ARC Review: Formula Zero by Meredith Lanzen

Romantic tension between ex-best friends rockets to new heights in this dazzling sports romance debut set in the fast-paced, interplanetary world of Formula Zero racing.

Madeline Clarke didn't think her life would be all fun and trophies after earning her spot in the solar system's most elite zero-gravity racing circuit, but she definitely thought it'd be better than this. Aside from being a female pilot in a male-dominated sport, her boss is a controlling jerk, her estranged father is a beloved figure from her team's past glory days (and an absolute ass), and she's performing so poorly she risks losing her contract. And worst of all, there's Julian Casperi.

Julian was Clarke's childhood best friend and is a rising star in the league. The dance between them has always been complicated, but when Clarke walked away from her feelings years ago and Julian didn’t stop her they became nothing more than competitors—until Clarke gets into a near-fatal accident on the track and Julian comes to her rescue.

Now back in each other’s orbits, the tension between them is at an all-time high. But navigating their relationship might be the least of Clarke’s problems. Things keep going wrong on the track, and she suspects there's something shady at play. If she wants to come out on top, she needs to move fast and make bold choices—about her team, her future, and her heart.

Title: Formula Zero

Author: Meredith Lanzen

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group

Expected Publication Date: July 7, 2026

Review:

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Formula One by in SPACE? SIGN. ME. UP. I honestly requested this book because of the cover. I'm in my F1 phase and will read anything written about the sport, especially a romance. I didn't even read the blurb. And I didn't read the blurb before I cracked it open to start. Imagine my surprise when I started reading and they were in SPACE racing! I love me some sports romance, and I love me some sci-fi, but combine them and my mind is blown.

If you're looking for a light fluffy romance, this is not that. Yes, there is romance and tension and chemistry and spice. But it's so much more. The romance takes a back seat to the actual story line and world we are immersed in. Lanzen builds a future world where racing has moved off the actual track and into space. No gravity, racing through all kinds of chicanes and loops, traveling to distant planets, and fighting for a place on the podium flying at super high speeds. But Lanzen still uses F1 type rules and verbage to make it easy to understand the world and how racing works.

On top of the amazing world building, Lanzen gives us characters with depth who are relatable despite their place on Formula Zero (think the current F1 drivers and how untouchable they seem to be but make them down to earth). The author takes Madeline Clarke, a female driver, and shows us her struggles given her being a woman. You would think so far in the future things would be different, but you still see the struggles. Add to that her being the daughter of a famous racer, having to walk in his shoes as she races for the same team he did, and you have the set up for a character who is put into a box. I really felt for Clarke. Her team principle totally took advantage of her naiveté. I was actually angry at her manager for even allowing her to sign a contract that was so limiting for her. But there was a ton of female empowerment in this story. Clarke taking back control of her life and putting herself first was great to watch.

The romance is a slow, slow burn. Julian Casperi is a long time friend of Clarke's but they have been estranged since the death of their friend Connor. Their friendship blends childhood friends who become rivals. Their relationship is really well written. I loved all the time they were "forced" to spend together given the publicity stunt that is woven into the storyline. I will say I would have liked to see a little more background in this area. Clarke pulled away from Julian but we don't get much background as to why. There is an element of them being attracted to each other early on and deciding it was too much to just stay friends. That being in each other's orbit was just too difficult with them deciding they could never take it further. But other than this, I didn't seen any actual reason for the rift. This was an area I would have liked to see explored just a bit more.

The side characters in this book are fantastic. I hope Lanzen deicides to maybe explore some of their stories in the future (I didn't investigate to see if this was set as a series or not). These characters brought depth to the story along with some great banter and humor. Maki, Theirry, and Sara really support Clarke. And the villains are done well. So much morally gray stuff going on throughout the book.

I will say I was not expecting the mystery portion of this story, either. I enjoyed the sleuthing Clarke did and how her friends ultimately helped her. 

I'm very impressed with this debut book by Lanzen. I was hooked from page 1 and tore through it. I really didn't want it to end, though I needed it to so I could see the mystery wrap up. This author is definitely one I would continue to follow and read in the future!

Author:

 

Meredith Lanzen is an adult sci-fi and fantasy romance author. When she's not charting out intergalactic adventures on her kitchen window, she's playing D&D, braving her fear of spiders to spend time outside, and singing show tunes loudly enough to have acquired a neighborhood nickname. She lives in Michigan with her husband, two chaos goblins cleverly disguised as human children, and a 65-pound lapdog.

ARC Review: Coming in Hot by Josie Juniper

A spicy Formula 1 romance pairs a journalist with a mysterious Team Principal, perfect for fans of Drive to Survive on Netflix and readers of Hannah Grace or Sarah Adams.

After a decade in journalism, Natalia Evans has reached the pinnacle of her career-lead reporter for Auto Racing Journal. Every season promises to be a thrilling adventure in the glamorous world of elite racing, surrounded by top-tier athletes and influential industry legends. The complication in Natalia's plans? One of those legends happens to be the enigmatic Emerald Team Principal, Klaus Franke-the handsome stranger with whom Natalia once shared an unforgettable night... that had to be forgotten.

Klaus is icy, controlled, and utterly off limits. But the cracks in his reserve expose a heat Natalia can't resist as fate drags them together again and again. Both guarding their hearts, the pair are soon embroiled in a high-stakes sporting scandal that threatens to shatter more than just reputations and relationships. Natalia needs the scoop of the century. Klaus needs more time. But they soon discover that maybe they need each other more than anything else.

Title: Coming in Hot (Frontrunners #2)

Author: Josie Juniper

Publisher: Forever Grand Central Publishing

Expected Publication Date: June 17, 2025

Review:

Thank you to Forever Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I will say I honestly did not enjoy the first book in this series. I didn't even finish it. I am blaming that on how it was presented but also the fact that I listened to it on audio and really didn't like the narrators. But I wanted to give this author another chance and went in with zero expectations of what I would find. I'm glad I gave it a go. This presentation was much better than her first. My search for F1 books that truly present the sport in an easy and believable fashion has been wanting. Add in romance and there's the potential for disaster if it's not done right.

Things I enjoyed in this book:

The age-gap romance. While there was a gap, I didn't feel like it was so big the characters seemed like they would never truly be together. Both characters were mature enough to know what they wanted from life and where they wanted their lives to go.

The fast but slow burn romance. Since it starts with a bang and then falls back, I needed to watch that burn and love it. I did. There was chemistry, yes, but also a connection between the characters that was palpable.

The emotional turmoil of the characters seemed on point. I felt it to my bones when they suffered and when they felt joy. 

The pacing was good. I never felt like it stalled or like there were times I didn't want to continue reading. As a matter of fact, I read this title in a very short time.

Dual POV. I was happy with how it was presented. I love being in an MMCs head almost as much as an FMCs head. It was nice to have Klaus showing us who he was rather than just seeing it through Natalia's eyes.

What I didn't like:

Surprise pregnancy. Ok, I won't say I didn't like it totally. I knew it was coming. It was very obvious with how the author set up the relationship and with the conversations that were being had, I just didn't totally believe the things that happened when it was revealed.

The ending. It just kind of ends? There's no epilogue, no nothing. I feel like I was left wanting more. Wanting to know if there was a happily ever after. Wanting to know where their lives took them given their circumstances.

While there is mention of the characters from the first book, and things that happened that were important (yes I read enough of the first book to know things that were important), they are not built upon in any appropriate manner. The author assumes you've read the first book and know what happened. I needed more flashbacks so the story made sense. This elimination left plot holes. There's  a ton of overlap between book 1 and 2 and it seemed the author did not care to share why it was important. 

Given the characters ages, I felt like there was more drama than was necessary. For adults in their 30s and 40s, it was more like teen or young adult angst. I just didn't believe in it as much as I would have liked.

Would I recommend this book? I sure would, but only if you've read the first one so you have the background. And I recommend reading them one after the other, so the plot is not confusing or forgotten. Juniper does a better job with the F1 in this book, as well. In the first book, I felt like she shoved a lot of technical information at the reader. For someone who doesn't follow the sport, it was hard to absorb. This book was much lighter on that and easier to understand.

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.

 

ARC Review: Not So Fast by Karen Booth

 

It’s Formula One—getting revved up is all part of the fun in this sizzling high-octane rom-com for fans of Rush and The Hating Game.

When the curves are  this  dangerous, only a race car driver will do…

Mia Neal is a champion overthinker. Find something, fixate on it and spiral down. Fortunately, she puts that energy to good use: in a podcast about Formula One, her favorite sport in the world. There’s nothing about racing Mia doesn’t adore. The speed. The drivers. The fierce competition. The single-minded ambition. Ironic for a woman who’s changed careers more times than she can count.

Only now her salty takes on gorgeous Brit driver Xander Bishop have gone viral, and the podcast feels more and more like what she’s meant to do… Then Xander’s teammate invites her to the Miami Grand Prix to see F1 up close—and get in Xander’s head. He’s not exactly delighted at all the shade she’s been throwing his way.

It should be all-out war. Instead, Mia and Xander are stunned by the sudden crackle of…something sexual arcing between them. It’s irresistible, unbelievably hot—all Mia’s warning flags are waving. Because this reckless attraction is coming at Mia all too fast…

Title: Not So Fast

Author: Karen Booth

Publisher: Afterglow Books by Harlequin

Expected Publication Date: May 27, 2025

Review:

Thank you to Afterglow Books by Harlequin and Edelweiss for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I've been hard up to find a good F1 book. One that integrates the sport and the romance seemlessly. This one does it so well!

I really enjoyed this book. Mia is a down to earth, every day girl who is very relatable. Her neurodivergence is a nice touch for her character. She's flawed and I think this is what makes her so endearing to the reader. She's thrown into the world of F1, so much more than what she could have thought it would be. You can feel her anxiety about being around the drivers, especially her favorite, Xander, after she's thrown shade on his racing in her last few podcasts. Of course their enemies status becomes something more when they start to spend time together. I love that Xander was willing to take care of her mental health throughout the book. It was refreshing to see a male character who gave themself over so easily to  this form of caring. Both characters had distinct personalities and were developed well.

The romance was fun to watch bloom in this one. You definitely see an attraction to begin with but then it makes a slow burn and build. The chemistry was there and the author pushed the relationship at a great pace. It wasn't insta-love which I do not love. It was refined and woven into the plot of the story well.

Booth did a nice job with including the F1 language as well as explanations. I think those who do not know or understand the sport of F1 will do so when reading this book. It wasn't super technical, which was nice.

I loved the pacing of this one. I flew through it. I felt Booth easily switched between the character POVs. I was happy to see both characters giving their view of what was happening. There was lot of humor and fun interactions. Booth's writing was easy to read and flowed well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I'm happy I had the chance to read it. I would love to explore more of Booth's books in the future. I think F1 fans looking for an easy to read and fun sports romance will enjoy this one.

Author:

Karen Booth is a Midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on 80s music and repeated readings of Forever by Judy Blume. She writes steamy contemporary romance and women's fiction. When she isn't creating fictional hunky men and the women who test them, she's listening to music with her kids, honing her Southern cooking skills or sweet-talking her astoundingly supportive husband into whipping up a batch of cocktails.

ARC Review: Pole Position by Rebecca J. Caffrey

 

Red, White and Royal Blue meets Formula 1!

Kian Walker has always been the golden boy of motor sport. The four-time Championship winner has racing in his DNA – his father was a legend on the track, just don’t let him catch you comparing the two. As reckless and unreliable at home as he was behind the wheel, there’s nothing Kian wants less than to be just like his dad.

Enter Harper James. This year’s rookie called up to compete with the big boys – and Kian’s new teammate. Cocky, hot-headed and with a reputation for breaking as many hearts as he does new track records, Harper’s the opposite of Kian in every way. But when the season starts, there’s no getting away from him.

This might be one of the most dangerous sports in the world, so why then does Kian’s heart feel safer flying around the track at 220mph than when he's anywhere near his teammate?

Title: Pole Position

Author: Rebecca J. Caffery

Publisher: Harper 360/Harper Adult Audio/One More Chapter

Review:

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Adult Audio/One More Chapter, and Harper 30 for providing  me with an egalley an audio arc of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I've been looking for a good F1 book. I'm a huge fan and follow pretty closely so I know a lot about the sport, the teams, some of the technology and engineering, even. This is not my first F1 book and so far they have all let me down in one way or another. I picked this one as it made sense to me to read a book in a male dominant field with the main characters as two males. Sadly, this book did not live up to my expectations, either.

Let's start with the audio part of the book. I'm unsurprised the narrators use British voices but I will say Joshua Chase and James Joseph were similar enough that it was sometimes hard to tell them apart. This was annoying if I missed the title of the chapter saying who it was. I could usually pick it out once it got going as the narrators did make the voices of the characters unique enough with tone and inflection, plus the author definitely showed each personality of the characters. The narrator that did Harper's voice had a very low quality of his voice. Almost a whisper at times and I found myself having to rewind to hear what he said.

If the narrators not being to my liking wasn't enough, the entire story and plot line just fell short. I feel like the author needed to do a lot more research into F1. You can see some if it there, while at other times it's severely lacking. It's not believable that two F1 drivers would share a trailer for weeks on end while touring. It's not believable that a reserve driver is brought up and has zero understanding about how to talk to the media; he's getting his first trainings now? Seems highly unlikely. Finally, F1 is an expensive sport. You don't really see poor, orphaned kids who have zero support racing. Where is the money coming from? it just makes zero sense.

As I said above, the author did a good job making the two characters distinct. Kian as the stuck up, regimented driver who doesn't want to deviate from his schedule or be friends and Harper who is carefree and not caring who thinks what of him. He does as he pleases and has no inkling of how his actions hurt or injure others. This was truly the only part of the story that might be believable.

Did I feel the chemistry between these two? Not at all. Was their relationship (love/hate, I guess?) believable? Not really because the attraction they talk about (what the author tells us, rather than shows us) just didn't feel like it was really there. And, since this was the entire premise of the book, the growth of the characters felt stunted and overall underdeveloped. I felt zero connection or empathy for either of these characters. Even when the author gave us a bone and look into the background of the characters, which I would hope would help me connect, I just didn't care enough to feel badly for them in any way.

And the pacing was so slow! I just kept waiting for something to happen by even by 60%, when the characters have finally gotten together in some capacity, it was still just stunted. It dragged and I had to push and push and push to even care to finish it. Once I got annoyed enough with the narrators, I switched to Kindle version. But it did nothing to improve the story.

Overall, I'm completely underwhelmed with this title. There is a lot wrong and I feel like it needs another round of edits to point out where pacing could be picked up, characters could be developed, and story line could use some tweaks.

Author:

Rebecca Caffery is a BA Politics graduate and enthusiast, who can always be found curled up reading somewhere when she isn’t working on a new novel idea. She grew up in Birmingham, UK, where she’s been writing since the age of fourteen. It wasn’t, however, until she moved to Canada for a year that she found her voice and passion writing again and was inspired to write her first book.

As an author, Rebecca started her writing career in the Young Adult (YA) section. She is the author of the Contemporary YA Cherrington duology which features the two titles – Cherrington Academy and Coming Home.

Since then, she has completely stepped away from writing YA and her focus is now solely on writing Contemporary Adult Romance. She is the author of the soon-to-be-released Olympic Enemies (Feb 6th 2023)

She always has one too many ideas and often finds herself jotting them down in the middle of the night.

When she’s not writing you’ll find her either reading all the Sports/Adult Contemporary Romance or binge-watching (read: constantly rewatching) her Netflix faves such as Brooklyn 99, The Good Place, New Girl, and Lucifer. Outside of this, She is a BA Politics graduate and despite my degree being over I still have a vested political interest and am always keeping up to date with current affairs.

Where else to find her?

Twitter – @BeckaWrites
Instagram - @RJCafferyAuthor
Author Website - RebeccaJCaffery.com

ARC Review: Overdrive (Offtrack #2) by Esha Patel

Racing starts. Rapid hearts. Revved engines.

Shantal knows one thing in life: that success means everything. So when she gets the call to move from London to Brazil, to test out her racing simulator on high performance Formula One racing drivers, she leaves her life behind, and goes. Because she’ll do anything to succeed.

Darien knows one thing in life: passion is everything. It’s his passion for driving that has led him to the heights of motorsport, a coveted seat as a Formula One driver. When his team insists he moves to Brazil to trial a new racing simulator and racetrack, he goes. Because the one thing he is more passionate about than cars, is Brazil, his home.

When Shantal and Darien meet, sparks aren’t just flying from the gearbox. Darien knows from the moment he meets Shantal that she sends his heart into overdrive, and Shantal can’t keep her eyes off of the gorgeous driver. But in the high stakes world of Formula One, there’s no room for error, and there’s definitely no room for romance on the racetrack…

Title: Overdrive (Offtrack #2)

Author: Esha Patel

Publisher:

Expected Publication Date: November 21, 2024

Review:

Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I will start by saying I didn't realize this was the second book in a series. That being said, this one can definitely be read on its own but it seems it will spoil some stuff from the first book. It's more like an interconnected stand alone with cross over characters and relationships. I see that the MMC, Darien,  from this book appears in the first book and perhaps if I had read that, I would have understood and liked his character a bit more.

I know F1 is the hot thing right now and I've been craving those books because I really enjoy the races. This is my third book in this type of world and I was hoping it would be the one to hit the spot. I have high expectations of what will happen in these books, of how things will play out, of what the authors will present when it comes to racing. I think Patel did a fairly good job of this overall. This sport is tough and highly competitive. Plus, very technical. I will say there were some areas that confused me, even being an F1 fan. Some technical stuff that didn't necessarily need to be included as I'm not sure the regular reader would really get it without more of an explanation.

Overall I liked Shantel and Darien enough to want to know where things went. I did struggle at times with their personalities. I definitely liked Darien more than Shante. I can see Darien is kind of the golden retriever type, though there wasn't as much joy coming from him as I would have liked. I didn't necessarily feel the chemistry between them, either. It felt a bit like insta-love with no growth. It felt like the author was forcing the characters to have a connection and become romantically involved. I wanted to slow build burn the author was trying to establish but it just felt flat. And nothing truly happened until about 3/4 of the way through the book. Normally, I'm good with this if the author shows how the characters are becoming connected and forming a relationship, but that wasn't the case with this book. Also, I didn't necessarily feel the characters' growth as I'm sure the author intended. Both are going through a grief process, which should help them connect, but it didn't. This theme was very heavy but it felt superficial in this book. The author continuously told us how sad the characters were but didn't really show that to us in a meaningful way. And I didn't see them developing and learning from what they were at the beginning of the story.

I feel like the author included a lot of the F1 information to try and move the story along. But it just made it boring, to be honest. It felted forced on the reader than than a way to show them the sport.

I will say the author describes the settings well. I liked that she took us from race to race and showed us some parts of where those races take place. And she did make me want to perhaps visit Brazil, it sounds like an interesting place.

Lastly, this author does a lot of telling rather than showing. Every little detail of what the characters are doing is told to the reader rather than making the reader feel like they are in the scene and experiencing what the characters are going through. It killed the pacing for me and I often times felt like I needed to skim the scene, rather than immerse myself in it to find out what was going on. It took me out of the story and didn't make me want to pick it back up. Often the author added information to the story which did nothing to move the plot forward. There were a lot of things that were mundane and unnecessary. At times it was even confusing when the characters were speaking or when the author was trying to show a scene but it was all described to us in minute detail.

I don't think I will be continuing with this series. This one was truly a struggle for me. The author has some potential but needs to hone things better to make the story more cohesive and enjoyable. The execution was poor and just didn't work for me. I do think that F1 fans may enjoy the depth the author goes into regarding the sport but if they are looking for a great romance with amazing character growth to go along with that, I think they will be disappointed.

Author:

Esha Patel is a contemporary romance author with a love for diverse romances and empowering stories. She is a full-time college student in the Midwest, and loves spending time with family and friends, dancing, watching sports (Ferrari and Real Madrid are her favorites), and baking lots and lots of stuff that can probably feed multiple eleven-man soccer teams.

Feel free to follow Esha on Instagram and TikTok @eshapatelauthor!

To contact: email at authoreshapatel@gmail.com with any inquiries.

 

ARC Review: Double Apex by Josie Juniper

 

Phaedra Morgan is one of the best race engineers in Formula 1. She’s a math prodigy with dazzling skill, cutting wit, and no patience for matters of the heart. Of course, her job would be a lot easier if she didn’t keep butting heads with their team’s cocky and infuriatingly hot new driver.  Cosmin Ardelean is intense and committed, but as famous for his off-track romantic exploits as his on-track wizardry. Yet his devil-may-care façade conceals a haunted past. When the pair strikes up a secret—and thrillingly forbidden—“arrangement” to improve their communication and bond of trust, the heat of their attraction turns to something more . . .  But no secret stays hidden for long in the racing world, and soon things are spinning out of control. With everything on the line, will they be able to strip away all their defenses and go full throttle for a chance at love?

Title: Double Apex

Author: Josie Juniper

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Expected Publication Date: October 8, 2024

Review:

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an audio galley of this title to listen to and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I was very excited for this title when I was approved. I love F1 and follow it pretty closely. And the idea of a female engineer (give me some women in STEM) was the thing that really drew me in. Add enemies to lovers and forbidden love on top of that and it sounds like a recipe for a great romance.

Unfortunately, it wasn't great and I couldn't even get through the entire thing.

My first issue was with the narrators. The female narrator was ok, but just sounded angry all the time. There was nothing endearing in her voice at all. And she was super robotic. And the male narrator? Ugh! I know the character is Romanian but there were so many times I could not even understand what he said due to his accent he was using for the character. Sometimes his speaking was so low I had to rewind several times to even hear what he said. I just was not a fan.

Do you want a female character to hate? This is that book. Phedra (never heard this name before) was just angry at everyone. There was nothing that made me feel she was relatable. She didn't adequately represent a woman in STEM at all. I wanted to see her struggles but I didn't. She accepted all the mysogynistic things that were thrown her way. I thought it would get better, that she would help change things as part of the plot point. However, she never fought for herself. And she did not come across as smart at all, despite her telling us more than once what a prodigy she is. Plus, I can't get with a girl who is an abuser and then blames her victim. Why would we want to put this out into the universe when we are trying to educate people about this topic and make them see it's not ok?

Do you want a a male character who embodies a sexist and chauvinist? Then Cosmin is your guy! The number of times he makes sexual innuendos and advancements in this book was gross. And the fact that there was sexual abuse in his family's past made this even worse. He was be told no but did things anyway was ridiculous. Also, by halfway through the book I really didn't have much of his background as to how he became a driver. I needed that to understand his character.

And don't get me started on the romance between these two. I felt zero chemistry. Apparently he's been pining after her, but I didn't feel that at all. And she hates him but why? He's cocky? Ok, that's par for the course with F1 drivers. But he never did anything to her and you barely see their background of interaction to make this so. They have already been working together so you don't see any build up at all.

The book's pacing was super slow, as well. I felt like nothing really happened. What was the point of the story? I wanted the characters to learn and grow but it was just not happening. The narrators did a lot of telling rather than showing me the story. 

One other point, the language. I understand the main male character is not American, but some of his comments really turned me off. Specifically when he said this: Are you fertile? And then the female characters says this: I expect him to pry my hand off that massive steel hot piston… These things were just a turn off for me.

I'm disappointed in this book. I feel like it could have used a bit more editing and fixing before being put out into the universe.

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.