Fast and Reckless is the first book in the Racing Hearts series. I went into the story not knowing much about Formula One (F1) racing and ended up really enjoying this romance and this glimpse into the racing world.

Miranda (Mira) Wentworth is thrilled to be back to work as an assistant at Lennox Motorsport, her father’s famed Formula One racing company. Though she adores the sport, she’s spent the past seven years far away from it. When she was sixteen (she’s twenty-three now), she made a bad decision and was devastated when her father sent her back to L.A. to live with her mother. 

On her first day back, she meets Will Hawley, one of the team’s hot star drivers. He thinks she looks like a Disney princess and tries to flirt with her and while she’s attracted to him (how could she not be–he’s hawt!) she lets him know she’s not interested. She doesn’t want any distractions–she wants to stay focused on her work and stay out of trouble–or anything that could cause her father to doubt her. Her fears are clearly all based on her past and I wondered what she did in the past that caused so much trouble. All we know at first is she had a bad break up that caused trouble for her dad and the racing team. 

Will is also getting a second chance and doesn’t want anything to get in the way of his goal–to win races.  Three years ago, in his first year on an F1 team, he was dropped mid-season after too much partying and too many crashes. He has been working his way back with solid performances in Indy Car and Formula E races. People think he is a nepo baby because his posh family owns a bank but his family actually thinks he’s a failure and don’t approve of his career choice. The press still thinks of him as a party boy and he wants to be taken seriously. His whole focus right now needs to be on winning and winning big.

Will and the crew (including Mira) travel to different racing cities, Japan, Barcelona, Melbourne, Singapore and Bahrain, just to name a few. Will’s confidence builds as he wins his races and is in the running for the Constructor’s Championship and maybe even the World Championship!

Mira and Will become friends along the way and when Will realizes that Mira hasn’t seen any of the sights in the cities they’ve been in and has been working nonstop he convinces her to let him show her a fun night out when they are in Singapore. My favorite romantic scene is when Will takes her to the Singapore Flyer, the largest observation wheel in Asia, so she can see the view. Mira’s friend, Violet, tells her it looks like she and Will want to climb each other but Mira is afraid that if her father finds out they are dating, he will send her back to L.A. like he did the last time. 

When someone from Mira’s past starts to cause trouble for her, Will is there to help her out. She and Will decide they want to take the risk and be together, but not tell anyone. They have some steamy scenes together and one involves a fantasy of Will’s with Mira and his race car!

I am not familiar with the sport but I found the behind the scene details of racing riveting. There are descriptions of driver’s training in simulators and wind tunnels as well as what it’s like driving the car during a race.  I could feel Mira and Will’s passion for the races. Mira was so excited for the first race of the season; it feels to her like the night before Christmas. There is some drama with Mira’s ex and Will’s family that gets more intense as the racing season progresses and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.

One quibble I had is I thought Will came off sounding like an arrogant alpha in the beginning of the story when he flirts with Mira. He asks her out and when she turns him down, he spends the night with other women and that’s something I didn’t enjoy seeing in the story. But as Mira and Will get to know each other and finally get together, Mira thinks he’s perfect and one of the good ones.  

So, though not quite a DIK, I heartily recommend Fast and Reckless, especially for F1 fans or those who would like to know more about the sport! It’s a smart, sexy, very entertaining read.