This was everything that I was looking for and enjoyed from the romance genre, it was a strong introduction to the Running for the Romance series. It had that romance element that I was looking for and was glad everything worked in this story. Kim Stephenson has a strong writing style and I always enjoy reading these types of books and am excited to the next chapter in the series.

Fun debut queer (cis m/cis m) sports romance (marathon running) debut from Kim Stephenson. Features fake dating and antagonists-to-lovers energy; basically all the things I love and done well. I especially enjoyed the way Darius and Jamie dealt with their flaws and conflicts: it was neither to easy nor too hard...it was just right for a satisfying romance. Looking forward to the next book in the series next year!

Your Pace or Mine by Kim Stephenson was a very cute, heartfelt and interesting sports romance. She's right in her acknowledgements that there aren't enough sports romances that feature runners, and I'm so glad this one exists now.

There was a lot more nuance to Darius and Jamie than I expected, and really grew to love both then and their relationship.

I also loved a lot of the side characters, so definitely can't wait for the next in the series!

As a dancer who runs for stamina training,when I saw a romance with a professional runner I knew I had to read it and I really liked this!

The writing was pretty easy to get through while still maintaining a standard I have,the main characters were interesting and dialogue–my favorite part of the book– was so real in the sense that it didn't come off as preachy or stilted.The book really did deliver on the sports aspect too!!I loved the moments we got to see them training.

A problem I did have was with the character descriptions specifically for Darius. For the first half of the book,it was not made clear that Darius was a mixed race man of color.I can't tell how many times I had to go back to the cover of the book to make sure that he was indeed a man of color, especially when Jamie was described as a blonde haired blue eyed white man literally 2 paragraphs after they first meet. It did get better in the second half when Darius mentioned the racism and orientalism that probably drove his grandfather's relationship with his grandmother. I just wish that Darius' identity as a mixed race man would have been explored more in positive moments because as much as they'd like to gaslight me that they're not,the British are still very much racist to Black people.

The resolution was a tad bit underwhelming to me but I still enjoyed it well enough.This was a very fun read,I hope I get to see more of Jackson in the next book!!

Having been running/walking for a few months, I connected with the characters. Especially the beginner. The author's writing is so light and fun—it's a romantic comedy, but it has its triggers, which the author managed to work in a respectful way. The romance happened very naturally. The fake dating element is always a hit, there's no way around it. While they were pretending, I was like, "So, when are they going to kiss for real?"
I love that feeling, and I loved this book.
Thank you NetGalley and the author for the eARC.