Goodness me, this book was bad. I really couldn't stand it. The only reason I didn't DNF this book is because I have really enjoyed other Lauren Asher books before. I truly don't know what went wrong with this one though. It truly didn't feel like it was written by the same author as her other books. I'm just blaming the fact this was her debut for that, but who knows?
Anyway, the writing in this book just felt extremely stiff to me. Nothing about it really felt natural. I don't know how else to explain it because I truly do not know enough about writing for that, but it truly did not work for me. It also got quite repetetive, and the dialogue truly makes you question if the author has ever had a conversation with another person before.
This book was also just all sex. It was exhausting. Everytime people would meet each other there would be a long disection of how hot they were. Sexual attraction is off the charts, not just between our two leads but also just between some side characters. It was truly annoying to read. I know nothing about any of these characters besides how many people would like to fuck them. It was the absolute worst. That also was brought into our romance. Every conversation Noah and Maya have together their inner monologue just keeps going on and on about how attracted they are to the other person or thinking of all the ways they can have sex together. They truly didn't have a single thought around each other that was unrelated to sex. And okay, if this was an erotica novel I probably wouldn't care. However, this is a romance. We're supposed to believe in their happily ever after. How am I supposed to believe in that when your entire relationship is just purely based on sex? Once they do actually get together we skip over the actual conversations they have getting to know each other, and instead just have sex scene after sex scene. I just really did not get the appeal.
On top of that I also just really hated Noah. He was such an asshole. His "redemption" also just didn't work for me. Like I mentioned before we never actually properly get to know these characters because its all sex around here so that whole part of it just felt disingenious. Maya also wasn't my favourite character, but that's just mostly because there truly wasn't a whole lot to hang on to. I'm honestly really hoping the rest of the series will be better because I truly do not have a single positive thing to say about this one.

The millenial cringeness was just too much… Lauren Asher’s writing style just isn’t for me 🥲

Due to the overwhelming amounts of misogyny in this book and the amount of idiocy from the leads, I've decided to quit. Asher's writing is something you'd find on FF.Net and not even decent. It's incredibly juvenile, vague, and lacking any sort of depth. The amount of repetition makes me wanna put my head through a wall. If I have to hear one more snide comment about the women Noah sleeps with/his intimate life or one more comment about how Maya is a sexy Spanish woman who is so very sexy and Spanish and fresh, I'm going to lose my mind. The ridiculous way Maya pants after Noah and acts like she has no control over her libido, Noah's disgusting and creepy behavior towards her and his complete disregard for his partners, the amount of denial of their attraction…It's a big yikes and a no from me. I've read The Fine Print and enjoyed it well enough. The Dirty Air series is not one I think I'll continue with.

5/5

• i feel like i wasn't meant to enjoy this so much but it was such easy reading and so full of cute angsty cliches i just couldn't help it
• i now want to date an f1 driver
• is the writing and plot award winning and new and innovative? absolutely not. did it still make me feel very strong feelings and fall in love with hot tall blue eyed men? absolutely yes.
• i am literally in love with noah slade i want one
• i also want a santiago alatorre
• it's literally like reading angsty fanfiction which makes it amazing that is all
• that accident scene had me EMOTIONAL
• professional mmc taking the fmc on an immersive tour of his job/to do something that he loves professionally is a new fave trope

TWs: domestic abuse, ref to child abuse, toxic family, physical violence, alcohol consumption, car accidents, fire, sexism, ref to groping/sexual harassment, vomiting

Tropes/themes: brother's rival, f1 racer x vlogger, i see how he looks at you, reformed playboy, strained family relationships, travelling the world, forbidden romance, hidden relationship