Diabetes Rep in Drive Me Home by Carly Robyn

Official Synopsis: Charlotte Walker’s at an impasse in life. Not sure what her plan is after graduation, she jumps at the chance for a little breathing room to explore her options while traveling the world with her brother and his Formula 1 team. What’s even better is being around Lucas Adler, AlphaVite Racing’s star driver and tattooed Greek god come to life. He’s been her crush for years and being together in such close quarters, their sizzling chemistry can’t be denied.

Lucas knows Charlotte is off-limits. She’s the gorgeous younger sister of his best friend and teammate. Despite their easy banter and draw to one another, he’s learned the hard way that crossing lines can destroy relationships. Now as constant companions on the road, Charlotte, with her charm and infectious energy, challenges him at every turn and sees him in ways no one ever has.

As feelings grow, they both must decide if their relationship is worth the risk of losing everything or if their happily ever after is a prize to be fought for at the finish line.

Before getting into the Diabetes part of this book, I want to talk about how I enjoyed the overall plot. This book has an eight year age gap, because since the characters already knew each other pretty well it didn't feel that way to me. Charlotte is spending time with her brother while she tries to figure her life out, and occasionally he is a bit overbearing, but he is also eight years older. He is a silly character until he suddenly feels like he has to fight his best friend for his sister's virtue, which I think is definitely something that falls into this 'brother's best friend' trope. Lucas is a caring character, he cares about Charlotte deeply, even without the relationship being more then friends. I enjoyed how he was written and the struggle he was going through, especially since everyone thinks he is stuck on his ex. I am also a sucker for the MMC saying the FMC has a boyfriend so other people stop flirting with her. The story itself was romantic and I like how the character's clicked.

Now for the Diabetes representation...Charlotte has been diabetic for much of her life, diagnosed at 8 years old, and definitely has a handle on it. She talks about deciding her wardrobe each week based on where her pump will be, knowing the signs of highs and lows, and being prepared when she needs something. I can definitely confirm sometimes you need to consider what you are doing that week when you place your pump and/or sensor, though Charlotte definitely deals more in fashion than I do. I also like how Lucas didn't think it was a big deal, he wasn't turned off by the 'robot' parts of her and even wanted to see her numbers on his phone (which is the way her brother finds out and I kind of loved that.). Lucas wants to make sure she eats enough and what food will help her when, he has a lot of questions and is sure to answer them.

There is a scene in the book where Lucas pulls his hand away quickly after touching her pump on her arm, and Charlotte immediately thinks its because he is turned off by it, but its actually because he was scared of messing with it. That whole scene struck deeply with me. I also like how this book didn't have a moment where her diabetes causes an 'event'. For example, some other books have it where he sees her sugars are low/high and she needs help and that is his 'oh I do love her moment' and this book didn't have that. Her Diabetes was just apart of the story and wasn't used as a plot device.

Overall, between plot and Diabetes rep I rated this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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