As a female engineer in a male dominated field, she has a lot to prove. Especially as she’s the daughter of the owner of the F1 racing team she works for. What she doesn’t need is a cocky new racing driver to ruffle her feathers, especially when they keep being seen publicly butting heads.

This book had a lot of potential and I really liked the idea of it, but I think the author did such a good job of making us see why the FMC didn’t like the MMC it was hard to route for them or enjoy their romance.

Thank you NetGalley and Orion Publishing for the ARC.

Thanks so much to Orion Books, Josie Juniper and NetGalley for the eARC, all opinions expressed are my own!

I have such mixed feelings about this!

What I loved:
I loved the writing style, most moments were vividly described with some really great similes and metaphors, it was easy to follow and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I loved the idea of women in STEM and how they were front and centre of the novel, there were so many moments that I really enjoyed.

However, the characters as standalone individuals was just not working for me, Phaedra and Cosmin's chemistry didn't really stand out, and if I'm honest, the characters were annoying at time, and extremely selfish. Cosmin's actions and his character in general, especially during the first half of the book felt sleazy. In addition, the pacing seemed realy strange to me, either way too fast, and loads of things happened (Phaedra's father, her relationship with Cosmin develops pretty quickly!) and at times super slow (the back and forth of their relationship).

Whilst I enojyed the author's writing style, perhaps the plot wasn't for me.

I loved this a LOT. I’ve been enjoying this emerging trend of F1 inspired romances and this one definitely did not disappoint! We follow Phaedra, a race engineer, fighting her begrudging attraction to one of the drivers of her father’s F1 team, and the mishaps and beautiful moments along the way. Phaedra as a character was captivating and I loved finding out more about her, but Cosmin and his sister had a lovely connection about which I enjoyed reading. If you like the amazing women in STEM of Ali Hazelwood’s novels, and the rush and adrenaline of an F1 inspired story, with a beautiful love story within, definitely check this one out. A fantastic read!

Engineer x Driver
Women in STEM heroine
Hidden Romance
Sports Romance (F1)
Enemies to lovers
Found Family
He falls first
Dual POV


I’m a big fan of F1 so I’m always willing to give an F1 based book a go. It was a book that actually brought me into the sport so I’m always open to more. I really liked the author’s take on this type of romance and this match up isn’t one I read before. Having a STEM based Female lead is also something new for me to read and I quite enjoyed it, although I’m not on the point that some of the other characters were ‘dumbed’ down in comparison.

I liked the growth shown by Phaedra in not only her love life but her personal life. I liked the addition of Cosmin being Romanian and Phaedra learning the language to fully communicate with him more.
It made me laugh on the similarity of the Brazil race in the book and the most recent Brazil race, a bumpy track and a rainy day.

I will be looking out for when the next book in the series is out between Klaus and Natalia.

I was really intrigued with the premise of Double Apex, having not read any F1 fiction before. Unfortunately this one wasn’t my cup of tea. I struggled to connect with Phaedre and Cosmin who were both quite brash and sometimes abrasive. Their relationship development felt abrupt, and I had difficulty following their character development. The tension between these characters at times felt condescending and aggressive, rather than passionate.

I did find the F1 world interesting, particularly the experiences of a female engineer. to connect with the characters.

Cosmin’s narration in the audiobook had a strange breathy quality which made it hard to make out some of the dialogue. Overall though, the dual narration was great, and the accents and energy did elevate the characterisation and provide more insight as to their motivations.

While not quite for me, I can see this being an enjoyable read for lovers of F1 romance.

Thank you Orion Publishing Group for a copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

I’m fully immersed in the world of Formula 1 and so this book came at the perfect time to ease my stress over the last few races of the season 😂 Double Apex is light-hearted, fun, and hilarious. The characters are great and I’m excited to read more from Josie Juniper!

I was hoping to build up my catalogue of F1 books but sadly this one was not for me, the writing I just couldn’t vibe with at all. I was bored from the get go. I’m so sorry 😭

Double Apex is a romance between an F1 race engineer (Phaedra) and driver (Cosmin) on the same team, forced to find ways to get along for the team's sake, despite the animosity Phaedra feels towards Cosmin.

I enjoyed the writing style of this book, and really liked the F1 setting for the story. I thought both of these elements were well done, and I would definitely read another book by this author.

However, I didn't like this particular story. I felt that the storyline involving Cosmin, his sister and his sister's childhood abuser was underdeveloped and for this reason detracted seriously from the overall story. I couldn't understand the reason for it's inclusion, or what the intended message of the ending of that plotline was supposed to be either.

I also found it difficult to understand Phaedra's motivations a lot of the time, even though she was the point of view character. I empathised with her situation as woman in F1, and especially the need to prove herself as the daughter of the team owner. I would have liked the book to have spent more time showing us how this affects her role, rather than just telling the reader. I would also have liked to have more about Phaedra's background and the way she grew up, I felt this was lacking context for how she interacted with those in her life- especially her best friend and sister.

The romance itself was slightly lacking for me, they seemed to go from antagonistic to in love without enough on page interaction to make the change believable. In lust, and with the promise of a steady relationship, absolutely- where the book ends, I'm less convinced.

Overall, I would rate this book between 2.5 - 3 stars overall. There's a lot of good potential here, and I did think the writing style was particularly great. I would have liked more development of the character backstories and the romance between the two leads.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for an eArc copy of this book.

ARC copy provided by Orion & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The FMC - she’s already got a struggle ahead of her being an engineer in a male dominated field, especially so when you add in the fact her dad is the team principle. She’ll have to work 3x as hard as anyone else just to prove she has the right to be there. Very reminiscent of the FMC written by Ali Hazelwood.

Initially I wasn’t invested in the romance. The FMC set the tone that she heavily disliked the MMC and didn’t like the fact he’d gotten the seat. She was kinda bitter over the fact he’d gotten got put in over her choice and this bled out into her view of him. He also gave weird vibes in constantly making inappropriate comments to her even when she told him to stop.

Kinda felt like I’d missed some character development - like we went straight in without getting a feel for who the characters were. Just made me feel slightly lost with their dynamic etc. The time and location jumps further compounded this issue, as this made it feel clunky and disconnected.

As the story progressed I found the FMC to be more and more unlikable. She was openly hostile to the MMC, even in workplace scenarios like over the radio during a race, and had a superiority complex. It was almost like she thought she was better than everyone else just because she was smart. She just lashes out at everyone - hitting them where she knows they’ll hurt most.

There was one scene in particular that resonated with me that I thought went too far - the FMC is angry at the MMC and physically attacks him. He accidentally slaps her leg when trying to restrain her and she lashes out, comparing him to his abusive uncle. This was a deeply hurtful comment and so abusive. A scene I feel shouldn’t have made the final edit.

Overall this wasn’t for me! I just didn’t click with the characters. I did, however, love the setting and I thought the author really captured the F1 setting and the authenticity of the races well. Had the characters been written differently then I might have enjoyed this book, but it was just not meant to be!

Another racing driver romance to add to the growing pile. I found the male lead to be annoying and condescending and I wouldn't have wanted to go to bed with him! The female lead was at times rude and I also found this difficult to read. Not for me.

The tropes initially drew me in, sparking my curiosity and making me eager to dive into this story. I’ve always been a fan of the reverse grumpy x sunshine dynamic. It’s one of those underrated tropes that gets me every time, and I was thrilled to see it featured here.
Unfortunately, I found the main characters somewhat disappointing. While I didn’t exactly dislike Phaedra (the FMC), she was often unreasonably rude, which put me off. As for Cosmin (the MMC), he didn’t make the best impression on me at first. He did grow on me eventually, especially from the third act onwards, which I found to be the strongest part of the book.
The romance seemed to progress a bit too quickly for my liking. I was actually taken aback by how fast things escalated, and I wasn’t sure if I had misunderstood something along the way.
The friendship between Phaedra and her best friend was interesting, but I found it somewhat confusing as well.
Overall, I’d say the book had potential. I only listened to the audiobook version, and that might have affected my experience since I typically prefer having a physical or digital copy to follow along.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!