High Octane: Ignited by Rachel Cross and Ashlinn Craven

Everyone’s fueled by something…

Cassidy Miller was living her dreams as an EMS helicopter pilot saving lives in Arizona but it all came crashing down. Suspended from her job and desperate to escape memories of that night, she jets to Europe and is swept along on a whirlwind world tour of Formula One racing courtesy of her father, an executive sponsor of a team. The last thing she needs is to get involved with a driver, who thrives on risk.

Sexy, daredevil British driver Ronan Hawes has no room in his life for anything but winning. Strategy meetings, press conferences, practices, sponsor events, and racing consume him. Halfway through the season, he’s on track to win the Formula One World Drivers Championship—a title that has eluded him for years—and no emotionally damaged woman, felon father, rookie rival, or rumor mill are going to run him off course.

From Brussels to Abu Dhabi, Texas to Germany, their relationship speeds across the globe, navigating the dangerous turns of life, love and racing.


I can never refuse a sports romance especially if it involves a sport that I love. So here's a Formula One romance to feast my senses on. Not to mention that I was reading this while the 2014 Shanghai GP qualis was blaring on the telly.

And boy, were my senses happy or what? Because reading about Ronan and Cassidy's romance was something, in a good way. They wanted each other and then went for each other. No bullshit there whatsoever. That's exactly the kind of romance that I'd like to read.

I have always enjoyed the RC books that I have read so far so I didn't know what to expect since this was a collab. It turned out that the characters were just as enjoyable to read as always. They had enough depth in them that always make a good romance novel more than just that. And like how straight forward they took their romance, Brad and Cass faced their personal demons before they could bite them in their assess. I admit Cass may have been a tad slow on this part but I found her a character to be strong enough to finally face something that she had been hiding from.

Bottom line is, this book was as real as it gets. Although it didn't have 100% accuracy when it comes to the sport of F1, I found this to be totally real when it comes to the human-aspect of the sport--that drivers are there to drive the car but also that F1 is a team sport. And God, yes, hybrid engines are pains in the butt when not crafted to perfection. My favorite team is suffering from this debacle as we speak.


Final verdict: 8/10. Great read.


*** Complimentary copy provided in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication: May 2014 by Crimson Romance ***