“There is no race without you. There’s no race for me if you’re not there pushing me to my limits. I need you on the front row lined up beside me.”
4.25 ⭐
I have followed Holly's journey writing this book on Tiktok and was overjoyed to be given the chance to read this book early, even if I am a little bit late to call this an "advanced review". This was an amazing debut and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. We follow Winter Jones who has just been selected to join a Formula 1 car racing team, the first woman in years, and she has one goal in mind: win the Championship title. It's not going to be an easy drive though, she's going up against the best of the best, including three times world champion Aiden Sterling. The pressure is on. But racing is not just as simple as driving the fastest, it's about track politics too, and Winter has her work cut out for her. Aiden Sterling is her biggest competition, but he might just be exactly what she needs to help her win this too.
The Rivals was fun, sexy and inspiring. Winter is motivated, sassy and so relatable, I was rooting for her right from the beginning. The dynamics between her and her team members, family and competitors was really well written - there was a diverse amount of tension and support created by those around her and it felt really realistic. Her close friendships with Gem and Reyna were really a huge stand out of this book, I love a good "girls girl" girl group and these three were so perfect. I liked that she also developed friendships with a few of the other racers, and that there was some interesting dynamics between her mother as well. Now onto Aiden Sterling - he was so great, he was funny, supportive and so hot, and the depth of his character was a really nice touch. I loved that this book touched on the pressures, competitiveness and dangers of racing, mental health issues, and the way that social media and journalists can be very toxic. Their romance was a bit of a whirlwind but I think it worked really well for this story and the way it was handled felt really believable.
I don't really have anything negative at all to say about this book, it's light-hearted while also managing to touch on some really deep topics, and it had the right balance of spiciness to plotline and the pacing was just right, a good medium, steady flow the entire way through. The few things I will say, is that I wish the on track tension had been pushed up a bit more, I really wanted that suspenseful feeling you get while watching racing where crashes are shocking and worrying, and that breath of relief you get when everyone is ok. Holly Rose wrote some good scenes where the drivers were blocking each other or were driven off course, which was great - but I think there was a good opportunity to really get the heart racing a bit more in these scenes whereas a lot of the time I felt like we cut away from the driving aspect a little too early. I did also find the storyline a little bit predictable, but I really don't think that draws away from the story at all, this was still a very entertaining read!
Overall, I think you will love this book if you enjoy reading about female empowerment and love a good rivals to lovers storyline. I loved the travel aspect of this book too and the jet-set feeling, you could really feel the level of expensiveness dripping off some of these scenes but it never felt gratuitous, it was done very genuinely and realistically. I think if you enjoy books like Ali Hazelwood's feminist romances where everyone is at the top of their game, then you will definitely enjoy this book. I am so thankful to Holly for allowing me to read this book early and I am really looking forward to seeing where this series goes, who the next main character will be, as I am assuming the next FMC will be someone already mentioned in this book!