Personal Compatibility 3.5 ⭐️
For its Written Purpose 3.75 ⭐️

I won't lie, the story itself had me hooked. A hot older man who is filthy rich & is the Team Principal of an F1 team is like a total dream. And I did love Natalia and her story as well. BUT the pacing always felt a bit like it was jumping around too much and moved right as the reader was getting settled into a certain scene or dynamic.

The plot/romance barriers were realistic and I thought were well done, but this book has accidental pregnancy which I absolutely hate. If we act like it ends at 80% I think my rating would be much higher, but the last 20% was a painful read for me personally.

Gotta love an AU Toto Wolff Age-Gap fanfic tho 😮‍💨 plenty of spice and plenty of book 1's characters as well. The timelines of the 2 books matched up really well and filled in a lot of the gaps!

I'll be reading book 3 for sure because I do like Sage and think she will have a great story to tell!

Absolutely loved this- devoured it in a day. I just wish the ending had been a tad bit longer. But maybe we will see more of the couple in Sages book!

4/5!

I enjoyed the second book in Josie’s F1 Team Emerald world! It was fun getting to know Klaus and Natalia more after meeting them in Double Apex. The book was SPICY & Natalia and Klaus had great chemistry. the characters were more complex than what originally meets the eye, and both demonstrated growth throughout the book. The F1 elements throughout were fun, and I’m happy I started this book right before the season started!

Would recommend this for readers who like:
-age-gap
-billionaire romance
-forbidden/workplace romance
- F1 romance

DNF 12%

I just couldn't handle the shallowness anymore. These characters have zero depth, their actions make zero sense, there is zero chemistry between the two mains. ZERO ZERO ZERO. I'm usually not one to DNF but this was giving me a literal headache to read. Apologies to Forever Publishing for this review but thank you for sending me eARCs, I love you so much!

I did not feel invested in this couple. It had spice but I felt like the plot was lacking. Definitely disappointing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 ⭐️ This was the second book in the frontrunners, and I actually enjoyed it more than the first. We have an F1 romance between the team principal and a journalist (a more realistic seeming billionaire romance than most). The book takes place over a significant amount of time, so we frequently miss weeks or months between sections.

In some ways the time jumps worked. I could feel the longing between Natalia and Klaus. They were both definitely going through things! In other areas, the time jumps made the book feel choppy.

I felt like the pacing was a little bit off. Not very much happened the first half of the book (except building the longing), but the second half was packed with so many important plot points. I think there could have been more balance.

I enjoyed the bits of Sage we got in this book, so I will be reading the next one!

Thanks NetGalley for the eARC

I really did try to like this book, but it just fell flat for me. I was into it at the beginning, but as the book went along it became very repetitive. I am not a fan of miscommunication so the fact that it was basically all this book was, made me not enjoy it as much. The characters were constantly going back and forth to the point it wasn’t even enjoyable anymore.

I really enjoyed this book! The plot was fresh and interesting and I really enjoyed the characters, as well as their different personalities!

This is my first time reading a Formula 1 romance, and oh my gosh was it a ride! F1 romances are trendy right now, so I had to see for myself what it was all about. From the first chapter, I was hook! Natalia and Klaus had so much chemistry and sexual tension, but of course, their profession-Natalia, a journalist and Klaus, a F1 Team Principal-creates a challenge. Mixing business and pleasure is not often a good idea. They are both at the peak of their careers, and there is too much at risk. Then, there are also the personal issues they are going through. Hence, the push and pull. I found the storytelling of their romance interesting, months and months of pining, the encounters as they travel across the world for different races is foreplay for them. Natalia and Klaus together is screaming sexy and steamy. The way Klaus talks, swoooonnn!

I know nothing about F1 races, so reading this was also a learning experience. I definitely need to pick up Double Apex, the first book in the series.

>>> One night stand
>>> Age gap
>>> Widowed MMC
>>> Forbidden romance
>>> Formula 1 Drama
>>> Abandonment issues
>>> Steamy and a lil kinky

Thank you to Forever for the e-arc!

*"Coming in Hot" by Josie Juniper is a sizzling, fast-paced romance that perfectly blends the thrill of Formula 1 with irresistible chemistry. With a strong, ambitious heroine and a brooding, mysterious love interest, this book delivers tension, passion, and just the right amount of scandal to keep you hooked until the final lap!

Double Apex was one of my favourite reads of 2024 and I was so excited to read this one. I'm so sad to say that this one fell flat for me. The time jumps were sporadic which made the story feel choppy, the tension wasn't there like double apex and the trope at the end wasn't for me.

This story started so strong. Natalia and Klaus meet at a hotel and have a steamy night together. After a miscommunication and blunder by Klaus, they dont see each other again for three months and that could summarize what happens for most of the book. They get together, they have a miscommunication or Klaus messes up then they dont see each other for months. I really wanted to like it but I was getting whiplash from the back and fourth. For a couple in their 30s and 40s, they felt incredibly immature. I was also extremely disappointed by the ending.

after being disappointed by the first book in the series, I decided to give one more chance to the author and to this universe but I found this novel lacking, I didn't particularly care about any of the main characters and I very much disliked one plot point that happens later in the story as well as the third act break up.

After the disappointment of the first book and learning a bit more of what happens in this one, I won't be bothering with it.

This book had bones for a really great story between two characters with complex backstories. Overall, I did enjoy reading this and it was interesting to see how these two would navigate their relationship while handling the burdens of their trauma. Plus, the spice was really well done.

That being said, there are two issues with this book that I think hold it back from being a real standout for romance readers. First being the constant time lapses between chapters. There was SO MUCH context and character development that occurred between these chapters that would've made this so much stronger. Not to mention, the interfemale relationships deserved a more prominent spotlight in this book. I would have loved to see more interactions between Natalia and the three prominent female characters in her life (Phaedra, Aunt Min and Sheila, of course). The real meat of the story was left out in favor of the internal war of whether or not she should be with Klaus.

Secondly, there were a few moments where the language was suddenly so clinical it took me out of the moment. Don't get me wrong, I love a good set of vocabulary that makes me lock in a little closer to the meaning of the words, but the overly formal dialogue was just a bit detached for me. This is a romance, it should be passionate rather than stuffy and formal.

I still give it three stars for being an entertaining read. I'd love to pick up other books in the series to see some more Josie Juniper characters!

The story was fun to read about Natalia and Klaus’ romance and going into the F1 universe once more. I enjoyed the age-gap and their chemistry - just not as invested in their relationship - although I enjoyed the build up with their relationship.

I picked this up because I am a new fan of F1 and love the setting! I did enjoy this book but had some issues/questions to it: 1) their immediate fling which is the basis for the title - I know it’s a romance but I wish there was some stranger danger alarms in their heads. 2) the description of Klaus resembling Toto, who is a handsome man but not the man I want to picture in some of these scenes (and poor Susie aka Sofia), 3) Natalia’s age - she sometimes felt younger than a mid-30s woman. I am also in this age range and I sometimes felt she needed to grow up and i can see how it’s inferred by her upbringing but her and Phae felt young with little responsibility. I did see growth and I am glad the family got back together and started to heal. Things tied up well but I wasn’t on the edge of my seat or always rooting for the main love story. They’re likable but something was a bit off for me.

Cars. Spice. Angst. Billionaire Romance-ish?
The sexual tension between the two main characters, Klaus and Natalia was thick! Whew!
The main characters have extremely complex histories with strained relationships that significantly impact and direct their interactions throughout the story.
While we got a great deal of character development, I felt that there was a lot of build up (based on character backgrounds) and then we didn't go anywhere with the build up in the plot. The connectedness of the plot was a bit lacking for me and I feel like I am still waiting for something to happen.
The spice in the book was top tier, but I wanted more plot, more excitement. I think another aspect I had some trouble with was the time jumps. Usually this doesn't bother me, but something about the way this was written into the plot with the dual POV was frustrating.
I do think with more plot development, this could have easily been a 3-4 star book for me.
I want a Cosmin and Phaedra book!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

With the newest season of F1 on Netflix currently I had to bump this one up on my tbr. I really wanted to love it - steamy, team principal and a journalist, he's a widower, it had the makings of a great romance. However, each chapter jumps in time whether it's a week, two weeks, a month, two months making it very hard to keep track of what is going on. The entire book takes place in about a 2 year time period. I felt that it was choppy with key plot points missing when there was so much potential.

I was interested to read this after seeing these characters in the first Frontrunners book. I have been loving Formula 1 romances lately. It was nice seeing how Natalia and Klaus’s relationship developed throughout the story. Overall, I just wish that I could’ve connected to the characters a little bit more.



Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!