a fun one!! I loved the build up of the romance between the characters and how they really got a chance to know each other. While fake dating is my favorite troupe, fake-ish dating was hard for me. It was a little hard to follow if they were or were not supposed to be dating and why it was happening. I thought the ADHD rep worked well, and enjoyed the main character’s journey in her story. I really enjoyed the connection between the characters, I ended up really loving and supporting them together. Also not a real third act break up, which is a bonus. Overall, just good old fashioned fun!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

Slipstream is a fast-paced, emotionally charged romance set in the glamorous, high-stakes world of Formula 1. Lilah, a serious documentarian reeling from betrayal, teams up with charming reserve driver Arthur Bianco in a revenge plan that turns into a fake relationship, with very real feelings.

The chemistry between Lilah and Arthur is electric, the banter sharp, and the emotional payoff so satisfying. Arthur’s vulnerability beneath the confident exterior adds depth, and Lilah’s journey from heartbreak to healing is empowering.

With a perfect mix of adrenaline, romance, and heart, Slipstream is a fresh and fun read that’s impossible to put down. A must for fans of fake dating, revenge plots, and slow-burn chemistry.

As a Formula 1 fan at heart, I knew I absolutely had to read this. I will say romance is not a genre I tend to explore, but I am so glad I did. This is such a cute and easy read. This is Madge Maril’s debut book, and as a chronic fanfiction reader, I recognized the writing style immediately. This kind of tension-building can only be achieved by someone with an AO3 account, and oh boy, was the tension to die for. The yearning, the banter, the cocky (blonde) man, all of the things that had me kicking my feet and giggling. Arthur is hot, that is all.

With that said, I only have two qualms with the book. One being the way some mental health was portrayed. When it came to neurodivergence representation,n it felt a bit forced and almost as if victimizing Lilah, as it only seemed to be a topic when something was going terribly wrong. My other qualm, and this is a personal preference, the pacing of the relationship, specifically how quickly they seemed to do a 180 out of nowhere. It threw me a bit off guard and felt like insta-love, which is not my cup of tea.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and would definitely recommend it as a cute summer read, especially if you are a Formula 1 fan.

Thank you, Simon Books for the opportunity to read and review this arc. I look forward to seeing what else Madge Maril writes for us F1 fans.

This book was sent to me and the cover was so cool, plus I’d never read a racing romance before so I was happy to give it a try. Unfortunately you can’t judge a book by its cover and I learned that the hard way this time. I had to stop reading at 80% because it was getting worse and worse for me as I went.
The writing itself is fine, and the concept of the book was promising, however the actual execution of the plot didn’t work. The scheme of their fake dating made absolutely no sense. I couldn’t figure out why they needed to do it, how it was going to fix anything, and worst of all, why they weren’t actually pretending to date after they cooked up this scheme! The whole point of a fake dating trope in a book is so that the characters are forced to spend time together, touch, and “fake it” til they make it and actually really fall in love. In this one they decide to fake date, but then decide they have to hide the dating from everyone? It makes no sense.
The chemistry between these two is non-existent. Never has there been a couple I have cared less about. They rarely interact, and when they do they’re not even really friendly. There’s no banter, connection (physical or emotional), or anything to drive them together. Then after 70% of the book where nothing has happened between them, bam, they’re in love and literally talking about getting married and having babies together. This is when I quit.
The main character is incredibly annoying. Reading the book is like being trapped in her over analyzing mind, just listening to her rambling stream of consciousness. She has ADHD, which can often make the character or plot more interesting, but in this case it’s just the thing the main character cannot get over. She brings it up every 2 sentences. She apparently believes it’s so crippling and makes her so different that she’s impossible to love or understand. She also was adopted. This comes up almost as much as the ADHD. Instead of using these two things to make the book more complex, the author made me never want to read the term “birth mom” or “neurodivergent” again.
I hope some people can relate to the story and find it enjoyable, but for me I couldn’t be done with it fast enough.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster and Netgalley, for the chance to read this ARC!

This book made it extremely obvious that I know nothing about F1 racing 🤣 loved the dumbed-down knowledge given throughout the book. because I would have been lost without it. I would call this a semi-slowburn for the FMC but insta-love for the MMC that man was playing the game from the beginning, and I LOVED it.
I wasn't a huge fan of the inner monologuing from the FMC about how weird and alien she was, but I understand that it was giving her story more of a growth factor and coming to love and accept herself.
Max can kick rocks 🤣 disgusting little bug that needed to be squashed. I was hoping he would get publicly outted for being a two timing stupid head, but nope, he was basically left in the past by the end of the story 🫠

I received a digital review copy from NetGalley. As someone who enjoys Formula 1 romances, I can honestly say this is my favorite so far.

The story follows Lilah, who is on location to make a documentary about the F1 team Ignition, and Arthur Bianco, the team's reserve driver, attempting to make a comeback after a life-threatening crash at Monza a few years ago. When Lilah's boyfriend and business partner, Max, confesses to having an affair with one of the team's marketing employees, she teams up with Arthur to work together on the documentary, with the hope of sabotaging it and ending Arthur's contract. However, Lilah's initial disdain for all things F1 quickly shifts as she grows closer to Arthur and his team.

I felt a wide range of emotions while reading this. Both Lilah and Arthur face their own significant struggles, and Madge Maril crafts them into characters who are both lovable and infuriating. Lilah navigates her past filled with foster homes and shattered dreams of a "happily ever after," while Arthur grapples with PTSD from his crash. If you enjoy F1 and romance, this book is a must-read!

as a formula one STAN, i can’t tell you how excited i was to pick up my first ever contemporary romance centered around one of my favorite sports.

lilah is an award-winning documentarian who moves to texas to meet her boyfriend and business partner to film a documentary on a formula one team, and the team’s reserve driver, arthur. after she moves, her boyfriend dumps her and also fires her from the company she built - smh! i hate this man! she sees arthur at a bar while she’s trying to figure out next steps, and they concoct a plan to get her back to film a documentary on her terms, with him also getting to tell the story he wants, not the team.

i thought slipstream had very good bones to be great. my favorite parts were race days - it was very accurate and i felt like i was in silverstone watching arthur race. arthur is the epitome of an f1 driver - loves the thrill of racing, spends money like it’s nothing, has a cocky streak. the reason i dropped my rating was because it was hard for me to get onboard with arthur and lilah’s love story. i enjoyed the first half and it was fun to read, but it escalated too quick and i didn’t believe it. also the smut scene was kind of cringe to me…all of that slow burn and that was the scene? sigh.

i still think this was a fun read and if you want to get into formula one, this gives you a good idea of what the lifestyle is like (watch drive to survive on netflix I BEG!). i just didn’t buy the romantic connection at the end.

thank you net galley and simon & schuster for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Overall, this is a cue lil’ romance that has some sweet and redeeming moments to help you chug through the swampy bits that feel like the baby from Dinosaurs smacking you over the head with a frying pan to make a point.

Ya, for me it’s a little heavy handed in the protagonist’s constant monologue about being weird and different and neurodivergent. It also… tried to do a little too much with Lilah’s background, I think. Yes, people are nuanced—but to highlight repeatedly that she is neurodivergent, ADHD, weird, different, not like normal people, an alien, alluding to a certain diagnosis, messed up birth parents, tumultuous childhood in and out of foster care, adopted as a teen, her narrative of being left behind by everyone, her first boyfriend being truly so awful, his stunt at the beginning, the constant callbacks to why she’s so different based on her childhood - it just felt like a lot. (I say this as a neurodivergent person with ADHD and a handful of other mentally trill diagnoses.) She prides herself in truth and being an award winning documentarian, but somehow she can’t seem to look outside of her own self-narrative of “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a weirdo. I’m weird.”

A few places where just… highly unbelievable things happen. And I know this is fiction and that’s often the point! But! Lilah’s a documentarian—you’re telling me she didn’t do a lick of research into F1 before not only a) making her mind up about it, but b) going to meet their team? and c) after she decides to stay on? Maybe I’m just OLD now but I cannot imagine showing up on location to where I’ve just MOVED for a JOB without doing any homework?! It’s so unprofessional?! Wild.

There’s also a huuuuuge swing in character development (like, neurally) in Lilah that seems to largely stem from… falling in love with a rich broken hottie? The leap from her narration of her symptoms and triggers from the beginning, to them disappearing without a ton of explanation—I think that made it feel to me a little like the very trope Lilah says she hates in the book, the rich man rescuing the poor girl—in the sense that he’s human Adderall and Xanax for her at the same time. She does have certain revelations along the way, but that part of her character arc felt like hopscotch.

A few other wrinkles for me: Max felt more like a plot device than an actual character, and more like a caricature of a real douche-bro. Drivers don’t receive points in Qualis, they make the grid based on fastest lap times. A lot of unnecessary strings crisscrossing between and around characters. Sometimes, I struggled with readability/structure. Side characters in general could’ve used a little more depth!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC!

Check out this review on Fable
https://fable.co/review/ae329b58-a1e7-4c0b-88c4-327f08f2ebee/share

This was such a cute debut! I have no prior knowledge of Formula 1 so I really enjoyed learning a bit more about the sport from Slipstream. I thought the story flowed well, Lilah and Arthur's slow burn romance was paced well, and the character development is strong. Definitely pick this up if you like slow burn, fake relationships, and sports romances.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Slipstream hits shelves on May 20, 2025.

For a debut, this was fine. It isn’t bad but also isn’t great. The revenge plot from both characters had SO many moving parts, I lost interest in following it, and tried to concentrate on the romantic aspect of the story which was a task in itself.

As for the characters: the overbearing, “peculiar girl” drowning in insecurities is a bit tired. The reader is made aware time and time again that she is neurodivergent—we love representation!—but so much of her inner voice was just belittling herself, or stating how “different” it makes her, which inevitably transferred to how she dealt with the conflicts of the story. Plus, I really hate to see a female lead so down on themselves through basically all of their inner monologuing.

I also struggled to connect with either main character and the romantic chemistry between them. While the last 30% of the book saved it from being a DNF, the sudden shift from the slow-burn (almost nonexistent) romance to talk about marriage/kids/forever was so aggressive it made my head spin.

I enjoy Formula One, so I didn’t mind the detailed information about the sport. However, I would have enjoyed it more if it had balanced with more intimate moments between the main characters. This would have allowed us to witness the slow-burn romance unfold more effectively.

Sadly, I found myself skimming the last bit just to get to the end. I seem to be in the minority here, but this wasn’t for me.

I really appreciated the ADHD representation, it felt genuine and well done.

I struggled to connect with the FMC, Lilah. She was so convinced she was the odd girl out, the weird girl. Honestly, she didn’t seem that weird to me, the constantly pointing it out made it feel forced.

Arthur was by far my favorite part. I loved him and could clearly see him falling for Lilah, even if she didn’t notice.

I don’t know anything about F1, but the author explained it well enough that I never felt lost or confused.

Slipstream by Madge Maril is a unique, thought-provoking read that pulled me in with its imaginative story and engaging characters. I really enjoyed the premise and found myself invested in the emotion of the narrative. The characters felt real and raw, which made the quieter moments land with impact.

That said, the overall structure felt a bit messy at times - like it was trying to do a little too much all at once. Some transitions were intense, and a few plot points could’ve used more development. Still, there’s something special about the way it blends surrealism with personal growth, and I’m glad I read it.

Sadly DNFing at 33%. There are so many tropes being tossed around plus then all of the technical langue for both F1 and film, it didn’t make it enjoyable or easy to read. The characters were also really hard to relate to.

3.75 ⭐️

Pros: I loved the basis of the storyline—a Formula 1 romance between two characters who were very different. I also liked the representation of mental health disorders and dealing with struggles.

Cons: The details of the plot and the “spinny” writing style made the story hard to follow at times. Some of it worked, but it was a little too much for me overall.

It was fun to learn more about the Formula 1 racing world, and the romance was unique and sweet. It wasn’t a perfect book, but it was a good read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing the ARC.

This book was as much as love letter to F1 as it was a romance story. Lilah and Arther were amazing characters and I really enjoyed seeing how their story came together. Both characters are traumatized by their pasts in different ways, but they are able to find their form of common ground.

If I had one criticism, it would be that there are a few subplots that don't get fully fleshed out during the book and are ultimately forgotten. It gives the book a bit of a disjointed feeling that's hard to overcome. While I enjoyed the story overall, this is the part that threw me for a loop.

I really enjoyed this book and the writing style from Madge Maril. The book was mostly lighthearted and fun, and I can't wait to see wants next from this author.

“𝘗𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘢. 𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.”

ARTHUR THE MAN YOU ARE AHHHHHHHH.
Okay so can I just say, I have not kicked my feet, screamed, and felt so many things to the point my ears BLUSHED(!!!) in so long until I read this book.
The slowburn? To die for.
The banter? Ate that up completely.
The mental health rep in this book? Had me lowkey sobbing in all the best ways.

Arthur and Lilah are for sure that stereotypical couple you see from the outside perspective and hear people judge them for being together but in reality, they are so meant to be together it's almost painful.

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! I couldn’t put it down. Both main characters dealt with such real problems and they were handled so well on the page, and their love story?! FLAWLESS. Watching her slowly realize that he is in love with her was done so well. And the documentary footage at the end? Such a great visual. I think this is my favorite Formula 1 romance yet!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for an early copy!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: ❤️ Romance
Recommend:⚠️

I really wanted to love “Slipstream” and I really did love parts of it, but most of it fell pretty flat for me. In full disclosure, fake dating ish least favorite romance trope but I wanted to give this one a shot because of my love of Formula 1 so I’m still searching for the allusive F1 romance for me!

The plot actually worked really well for me, Lilah is a documentary film maker whose business takes on doing a documentary for an F1 team. Lilah is dubious because she doesn’t get F1 and is coming from more “important” documentaries on politics. Soon she gets assigned to a driver Arthur, and they soon begin a flirtatious fake dating relationship to get both of them out of jams.

What did not work for me at all was the chemistry and spicy scenes. I just didn’t buy it! Not only did I not feel the chemistry but the first spicy scene was totally off, to me. I get that is quite possibly just a me thing and others might love it! Just, not for me.

Slipstream was fun, emotional, sexy, and completely unputdownable. The characters are so real, honest, and just freaking authentic that I fell for them instantly. The storyline was extremely well written that now I may actually want to get into F1! Honestly, if you’re into competent men who will be patient with you while also toeing that delicious line of arguing vs flirting, Arthur is the man for you and you should 100% read this book!