This writing style was really hard to follow and I guess I don’t care enough about F1 like I thought! I was trying to expand my horizons and read about a new sport but I found myself skimming a lot.

This book was a roller coaster for me. Or I guess in keeping with the theme, a back and forth race struggling to get into the points.

The plot - Miguel de la Fuente is an established F1 driver at a top tier team. He’s constantly fighting for championships and comes from a legacy family of F1 drivers. Diana Zahrani is F1’s newest driver, and its first female driver (in universe). She drives at a rival top tier team, Jolt, to Miguel’s Revello. And the two circle each other through the season, balancing their rivalry and their need to win with their desire for each other.

The good - The biggest win for me is how Diana is represented as a woman in racing. She has to deal with sexism at all levels, from subtle comments in the media to having to pour an energy drink all over herself while leaning across a car. It’s highly representative of women in sports, not just F1, and Esha actually comments on real life sexism in F1 in her Author’s Note at the end.

I also really loved some of the smaller points, like when Miguel starts using Diana’s given name versus her western name, and her referring to herself at one point as a ‘sickly Victorian child suffering from vapors’. Esha writes relatable and funny characters and I found myself really enjoying the internal monologues

The bad - Why would Diana ever express feeling bad about overtaking other drivers in F1 races. She says that the other drivers are nice to her, which I get, but she’s risen through the ranks. Are we supposed to assume that the F2 drivers weren’t nice to her so she didn’t feel bad overtaking them? Or that she was always at the front and never needed to overtake? I don’t believe it’s clearly stated, and in the short time I’ve followed F1 I’ve never seen a driver speak that way. There were also moments where it seemed clear that the team itself was against Diana and I would have preferred to spend more time on that.

There was also a reveal from both Diana and Miguel’s history in carting that is really never addressed. It’s just revealed and everyone moves on from it. I would have liked at least one more scene over that reveal.

Overall, I enjoyed the story because I enjoy F1. I would recommend this if you want a light story that reads like a season of Drive to Survive. However, if you don’t follow F1, and especially if you’re not concerned with women’s role in sport, this may not be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed.

I want to start this off by saying I DNF this book at 30%. I don’t think I was the intended audience for this book unfortunately.

The storyline caught my attention as I do like Formula 1 and have enjoyed a few F1 books over the years. The writing style made this difficult for me to read. Although it was in first person I never felt I was truly in the main characters’ minds. The writing style seemed very juvenile and didn’t flow nicely. I really wanted to enjoy this book but it just did not keep my interest.

The premise of the fmc being a F1 driver was what originally got my attention but it ended up feeling a little chaotic and fell flat. 


The multiple POVs, drama, and I feel like the actual premise of the story was more of a sub plot. We got (what I feel like) was way toooo much detail about F1, it was overload for me. Add this to the fact that the chemistry was lacking between Diana and Miguel. These combined made me feel less invested in the story.

This was a great read! slowburn enemies to lovers F1 romance . Say less. I really enjoyed this and it was exactly what I needed right now . loved the characters and the writing style . looking forward to reading more work by this author .

*thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book%*

Headline: Take away the distractions and focus on the love story. the two issues I found that pulled me out of the story is: 1. Stereotypes and 2. Lack of understanding of F1.

Re: stereotypes: Why is Miguel drinking horchata? You can incorporate subtle cultural markers, but these felt obtuse. Why is Diana saying it’s ok for Miguel to be a womanizing asshole and yet mad when Kasper is (because Miguel is attractive?) strip down any interactions with the characters back to basics and then rebuild up the scenes.

Re: F1: it’s a small world, as the promo says, so realistically the drivers would have already met if Diana was as good as it says she is (in F2 or even the F1 Academy).

It is a great idea for a book, but should be rewritten to get to the core of the story: teammates to lovers. All of this extra nonsense is distracting and detracting from the writing. Focus on the love story and then build up additional conflicts after, because I didn’t even enjoy Diana and Miguel.

I'm so sorry I did not like it, I don't know what I expected from the main character or at least the female main character to be Desi, also the writing style was just not for me, the plot was weak and the characters I could not root for them or relate to them in any way.

DNF at 30 percent, I wasn’t feeling the characters or the writing, I was hoping to like this because the cover is gorgeous but don’t feel I’m the target audience for this particular book. I believe others will like it a lot more.

Weak. These f1 books are just really scraping the bottomg of the barrel, they are like written for babies, as if we female aduiences don't watch f1, felt like a tween book at best. Really weak plot wise and chemistry wise. Someone has got to write a really good meety f1 romance, so far I've read a few and non of them even come close to satisfy,

I started this book and immediately knew the writing style was not going to be for me, I gave it a good go but DNF at 15%

dnf at 26%.
i can't read this anymore, it's written so weird. the sentences don't really make sense, it hurts my head to read. and nothing is really even happening. it's so sad cuz i love f1 and was so exited to read this.
i defenetly think this has room for improvement, the main thing that botherd me was the writing and the plan of the book, (like in what order stuff was going to happen).

*thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

I enjoyed this.Quick,fun and easy read. I had a bit of a trouble connecting with the characters but once I got into it I was hooked.
The book delivered on the enemies to lovers part and I am a huge fan of those. Definitely recommend to all sport (F1) romance lovers.

I truly enjoyed this read! I read some other reviews beforehand and was a little hesitant, but I don't know what they were on about. The dual POVs was excellent! Addressing sexism in male-dominated fields, excellent! The story between Mig and Diyana, fantastic! I loved that there was build up to their relationship and it just didn't happen right off the bat. This is definitely one I will recommend!

Hard for me to finish.

I really don’t like giving negative reviews but here we are. As a huge female F1 fan this book really appealed and was exciting to me but the writing style was not for me and none of the characters were really likeable to me, I really had to push to finish this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to have an ARC in return for an honest review.

2.5 stars

I wanted to give it some time before I wrote this review because I was super excited to read this book. However, the book was kind of disappointing. I don't usually really sports romance but I wanted to give this a try.

For a romance book that describes itself as a 'enemies to lovers,' I didn't really see that trope in this book at all. In fact, there was not a lot of romantic chemistry or scenes between Diana and Miguel. I loved these two characters together but the lack of romance made it quite frustrating for me to read.

Also, the subplot between Miguel and his fiance seemed very unnecessary. It just didn't really add much conflict between the two central love interests.

I did, however, love the focus on a female driver in F1!!!

All of this isn't to say that I didn't like 'Offtrack.' I liked it but there were some elements that I didn't really enjoy. Still, I would love to read more from Esha Patel in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and AVON Books UK for the ARC.

DNF

I am typically against DNF’ing ARCS because I believe it’s unfair to a certain extent to review a book you did not finish.

However I could not get into this book in any way shape or form. Something just did not do it for me. The characters, the writing. Fell flat.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars
Offtrack takes the checkered flag for blending the speed of Formula One with the sizzle of enemies-to-lovers romance. Diana Zahrani, F1's trailblazing woman driver, refuses to be just a pretty face, while championship favorite Miguel de la Fuente is convinced she's just a speed bump in his way. As these two racers navigate the twists and turns of their competitive world, sparks fly faster than the cars on the track. While the story revs up the tension, I didn't always feel super connected to the characters outside of the romance. Strap in for a ride with a love story that's as unpredictable as a Grand Prix. 3.5 stars for a romance that accelerates but occasionally takes a detour. Offtrack – where love and racing collide!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

2.4
In the interest of not being openly mean, I'm going to offer a couple of examples of the problem with this book and let you draw your own conclusions.
A driver complains of extreme jet-lag when arriving at Imola after Jeddah despite there being a two hour time difference.
A race engineer tells a driver 'not to use so much oversteer in corners' as though this driver has been using an F1 car for drifting.
A driver says she 'will always remember that final formation lap.'

As a huge F1 fan the idea of this book having the first female F1 driver was off the charts for me. In hindsight, I set my expectations a little too high.
I loved how this book is similar to the 'Drive to Survive' show and that we are getting another F1 book, but I was mostly disappointed by the execution of it. I wish I had more positive things to say and I hate saying negative things about a book before it's release (hence why I am not posting my review to Goodreads) but I can't force myself to be anything but honest.

There is so much going on in Offtrack, multiple POVs, drama, and I feel like the actual premise of the story was more of a sub plot to the actual F1 aspect. We get a lot of in detail information about F1 - which is great as this is an F1 book, but I felt like it overpowered what was really meant to be taking place.

The writing style was difficult for me to enjoy, I found myself struggling as it is a little clunky and wordy at parts and the chemistry between the MCS, Diana and Miguel was basically non-existent. I didn't connect with the MCs at all.

I will definitely try to read something else by Esha Patel in the future, but Offtrack just wasn't what I expected it to be.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honesty review.

I tried so hard to get through this, but I could not stand the characters and the lack of proper quotation marks among other grammatical errors.

The story follows two F1 racers and while it seems like the author knew a lot about F1, the FMC’s journey to F1 just did not seem believable.

This books does not feel like it is ready to be published. I usually don’t comment on grammatical errors, but there were too many in this books to ignore. It truly felt like the first draft where you’re just trying to get words on paper. Several more changes to the story and the mechanics need to be made before this book is ready to be published