— 4.5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

”I don’t need to hide a single aspect of myself from him. He’s already seen it all. And yet, he’s still here, looking at me like I’m the centre of his universe.”

📖 | 385 pages
👤 | author Simone Soltani
🏢 | publisher Pan Macmillan
📅 | release date 23 May 2024

What you can expect:
— New-Adult Contemporary Sport Romance
— First Person POV
— Dual POV
— F1 Driver X Social Media Manager
— Brother's Best Friend
— South Asian MMC X Black FMC
— Childhood Crush
— Chronic Illness Rep
— Sunshine X Sunshine
— She Falls First (& he falls harder!!)
— Slow-Burn Romance
— Open Door Spice

Cross the Line is the first instalment in the Lights Out series by debut author Simone Soltani. Formula 1 driver Dev Anderson's career is on the line. After a social media disaster leaves him with an angry team and sponsors threatening to jump ship, he knows he has to hire someone to help save his image. By chance at a party in Monaco, he bumps into the woman who can fix it all, but there's just one problem: she's his best friend's little sister. And, okay, maybe there's another problem—he kissed her last year and hasn't been able to stop thinking about it since. Recent college grad Willow Williams needs a job, preferably one where she can put her sports marketing degree to use. She may have a talent for seeing the bright side of a bad situation, but it's hard to stay positive when she's struggling to get hired. So when Dev offers her a temporary solution, she can't help but say yes to working together... even if it means ignoring the crush she's had on him since childhood. Both Willow and Dev are determined to keep things strictly professional, even if old feelings and the blazing chemistry between them threatens to ignite. But in the glittering and high-stakes world of Formula 1, some lines are meant to be crossed...

This is my formal request to all authors for more sunshine x sunshine love interests because this book felt like that moment in Spring time when the sun shines on you just right and you are left with that feeling of contentment and ease. The vibes in Cross the Line were chaotic and immaculate all in one, and I now find myself in desperate need for more. The slow-burn aspect was real for the first half of the story before things quickly accelerate in the second portion of the book... and personally I loved it. The tension and the pining was written to perfection, and by that 50% mark I was fully internally screaming "just get together already" so that second half was a comfort and relief to my inner romantic. The overall pacing of the story worked perfectly for me and complimented the tropes that are present within the story, and this is a cannot be missed romance read for Summer 2024.

Dev Anderson is sunshine incarnate and he just gave me 'teddy bear' vibes throughout the story. Even as a fictional character I found myself wanting to gravitate into his orbit and soak up the warmth that this man exudes. I was constantly cackling at the inappropriate remarks he made during times of anxiety and stress which is well balanced with his exuding charm and secret love for Bollywood movies, and he's just the perfect book boyfriend to fall in love with this Summer. Dev's passion for the sport he loves is apparent I enjoyed seeing him regain his sense of 'fight' against the mistreatment from the man that owns the team he races for. Dev knows his worth as a driver and as a biracial man in a white dominated industry, and it was amazing to read as he pushed towards his ambitions with the love and support of his loved ones. And of course one of the best aspects to Dev's character is his sheer adoration and respect to his love interest, Willow Williams. Even prior to the beginning of their romantic relationship it is clear how much respect and awe he holds in regards to Willow's character. Dev has nothing but trust and faith in her professional ability to do her job, and I loved how willingly he handed over the reigns of his social media presence without any concern or regard for her inexperience. Dev is Willow's number one supporter through and through, and I love how that was established early on which went on to support the fast-development of their romantic relationship later on in the book. There's just something so wholesome and charming about sunshine love interests, and I love how well-balanced Dev and Willow were. I absolutely adore them independently and as a couple, and I couldn't think of a pair more well-suited than these two.

Willow Williams is an absolute angel of a main character and I love her so much. I adored her honesty and transparent approach in regards to her daily struggles with her chronic pain and joint disorder. I really felt for Willow as it became clear that he childhood dreams and ambitions would be impossible as a result, however this just encouraged Willow to find a new dream and it was a joy to watch her fight for it. I love how she continues to live life as fully as possible whilst tackling her insecurities. Plus, a girl that loves macaroons as she does is a woman after my own heart. Willow's unwavering support and belief in Dev was absolutely everything, and I respect how desperately she tried to go after what she wanted without hurting the feelings of those that she loves. Whilst I don't necessarily agree with how Willow and Dev handled breaking the news of their relationship to Willow's older brother Oakley (and Dev's best friend), I can understand what the intentions were and I appreciate the imperfectness of the situation. People can make the wrong decisions for the right and well-meaning reason, and I love how innately human this response is. It makes connecting to fictional characters on an emotional level all the more real, and I loved Oakley's response to the entire situation. I really hope we get to see Oak's story at some point in the series! He was hilarious and I'd loved to see him fall in love. Mark, too. That grumpy man had me from the beginning and I desperately need to know more about him.

3.5⭐️

So, I watch formula 1 and I haven’t read a f1 book since I got into f1 . So I was a bi it worried if I would enjoy it as much. I was pleasantly surprised. Cross the Line follows Willow and Dev. Dev is Willow’s brothers best friend (a trope I love!!) Dev needs help reviving his image and asks Willow to help him. Willow and Dev’s relationship was so cute. It was really nice to see the chronic illness rep especially of something I had little knowledge on so was nice to learn about it. I feel like the F1 part of this book was done really well too. Also no third act breakup which I LOVE!!

Thank you to NetGalley this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions

This is my first F1 sports romance and i absolutely love it. The book has been in my tbr for so long that I was super excited and happy when I was approved to read and review this.
First of all, I had a great time reading this book. The author did an amazing job penning down these two amazing characters and their romance. I am totally in love with it. I literally can't stop thinking about this one.

An F1 driver crashing during a race because he kissed a girl?! On the first page?!

I gave it the benefit of the doubt after that but it didn't get any better. I found myself getting more disappointed as the book went on. I want even invested in the characters by the end, just reading for the same of reviewing.

It had the potential to be so good but unfortunately just didn't get there.

Ever since Simone’s very first IG post appeared on my feed I have been excited to read this book.

Willow has been half in love with Dev since she was little but being her older brother’s best friend he was off limits. That is, until she drunkly admits her crush one night and a year later he is in desperate need of her skills to revamp his image and do some major damage control!

This is a slow burn that keeps you on the edge as despite agreeing to keep things professional, neither Willow or Dev can help the flirty tension from bleeding into their relationship.

The two of them are definitely each other’s biggest supporters. Willow believing in Dev’s ability to deliver on and off the track. In return Dev doesn’t treat Willow like she needs to be wrapped up in cottonwool. He treats her with care but also supportive, trusting that she knows when its too much.

I really enjoyed how Simone represented not only F1 but someone with a chronic health condition. It felt authentic and not forced. As someone who is chronically sick, seeing representation on the page like this was so special.

The side characters definitely caught my attention and I am looking forward to seeing what they get up to.

Overall, I throughly enjoyed this book.

If you love the below, you’ll love this book:
🏎️ F1 Romance
🏁Brothers Best Friend
🏎️ No 3rd Act Break up
🏁 Chronic Illness rep
🏎️ Sunshine x Sunshine
🏁 She falls first but he falls harder
🏎️ Lots of Bollywood references
🏁F1 Driver x Social Media Manager

I was so so excited about this book because while I'm not a huge F1 one fan I do love brothers best friend romances and I do love stories that don't have a 0815 setting which this book definitely doesn't have.
However, the romance - which is the biggest part of this book - wasn't for me. Mostly because I found it pretty boring because there wasn't actually anything that was forcing the two main characters apart. They were attracted to each other from the beginning, they knew they liked each other and that the other one liked them back, they were only worried about her brother, which honestly, was a little bit stupid because you're all adults, what's the big deal? That nothing was forcing them apart and still they were acting as if they couldn't possibly ever be together made me so irrationaly irritated at the characters after a while that it really impacted my reading experience, I was so annoyed most of the time.
With that said, I had nothing against the writing itself and I will probably give this author another chance when she publishes more books. I think this was more of a me problem because as far as I've seen so far this book gets pretty great reviews.

This was cute, and I did like the romance, because it was very clear from the start how much these characters care about each other, which was very sweet. This book is also at least 100 pages too long though, and it took me ages to read. It feels way too slow-paced for a sweet romance novel, and I just wish it had all been more condensed, because at times it felt like we were going nowhere with the story. A lot of it is no plot, just vibes, and the vibes were nice at times, but also a little boring at other times.

Dev is a F1 pilot and he needs to restore his reputation. He hires his sister’s best friend, Willow, for his social media.
This book has so much potential. But it wasn’t it. No chemistry between the characters and no big twist during the F1 season.
The epilogue was way too long and why put an accident here ?

DFN @ 36%

look, I tried, I really tried, but I’ve been reading this for a week and I still haven’t reached 50% 🫠 I’m happy that so many people have loved this and if you want to read it, then go ahead and do it. I can’t say it’s a bad book, it’s just not for me. I’m not in the mood for it and I’m not connecting with the characters. I couldn’t care less about them and their romance. Which sucks, because I really wanted to love this.

thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc copy of the book.

This was so sweet, lovely and I totally adored Dev and Willow. As a marketing girl, I loved Willow. Both of the characters felt fully fleshed out. Their forbidden romance and internal conflict worked really well. I wish their arcs were pushed slightly further but overall they really worked as I was deeply invested. I can't wait for the next book in this series!

Trying to remain fair to the author cause from the 50% I read I thought it was incredibly well written and charming.

But the romanticising of a crash threw me off. The MMC crashes his car because he’s distracted…because he kissed his mates sister.

Now, my stepdad raced in F3 for many years when he was younger and had to pack it in because of a crash that almost killed him, this was extremely uncomfortable to read and unfortunately lived rent free in my head when I tried to push on.

I get it’s fiction but incidents where a human life is put at risk due to extreme circumstances is NOT romantic.

4.5⭐️

first off - the biggest thank you to panmacmillan and netgalley for this arc 🤭 i had the best time reading it

this was my first formula one romance and i think i am now addicted. the rush and the tension was unreal and i don’t think i will recover.

dev and willow were perfection. the portrayal of willow’s illness was so beautifully written. the past of the two’s friendship was honestly amazing - and i recently read a childhood friend to lovers and didn’t find myself interested or attached to the characters - but this? PERFECTION.

how we watched dev know to treat her body and when she gets tired, before we even got to the full blown romance? i died inside. gushed. giggled. swooned. you name it

dev is what i can only picture as pure golden retriever. he is the epitome of the perfect man i think. kind, caring, sexy, funny, but the biggest soppiest romantic ever. ugh.

i thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book, from the formula one to the big indian wedding. i loved how in depth it got yet wasn’t overpowering with the descriptions.

safe to say this was a beautifully written romance that has me grasping for more.

I have most definitely found a new love for F1 romances. This was so so so much more than I was expecting to read. I loved the chemistry between the characters. They were literally sparking from page one of the book.

And can we PLEASE just appreciate our golden retriever MMC, Dev. Lord, why can’t men like that exist in real life? Open, honest with their feelings and happy to show their girl (and the world) that? I just wanted to pull him out of the book and make him real.

Let me start off by saying I am a white girl. So I have no idea about the acuracy of the black & brown representation. But I know the author had proofreaders in this demographic and is multicultural herself. So that gives me faith! It felt well done to me, but what do I know. I just wanted to point out it had this representation and I learned a lot of new words! (Jaanu for instance 🥹)

I do however have chronic pain due to hypermobility. And I LOVE the representation in this book. It is so casual, not a plotpoint. It influences her feelings and decisions. It is part of her but not all of her. This representation felt super authentic (makes sense, it's own-voices!) and I am so glad this story exists.

I already almost cried at the dedication: "For anyone pushing through the pain every single day."
I felt that, so hard! Thank you Simone Soltani for giving us hypermobile girlies a lovestory with someone who knows our struggles. From wearing heels to feeling like a burden. This book really hit home for me. And it made me want to watch F1 lolll. I was never into the sport but it seems actually fun!


Things I loved:
- Standing up to the rethoric Black women's natural hair is 'unprofessional'
- Knowing you are different from other kids even though you don't yet have a diagnosis
- Being able to mold and change your dream so it works with your body/health
- Replacing negative selftalk with positive compliments. Naming the things you DO like about yourself
- Commenting about the racist western beautystandards (like noses needing to be small and straight)
- Condemning STD shaming
- Baking keeps her calm, but she sucks at it, lol! Especially macarons
- I loveddddd the macarons thoughout the story. So sweet!
- The Big Box O'Pills (all her medication to manage the pain and joint issues in a glitter labeled shoebox!)
- Dev listening to Bollywood music and absolutely loves it
- Matchmaking aunties
- Little tricks & movements the guys have learned to not dislocate/subluxate one of Willows joints. Little ways they make life easier for her
- Advocating for your needs and comfort in the bedroom to prevent pain and injury
- He runs a bath for her to reduce muscle tension and pain 🥹🥰
- Struggeling with heels because dislocating an ankle or hip is even easier. But wanting to wear them anyway from time to time because it makes you feel pretty.


Scenario I loved:
Willow is being bothered by some dude. She says no but he won't listen. So she tells him she's here with her boyfriend and Dev comes to her aid. The dude recognizes Dev and apologizes for going after his girl (they were not together at this point, Dev was just being a good friend and protecting her) and he says to the dude 'its fine'. But immediately after he leaves he tells Willow: " 'Before you yell at me'—I hold up both hands—'I know it's not fine, and if I didn't have to be careful about getting caught doing stupid stuff, I would have beat that motherfucker's face in.' "
(Not a fan of the punching bit, but the sentiment behind it I can appreciate!)

He is super annoyed men wont take no for an anwser. And women have to make up excuses about fake boyfriends in order to stay safe. I loved how the author pointed this out!

A quote about feeling like you are not enough, like you are not wanted and desireable that really stuck with me:
"It's also why Dev's comment about being unwanted struck me so hard. Because I know what it's like to not be wanted. From jobs to Jeremy to being the fragile-jointed younger sister who couldn't do anything without getting hurt. I know what it's like to be shoved to the side and what it's like to feel pushed out."

Another thing that I was really glad was included in the book is being scared to commit to a relationship. Because you have a health issue. You might feel less desireable. You might feel like a burden or partypooper. These feelings are very real and alive in many people with chronic illnesses. I am glad this book adressed those things:
" 'I'm scared, Chantal,' I whisper. Being with Dev in any form means opening myself up to another chance at heartbreak. I can't imagine he'd ever cheat like Jeremy did, but I also can't imagine being his forever first choice. Now that his reputation is repaired, he can have any woman he wants,so why would he settle for me? I'm fragile and weak, practically held together with glue and stretched-out rubber bands. Some days I can barely keep up with the breakneck pace of following the team around the world, and it's nothing short of a miracle that I haven't fallen completely behind or gotten scriously hurt. Someone should slap a sticker on my forehead that says handle with care. Would he really be up for tolerating that? And for how long? "

So. TL;DR
This book is amazing. The lovestory is super sweet and realistic. It has brother's-best-friend, forced proximity, chronic illness rep, chronic pain rep, interracial and multicultural relationship, F1, Bollywood references, terms of endearment (Jaanu anyone??), MACARONS and just a whole lot of love. 100% recommend!

Dev is an up and coming Formula 1 star with a bad reputation (although not in the way you think...). Willow wants to break into sports marketing, so overhauling Dev's image could be the exact break she needs ... Except that she is his best friend's sister, and they've already shared one kiss that they shouldn't have...

This is a sweet slow burn romance, but it was just a bit too slow for me. The book dragged a bit in the middle, which made the whole thing longer than it needed to be. Otherwise it was a cute read!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I loved everything about this book! Straight from the first page I got hooked into the story. It flowed well and the pacing was perfect. I really loved the dynamic between Willow and Dev (and his character had just the right amount of characteristics of my favourite real life F1 drivers). Highly recommend!

It’s rare that I finish a book like this and want more but I really do hope Soltani turns this into a series because I loved this world and it’s characters!

Willow and Dev’s romance was very endearing and although some of the F1 references/storylines were a little cheesy I still really enjoyed this!

I liked this book and the characters but I felt like the romance was really rushed and the characters were already gonna fall in love. I think there was too much smut in the book and the writer should have added that there would be because the smut was very unnecessary and just made me think the characters were only together too smash.
I did enjoy the plot though because if your into romance mixed with sports you would love this 😀
Thank you netgallery.co.uk for letting me read this book. I rate it 7/10

Simone Soltani is going to be an author to watch, I feel it. This was one of the best brothers best friends/best friends sibling romances i've ever read. It was so romantic, the representation was great an the pining! This was enjoyable from start to finish and I can't wait to read more by her.

4.5/5

This was such a sweet F1 romance, brother’s best friend & no third act break up! It’s a slow burn that I think was done really well I was routing for them the whole time! I also loved seeing the Asian influence in this book!