Cross The Line by Simone Soltani

F1 Romance. Stands alone for now.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of the book. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

“Her happiness is blinding, like staring into the sun. I don’t want to look away. I’d let her steal the sight from my eyes, the breath from my lungs. I’d let her do her worst and still be eternally grateful.”

I was so excited to read Cross The Line by Simone Soltani. I am a HUGE F1 fan, I have a list of F1 romances on my blog, and it’s the only sport I seek out books about. When I started the book, it didn’t grab my attention right away so I put it aside and read something else. Then I went back to it and got more into it, but K. Bromberg’s latest F1 Book came out, so I put Cross The Line aside again to read that so I wouldn’t get confused.

I was able to put it aside too easily to say I was loving it, but I was still pretty early in the book. When I finally went back to it the third time, Cross The Line grabbed me and didn’t let go. My problem was I felt like I had read the story already. Granted, it’s hard to come up with very different F1 romances, but I feel like I read almost the same story before for many different sports.

Dev is an F1 driver on a midfield team. His teammate is a jerk and his daddy owns the team (sounds familiar to F1 fans, no?). After Dev had a squabble with his last publicist, she posted that he had STDs and trashed his reputation, making it even harder for him to get another team interested.

I absolutely LOVED that Willow Williams had a chronic connective tissue disorder JUST LIKE ME! Willow lived next to Dev growing up, and her brother (who used to race) was his best friend. She has had a crush on Dev her whole life. As a college graduation gift her brother invited her to Europe for a race, and Dev realizes that she is the perfect person to salvage his reputation and offers her a job as his social media manager.

“I don’t need to hide a single aspect of myself from him. He’s already seen it all. And yet, he’s still here, looking at me like I’m the center of his universe.”

This might not be a “he falls first” situation because she’s loved him since she was little, but he fell HARD. There was no doubting how much Dev loved her. He was a total romantic, and always thought of her health needs first.

Dev is Indian (or half-South Asian) and Willow is Black (or half-black). After one small line in chapter one, her race or appearance is never mentioned again. Dev, however, talks about his heritage and traditions a lot, especially because a big part of this book is about his sister’s wedding. If you know anything about Indian weddings, you’ll understand why it’s a big part of the book.

I LOVE to read about other cultures. But unfortunately, I felt like this was written for other South Asians. There were numerous words and expressions that I wasn’t familiar with, and every single one of them could have been explained or described easily with a few quick words inline. Since it was another language the look-up function of my Kindle never worked, so my choice was either to leave the story completely to look it up or make my best guess. This was such a missed opportunity to educate people just a little about the culture.

“I may not have won the race today, but having Willow in my arms feels better than winning ever could.”

Likes:

I loved the F1 action, and the author knew what she was talking about.
The FMC had a chronic autoimmune disease.
A diverse cast.
Good set-up for future books.
He was SO in love with her and so romantic.
Great side characters.
No 3rd act breakup.

Dislikes:

No explanations of all of the Indian words and traditions.
I feel like I didn’t learn enough about her and her family and background. There was one tiny mention of hair that implied she was Black in chapter 1 then another mentioning her brother was half Black later in the book. I liked the diversity of the characters, especially because F1 is not very diverse, and I wish there was more mention of it.
Seemed a little too similar to other F1 books in a general way (not a plagarized way). And similar to so many other sports romances.

The Down & Dirty:

As an F1 lover, once I finally got into it, I couldn’t put Cross The Line by Simone Soltani down. Dev is an amazing, romantic guy right from the start and Willow was very likable and real with a chronic autoimmune disease. They were definitely a couple to root for. With a diverse cast, there was a lot of South Asian customs, but I would have liked more about that and about her background. The F1 aspect was great, and you could tell the author knew her racing, but I don’t think you need to be an F1 fan to enjoy Cross The Line.