Oh my gosh. I just couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. This was not good. Not good at all.

Natalia alone was so toxic and needed therapy. Stat. To say her “best friend” is hard to love makes you question everything. Not that Phaedra is any better but damn. From her best friend to her parents, Natalia needed therapy.

Klaus isn’t any better. I cringed so much when he gave Natalia money after their first night together. 😓 Also where was the chemistry? The romance? Not in this book. Even the spice scenes had me bored to tears. I give it a 1 🌶️ out of 5.

The only way you know the timeline anywhere in this book is if you’re familiar with the F1 schedule. Otherwise, you’re wondering where you’re at in the year. I strongly dislike too when an author tells you what happened rather than show you. The writing absolutely left a lot to be desired that I don’t think I’ll be reading another book by this author.

Thank you NetGalley, Forever and Josie Juniper for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

this was just not as good as the first for me, probably closer to a 3.5 but it just didn’t hit like i needed and i truly couldn’t get over the idea that she was only with him cause of her daddy issues

thank you to netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest feedback!

A long awaited follow up to Double Apex. Talia and Klaus are the definition of opposites attract and finding comfort and home in a partner. Klaus, hottie mcsuave and team principal, is strong sturdy and sexy as sin. Natalia brings life, lightness, and connection to Klaus and he is her safe place to land. I am so happy to be back in this high speed F1 world.

After a decade in journalism, Natalia Evans has finally made the jump to her dream job - lead reporting for Auto Racing Journal (ARJ). Leading up to her first assignment, she decides to spend an intimate night with a smoking hot stranger she met in a hotel bar, only to find out he's the Team Principal for Emerald, Klaus Franke. Enchanted by Natalia but still feeling the death of his wife, Klaus is torn between pursuing the young journalist or keeping her at arm's length when they're both enmeshed in a high-stakes scandal.

I wanted to love this one so much, but it was a huge miss for me. First off - is everyone in Natalia's life ridiculously toxic? Her best friend literally doesn't talk to her for months because Natalia doesn't give in to her childish whims for once. Meanwhile, her parents, who have been absent since she was a child, randomly reappear with a wild story about why they left her and didnt even let her know they were still alive, and then suddenly want to be a family again.

Despite the two of them jet setting all over the world for races and other high profile F1 events, as well as a huge scandal around Klaus and his race team, there isn't a whole lot that actually happens in this book, nor do we get to see much of Natalia and Klaus developing their relationship and falling in love. Because we don't actually get to see this, the two don't seem to have much emotional chemistry. There are a handful of spicy scenes, which might have been the only saving grace.

Read if you like:
F1 racing romance
Journalist FMC
Age gap
30s FMC
Widower MC
Secret romance
International scandal

This is a tough one. Having read the first book I was really looking forward to Natalia and Klaus's story. I liked that it covers a long time span- no instalove here! However, they aren't great communicators and I found myself so frustrated with them. A times they were both immature and deeply unlikable. At other times I loved them. I know Klaus isn't real but comes off as sexy.

The end of the book has that trope everyone hates. This is the best execution of it I have ever read. It's exactly what we ended to tie this story up.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for this ARC.

✨Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for sending me a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review✨

1.5⭐ rounded down

No, just no. You know how there are romances that make you believe in love? This was not that. This was the farthest possible thing from that.

This was the most toxic relationship I have ever read, the red flags were jumping off every page. Their "relationship" was built on secrets, lies, a lack of trust, and sex as a way to avoid having a grownup conversation. They would break up and get back together every 4 chapters or so, and that lasted the entire book. These characters were in their 30s and 40s, but I had such a hard time believing that because it literally seemed like they were *max* early 20s with how immature and childish they were. And don't even get me started on all the time jumps🫠 every chapter was weeks or months after the last. You never got any context on what the heck was going on. Their backstories felt half-baked, I feel like their traumas were thrown in there in the hopes that the reader would feel something.

I won't be picking up another book by this author, I wish I could get back the time I used reading this one🫠 the synopsis felt like a sorry excuse of a summary, I didn't get any of that while reading this.

✨TW: this book contains cuss words and topics of absent parents, sexual content, cancer, death of a spouse and parent, murder, drug dealing, and rape (off page).

I honestly didn’t love Natalia and Klaus’ characters in Double Apex, but I still wanted to give their story a try. I was interested in the age gap and the forbidden romance aspects. Unfortunately the execution was a little lacking. The constant time jumps weren’t great for developing the romance and while they did have chemistry, they were also pretty toxic together. The trope at the end was also one of my least faves.

I enjoyed seeing Cosmin and Phaedra, but I thought it was a strange choice to make Nat and Phaedra best friends who lowkey hate each other. There was also supposed to be this big controversy surrounding the Grand Prix which I felt wasn’t even really explained. I appreciated that this was a fast paced read but I’m not sure I’ll continue the series.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A spicy FI romance between Natalia, a journalist, and Klaus from the Emerald team. These two meet up on the weekends of the races and there's quite a bit of steam. Unfortunately, there was less worldbuilding,, Both Natalia and Klaus have issues to deal with (she's got domineering parents, he's got grief) but they spend a lot of their time (when they aren't spicing) arguing with one another. I liked her, liked the concept of her character, but felt she was ill served by Klaus. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An easy read for fans of sports romance.

Coming in Hot is the second book in a F-1 racing series by Josie Juniper. If you haven't read Double Apex, the first book in the series, I think it's essential for Coming in Hot. The first half of the book takes place as interludes during the events of Double Apex. If you haven't read that book I could find it confusing as to what's going on Coming in Hot. So much of this book felt disjointed because it was little snapshots on the on-off relationship between Natalia and Klaus. I wish that it had more connection points with each character besides their connection at races.

Although I'm not sure I'd return to this particular book in the future, I prefer the storytelling and formatting of Double Apex, I do look forward to the next book in the series, coming Winter 2026.

2.75

Coming in Hot by Josie Juniper is the sequel to F1 romance Double Apex occurring on the same timeline.

This sports romance follows the toxic Klause of the Emerald F1 team& Natalia who is now a journalist for Auto Racing Journal as they travel around the globe over a stretch of time.

The spice was pretty good and there were some outlandish conversations and situations that kept me hooked, but I didn’t feel a deep connection or emotional investment in the relationship or the characters. I felt annoyed & cringed for most of the book but I did laugh for a few scenes. The ending had me rolling my eyes, but if you are a sports romance girly who loves F1 maybe you’ll really dig this one.

Thanks Forever Grand Publishing & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Let me start off by saying that I loved the premise of this book. Josie Juniper is talented at coming up with stories and ideas. Unfortunately, this one just didn't work for me. The time jumps made things confusing and it felt like there was more telling than showing. I was so ready to see Klaus' story but this one just didn't hit the mark. I'm still going to give her next book a shot bc I really do enjoy the premises of her stories.

2.5 ⭐️

In the beginning of this book, it felt so promising with how the author got straight to it from the get go. First chapter in, I loved it and it made me excited to keep reading! Then I got 60% in and it felt boring, I didn’t feel connected to the characters like I did with the couple in the first book.

It felt like such a let down because from the beginning of the book, the potential was there!! I didn’t like that the book was jumping through timelines and throughout the book I felt like I was confused to what was happening. Eventually, the plot was just lost to me and we were getting nowhere. Also this book didn’t give much of a “f1 romance” which is also part of why I was struggling to get through it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.

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.