Throttled by Lauren Asher Review

Throttled: Dirty Air, Book 1 by Lauren Asher

Narrated by Ramona Master and Aiden Snow

I don’t like sports, so sports romances don’t really excite me (even though there are plenty I loved) but I’m a big Formula 1 fan. So much so that I am taking my kids to the UK for a race this summer. I’m also a big fan of the Netflix show, Drive to Survive, about Formula 1. So when a friend said she found Throttled by Lauren Asher for me, I grabbed it right up.

I don’t read books that much anymore, I am an audiobook junkie, but Throttled wasn’t available in audio when I bought the kindle version. While I was enjoying the racing, nothing was making me want to tune out the world and just read, so it was taking me WEEKS to read. I put it aside, read another book in a few days and came back, so I realized it was the book, not me. I was 60% done when Throttled released on audio, so I switched over, and BAM! It got so much better. The narration was fantastic and really brought the book to life.

Maya is 23 and just graduated college. Her brother Santi just got offered a spot with Bandini racing, the top F1 team. She decided to tag along for the whole season with her brother and do a vlog about her travels. Noah is the playboy douchebag #1 racer, and although they are enemies, Santi is now his new teammate. So Maya is always around Noah, mooning over his sexy body in the race suit and his blue eyes.

I wanted so much to love this book! I really got into the race scenes, and though there were a few things she got wrong, Lauren Asher did a really good job of describing the F1 races and tracks. But I really never liked the characters that much. I just didn’t love Maya (though I liked her much more on audio) and Noah was just a cookie cutter cocky douche racer with an asshole abusive dad.

“Can’t help my sexual appetite when I fuck like I race—wild, risky, and often. Blame the adrenaline rush or feeling like a god behind the wheel.”

Likes:

• I loved the racing stuff!
• Lauren Asher did a pretty good job describing Formula 1 in detail. There were a few things that were either wrong or changed for drama but for the most part, it was pretty accurate.
• I liked the descriptions of all the cities they visited.
• I really felt the race day excitement.

Dislikes:

• I really didn’t like the hero at all, he thought with his dick and was cocky AF.
• Maya was ok, but I never really loved her.
• The relationship with her brother is just a little creepy, they idolize and respect each other too much. She seems like she is swooning over her brother sometimes.
• Cheesy dialogue.
• His eyes were so blue the author had to tell us a few dozen times.
• It was very slow and long, but the audio helped that.

The Narration:

Maya was from Spain and I loved that the female narrator used an accent. Since I read the first half then listened, I found that the narrators actually made both characters more likable. The narration definitely made this book better.

The Down & Dirty:

Rating: 3.5 Stars, 3.5 Heat, 5 Narration

Purchase Throttled: Dirty Air, Book 1 by Lauren Asher