Sage Sikora, the new driver for the Emerald F1 team, is bold and daring, on and off the track. This season, as the only female driver on the grid she has a single-minded to be the first woman to win a Grand Prix. But there's one thorn in her side, the unfairly gorgeous and spoiled journalist and popular blogger Alexander Laskaris-who seems to have it out for Sage.
When one of his blog posts goes too far, Alexander finds himself working for Emerald as penance and his new boss is none other than Sage herself. Despite their battle of wills, the pair end up as allies when trouble arrives and Alexander begins to fall for F1's Queen of Chaos. Sage soon realises there's more to spoiled playboy Alexander than meets the eye. But with the critical eyes of the racing world upon them, she has too much to prove and even more to lose. Can her feelings take a backseat or will Emerald's first female driver fail to reach the podium?
When one of his blog posts goes too far, Alexander finds himself working for Emerald as penance and his new boss is none other than Sage herself. Despite their battle of wills, the pair end up as allies when trouble arrives and Alexander begins to fall for F1's Queen of Chaos. Sage soon realises there's more to spoiled playboy Alexander than meets the eye. But with the critical eyes of the racing world upon them, she has too much to prove and even more to lose. Can her feelings take a backseat or will Emerald's first female driver fail to reach the podium?
Title: All To Play For (Frontrunners #3)
Author: Josie Juniper
Publisher: Forever
Expected Publication Date: Apri 7, 2026
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I have to admit, I started this series and was disappointed with the first book. But I loved the second book. So I really needed to see where Juniper would take this third story (especially given it is about a female F1 driver). And I was not disappointed. I absolutely loved how the story of Sage and Alex played out.
What I love about interrelated romance is that we meet the characters in other books. So when we come to their story, we are already rooting for them. And we're definitely interested in how the author will develop them and their story line. To say I was enamored with these two is an understatement. The prickly Sage with the golden retriever Alex was so much fun to watch.
Sage is the grumpy in this grumpy/sunshine relationship, for sure. She keeps her distance from so many: friends, family, teammates. She doesn't allow herself to get attached. She doesn't feel she has it in her to do so. She's full of baggage from her family, from her job, from who she is in general. But Alex breaks down her walls. He takes what she can give him and never asks her for more. He remains stoic and true to who he is. At the same time, his emotion and draw to Sage spills off the page. I actually preferred his character to Sage's, even if I did understand why she was the way she was.
I will admit there was not as much F1 in this story as I was expecting. I kind of wanted to see more of Sage driving and how her being a woman affected this. It is alluded to a bit but the author never really dives into that part. Given the overwhelming male presence in F1, I feel like it would have been important to really explore this aspect. We do get some of it from Sage's POV, but not as much as I would have liked. I did notice the author has some good background in F1 with her the verbage she used and how she did integrate the races. I just feel like this should have been much more at the forefront of the story given the FMC's position on the team.
The book does touch on addiction. Juniper does a decent job with this. Having grown up in this environment, I am often weary when authors introduce. I can see there is some research that has been done, though not as much as I would have liked.
If you're not a fan of third act break ups, skip this. There is some miscommunication, though it's forced from the MMC, to be honest. These two tropes are not my favorite but Juniper does them well enough to not bother me enough not to enjoy the rest of the plot.
If you're looking for an F1 romance that is light on the F1, this one is a good start. I would read the previous books so you understand some of the relationships that are presented. Overall, this one was fun. I loved Alex and just felt meh about Sage. The side characters were fun but not all that deep. Not my favorite romance book but it kept me interested enough to keep turning pages to see how it ended.
Author:
Josie Juniper writes high-steam romance featuring hot, angsty men who are dirty talkers with hearts of gold, and smart, snarky women with hilarious foul mouths. She works in mathematics and has been a staff writer and/or editor for four publications, winning awards for her sharp, funny, iconoclastic writing. She lives in Portland, OR and loves rain, swearing, lost causes, tattoos, F1 racing, and prime numbers.
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