amyrene1530 's review for:

Coming in Hot by Josie Juniper

3.0

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 I loved that this wasn't the standard driver afair. It was nice to see it about two slightly older adults, one of which being the Team Principal. It's not always the drivers who are hot, but they're the ones in front of the cameras, so they're the ones who are often written about. Max Rauch, the MMC narrator, was amazing, and I truly hope we see more of him! Honestly, both narrators did a fantastic job. The book had some great humor and witty quips, and I appreciated that Klaus and Natalia's relationship didn't happen instantly (yes, the sex happened instantly, but their relationship itself went through quite a few ups and downs). Yes, it's annoying that we're constantly time-jumping, but that's the nature of relationships sometimes - nothing exciting happens, which would make a boring book. My main gripe about this was that they weren't honest from the start. In all honesty, their relationship is built on a LOT of lies and half-truths.

Honestly, third-act breakups aren't as much my thing, and I feel like you can feel that trope coming from the very beginning of this book. The amount of lies they're both telling each other, and the amount of things they're hiding, almost demands a third-act breakup. The lies of omission and the half-truths are understandable to some degree, as they work in fields that need each other symbiotically (F1 racing and reporting). However, to have a genuine relationship, honesty and open communication are essential. That was missing from the very beginning.

There was one sneak attack trope that I absolutely hated (I feel like listing it gives part of the plot away), which threw me for a loop at the very end. Third-act breakups I can get over, but the sneak-attack one I absolutely abhor and will actively skip books with, so it was frustrating to have to endure it. And endure it I DID, as it was the bitter end of the darn book, and at that point, I wasn't marking this as a DNF. It was entirely avoidable and unnecessary to reunite the couple, but it was used, so here we are. 

I think that trope is the real reason this only gets three stars from me. The writing was fine, the character dialog, while stilted at times, seemed fine, the characters were fine. It all just felt...fine. Not amazing, not laugh-out-loud worthy, not any real major emotion-worthy (other than frustration at the end).

Thank you, NetGalley, Hachette Audio, the publisher, and the author, for providing a free copy of Heir of Storms in exchange for an honest review.