Review - - Cross the Line

Cross the Line

by Simone Soltani

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: July 28, 2024

Reviewed by Nancy

 

Her brother’s best friend sends her heart racing in this sparkling Formula 1 romance.

 
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 needs someone to help save his image. At a party in Monaco, he bumps into the woman who can fix it all. 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. She may have a talent for seeing the bright side of any 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. Even if it means ignoring the crush she’s had on him since childhood.
 
Willow and Dev are determined to keep things strictly professional, regardless of old feelings and the blazing chemistry between them. But in the glittering and high-stakes world of Formula 1, some lines are meant to be crossed…

 

Nancy’s Thoughts: 

This delightful friends-to-lovers romance skillfully blends the hero’s and heroine’s families, their mutual friends, and the world of Formula 1 racing. Even though I knew nothing about this sport when I started reading, the story includes just enough of what I needed to know to let me keep reading without stumbling over things I didn’t understand. I enjoyed this new-to-me setting and the way events in Dev’s career push him and Willow closer. 

From the moment she starts her job as his social media manager, their mutual attraction flares. Resisting it becomes increasingly difficult. But the presence on his team of two of his longtime friends provides a constant reminder of the risks of crossing the line. 

These friends, along with Dev, are very close to Willow’s brother, Oakley, who has made it plain that he doesn’t want them to become involved. He’s mainly concerned about protecting her, but Willow and Dev worry about what their involvement could do to him. Her last boyfriend, who was part Oakley’s friend group, treated her horribly, and the resulting breakup fractured Oakley’s group’s friendship. Neither she nor Dev wants to risk a similar problem or to make Oakley feel pulled between them if a relationship doesn’t work out. 

Others in their lives, like Dev’s family and Willow’s friends, are urging them to go for it, but neither wants to cause pain or strife among those they love. Soltani handles the conflict skillfully and believably. Everyone involved is credibly acting out of concern for others. 

The same cannot be said of Dev’s racing team, whose members try to support him but are often stymied by the owner. His son, Nathaniel, is the team’s second driver, and the owner doesn’t want Dev to show up Nathaniel. Dev’s frustration over being held back and his determination to do his best anyway earn Willow’s sympathy and support and lead to increasing emotional intimacy between them. In turn, this deepens their attraction, which plays out for most of the book in beautifully done sexual and emotional tension. 

Once Dev and Willow decide to cross that invisible line and become physically intimate, their concerns about Oakley and the reactions of their friends remain. They try to keep the relationship secret, but that proves harder than they expect. When Oakley does learn the truth, his reaction has a great twist on it. 

The one problem I had with the book occurs near the end. Everyone is preparing for Dev’s sister’s wedding. Because his family are Indian, they’re having an Indian wedding, which Soltani refers to as a Desi wedding. I don’t know what that is, and it stopped me. The stoppers became more numerous as the wedding approached. Apparently, such a wedding involves several nights of celebrations, each of which has a particular name and observes particular customs and requires particular clothing. The book explains none of them, except to say one outfit has a skirt and a top, and the meanings are not apparent from context—unlike the term jaanu, which Dev uses to address Willow and which context shows is an endearment. 

Readers shouldn’t have to look up one term, let alone several terms, to understand what’s happening in the story. A brief explanation would have sufficed. Without it, I kept stumbling over these unfamiliar terms. 

The characters are likeable, and the hero and heroine are also charming. The romance is sexy and hot without undermining the characters’ friendship, and the story moves at a good pace. The only reason I’m not giving this book a five is the problem I just mentioned. Despite that, I highly recommend it. 

4.5 stars. 

~Nancy