This was such a fun audiobook to listen to, time flew while listening. Even if sports romance is a new subgenre to me, it felt familiar in the romance elements and the sports parts fit in very well. I know close to nothing of Formula 1, so I can't say how accurate the depictions are, but the stakes come through and create nice tension in the plot both in the actual races and between the characters. Smut seems to play a big part in Asher's books, and Throttled is no exception. Throttled offers a somewhat slow burn romance; there is instalust, but the MCs Maya and Noah

don't jump on each other immediately, and that slows their actions enough to actually get to know each other. What a wholesome move!

I'll just have to say that Maya'd brother Santi seems like a great guy and I hope we'll get to see more of him later, maybe even stepping up from the sidelines of a supporting sibling character and into the shoes of a main character in a sequel of his own. I'll definitely continue to the sequel to find out.

Lauren Asher seems to be a writer that surprises me by making me like books in subgenres I didn't even think I'd like: first billionaire romance, now a sports romance. Maybe I've been missing out.

Throttled is the first book in the Dirty Air series. Maya Alatorre has just graduated from college and doesn’t know what she wants to do with her post-grad life. Her brother, Santiago, has just joined Bandeni, an elite F1 group of drivers. Maya joins him on the circuit filming vlog style videos of all the action. One of Santi’s new teammates is Noah Slade who is one of the best drivers in F1. He and Maya get off on the wrong foot (he mistakenly thinks that Maya and Santi are a couple rather than brother and sister). Towards the beginning of the book you learn that Noah grew up in a abusive household with very toxic parents. His romantic relationships (or lack there of), reflect his detachment. He and Maya eventually become closer, when their off the charts chemistry becomes undeniable. Noah starts going to therapy to unlearn some of the harmful things he learned about relationships from his parents. He and Maya eventually fall in love with each other, while traveling the world for F1.

This was a great start to an exciting sports romance series. I really appreciate the fact that Lauren Asher’s sports romance was about F1 rather than hockey or baseball, as is typical in romance. It was refreshing. Can’t wait to read the next book which is about Maya’s friend Sophie.