I was so excited to read this book after loving double apex but it did not deliver. I would say before I got to the last 20% or so, I did quite enjoy the book. It was spicy and dramatic, exactly what I would expect from Natalia and Klaus. But the last 20% felt like it was not true to the characters. I’ll share more details but beware of spoilers.

Towards the end of the book we find out that Natalia is pregnant. Now, I despise the pregnancy trope, but was actually not that upset at first knowing how badly Klaus had wanted kids with Sophia. I thought it was going to be fulfilling for him after the struggles he had previously.

First, I found it odd that Natalia spent two books being a highly driven, ambitious journalist only to want to give all of that up for a child. She immediately was fine with just moving back to her hometown and giving up her fast paced life. This was so weird to me. Then we have Klaus who has been the team principal at Emerald for forever, just give that up to also move to Natalia’s hometown for this child? They both gave up their entire careers to raise a child, after being so career focused for two books. It did not fit their characters at all, in my opinion.

I was quite disappointed that the marketing for this book did not once show that there was a pregnancy. I checked content warnings and it was not contained there either. If I would have known, I would not have picked up the book.

I do want to recognize that the narrators for the audiobook were amazing! I thought they fit Klaus and Natalia perfectly and did a great job.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Forever for access to an early copy of the audiobook.

I'll give this book props because it wasn't driverXwoman and he is like the CEO of a team and she was a reporter. I just did have issues with the fact that there was no chemistry and this relationship was so much up and down for no reason. Like I'm in to you and then you betray me again and I hate you.

The audiobook was nice.

ARC and ALC review

“Coming in Hot” by Josie Juniper is the second book in the "Frontrunners" series.
The story takes place at the same time as the events from the first book but follows a different couple.

Thank you Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the advance digital copy of the book and Hachette Audio for the ALC (via Netgalley).
Opinions from this review are completely my own.

This is a formula 1 contemporary romance.
Natalia is a reporter and Klaus is a team leader in F1.
They have a one night stand and then try to stay far from each other because of the forbidden part of the relationship.

The audiobook is narrated in dual style by Max Rauch and Cecily Foster.
While I liked her narration and I think that she managed to do well both female and male characters.
Not the same can be said about the male narrator. His accent was British (which sounded hot), but the character is Austrian.
There are also other accents used in the book and not all were done ok.

Unfortunately I did not find the characters likeable, especially Natalia.
I did not see a positive development in the characters during the story.
They went back and forward and kept finding reasons to have arguments.
There is also a "surprise" pregnancy towards the end that was predictable at one point and I did not see the point for it.

It was interesting that the story took place during race time, but I felt like too much time was skipped from a chapter to the next.

⭐ 1.5 stars (rounded down)

No. Just no.

You know how some romances make you believe in love? This was the furthest possible thing from that.

I didn’t realize this was the second book in a series when I requested it. Once I did, I went back to read Double Apex—a decision I deeply regret. Even with all the red flags from that book, I figured I’d give Coming In Hot a chance. Big mistake.

Yes, this was technically better than the first book... but if that’s the benchmark, it’s a very low bar. And honestly, had I not received the ARC, this book would’ve never seen the light of my Kindle.

Every single chapter featured a time jump—one week, two weeks, a month, four months—it made it impossible to get grounded in the story. Instead of experiencing character development or relationship growth, we’re told about everything after the fact. It reads like a disconnected series of fanfiction one-shots, with no emotional continuity. Things just happen, and we're supposed to go along with it.

The bones of a decent story were there, but the writing did not deliver. Nothing is shown. We're told about fallouts, reconciliations, hookups, pregnancies, and trauma—but never shown the actual events. It’s hard to care about relationships when we don’t experience any of their evolution.

The main couple—her 34, him 46—acted like immature 19-year-olds. Their relationship is based entirely on secrets, sex, and avoiding real conversations. They break up and get back together constantly, and there's no growth in between. Add in unresolved trauma, family drama that felt shoehorned in for emotional manipulation, and a shock-value accidental pregnancy storyline, and it's a mess.

The MMC (Klaus) was especially frustrating. He treated women like disposable objects, had deeply questionable morals, and contributed nothing meaningful to the story. His few POV chapters added no depth or clarity—just confusion. And let's not even start on the Santorini comment implying he’d been with other women in every breakup in their two-year on-again-off-again situationship... yikes.

I love Formula 1. I know the structure and pace of the sport, and yet this book only focused on race weekends. Everything in between was skipped over or summarized, which made the world-building feel thin and underutilized. If you’re going to base a romance in the F1 world, use it. Here, it was more like background noise than an active setting.

The audiobook didn’t help. Cecily Foster kept the MMC’s Austrian accent, which was consistent with the book but hard to follow. Max Rauch voiced him with a British accent—jarring and inconsistent. The switching accents made the audio experience more confusing than immersive.

This book tried to do a lot—trauma, second-chance romance, F1, family redemption arcs—but executed none of it well. The story lacked emotional weight, logic, and development. I wanted to love this. I wanted something to make the effort worth it.

But ultimately? I wish I could get the time back.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF at 40%. The audiobook format was not delivering to the standard I expected with narration. And as an F1 fan, the plot was too far removed from the actual racing to hold my attention.

🎧 The accents are a bit all over the place and I hate to admit they detracted from the experience. When reading the MMC, Cecily Foster maintained the character’s Austrian accent (which honestly, was a little off-putting). While authentic to the character as described by the author, it was not an easy accent to understand as I’m not exposed to it frequently. Paired with Max Rauch’s interpretation of the MMC, it was even more confusing because he has a British accent. It was jarring. I felt my brain working on overdrive to connect those two versions of Klaus.

The premise of the book was interesting and the narrators did a good job. I had a lot of issues with this book. I felt like there was little to no character development, the timeline that skipped day or weeks at a time made it difficult to connect with the characters and throughout most of the book the author just told us what happened (events, conversations, fights) instead of showing us things happening. Since I felt no connection to the characters, I wasn't rooting for them to resolve their issues.

The narrators did a fantastic job!
They are clear and the accents are excellent and fit the characters very well. The narration flow was great! I love duets!

The writing itself was a miss for me. Romance audiobooks are usually easy for me to follow without the book but this writing didn’t grab and hold my attention.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 & 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰.

❀.* 1 💫
╰┈➤ no spoiler review

⇒ I wanted to like this so much and really tried to hang on. I DNF'd at around 48% simply because this just wasn't my thing. I didn't like the off & on romance, the main characters relationship frankly felt toxic, and it was marketed as a "slow burn" but was anything but that. The voice actors did do a great job--albeit the face accents were a little cringey and honestly hard to understand--and I was mostly happy there. This honestly just wasn't for me. It's listed as a "spicy F1 romance" but there's nothing F1 about it except for the fact the mmc's job. I wouldn't recommend this to huge fans of F1 or people going into this simply for that, because it's not really a present factor.

ೃ⁀➷ However, if you're a fan of these tropes, maybe give it a looksie
↬ Easy to listen to audiobooks
↬ Nice voice acting
↬ Light reads

2✨
Thank you NetGalley, Josie Juniper and Hachette Audio for providing an ALC in exchange for my honest review - Coming in Hot publishes June 17th.

As a big F1 fan and F1 romance books I knew this would be up my street and the premise sounded very interesting! I was excited to pick up coming in hot and I love the cover of this one.

Unfortunately I didn’t find either of the characters particularly likeable and I wasn’t very invested or connected to their relationship, so this one fell a little flat for me.

There’s a spicy scene in chapter 1 which gave me a bit of whiplash as I wasn’t expecting it so soon! I do wish there was a bit more focus on the F1 but it was more that this was the background setting (in different locations).

Overall it was a fast paced and spicy read, I just wanted a little more depth to the plot and characters.

Narrators: I listened on 2x speed and Max Rauch and Cecily Foster did a fab job at narrating Natalia and Klaus in this dual audio, bringing the characters to life perfectly.

I love a good sports romance, and unfortunately this fell a bit short. It was a struggle connecting to the FMC and MMC, but the spice scenes were the only parts that didn’t have me wishing for this to be over. If anyone asked me to point them in the direction of the plot, I couldn’t tell you. I know nothing about F1, it was as if the author was spouting off facts just to remind the reader this was kinda about F1. It just didn’t make sense. I can appreciate the author had taken the time to research this, but the way in which the information was provided took me out of the story.

The bits when the FMC began to reconnect to her mother were sweet, however the barest attempts to make amends with her father(or to even understand him), seemed rushed. I understand her hesitation as he had the opportunity to visit her, but I think more attention could have been made to their relationship as well.

Coming in Hot is the second in a series, but as someone who didn’t read the first novel I can confidently say it works as a standalone.

This novel is instalust to instalust at warp speed. There are so many side plots that the romance and main plot of the novel has a chance to breathe or develop in a meaningful love. Sadly I didn’t find the characters or the romance believable and everything fell flat.

This ranting in no way reflects the admirable work done by the narrators. They did everything they could with what they had and I would happily listen to them in the future.

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.

I listened to this one on audio, narrated by Cecily Foster as Natalia Evans and Max Rauch as Klaus Franke. I'll be completely honest - this book might have worked better for me if I hadn't listened to the audio. It's not done in duet so both narrators have to narrate for each other during their respective chapters, and the accents are all over the place. I'm not usually a huge stickler about accents, but this was so poorly done that it was a huge distraction, especially considering that Juniper mentions where both MCs are from multiple times (she's from Kentucky and doesn't sound Southern, he's from Austria and sounds British).

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

Pausing at 20% and might DNF. Nothing wrong with it as such but just lost interest. Not loving the narrators and think this may be a bit of why I'm struggling to pay attention. Might come back to this one at a later date!

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.

The audio works well. The dual narration is enjoyable. The voicing for Natalia was perfect. The voicing for Klaus was sexy but I'm not sure the German accent came through. It was more broadly European.

Thank you to Forever, Hachette, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and hatchet audio for the ALC!!!

Talk about starting with a bang…. Literally!!! The spice in this book was definitely spicing. Natalia is a strong willed independent journalist who is looking for a career changing story. What she doesn’t know is the “stranger” who she had a one night stand with would turn out to be Klaus franke, Emeralds Team Principal, the icy cold man who is off limits.

This book was very good. I wouldn’t say the age gap was a big deal since it’s only about 10 years. I definitely devoured it tho. The slow burn between the two of them was perfect. I loved the dual POV it made this book even better being able to see both characters views and thought’s. I haven’t read many F1 racing books but if they are anything like this one. I’ll definitely have to try more!

this was a spicy good time. i really enjoyed the narrators on this one and the story was so fun!! i really enjoyed it

To start off with the content itself, I was more interested in this relationship in the background than the last couple during the first story and was excited to get to them! It definitely was a ride, sometimes a bit slow going though with too many time jumps with bare coverage of the times they are apart. In regards to the audio itself, the narrators have great voices, however their playing of Klaus was vastly different, with Nat’s narrator keeping him closer to the accent in the first book, and his own narrator going more into the field of British with a very slight German accent. It took me out of the story a bit when his parts would come on. All in all, it was a good story but not as deep as it could’ve gone through the emotions, in my opinion. 3.75/5 rounding up to 4 for any possible bias!

Sorry but I ended up DNFing this about 50% of the way through.
There wasn't any substance to this book.
It lost my attention after the first few chapters. which was a shame the plot was good but it was executed quite poorly.

I'm really sorry
Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading and listening to this one. It was a nice, easy romance to fit between some of the heavier books I’ve been reading. While there were definitely parts I didn’t love, it balanced out in the end.
One thing I really liked was the time jumps. It gave the story a broader timeline, which I always enjoy, but at the same time it made the early stages of the romance feel a bit rushed or glossed over. I actually lost track of how long they had known each other at one point.
The racing world setting was a fun touch. I liked how the characters were always on the move, which made for some great backdrops for the romance to unfold.
I was briefly annoyed by the whole parents subplot, but by the end it clicked and made more sense.
Overall, it was an pretty okay read. The pros and cons mostly balanced each other out, but it is probably not something I would be in a rush to reread.

I really enjoyed this book.
The story follows the lovable and a bit quirky main character, who is trying to navigate a career or personal crisis, and in true rom-com style, ends up tangled in a whirlwind romance. The plot is light and humorous, with just enough tension to keep you hooked. There’s a perfect balance between romance, funny situations, and a touch of vulnerability from the characters.
The characters are where this book really shines. They feel real, relatable, and are written with a lot of humor. The chemistry between the leads is undeniable, and their banter had me laughing out loud. Both characters have a fair share of baggage, but instead of feeling heavy, it adds depth and makes their romance even more fulfilling.
Overall, Coming In Hot is a feel-good, charming read with lovable characters, sizzling romance, and plenty of laughs. It’s the perfect book for anyone looking to escape into a world of laughter and love. If you’re a fan of rom-coms, this one is definitely worth picking up!