As a trope, enemies-to-lovers has to set up stakes early on about why the main pair can’t get together (even if they do have burning desire for each other). As opposed to a best friends to lovers plot, the enemies might be in contention for a promotion at work, or be on opposite sides of a war, or just really loathe each other. Whether the book follows one character’s perspective, or both, the main characters normally have a lot of stubbornness to get over in terms of their conflict and how to resolve it, even if it’s just a misunderstanding. Pride and Prejudice still serves as one of my favorite examples of an enemies-to-lovers romance. Austen integrates an honest misunderstanding and truly misaligned worldviews that need to get resolved. The best enemies to lovers books also tend to have elaborate schemes and plots that force the enemies to play on the same team for a little bit. They need a reason to talk it out. There might be only one bed, or they need to work together against an enemy that they both hate even more. Whatever the plot is, crackling energy between two enemies is always fun to follow into love.
Hate At First Sight
High School Enemies to Lovers
When looking for the best enemies to lovers books, I’m always trying to find the crackling intensity of an Elizabeth/Darcy. If you’re looking for even more enemies to lovers, there are so many great queer romance options as well. If you’re just getting started on romance novels, there are a ton of great tropes and genres to jump into. If you’re not as into enemies, best friends falling in love could be your jam. Genre fiction like fantasy and science fiction romance could also be an exciting space to dive into.
