3.5⭐️

I much preferred this over Double Apex! Nat and Klaus' relationship was much more believable despite the multiple break-ups. The conflicts between them also progressed logically and weren't just pulled out of nowhere for dramatic purposes.

The smut is a lot more adventurous than in your typical spicy romance book, but it isn't outrageous in the dark romance sense. So, if you're still new to smut and aren't ready to wade into the more intese stuff, or if you just like your smut more on the vanilla side, I'd say that you'd probably still enjoy this.

Avoid of you hate thirs act break-ups and the accidental pregnancy tropes.

Because of this one, I would consider reading another book in this series if Josie Juniper were to write one.

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.

The audio itself was very good! I really liked both narrators and thought they brought great emotions to the characters. The accents were really good and easy to listen to and follow. And the spicy scenes were spicing!!!

I did struggle a little with the story. I liked the premise…but just couldn’t connect with the characters or the story. They both were dealing with some tough emotions and pasts…but were also so toxic.

Unfortunately this was a miss for me.

This book is for anyone who's looked at Toto Wolff and thought, "Yes."

As a huge F1 fan, I was curious to read/listen to a book set in that world. But I was expecting more F1 and less romance, which might be more of a me problem than the book's problem.

The narrators were great, and I'm glad the producers (?) chose to go with a female and male for the respective POVs.

This is a very fast-paced book, with a lot of time skipping, jumping from race to race. That was a bit frustrating at times, with things being mentioned but not really knowing why or how they came to be. But once I just accepted it, I was fine with it.

Also, the almost immediate open-door scene was a bit of a shock on my morning drive to work XD If you're looking for something spicy, and aren't too worried about the plot, this book is good for that.

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.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔 (I feel like this one had some good character depth!)
Tension: ⚡⚡ (they dive in pretty soon and I didn’t get a good sense of tension from them throughout the book)
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋 (I did like the intimate scenes)
Intimate Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: A touch
Perspective: first person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? slow to medium
When mains are first on page together: very soon in, chapter 1
Cliffhanger: This ends on a happy for now
Epilogue: No

Should I read in order?
This is book 2 of Juniper’s Frontrunners series. I found it fine alone! I feel like book 1 happens kind of concurrently with this book (this story does take over a year or two to complete).

Basic plot:
After a hot night together, Natalia and Klaus come together again in a work environment.

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary romance
- hero is a Team Principal for a Formula 1 team
- heroine is a journalist
- Austrian hero
- American heroine
- widower hero
- silver fox hero
- this relationship is over the long haul – it takes place over the course of 1-2 years
- mid to higher steam – 4ish full scenes with some light kink elements

Ages:
- hero is 45, didn’t catch heroine but I think maybe 20s or early 30s?

My thoughts:
This isn’t my usual type of read but I was drawn in by the title and cover!

I liked the set up of this one. And I thought the character depth was really well done. You really get to know both of these mains, their fears and worries and their baggage. And I was really rooting for them!

But my struggle with this one was a few things. I felt like by the end of the book, both of them hadn’t grown as much as I wanted them to. I felt like if the big thing toward the end hadn’t pulled them together, they never would have made it as a couple. And that leaves me doubting the solidity of their relationship.

The book takes place over a long time. And I felt a bit like as they kept coming together and separating it was the same issues repeating. By the end it just left me a bit sad for them and not feeling like they were meant to be together.

The steam was great! I really liked both narrators. The hero had an accent that I wasn't used to but I really enjoyed how both the male and female narrators voiced that. Definitely would listen to more audiobooks from both!

A tumultuous tale full of excitement and trust. Klaus & Talia will suck you in with chemistry and their healing. At the heart of this story is a little girl left behind and the scars that leaves. The amount of healing, the patchwork needed to fill the gaps in her past are heartbreakingly tender and a beautiful healing to witness. Seeing her past come full circle, seeing how the pains of the past can skew our thinking without realizing is such a powerful message. What I especially loved though was the communication, they weren’t perfect, there were secrets, misconceptions but in the end their was open dialogue. This is widely avoided in romance so it was a delight to see that strength and the way they strived to convey their emotion with trust. The formula racing backdrop, again provides that little rush of excitement as they work towards their goals. And having Phaedra & Cos was like a little tug at the heartstrings of their romance. I greatly enjoyed their story and the beautiful picture of their future, united as one big happy family.

Audio Notes:
I am a big fan of Hachette Audio’s books. The content is always exciting and full of life. The voices of Max Rauch & Cecily Foster were new to me and very unique. The accent work of Rauch was masterfully handled and really made Kluas’ character. I also found the Foster’s tone for Talia gave a lovely vulnerability to her character that may be seen as a deeper part of her psyche. Both did an excellent job with the narration and drew you to the characters,

Just no 🙅‍♀️ First of all there is ZERO reference to the F1 sport in the first 50% of this novel. What is even the point?

Next the main male character used the word undergarments like what are we in the 1900s during a spicy scene and that was the last straw for me 🙄


Finally I hated both main characters. FMC only sleeps with married me, NO. The MMC is an entitled billionaire with no character, NO. And the one support character is so absent and mean I feel like these characters are in high school 🤦‍♀️

Natalia and Klaus are an unlikely pairing, their chemistry was combustible from he beginning to the end. The story is well told and really a treat to read. The audio was a great addition to the story.

DNF at 50%

This just did not hit for me. I was so excited for this because it had some of my favorite tropes - age gap and forbidden romance. I found myself not caring about either of the main characters and really did not feel their connection either.

In terms of the audiobook, I did enjoy the narrators. I think Max and Cecily did a great job even with me not enjoying the content.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and the author for the ALC! ✨

Firstly this book was much better than the 1st book of the series, I liked both the fmc and the mmc. The fmc I found very relatable which was quite refreshing in a book. There was definitely longing and yearning between the characters and they dealt with certain issues in a mature way.

Did not finish this one. I had no connection to the characters. They were very immature for being older and I didn’t care to keep up with the drama and time jumps

This was an ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

A journalist and a Formula 1 team manager have a hot one night stand and they have to navigate their steamy relationship while working together.

This is a duel point of view audiobook with two very talented narrators. They did a wonderful job portraying the characters of this story. Narrators can make or break an audiobook and these two smashed it out of the park.

I think the concept of the plot was good; but the execution needed some work. Every chapter starts with a time jump. In the beginning, it wasn’t such an issue. But it starts to get repetitive and pulls you out of the story as you try to figure out how long the two characters have been dancing around each other.

I didn’t believe in the love story which made it hard to finish it. I wanted to enjoy it, but don’t think this was it for me. The relationship of Natalia and her estranged parents is what kept me engaged. I think that’s sad when this is suppose to be a romance. If it was labeled as just literary fiction and focused on all of Natalia’s relationships (her friend, her aunt, her parents and Klaus), I think it could have been a better story. If you can look past the time jumps, I think you might enjoy this story unlike me.

I don't know where to start. I love and watch formula 1 all my life and therefore love occasionally reading F1 romance. Usually the mmc is a driver, so it was a nice change to have a team principal instead this time.

Let's start with the things I liked: the F1 representation and F1 really being including into the story and not turning it into a subplot for only when it's convenient.

The thing that absolutely bothered me the most are the constant time jumps. Every single chapter is weeks/months later. It really disconnected me from the story and in my opinion it took a lot from the story itself as well. Especially as there barely was any character development. They fell in love OFF PAGE. I still don't know where they found the love for each other because all that happened is: hooking up, arguing and Nathalia hating on every little thing Klaus does because she is an unprofessional journalist who takes offense to every f-ing thing. She also has no understanding that some things ONLY stay within the team. She went on his laptop because he didn't tell her - Nathalia didn't understand privacy, boundries or respect.

Same as for her best friend. Why would anyone make two people who hate each other best friends? There was no 'old married couple' behavior like Nathalia said. It was just pure hate, jealousy and manipulation.

I have no preference when it comes to spice in books but not even the spice could save the book from being messy and toxic as hell. The way Klaus became an unpoetic poet focused on witchcraft and doors during spicy time absolutely killed me and I just couldn't stop laughing.

The subplot of her past felt like it was added after the book was finished and the author just wanted to add a few more pages. It was all so messy.

Since I do speak German, I have to say that calling a grown woman a 'kleine Hexe' is not romantic, cute or whatever. Especially not during sex. It's a nickname for KIDS

For the narrators of this book I have to say Max Raunch and Cecily Foster did well in an overall view. I enjoyed their narration. I loved that different characters received different accents. Weird was just that Klaus sounded more French majority of the time than Austrian.

I listened to this as an audio book and while the narrators were good, the book itself was disappointing.

The narrators were the best part of this - they were clear, articulate, and capture the right emotion, as needed, for different parts of the story.

Unfortunately, I struggled with the rest of it. The characters themselves were not good people, coming across as callous & immature and overall creating unhealthy relationships with everyone involved. The writing was more tell than show, exasperated by the stylistic choice to have the story make big jumps to highlight Grand Prix weekends, thus leaving big gaps of time were we assume the main characters relationship grew but never actually saw for ourselves.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

Coming in Hot by Josie Juniper with narration performed by Max Rauch and Cecily Foster. Natalia is the new lead reporter for Auto Racing Journal, covering F1 races worldwide. Klaus is a widowed team principal, dedicated to his work with no plans to fall in love again. An extremely memorable hook-up leads to an on again, off again casual relationship full of secrets. I really wanted to like this book, but the long timeline, character interactions, and writing style were just not for me. It felt like too many plots and storylines kept getting brought up with sex scenes interspersed.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and the author for this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been loving F1 romance books lately. This one is a miss though.

First, F1 is barely discussed in the book. He's a team's principal, and she is a journalist covering F1 racing. Yet it is only incidental to the book as it focuses on their relationship. Second, each chapter jumps in time. At first this made sense, but it got to be annoying. It jumped past the growing connection between the characters. The characters are all toxic- the FMC, the MMC, FMC's parents, and FMC's best friend. None of the relationships are healthy. There are secrets left and right. There is miscommunication. The FMC and MMC have zero trust in each other. They are suddenly saying they're in love with each other, yet they continue to not trust each other and keep secrets. The secrets and lack of trust ruins their relationship more than once with them being off and on throughout the story. I am not a fan at all of miscommunication or accidental pregnancy tropes. If you like these tropes, then this may be the book for you. It definitely wasn't for me.

I listened to the audiobook, and both narrators did a great job.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy of Coming in Hot.

This book is a perfect example of don’t judge a book by its cover. The cover is gorgeous. This book is not. Holy crud. Talk about toxic characters. All these characters do is fight. They’re constantly not communicating well. Natalia is supposed to be this modern day woman but she is awful. Her parents are awful. The guy is awful. Everyone is awful to each other.

Then on top of that, guess what the fixer is for their relationship? An accidental pregnancy! Absolutely not. I’m sorry. This is toxic and bad. The spicy scenes were the only interesting parts and they could not redeem this book.

Dual-POV. I loved the realness and vulnerability of the two lead characters; it's a well-written novel with fully developed characters, each with their own intricacies.
"ʟɪғᴇ ɪs ᴀ ʜᴏᴜsᴇ ᴄᴏɴsᴛʀᴜᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴏғ ᴛʀᴀɢᴇᴅʏ. ᴡᴇ ᴅᴇᴄᴏʀᴀᴛᴇ ɪᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴏᴜʀ ғʀᴀɢɪʟᴇ ᴊᴏʏs ᴛᴏ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ sᴜɪᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ʜᴏᴍᴇ."

The author has solid knowledge of F1 and all of its political intricacies, which fans will appreciate.
The dual narration for the audiobook is fantastic, I felt like they nailed the accents, phrases, and matched the characterization to a T.

The spice was spicing! 🌶️ Klaus' pillow talk does it for me:
"ɪᴛ's ʏᴏᴜʀs sᴏʀᴄᴇʀᴇss, ɴᴏ ᴅᴏᴏʀ ɪs ʙᴀʀʀᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ, ɴᴏ ʟᴏᴄᴋ ᴄᴀɴ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ʏᴏᴜ ᴏᴜᴛ"
𝒩𝒶𝓉𝒶𝓁𝒾𝒶 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝒾𝓃𝒻𝒾𝓁𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝓎 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓁, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓅𝑜𝒾𝓃𝓉, ℐ'𝒹 𝒾𝓃𝒸𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝒶𝓇 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓂𝒶𝑔𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔.

The book's ending will warm your heart and give you all the feels! There was more substance to the story beyond that of just another romance novel; I loved that there were some real-life struggles, solid life lessons and thought-provoking quotes that really stood out. Easy 4.25 ⭐️ overall.

𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒:
🚦 Sports Romances (Formula 1)
🚦 Chance Encounters
🚦 Age-Gap
🚦 Forbidden Love (conflict of interest)
🚦 Family Drama
🚦 Happily-Ever-Afters

This was a SPICY one night stand turned more on again off again romance between a journalist and the F1 team widowed principal. I loved that the main focus of the story was on the couple (their relationship together and their messy personal lives) rather than on a lot of racing - which was perfectly fine by me tbh. There are some cameos/mentions of previous characters but this can definitely be read as a stand alone. Heads up for those who don't love the accidental pregnancy trope because that pops up here. I also really liked that both main characters were older and tended to communicate well with one another. Good on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Simone Soltani or the Dirty Air series by Lauren Asher. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio and digital copy in exchange for my honest review!