Burned before. By motorsports novels so technically illiterate I couldn’t even enjoy them. So when Pat asked if I’d read her friend’s new IndyCar romance—mechanic falls for the team driver—I hesitated. Hard.
Turns out, author Kate Shoup writes under the pen name Elisabeth Oliver for a reason. She wanted to separate these romantic adventures from her serious nonfiction on quantum mechanics and Gold Rush history.
But don’t let the genre fool you.
Shoup is a lifelong racing nut. She hates when fiction gets the details wrong. That fear of seeing a driver’s love interest shouting technical fixes over the radio during a race? Gone. You won’t find impossible on-track passes driven by fictional tech changes here. It’s accurate. Refreshing.
Overtaken is her debut fiction. The world-building holds up because Shoup is an avid researcher. I met her at the Long Beach Grand Prix. We didn’t whisper. We shouted. Engines roar. You talk over them or you don’t talk at all.
The plot is straightforward.
Cam Wexford is a gearbox mechanic, risen from go-karting. Then comes Loïc Chalumeau. An F1 driver. Handsome. Supportive of women in racing. Good at crossword puzzles. Chemistry ensues. Fast. But there’s a hook. A family secret. One that could torch her hard-won career if the driver finds out.
Standard setup, sure. But Shoup delivers lively racing action, funny side characters, and a romance that simmers rather than boils.
I asked her why IndyCar.
She looked at me, grinning, and said, “It’s natural.” She’s from Indianapolis. Her dad took her to her first 500 as a kid. In college in Colorado? She delayed breaking up with a boyfriend because he owned a TV and she needed to watch the race.
Cruel to the college boy? Maybe.
Shoup eventually found her own racing romance. Her husband works as an engineer for McLaren. They were neighbors. Immersed in the culture from day one. This proximity allowed for real fact-checking. Real test readers. She even handed early drafts to Sébastien Bourdais, a driver who actually knows how fast 220 mph feels. His feedback? Gold.
“Romance sounds silly, sometimes it is silly. But what is more important than love?”
The book isn’t just about the kiss. Wexford fights for her spot. Anyone who’s been a woman in a male-dominated, cliquey shop knows the skepticism. You root for her confidence almost as much as her love interest.
The hardest part? The sex scenes.
Shoup laughed when I asked. Romance often relies on terrible euphemisms. She wanted to avoid boredom without getting spicy enough to upset the IndyCar series management. Plus, her husband works there. “I didn’t want to run into him in the paddock,” she admitted, “and have him say, ‘Oh. We know what you like now.’”
That’s the thing. It’s not a metaphor.
It’s just technically precise racing meets a sweet, grounded love story.
Overtaken is out now. Print or digital. Pick whichever gets you into the seats.
