Buckle up, baby... because this F1 romance is pedal-to-the-floor, hairpin-turn hot. 🏁🔥

Natalia Evans is a badass motorsports journalist with no time for games—until her biggest scoop just so happens to be the smoldering Team Principal she once had a very NSFW night with. Enter Klaus Franke: broody, broody man in a tailored suit, emotionally constipated with just enough vulnerability to make your Kindle steam.

The chemistry? Off the charts. The scandal? Juicier than pit lane gossip. And the tension? Tighter than a chicane in Monaco.

This book gives you all the F1 drama with none of the engine noise, just pure spice, snark, and swoony high-stakes slow burn. Natalia and Klaus are a mess and a half, and watching them try to resist each other is like watching two race cars flirt at 200 mph.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Enemies-ish to lovers? Forbidden past hookup? Scandal on and off the track? Coming in Hot doesn't just come in hot.....it arrives smoking. 💥💋🏎️

Arc received from the publisher; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

A journalist has a one night stand with a hot older guy only to find out he's the widowed Team Principal of an F1 team... and that she's going to have to be writing stories about him... and not to mention that their one night stand ended up with them fighting... and the misunderstandings just keep coming as they try and figure out their feelings. Once again I can only laugh at myself for thinking I could make this series work for me. I was so intrigued by the age gap relationship by the specific relationship in F1, because as an F1 girly I adore F1 romances and this dynamic is so fun... but this book was not it. Not to mention there was a whole pregnancy surprise trope in this... and this book is truly TRULY not for anyone who doesn't like miscommunication tropes because the way they are constantly mis-communicating with one another is to an insane degree. This was not giving age gap relationship in a good way, it felt like two teenagers constantly mis-communicating, icing each other out, being childish, and then barely talking it out. It was so frustrating. Its literally just as bad as the first book. I wanted to give this book a chance because I love the premise and potential and the cover was gorgeous.... but this fell so flat for me and I just dont think I will be reading this series anymore.

Release Date: June 17, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[arc review]

dnf @ 43%

i will be so honest, i had hopes for this book. even though double apex was kind of a dumpster fire dnf @ 35% for me, i had hope for natalia and klaus because i liked them in double apex. i was intrigued. so imagine my disappointment when i start reading this book and see just how angry natalia is all the time and all the time skips. klaus was tolerable. i thought he was okay and gave toto wolff vibes. yk rich hot team principal. but natalia really started to piss me off the same way phaedra and cosmin did. and the time skips?? why is every chapter a time skip?? i got so confused.

the nail in the coffin for me was the surprise pregnancy trope. that’s something i can’t read at this time so that finalized my decision to put the book down for good.

I was kind of immediately turned off by multiple things in the first chapter. She says she wants a bourbon served neat and then says “not Chardonnay or something silly with an umbrella.” Girl, what do you have against fun? Drink your lame brown liquid but don’t attack my frozen deliciousness.

And then she can suddenly pick out the German word for ‘witch’ when she says she only knows a little bit of German? I took German in high school and college and unless you went looking for that word, you wouldn’t freaking know it just by someone saying it. Hashtag annoyed.

Not for me.

Let’s just say that’s a totally applicable title, because yes, the chemistry between Klaus and Talia is scorching. In fact, Juniper excels in writing leg-crossing, hot-flashing, orgasmic tension that jumps off the page with equal amounts of heat and tenderness.

The reader meets both Klaus and Talia in Double Apex and there are certainly cameos from Phaedra and Constantin (mains from book 1), but this can easily be read as a standalone. I did appreciate how Phae’s character was viewed as frustratingly difficult by Natalia, because that was the vibe she gave off for the majority of her own book. This story involves raving, but without the lead driver energy. Austrian Emerald racing team Principal Klaus was such an unexpected change from traditional romance heroes. He’s straightforward but also quietly private and he matches Talia’s high energy with perfect aplomb. Even through their relationship starts as a one night stand (intentionally), you can feel that these two might be able to balance each other out in the long run. As a lead journalist, when Talia realizes exactly whom she’s slept with, she knows it could not have come at a worse time career wise and fights to get Klaus to see her as a writer and not just a gossip columnist.

As I mentioned, these two have off the charts chemistry and the sneaking around all over the globe for trysts felt very whirlwind even though the time line is much longer. I appreciated the atypical backgrounds for Talia and Klaus; she was raised by an aunt having two parents that made bad choices, but have now attempted to reconnect twenty some years later. He is a widow who very much loved and is somewhat still in love with his wife and both Klaus and Talia begin their connection as emotionally unavailable, but find room in their hearts for grace and love. I received an early copy from Forever. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Steam: 🪭🪭🪭.5

Thank you Josie Juniper for allowing me to read this book. I’m not a formula 1 connoisseur, but I sure love reading about them! This book was really good. I’m ready to read more or Josie Juniper!

This one just didn’t work for me. I expected a bad boy but wasn’t expecting the immediate sexual relationship. I didn’t connect to the characters.

I liked reading Coming in Hot. Both of the main characters were really messy and they had a lot of issues to work through, but I was invested after the first few chapters. The constant time hops were kind of annoying, but there was a lot of growth and change over time.

I was given an advanced copy of this book. All opinions expressed above are my own.

Once again, Josie delivered an absolute masterpiece with accurate F1 talk and just when I thought she couldn’t top Double Apex, she kind of raised the bar 🥵🥵🥵

The dramaaaaaa, the spice, the slowburn, the ups and downs, THE PLOT TWISTS, the F1 scandals. Ahhhhhhh!!! 🏎️✨

I think it was so cool for Josie to switch to a Team Principal and having this difficult/conflict of interest relationship between him and a reporter who is very eager to succeed was just “chefs kiss” 🤌🏻

There’s this thing Josie does when the 3rd act breakup seems so definitive and like everything is lost 😩 and when they find a way it’s just too cute 😭

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Forever Publishing and Josie Juniper!! 🏎️✨

I started this book, but unfortunately had to DNF after a few chapters, the characters were not hitting the mark for me. I didn't feel much chemistry between Klaus and Natalia even though they jumped right into it. And the friendship between Phaedra and Natalia was feeling a bit toxic. I was really excited for this book and I may go back and try to read again at a later date and give it more of a chance, but right now I was just not feeling it. I also felt from the bit I read that this could've used a bit more editing to tighten up the story a bit.

4 stars

I mistakenly requested this ARC forgetting i was not a fan of the first book in this series but was actually pleasantly surprised. A friend of mine who loved the first book wasn't a fan of this one so it makes me think that if you liked the first, you might not like this but also vice versa because I had a fun time. The spice was hot ubt also fit both characters really well and I like how they progressed through making things a little kinkier. I also appreciated seeing Phae being acknowledged as incredibly difficult as a friend because honestly I was not a fan of her in the first book. I felt both Natalia and Klaus made decisions that really fit their story and personalities so the 3rd act breakup made a lot of sense given the circumstances. And that the reconciliation wasn't a easy feat either was very fitting. And minor spoiler but i feel the foreshadowing was pretty obvious, Natalia gets pregnant close to 85% and it is not an instant get back together situation which I think was fair and really good for the story.

Regarding the narrators, I struggled just a little with them both. I felt the female narrator at times spoke the MMC in a hard to understand accent and also the rerecorded sections were very different in quality/sound and it was jarring. The male narrator was good as Klaus but his female voices for other characters were a bit rough for me personally.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

3.75 rounded up!
I enjoyed this second book in the Frontrunners series! Klaus and Natalia were definitely intriguing from the breadcrumbs left in Double Apex. Both characters have many flaws but they work things out. Yes, both MCs SHOULD have communicated SO much better but they are both scarred from the past. I think both of them definitely need therapy 😅 but overall I enjoyed the pacing and spice of the book.

Also, I understand why Phaedra plays the “dead dad” card when talking to Nat about her freezing out her parents, but as someone with both a dead parent AND parental trauma from the other one leaving and not having a relationship, it was frustrating to see how callous she was. Natalia did not owe her parents anything and for BOTH Klaus and Phae to guilt trip her, it was wrong. I know it works out in the end but still. And UNFORTUNATELY there is an undisclosed third act accidental pregnancy. I wish I would’ve known because while it wasn’t the reason for their ‘break up’, it was a frustrating point for me.

Overall a solid age gap, ONS, spicy romance but there were some issues too.

3.5 stars

I loved, Double Apex, the first book on this series so much; so excited for this book.

It started out good for me. I enjoyed Natalia and Klaus and their initial spicy meeting. I like that they were both older - 35 and 45 years old.

There are a lot of time jumps throughout this book, though, that are of a considerable amount of time. It made me feel like something was missing for their character and relationship development. Then, when they were together, there were a lot of ups and downs, fights and disagreements.

I read this as well as listened. The narrators, Max Rauch and Cecily Foster, were both good. It’s dally narrated.

Thank you to Forever Publishing, Hachette Audio, NetGalley and the author for an advanced readers copy and an advanced listeners copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sad to say, but this book was not for me. It actually started out somewhat interesting, with their one night stand that ended in a bad note and unfortunately for me, it never really picked up from there. From the time jumps to the wooden characters and dialogue… I just couldn’t get invested in the characters or the story. And these are people in their mid 30s and 40s? One leads an F1 team and another is a professional journalist? I’m not buying it with the way these characters have acted or talked. I’d be more sympathetic if there were a reason or motivation for their actions but I’d need someone to point this out to me because it’s clearly gone over my head.

I’m hoping this is a me problem, and this book finds its audience with someone else.

Thank you to NetGalley, Josie Juniper, and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Natalia Evans is at the top of her game. She's the lead reporter for Auto Racing Journal, and she gets to travel around the world filming content and conducting interviews with different racers and top people in the F1 scene. Enter Klaus Franke, the Emerald Team Principal. She's asked by her publicist to interview him for an article for Auto Racing Journal, and that doesn't sound too bad...but there's a catch: he's the same guy she had a one-night stand with, and she's not particularly on good terms with him.

I honestly don't even know where to start with this disaster of a book, so I guess let's start with the pacing. Almost EVERY chapter was a time jump. Whether it was 1 or 2 weeks, to even longer ones like 3 or 6 months out, there was a time jump. I get it; the F1 racing schedule has breaks in between races, just like any other sport, like American football, for example. However, as a result, there were SO many things that happened OFF-page that we suddenly get information about ON-page, and we just have to assume that it happened off-page in between all the time jumps. Like, there was a part in the book where Natalia and her best friend Phaedra, who works for Emerald racing as one of their engineers, are getting along, and then one chapter and 3 weeks later, they're suddenly beefing and not speaking to each other? I literally had to do a double-take to make sure I didn't miss anything.

As a result of all of that, there was a LOT of telling, but NOT a lot of showing. There's a big scandal that the book centers around that Natalia is trying to get a lead on so she can write a report on it all, and it was brought up A LOT but never elaborated on further. There were SO many times where I felt like this book wasn't even a finished book; it was a lot of concepts that the author WANTED in the book and threw them all into the book, but then never explained or went further on any of the topics AT ALL. I get it, I read an ARC and an ARC is never the final version of a book, but it's pretty darn close to the final product. This felt like this was like the FIRST draft of the book overall.

Now, my LEAST favorite part of the entire book: the characters. I don't think I've ever read about so many unlikeable characters in one book ALL at once.

Let's start with Natalia and Klaus, because they go hand in hand. They were like the most toxic couple on the planet, and calling them a couple is me being EXTREMELY generous. Like, their relationship isn't the guilty pleasure kind of toxic that you'd read about in say, The Favorites by Layne Fargo if anyone's read that book. It's not the kind of toxic love that makes you want to keep reading because you want to find out if their story will have an HEA or go up in flames, because reading about Natalia and Klaus from the very first chapter, I knew that this wasn't going to go well. Like, you know it's going to be bad when their very first interaction ends in Klaus offering Natalia money because he thinks she's a prostitute, because that's his "autopilot" reaction.

Their entire relationship was built on lies, secrets, half-truths, and more lies, and the only thing that was keeping them together was their physical chemistry. Aside from all of that, they were also extremely immature for people who are 35 (Natalia) and 45 (Klaus). I wouldn't even say they were strangers to enemies to lovers; they were just strangers to enemies who would occasionally hook up to get it out of their systems....like...enemies with benefits? They spend way more time bickering, yelling at each other, giving each other the cold shoulder, etc., than actual, cute, wholesome moments. Any cute moments that they had, I felt were washed out by their constant bickering like children. Not to mention that Natalia is a grown, mature woman who KNOWS that having a physical relationship with a Team Principal is unprofessional and unethical since she's been assigned by her boss to interview him, yet she still chooses to do it anyway, even though every interaction she and Klaus have usually ends in a screaming match and them walking away from each other. I came here to read a cute, spicy F1 romance, not two fully-grown adults having temper tantrums and acting like children towards each other. It was so hard to root for either of them when both of them were immature.

Also, can we take a moment to talk about Klaus's dialogue? Why did he sound like a 70-year-old man from 1850s England? HE'S 45 IN THE 21st CENTURY; HE'S NOT THAT OLD, GUYS. I HAVE COWORKERS WHO ARE THAT AGE AND THEY DO NOT TALK LIKE THAT. Here's a sample of some of his dialogue:

"A stroll it is. Perhaps the beach."
"You allowed me very little time"
"As yet undetermined"

As for Phaedra, Natalia's best friend, she's like the one toxic "friend" you have that only ever comes around when she needs something from you and then as soon as you fulfill your purpose, it's like you never existed to her. She also gives "my way or the highway" sort of vibes and also gives me the impression that because she's "not like other girls" (she's a race engineer so she's a STEM girly, hates wearing dresses, wears nerdy graphic t-shirts) that it gives her a free pass on her horrible behavior. I didn't realize that she has her own book, Double Apex, but I haven't read it. I could be getting the completely wrong impression of her, but she's not giving me good vibes right now.

I could go on and on about this book and how much I abhor it, but I genuinely think the only purpose this book has is to raise your blood pressure over how angry you'll get reading it. I would honestly gift this to my worst enemy so they have to go through what I went through reading this and that's pretty much the only person I'd recommend this to. Save your time, energy, and money on reading an actual good F1 romance series.

Natalia and Klaus’ relationship in book 1 was very tempting to me and was excited to read their story. The timeline with the beginning of this book overlaps a bit with the first book, some things that happened in book one are glossed over in book two and vice versa. Klaus and Natalia were so cute and angsty and maybe a little frustrating because they couldn’t just have an open conversation. But I enjoyed the ride.

I have been on a little bit of a F1 romance kick, so when I saw this was available, I wanted to try it. Unfortunately, the story structure, pacing, and general style was not really for me.

This most reminds me of You, Again by Kate Goldbeck, so if you were a fan of that, you might enjoy Coming in Hot as well. It spans over the course of quite a long time--over a year, maybe 2? longer with the epilogue. It starts off with a one night stand, getting straight into the spice (though it's not like every chapter is spicy; this isn't erotica). Every chapter, there are time skips of a few days, weeks, or even several months, with the main characters dating, then not dating, then not speaking then being friends, etc. I think the big skips made it hard for me to connect with the characters, as most of their development and the plot occurred off page in between the chapters. I did find both the FMC and the MMC, as well as several supporting characters, to be sort of toxic and surprisingly immature.

Tropes:
Insta-lust
Age Gap
Miscommunication
Forbidden Romance
Widower
Accidental Pregnancy

Thank you to NetGalley and Forver (Grand Central Publishing) for providing the ARC.

So, after reading Double Apex and not really vibing with it, I decided to give Josie Juniper a second chance with this book, and I think I am really just not the right reader for her.

I personally disliked Natalia, a lot. She rubbed the wrong way with her "not like other girls" demeanor and how she came across as a pick me. She was super whiny and indecisive, which is a big pet peeve of mine and honestly turned me off from ever relating to her as a character. Klaus was also kind of toxic and manipulative from the start, so much that I had a hard time picturing him as a leading man. Their fights, the break ups and make ups were exhausting, and it only served to frustrate me more.

Not what I wanted out of a book, and likely will be the last book by Josie Juniper I'll read.

I ended up DNFing this title about halfway through. I was trying my hardest to power through but it just isn't the title for me.

First, almost immediately the FMC makes a "not like other girls" insinuation about alcoholic drinks - she drinks bourbon and not "drinks with silly umbrellas" - it is 2025, can we not just leave that type of thinking in the past? All it does (for me) is make the person judgey and unlikable.

Then, the text messages were just an obnoxious way to info dump without really trying to actually incorporate the backstory naturally. There are ways it can work, but the text conversations felt stilted and unnecessary.

The spice was honestly awkward and not "hot" at all, I ended up skimming it because I just could not take it seriously and that's very outside the norm for me.

I wanted to like this book but really even in the first 10% there were too many dings against it and by halfway I just couldn't do it anymore.

This is book two in the Frontrunner series! While this can technically be read as a standalone, I highly recommend starting with Double Apex first. The timelines overlap, and having that extra context would’ve definitely made for a smoother ride 🏁📖

That said… this book was a fun, fiery, and super steamy read! 🥵 The story spans a couple of years, so the pacing is fast — like pedal-to-the-metal fast. While that kept things exciting, the frequent time jumps made it a bit tricky to fully connect with the characters. The author tells us a lot about Klaus and Natalia’s chemistry, but for most of the first 60%, their scenes are either full-on fighting or hooking up 🥊🔥 — which made it feel more like lust than love.

I did find myself wishing for a bit more development, especially when it came to friendships — I wanted to understand Natalia and Phaedra’s dynamic better 👯‍♀️. BUT! The last 40% really delivered. That’s when we get more emotional growth, connection, and heart — and I loved seeing that side of their relationship bloom 💖

If you’re into fast-paced, high-heat romances with second-chance vibes and racing backdrops, this one’s worth checking out 🏎️💨