First of all, it’s a 3.5 for me not just 3. I did enjoy this book, especially as a huge Formula 1 fan, but I was struggling with it for maybe half of it. The story is well written and I adore the characters but sometimes it was going so slow that the story didn’t pull me in enough. I was very happy about the fact though that this wasn’t just a book about a formula 1 romance but also focused on the struggles of women in a male dominated industry. It’s inspiring to read about and makes you excited for the changes that F1 academy is hopefully bringing along. All in all, I definitely recommend this book if you’re a fellow F1 fan and like a romance. It being slow is a personal preference/struggle!

Let me dive back in by saying what I did before, I’m still a massive fan of F1 and during a time where it’s more prevalent than ever for the representation of women in motorsport (with current events and the finally televised start of the new F1 Academy season) I can confidently say this new edition was so much more than I was expecting.

One of the biggest things I still love about this book, that I think is a common misconception about Offtrack is that the main focus is not the romance in my eyes. Instead, this book takes a much needed look of a woman’s impact of a male dominated space — whilst still including all the exciting drama and betrayals not far from that of Drive to Survive.

This book is now DUAL POV, and follows the views of Diyana and Miguel as they navigate their complex relationship and connections through the politics of the world of motorsports. On a less serious note, I absolutely adore Esha’s characters (especially her side characters, Petey I’m looking at you my love) and both Miguel and Diana are easy to fall in love with. Miguel with his charm and daring personality alongside Diana’s determined, but respectful manor is the perfect balance that was needed throughout this.

The only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars was because one of the things I enjoyed from the initial book was the cute little breaks in the form of texts/tweets that gave me a breather from the serious/fast-paced nature of this race like book.

Honestly, if you’re someone that loves the drama and fast-paced nature of F1 with a splash of a should we/shouldn’t we romance — this is the book for you!

I'm normally a BIG fan of F1 books, I have no interested in the sport in real life but for some reason it hits different in a cute little romance book. Overall the book was fine, but it's not my favorite and I likely won't reread. It was super easy to speed through which was nice, but I kept getting pulled out of the story which isn't normal for me. I didn't really buy/like the chemistry between the MCs which made it hard for me to enjoy the book as a whole if that makes sense.

ARC REVIEW

Thank you to Netgalley and Esha Patel for sending me an arc of this book.

I've been slowly getting into F1 and so this seemed like the perfect book to read. And it did not disappoint.

I loved everything about it. All the F1 information in this book is so accurate and informative. I watched a race after finishing it and I actually felt like I understood what was going on better because of it.
(I did ask my boyfriend about certain things and he was impressed).

And THE CHARACTERS!!

Diyana: our female racer. Such a strong character. I adored her and the way she handles every situation she was in. She fights for what she wants and she gets it through her hard work and resilience.

Miguel: another wonderful character that helps our girl throughout her f1 debut and never doubts her abilities. We need more men like him in the world.

The way their relationship evolved was so sweet and fun to read. They care about each other so much in a world that is so competitive and with a lot of rivalries. They overcome it and have a beautiful relationship.

I also really loved all the secondary characters. I'm not sure if it's something Esha Patel has planned but I'd love to read about some of the other racers povs.

Overall this was an amazing book that I couldn't put down. A 5 star book for me that will definitely be in my top reads of the year.

DNF at 23%

I am disappointed, as I thought this book really had potential to be great, but I just could not go on any more.

The writing, for me, was really messy.
It seemed to jump from one thing to another and had sentances or paragraphs that added nothing to the story and could have been avoided, this just gave it a very over complicated feel. I struggled to actually read it, and not just skim everything. Also there was so many characters and names thrown at you, especially right at the beginning, it was hard to keep up.

I think the overall plot is a good idea, it just needs finessing.

DNFED AT 25%! I’m so upset I didn’t enjoy this! I love F1 racing books and this was super disappointing.
The Writing~
The writing and the way this book was formatted was atrocious. The author didn’t even put the conversations in quotation marks, which made it hard to read and visually unpleasant to look at.
The Plot~
The plot felt unrealistic and unattainable, as did the outcome of her season. I felt like barely any thinking went into this book.
The Characters~
I really didn’t like them. Miguel was super childish, and the romance was not explored at all. This is marketed as a romance but it isn’t one, not even close.
This needs to be pulled off the market before it gets published. It feels like the roughest first draft I’ve ever read, and it needs major work.

But as always, thank you so much to NetGalley and to Avon Books for the ARC!

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. There were a few things that detracted from my enjoyment. However, there might be something about Offtrack that appeals to you.

Here are some reasons why you might consider picking it up:
-FMC navigating the male dominated world of F1 racing
-FMC is an all-around racing goddess
-FMC is a woman of color

Ultimately, it did not work for me for two reasons. First, while it was heavy on F1 jargon, the racing scenes didn't translate well to the page. There was no excitement, no tension. Second, the chemistry and romance fell flat. The book couldn't decide what the dynamic was between the FMC and MMC and tried on all the tropes for size without picking one. Is this rivals to lovers? Forbidden love? Childhood crush to lovers? I honestly don't know.

I’ve been a Formula 1 fan since way before Drive to Survive, so the story about a female F1 driver and a racing romance felt like the perfect book for me! And I’m glad to say that the racing parts were done really well and felt both realistic and captivating. You could tell that Esha Patel had done thorough research and how much of an F1 fan she must be herself. But unfortunately, the romance fell a bit flat for me. There were also some parts of the plot that just didn’t make any sense and pulled the story down. So even though I wanted so much to love this story, it ended up being an okay entertainment for the moment, but didn’t fully meet the hopes and expectations I had.

Offtrack is a story told in the dual POVs of the two F1 drivers, Diana/Diyana - the first female F1 driver ever, and Miguel - racing royalty as third generation of a family of F1 drivers. I loved the idea of a female F1 racer, and how strong and badass, yet kind, Diana was. She’d had to fight so hard for her dream to come true and even fight harder to keep it, with all the misogyny going on in the racing world.

I also really enjoyed all the racing parts, the strategy communication and the competitiveness on track. Esha Patel really managed to build the intensity, and I read the racing parts feeling almost as nervous as if I was watching a real race!

So Diana as a character and the racing parts were great! But I had problems to fully understand and root for Miguel. On one hand he was the cliche of a playboy racing driver, on the other hand he was very supportive of his sister Paula and stood up for Diana when no one else did. I also had problems with the arranged marriage plot. Not going into details here to avoid spoilers, but everything about it felt off and made it hard to figure Miguel out. How could he be a player, allegedly screwing around with team principal’s daughter and others, at the same time as he was determined to honor the arrangement made when he was sixteen?

Another thing that felt like such a huge plot hole that it pulled the whole story and the romance down, was (sorry, might be a bit of a spoiler coming up here) was the unbelievable way that Miguel hadn’t heard about a female F2 champion and didn’t recognize her at the driver presentation. Adding the even more unbelievable part that he’d forgotten that they not only knew each other from not only racing each other but having a crush on each other as teen karting drivers. Especially as this crush later became the foundation for their newfound romance.

But even though I didn’t fully root for the romance, it was a very entertaining and fast paced read with a badass female racing driver giving hope for a near future with a real female F1 driver!

This book is in serious need of edits. The publisher sent an email that it’d been rewritten and that the copy on NetGalley is the latest, but it feels more like a first draft. The characters are flat, the dialogue is robotic and not in proper quotation marks, there are sentences that make no sense as they’re missing words, and I couldn’t force myself to get through it all. Hopefully it will be cleaned up prior to publication.

this was so funky and different but it was so so freaking amazing! i loved the vibes and overall energy of it and the plot was great!

I wasn’t super obsessed with the way this book was written, some of it was confusing and messy. There were a lot of characters going on. I think there was so much potential for a new genre in romance involving racing but it didn’t quite hit for me. I definitely skimmed a lot of this one.

This was fun but it felt really slow in the beginning and rushed at the end. The f1 part was quite accurate but the book as a whole felt quite over done?? So many details we didn’t necessarily need!

ARC

the f1 element was very accurate however I think it kinda of over took the romance. This book was fun and I was very invested in the couple.
I think this book was so good it’s definitely a fun and quick read.

I will start by saying that this book has potential to be incredible.

The idea of two rival F1 drivers falling for one another with their racing teams standing in the way is very ‘Romeo & Juliet’.

However I found it very difficult to get into because there are so many detailed characters we need to get to know and it took me quite a few chapters to figure out WHO the main characters actually were.

The writing style just wasn’t for me but the content of the book was entertaining so don’t take my review as gospel, please give it a read for yourself and you may find it’s a 5⭐️ in your opinion.

Read Time ⏱️ 4 hours

I AM IN LOVE! One thing is for sure, I am going to eat up an F1 romance like it's no one's business. It was such a refreshing take, and I loved every second of it. This is going to be an instant hit.

This was almost impossible to read. The actual writing feels like an over complicated first draft: it repeats itself constantly, gibberish or boring sentences that add nothing, and is overall just so messy.

I actually actively despised the love interest, Miguel, I thought he came across so childish and bland and just wishy-washy, no urgency or solid character.

I could not tell you what the plot to this was if my life depended on it.

A shame because a F1 story sounded so promising.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

I thought I would love this from the description, but once I started reading it I felt so disappointed. The writing style is not it, just very messy and hard to follow. The multiples POVs were just confusing within the plot, like I get having the FMC and MMC having them, but 3rd to 4th...was just unnecessary. My overall disappointed was the lack of depth to the characters, Even then they were purely platonic except that last 80? pages....isn't this listed as romance?

First I want to thank NetGalley and Avon for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to be brutally honest - this book as a whole wasn't very good. The first 70% of the book, the main characters Diana and Miguel had a strictly platonic relationship, and they barely interacted at that. They would see each other on track and congratulate each other but didn't really speak outside of their jobs. Diana has a brewing situation with another driver and Miguel had a fiancée until all of the sudden the two of them were into each other and the other two parties were left in the dust. There was also no lead up to the two of them getting together, there was no tension, and if I didn't know they get together, I wouldn't have thought they would.

I didn't dislike the writing, but it's definitely not the best - the writing was fine, the plot was non-existent, the characters didn't really have personalities, and the pacing was not good. It felt like a whole lot of nothing and then a major plot point, followed by a whole lot of nothing again. I wanted to like this book so badly because I love romance books and I love Formula 1, but this just missed the mark.

The characters didn't have much personality other than being F1 drivers, I couldn't connect with either of them, and quite honestly, I didn't like either of them; more often than not I felt like I was wasting my time and could've been reading something better. That's not to say it wouldn't be a good book for someone else, but unfortunately it wasn't for me.

Okay this was an okay book. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. The formula 1 plot was accurate and entertaining. It is what I loved most about this book. Somethings I didn’t like were the multiple POVs. In romance books they seem unnecessary to me. Why do we need other characters views outside of the relationship? It is not my cup of tea. There really didn’t seem to be any chemistry between the main characters and that is a major issue for why I don’t love this book. They seemed more like friends than lovers. The writing style wasn’t for me but it could be someone else’s. It was very chunky and hard to understand. If you like drive to survive give this book a try.

I hate to do this but I had to DNF this 37% in.
The writing was honestly so hard to read, it felt too chunky and it just wasn’t easy in the slightest. Also the duel povs were just not the best.

I won’t post a review on goodreads as I know how that hurts authors therefore I will just write it here and move on. I am sorry.