firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and an alc

2.5 stars

omg, this book is full of wildly toxic characters from the fmc and mmc, to the fmc’s parents, to the fmc’s best friend. it’s rare i say this considering my stance on spice (i prefer phenomenal plot with well deserved earned spice), but the spicy scenes were the only thing good about this book.

as for the audio, there were dual narrators and they did a great job!

I really tried to enjoy this one. If I view it as a collection of short stories featuring the same couple, it’s easier to find things I liked about it. The lust and physical chemistry between Natalia and Klaus was definitely fiery and present. There was no doubt about that. There were also a lot of discussions that could be had about family dynamics and professionalism boundaries based on various events and histories revealed.

As a whole book, this was very disjointed for me. There was an overabundance of telling rather than showing much of any real relationship development. I understood the idea of only having chapters set at a Grand Prix location, but it made the story feel disconnected. There was so much I felt like was missed between time jumps, and it made it seem like Natalia and Klaus didn’t spend any time together outside of weekend events, and if they did it was just told about after the fact. I couldn’t find it in me to care much about their relationship outside of their steamy hookups.

I had the audiobook along with the ebook. The audio performances were fine. I wasn’t blown away or fully sucked into the story, but the narrators were pleasant enough that I feel that was more to do with the actual book content than the performance either was giving.

Thank you to Forever and Hachette Audio for the eARC and ALC respectively via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 15%. Thank you to Forever for a copy of this arc. I thought the premise of this book was so promising but unfortunately I had a difficult time following the timeline because of all the time jumps. I also thought the characters acted a good bit younger than they actually were at times. I'm new to F1 and really enjoyed that aspect of the story, If you like F1 and books that span a longer timeline this book might be fore you!

Coming in Hot was one of my most anticipated June 2025 releases since I loved Josie's debut, Double Apex. Unfortunately, I found Natalia and Klaus's story more frustrating than enjoyable. Their back and forth got old very quickly but the entire book is mostly one of the two characters being dumb and pushing the other away. I expected more from an age gap romance where the main love interests have an intense connection and trauma influencing their choices. I did appreciate Natalia's character growth and the side plot featuring her biological parents. Klaus's journey with grief was well done as well and I overall enjoyed their separate character arcs. Basically, Coming in Hot has some great elements but the main plot point, the romance, made me want to pull my hair out at times.

Thank you to Forever Publishing, NetGalley, and the author for sending me an early copy.

The book was...questionable. The romance wasn't romancing; they got together and broke up about five times throughout the book and the only thing they did was have copious amounts of sex. No true connection formed between them whatsoever. The MMC had questionable thoughts at time and they both acted like they were 18 even though they were in their 30-40s. The last part of the book was genuinely laborous to get through. The dealing of serious topics was weird and the characters failed to feel realistic. I don't want this to be a whole page of my woes with the book,but it was really disappointing.

Rating: 2.5 🌟

Coming In Hot is my first foray in the F1 romance world which is one I think I'll want to look more into! But...maybe not this series again.

Our two main POVs are Natalia, a sports reporter looking for her next big break, and Klaus, the Emerald Team Principle. They initially meet through a one night stand where they share nothing but a bed, not even names. Eventually, they realize each others identities their relationship evolves from there.

I overall thought the conflicts between Natalia and Klaus made sense. Both of them come with a lot of baggage that reasonably affect their lives. I also appreciated how driven Natalia was and that she always stood up for herself. Both leads are very complex, sometimes grating on my nerves and other times making my heart flutter. The writing style was something I also enjoyed, very bingable.

But, I struggled to get behind this couple. Every chapter starts with a time skip, sometimes weeks, sometimes multiple months. While it's understandable, both of their jobs are flying around the world, it is a huge hurdle for the reader. We are told that they are growing so close, falling in love. But all of that development is almost exclusively off page. Honestly, almost everything is off page. What we do see, is lots of fighting, lying to each other, and sex. My biggest issue is not only the third act break up (which is a pretty big betrayal) but what comes after. The reveal completely derailed the entire story in my opinion. It was just something to force them back together and come out of no where.

I was excited for the idea of this book, but I think the execution fell through for me in some places. To start, I felt I didn't really get into the F1 world in this book as much as I have in other F1 romances. The characters would casually mention things, but it just didn't feel like either lead had a passion for it. I loved the chemistry between the leads, especially during their initial meeting! However, at certain points it felt like they had impossible expectations of each other. This book also had a trope that I historically do not love. Overall, I wish I loved this book more than I did!

I'm waffling on the rating. I think it's close to a 3.5 but I'll round up. I keep searching for the perfect F1 romance and I'm getting closer but not there yet. The first book in this series waffled for me too, eventually the MMC redeemed the story and I had a lot of fun reading it. This one was a little more precarious. I really liked the MMC but I don't think he got a just story line, some things didn't make sense to his character.

The FMCs also seem to have inconsistent events to push the plot and that bugs me a bit but really no more or less then any other rom/com.

Again, I'll stick with the series. I like what Josie is trying to do and I think she'll really hit her stride soon.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this title. I attest that I am leaving my review voluntarily and honestly.

As soon I read Double Apex (book one of the Frontrunner's series), I knew I wanted Natalia and Klaus' story. There was mystery and tension with these two characters. So, it was exciting to learn that this was book 2 of the series.

From page one, we jump into how they met and the back and forth of this relationship over approx 2ish years as they travel the F1 circuit around the world.

Things I liked:
- The title/cover
- Silver fox type MMC
- f1/stem
- romantic tension
- a follow up of a storyline from book 1 that had me intrigued

Things I didn't love:
- a bit too much on/off again
- 3rd act break up (by this point it was almost like - uff they just aren't meant to be)
- lying
- female friendship was rocky (book 1 and 2)

**potential spoilers**
There's a surprise pregnancy - which I don't necessarily loathe but with their relationship it was a bit of an eye roll and despite it being said that they weren't going to get back together "for the baby" it kinda felt that way.

3.75 ⭐ rounded up to 4⭐

Coming in Hot by Josie Juniper is the second book in the Frontrunners series.

Sadly, this book was a total miss for me. I was excited to read Klaus and Natalia’s book but it turned into a frustrating read. I didn’t enjoy the miscommunication, the very little F1 content, and the lack of character development.

Thank you Forever and NetGalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I never thought I'd be into a racing romance, but decided to give this one a try and found myself SO interested into it. This just confirms that it doesn't matter the sport, sports romances will always pull me in.

Thanks so much for the gifted copy!

This is a miss for me. The FMC and her best friend are annoying, both FMC and MMC aren’t able to communicate effectively. She also gets annoyed that the people in her life are weary to say anything work related around her because of her job when it’s valid when her job literally effects theirs

It was a fun book with a flirty relationship between FmC and MMc. I was glad they finally came to their senses and found their happy ever after.

I was hesitant picking up this F1 Romance after reading reviews of the first in the series and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this one.

Without spoilers I’ll say this includes some of my least favorite tropes and although a bit predictable at times they were done well.

Angst is a perfect word to describe Natalia in this book. I didn’t find her to be that lovable of a character but still rooted for her throughout. I’m choosing to ignore how similar I felt Klaus resembles a certain team principal because I don’t personally need to go down that rabbit hole 😜.

I appreciated how much of Josie Juniper’s love of F1 shown in this book. It’s my first time reading an F1 romance book with the team principal as the love interest and it helped the book feel unique. The brief touches on politics and running the team were fun to read as a new F1 fan.

I’ll start off my admitting I don’t know a thing about Formula 1 racing! But I don’t know much about most sports and love a good sports romance. I really like the one night stand turned more trope, so I was excited to get the ARC for this book! I’ll be honest though it wasn’t my favorite. I felt like the FMC was immature, and the interactions between the MCs could have been more. I also am not a fan of accidental pregnancy, so that put me off as well. In the end it’s not too bad of a book, but just not really for me.

3 Stars I was so excited for the second book in Josie Juniper's Frontrunners series about the members of a Formula 1 racing team, especially since I loved the first book, Double Apex. Sadly, this one was a bit of a letdown, mostly due to the characters and tropes.

Journalist Natalia Evans has reached the height of her career with a new position for Auto Racing Journal, covering Formula 1 races around the world. She gets to spend time with her best friend, Phaedra, who own a team and meet legends of the industry. The only downside of the position? One of those legends is Klaus Franke, Team Principle of Emerald, Phaedra's team, and Natalia's one night stand. Klaus is off-limits, but that doesn't stop their attraction. Widowed and burned by the press, he's hesitant to let his walls down around Natalia, both personally and professionally. With a scandal brewing in the F1 world, Natalia needs his help to cover the story, but Klaus doesn't seem keen to help. Will he ever let her in?

I love Phaedra and Cosmin's story, so I was thrilled that Natalia and Klaus were getting a book after their obvious attraction and history in Double Apex. But Coming in Hot was a bit of a letdown. There isn't as much character development as I would've liked to have seen. Both let go of their pasts to move on together, but they still don't really grow together as a couple in a healthy relationship. I also really disliked the miscommunication between the two. Or how when they decided to be completely honest with each other moving forward in their relationship, they both still kept secrets from the other. It was a frustrating read and I didn't think the "twist" for the third act was appropriate in this context, despite both being happy. There was also much less about the racing world than the first book and I'm bummed that the scandal plot fell flat. On the positive, this book kept a nice pace and covered a lot of time.

Thanks Forever for the ARC! Coming in Hot release June 17th.

1.5 stars.

"Coming in Hot" by Josie Juniper is not great at all. I tried to read the first book in this series, but I DNF'ed it. I thought that this sequel and interconnected standalone might be better than the first, but alas, it is not. I must admit, I do not know a thing about F1 racing, but I love when romance books can teach me a thing or two about a sport, like putting my baby toe in the pool to see if I am interested. If you're going to use this book to further your education about the sport of F1 racing, please look elsewhere, because barely anything F1-related happens during this story. I typically love age-gap romances featuring older people, but the characters, Natalia and Klaus, are painfully immature and cannot communicate properly to save their lives. These characters are supposed to be in their mid-30s and 40s, and they act like they are 14! I understand that Natalia has unresolved trauma stemming from abandonment issues, but she never attempts to work on them to better her relationship with Klaus. She merely brings all of those feelings into every interaction she has with him, and comes off as defensive. And Klaus sucks in his own right! He throws money at every problem to try and get them to go away. He is constantly lying to Natalia, and he hides things from here every chance he gets. He thinks he knows what is best for her when really, he's trying to save his own skin or be selfish one way or another. The characters fight and make up, fight and make up, fight and make up, and after about the 50th time, I just stopped caring??? I never, ever wanted them to be together. To make matters worse, Natalia and Klaus have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. All of the drama surrounding their "will they, won't they?" relationship is a moot point anyway because readers don't get the sense that they even *like* each other because there is no spark between them, no yearning feelings, no love between them! The pacing is awful. It goes from way too fast to snail-paced slow, to way too fast again, and back to snail-paced slow every few chapters. There are also 8000 time jumps that I couldn't accurately tell you how long the book had gone on. I appreciate the attempt to give readers some semblance of an extended time period, but having multiple weeks or months skipped every other chapter made it pointless. It's all so sloppy and choppy that, frankly, I am surprised this was greenlit for shelves. I felt like this book was actively trying to fight me every step of the way to care about it. It took everything in me to pay attention to this book while I was reading it. I will not be reading this author again. This is the second time I have attempted to do so and have been met with negative feelings each time after reading her work. I was actively angry at these characters while reading this book. It feels like this author was simply trying to capitalize on the popularity of F1 racing in the romance genre and pumped out two books really quickly without truly caring about what the substance of the story was. Please skip this one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Josie Juniper, and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

I can only blame myself for getting confused about which F1 series this was and grabbing this book. I hated and DNFd the first one and I hated and DNFd this one too. I love F1. I understand the sport and the structure of it, but oh my god more happens in the sport than only on race weekends. That's true with this book too, but for some reason the author only wrote the race weekends so it felt like half the story was missing and we were just being told about things that happened in the in between. I don't want to be told about people falling in love, I want to see it and experience it with them, instead I felt like I was constantly playing catch up. Both Natalia and Klaus were extremely unlikeable (I don't mind this trope but there has to be something about them for me to root for or at the very leas something interesting about them and their story to keep me interested). I DNFd before the accidental pregnancy that another reviewer mentioned but holy hell, that needs a trigger warning or a mention in the blurb.

This was an amazing formula 1 romance!! I really love Josie juniper writing style! I definitely will be reading more books by her. Some tropes I loved in this book were one night stand turned more, age gap, forced proximity, and age gap

Thank you to Forever Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I will say I honestly did not enjoy the first book in this series. I didn't even finish it. I am blaming that on how it was presented but also the fact that I listened to it on audio and really didn't like the narrators. But I wanted to give this author another chance and went in with zero expectations of what I would find. I'm glad I gave it a go. This presentation was much better than her first. My search for F1 books that truly present the sport in an easy and believable fashion has been wanting. Add in romance and there's the potential for disaster if it's not done right.
Things I enjoyed in this book:
The age-gap romance. While there was a gap, I didn't feel like it was so big the characters seemed like they would never truly be together. Both characters were mature enough to know what they wanted from life and where they wanted their lives to go.
The fast but slow burn romance. Since it starts with a bang and then falls back, I needed to watch that burn and love it. I did. There was chemistry, yes, but also a connection between the characters that was palpable.
The emotional turmoil of the characters seemed on point. I felt it to my bones when they suffered and when they felt joy.
The pacing was good. I never felt like it stalled or like there were times I didn't want to continue reading. As a matter of fact, I read this title in a very short time.
Dual POV. I was happy with how it was presented. I love being in an MMCs head almost as much as an FMCs head. It was nice to have Klaus showing us who he was rather than just seeing it through Natalia's eyes.
What I didn't like:
Surprise pregnancy. Ok, I won't say I didn't like it totally. I knew it was coming. It was very obvious with how the author set up the relationship and with the conversations that were being had, I just didn't totally believe the things that happened when it was revealed.
The ending. It just kind of ends? There's no epilogue, no nothing. I feel like I was left wanting more. Wanting to know if there was a happily ever after. Wanting to know where their lives took them given their circumstances.
While there is mention of the characters from the first book, and things that happened that were important (yes I read enough of the first book to know things that were important), they are not built upon in any appropriate manner. The author assumes you've read the first book and know what happened. I needed more flashbacks so the story made sense. This elimination left plot holes. There's a ton of overlap between book 1 and 2 and it seemed the author did not care to share why it was important.
Given the characters ages, I felt like there was more drama than was necessary. For adults in their 30s and 40s, it was more like teen or young adult angst. I just didn't believe in it as much as I would have liked.
Would I recommend this book? I sure would, but only if you've read the first one so you have the background. And I recommend reading them one after the other, so the plot is not confusing or forgotten. Juniper does a better job with the F1 in this book, as well. In the first book, I felt like she shoved a lot of technical information at the reader. For someone who doesn't follow the sport, it was hard to absorb. This book was much lighter on that and easier to understand.