Review & Giveaway - - Ride With Me

Ride With Me

by Simone Soltani

Lights Out - Book 2

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: May 20, 2025

Reviewed by Santa

Stella Baldwin thought her life couldn’t get worse. Being left at the altar was bad enough, and the drunken rant she posted to her social media followers in the aftermath was the cherry on top. But having to show up at her cousin’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas barely two weeks later feels like a cruel joke.

Thomas Maxwell-Brown is just looking for a good time. With his family’s expectations pressing down, his career as a Formula 1 driver threatened by fresh talent, and a new reputation making him the most hated man on the grid, he needs a break to clear his head. And what better way to decompress than with a stag party in Vegas?

Stella isn’t the woman Thomas expects to meet that night. And Thomas isn’t the man Stella expects to wake up next to in the morning—with a ring on her finger. Staying married might be the perfect solution to all their problems, even if it is a little wild. Sometimes, what happens in Vegas doesn’t need to stay there. . . .

Santa Says:

If you’re looking for a madcap feel good rom com then look no further than this five star gem! Ride With Me by Simone Soltani follows Thomas and Stella, two strangers who meet across a crowded (and loud) party bus. It’s a mixed bachelor/bachelorette party. Stella’s cousin is marrying his brother’s best friend. They make the best of a situation neither of them particularly want to be in. Both are trying to get away from a very hurtful time in their lives and an escape from everything is just what’s in order.

Just a few short weeks ago Stella’s fiance leaves her stranded at the altar with all her family and friends in attendance. She spirals fast as a video of her drunken rant against all men and her fiance goes viral. Not a good look for a woman who is a successful entrepreneur of an expanding baking empire. She agrees to get out her own way and join her cousins for a fun, carefree weekend.

The saying that be careful what you say because every mic is live really hit home for Thomas. His careless remarks about a fellow driver were posted on the internet. He becomes a persona non grata overnight. He decides to accept his friend’s invitation to come to his party in Las Vegas. It just may be the perfect opportunity to lay low for a few days.

It turns out neither want to really be there. As the night progresses, they decide to be each other’s plus one to keep hangers on at bay. Thomas finds this beautiful Black woman very attractive. Stella finds him to be very easy on the eyes, too. Somehow they find themselves MARRIED when they wake up the next day. Now what? An annulment sems in order and lawyers are engaged but somehow it gets out that they are married and so begins a farce to appease his family and her family. 

Throughout their attraction continues to build and they struggle with keeping each other at arm's length and to be just friends. At one point, they decide to make it official. His family decides to throw them a big wedding. Stella hesitates because though she has feelings for Thomas she is afraid it will all come crashing down around her again. When, in fact, everyone around them can see they are meant for each other.

The author kept me on tinder hooks until the very end and made me earn this HEA! I suspect her other books are equally as well written. It seems I now have a backlist to happily invest in.

Readers, how do you feel about the accidentally married trope? (I love it!)

Have you read Simone Soltani?

Are you a F1 fan?

One randomly chosen person posting a comment before 11:00 PM, May 23 will receive a print copy of Ride With Me.

*U.S. only

*Must be 18

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