Anna's Reviews > Offtrack

This is a very very very very very generous 2.25 - 2.5 star rating from me. When I saw this book I was fully committed to dive further into my sports romance era, but damn.
I wanted to DNF twice: once at 30% and then again at 80%.

After I finished this book, I went back to read the synopsis just to make sure I was remembering it correctly and yes, it does say “enemies to lovers romance”. Unfortunately, this book is, by any means, not an enemies-to-lovers, not even a rivals-to-lovers, story. And, in my humble opinion, calling this a romance is kind of a stretch.

The pacing might have been my biggest issue, because it made zero sense to me, whether it was from chapter to chapter or even within a chapter. Would have loved some time (and location) indicators.

As much sense Miguel and Diana may make as a couple, they barely spent any (quality) time together until boom, they gave in into their attraction to each other and suddenly are a couple.
There was a lot (and when I say a lot, I really mean a lot) of focus on the F1 part, which the F1 girlies might appreciate. But it did come at the cost of the romance part of the story.
Up until 60%, the two leads barely had any moments to connect and liking each other was communicated through looks, shy smiles and blushing. Yeah, that's kinda cute but also ? I need soooome more communication.

Who I didn’t understand was Jatziry’s character. She was barely there, spoke maybe 5 sentences and really didn’t add anything valuable to the subplot or Miguel’s character arc. I feel like this space could have been used to develop the relationship with Diana, or really any other character for that matter.

The 3rd-act-breakup was pure audacity, really. Smh.

What I did appreciate was the really well portrayed international level F1 has as well as the sexism and misogyny Diana faced, being the only female driver in F1. However, while the approach in the book was probably the more realistic one, I wish there would have been more confrontation on that front from Diana and especially so from Miguel's sister. A missed opportunity, because why create a character like Miguel's sister, who was determinate to change F1, then have someone like Diana enter the scene just for them two not properly cross path in any way?

The author profile is a 10/10 though.

(I did read some reviews mentioning the writing and the multiple povs. The writing for me was fine, by any means not bad or horrible. And the version I read had only two povs: Miguel and Diana.)

Thank you Avon for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.