3.5⭐️ - Thank you to the author and Hambright PR for gifting me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! ⚠️Trigger warnings included at the end of review (as well as tropes) As some of you may know I’m a huge Formula One fan. It’s one of my favorite sports and I keep up with it almost 24/7. When I saw this arc pop up in my emails I jumped at the chance to read it cause it was right up my alley! As my first ever f1 romance it didn’t disappoint with the sport aspect. It’s very clear from the start that the author put a serious amount of time and effort into researching and knowing every detail of the sport to get it just right. From the term list at the start to the descriptions during practices, qualifying, and races it was obvious how much accuracy was prioritized. All the moments throughout involving the sport were my favorite part of this book and honestly the part that made it not completely flop for me. I was just really entranced while reading the race and other scenes and having it actually represent the sport I loved. Adding on to that I really liked that the FMC was a driver along with the MMC. The book gave proper representation to a gender that is constantly undermined within the sport. Auri persevering despite the negativity and backlash she received was inspiring. I did appreciate that she still enjoyed being feminine while also being a lethal competitor. While I think her character has a unique and complicated background, she did fall a little flat for me at times. I wish we would’ve gotten to know a bit more about her but this is a series so I’m hoping more will be revealed throughout. Overall, I did like her character and can only hope that one day we will have a woman like her on the real life grid. Now the part that really lost my interest in this book was surprisingly the romance and MMC. To start off, the romance was completely dull for me. It was pure lust for three quarters of the book which honestly digusted me. As a true romantic girly I was disappointed to see the lack of emotional connection between the main characters. Even by the end where they admitted to “having” an emotional connection it just wasn’t there for me. Since it wasn’t there is also made me feel disconnected from the characters myself. As some can tell from other books I read I do not at all mind a good bit of spice but this much with the lack of actually knowing each other? It wasn’t enjoyable. Now for the MMC: Callum. I was rlly excited, thinking he would be my next fav book boyfriend but I was sadly mistaken. I rlly didn’t like him at all. Usually I like a good reserved and grumpy love interest but there were times where it just bothered me, I wish he had shown more of a soft side for her throughout the book instead of just the very end. Complimenting her racing isn’t a soft side or anything special to me, it’s just the bare minimum for any man. We also didn’t really get much background on him other than a little bit of his childhood, so the lack of having those more dimensional moments for his character was disconnecting. Finally the thing that bothered me the most was how he talked about Auri in his chapters. Ik this book is spicy but I don’t think there was a single chapter of his where he didn’t mention something about her body or how his body reacted to her or wanting to touch her. Like it was just odd to me that those were the only things he had to say with an occasional mention of her personality. I know Auri discussed his body a lot as well but at the end of the day it was clear in most of her chapters that she was focused on racing not him. Lastly, at the start of the book it mentioned trigger warnings and one was ⚠️miscarriage, infertility, etc ⚠️ however that was not brought up at all in the book from what I remember. I don’t know if it will be brought up later on but I thought it was weird to include but not actually dicuss further. Secondly, this is marketed as a rivals to lovers romance. However, I think it’s very clear that when reading from the characters povs they never hated each other or were even fully rivals. They both always admired each other while still being competitive. Idk I just felt like they both liked each other too much from the start to properly be “rivals.” Also, the pace was very fast at the start, getting through different races quickly but had slowed down by a lot after reaching around 60%. It was just a weird shift going super fast to super slow out of almost nowhere. I also wanted to add that I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style and I felt like a lot of the descriptions of certain things or appearances was heavily repetitive which annoyed me a bit. In typical sports romances the author tends to either focus heavily on the sport or heavily on the romance. Within this book (and series) I think the author tried to focus on both too much which resulted in parts of it sometimes lacking. For example the lack of emotional connection and then later in the book the sudden disappearance of racing. I think this is because the author plans to make it a 5 book series, however I really don’t think that is necessary if either mostly f1 or mostly romance was prioritized. Too much is trying to be stuffed into a genre that doesn’t usually yield to such things. Sometimes certain genres just aren’t meant to be longer than 1-2 books in my opinion. Overall, I think this was a good start to an upcoming series. I really enjoyed the sport aspect but didn’t love the romance aspect. I can only hope that within the next 4 books, a deeper connection is prioritized over spice and that the characters true identities are flushed out a bit more. I’m definitely interested in reading book 2 but if it continues down this path I may not have it in me to finish the series. Once again, thank you to the author and Hambright PR for gifting me an arc of this book! 🏎️ READ IF YOU LIKE: - Formula One - Sports in general - LOTS of spice - rivals(?) to lovers - tension - kinks in the bedroom - forced proximity - competitive MMC and FMC - feminine representation in a male dominated sport ⚠️TRIGGER WARNINGS: - infidelity (flashbacks) - miscarriage, pregnancy loss, infertility (? Maybe book 2 ?) - emotional and psychological manipulation (not explicit) - high-pressure competitive envrironment - relationship trauma - themes of isolation, anxiety, and feeling unseen - moments of panic, emotional spirals, and self-doubt - heavy amounts of explicit sexual content (🌶️🌶️🌶️.5)

Omg. This was truly one of the MOST AMAZING books I have read in a long time. Like the most perfect Romantasy book. I don’t even know where to start with this review. It was one of those books where you are just completely transported to a different world. Starting off with the structure: this book had some LONG chapters. Like 10-20 pages and usually I hate long chapters with everything in my being. But I literally didn’t even care in this book. THE WRITING WAS SO GOOD IT DIDN’T EVEN FEEL LONG. The overall plot layout of this book was perfect. I never felt like there were any filler moments. Everything needed to happen to reach the ending and set up for book 2. Ugh so good. Next the plot: holy moly this plot was FABULOUS. Like truly one of the most entertaining I’ve read in a hot minute. There were lots of moments from very early in the book that I used to help me figure out some major plot moments at the end and it was so fun piecing it together. The author truly planned this out. There were also a HUGE amount of parts that I totally did not see coming but looking back the little clues were right in front of me THE WHOLE TIME OMG. Anyways, the trials were very entertaining. I know it is a cliché trope/plot theme but there were so many twists and turns that made it more unique and entertaining. On top of this the ending was CRAZY. I actually don’t even know what to say other than the fact that I need book two right now. I absolutely loved the Chinese Mythology included throughout this book. It was so entertaining learning about the culture and pronunciation of the language/different words. I loved the author’s description of the architecture especially. As well as including multiple types of mythical creatures: gods, demons, dragons, immortals, halflings etc. It was so so enjoyable. It also had historical elements and you know I love a good historical fantasy. 🤭 As I previous mentioned the writing was sooo good. I usually struggle a lot with Asian Fantasy books because there is so much information being included from a culture that I’m completely unfamiliar with so I get super lost and confused. It makes me uninterested in the book. However, the authors writing here was very clear in description and often repeated a lot of it throughout, giving the reader little refreshes, making it easier for me to comprehend and therefore enjoy. This is a great book to read if you want to read more Asian Fantasies but get confused like I do! Next up we have the romance. 😍 This was insane. There was a love triangle and I actually really like them both so much. But I do have my personal preference…cough Yù’chén cough…but I’m excited to see how it will play out in the next book. She had good chemistry and thrilling moments with both guys so I think I’d be okay with her ending up with either one but ofc I have a team I’m mainly rooting for. 👀 Tbh I have a feeling on how it will play out though… This book is classified as Young Adult in the United States. However, it is considered Adult in the UK. While reading this there were a few steamy makeout scenes and one mild sexual scene where you could definitely tell what was happening however it was not described in detail. If you prefer no spice I would definitely consider this new adult or very upper YA. Also really enjoyed the starcrossed lover/forbidden romance trope but my heart is in shambles. On top of all this (I know what else could I possibly have to say) I really loved Àn’yīng’s internal struggles throughout this book. She faced a lot of challenges both mentally is physically. A lot of times she had to choose whether she wanted to stick to her morals and original teachings or stray the path to protect those she cares for. Her growth as an individual, friend, and loved one was exciting to follow and I’m really looking forward to continuing her journey in the next book. Overall, this book was SO GOOD. 100% a new favorite. I am so glad I got to get this hand signed and met the author in person. Literally one of my new all time favorites. I will be (not so patiently) awaiting book two. Sorry for this crazy ramble, it’s 3:30am and I’m still processing. But I promise my Instagram review will be more organized 🤗 100% recommend. 🐉READ IF YOU LIKE: - Cultural Mythology (Chinese in this case) - Starcrossed Lovers/Forbidden Romance - Magicl Trials - Unique Charcter Dinamics & Realtionships - Demon X Demon Slayer 👀 (for my kpdh fans) - Book 1 of a Duology - Cliffhanger - Plot Twists - Found Family

Thank you to the author for gifting me a free E-Copy of this book awhile back. To start off this review I want to say that I had already not loved the first book. However, I decided to continue the series since I already had a copy of the second book. This book took me months to read and honestly I don’t really remember the first half of it. But I hate DNFs so I was determined to finish it. For the first 60% of the book it just felt like a lot of filler scenes and didn’t expand on the plot of the first book as much as I would have hoped. On top of this I still did not feel any connection with the characters and there are so many I really have a hard time keeping them all straight. Especially because this book is multi-pov in 3rd person. Sometimes it switches over mid chapter with only a small break as a warning and it takes a few minutes to comprehend who’s perspective you are reading from. Once again this book is also marketed a lot to have romance but it’s not really there. Like up until this end of this book the romance was nonexistent to me. It’s especially disappointed because it’s marketed to be similar to the tv show, Reign, which is my all time favorite however it doesn’t give off the vibes at all. I will give the author credit though that by the time I got like 75% through the plot started to pick up and become more interesting. The characters were finally forming bonds which made them more likable and romance was actually blooming. It was especially the last 4-5 chapters that redeemed this book slightly to me as I enjoyed what the plot was heading towards. Unfortunately though, I still didn’t enjoy a majority of the book and found most of it to be dreadfully boring. If it weren’t for that last part, I probably would’ve rated this book lower than the first. At the end of the day I think the concept of this series is great. However, the way it was executed just wasn’t enjoyable for me. I think it’s obviously safe to say this series and author does not fit my taste or interest. I will not be reading the third book of the series and will instead probably just look up a summary for the small parts I’m interested in. Once again thank you to the author for gifting me book 1 and 2 of this series. This one wasn’t really for me but I hope others enjoy it more if they give it a go.