Genre 📚: YA/NA Contemporary, Romance, Coming-of-age
Tropes 💁♀️: Rivals to lovers, Ex-friends to lovers, First love
Rep ✔️: Bisexual love interest, Indian best friend character, queer and non-binary side characters
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5
Starting off the year with another Emma Lord book — this one an academic rivals-to-lovers romance set in college. MCs Sadie and Seb have known each other their whole lives, and for most of that time, they’ve been dedicated to one-upping each other. This ritual continues as they compete for the staff writer role at the school’s beloved zine. Their relationship, however, feels less like a competition and more like a lifeline as they navigate college life.
I’ve been loving Emma Lord’s romcoms, and this one was as fun and zingy as the rest. Plenty of witty banter, confused hormones, and almost-kisses that turn into actual kisses. However, there was also a lot of drama that I didn’t care for. Characters — mainly Sadie — would get angry and hold grudges that I just didn’t understand (maybe ’cause I’m not a teenager anymore, heh). They at least resolved these issues fairly quickly.
Not my favorite Emma Lord book (that title still goes to Tweet Cute), but I had a good time with this. It definitely made my first few days of January feel a littler warmer/sweeter.
**Much thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Rival will be released on January 21, 2025.
Sara Bechtol 