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29 Best Enemies to lovers Fantasy Romance Books

Two characters begin as genuine adversaries — with real cause to want each other to fail — and end as a couple. The distinguishing feature is that the hostility is earned rather than a misunderstanding, so the turn costs both of them something. The three strongest examples in the House's catalogue are Divine Rivals, Spinning Silver and The Wicked King — each rated below on spice, romance prominence and how much the trope actually carries the book.

29 books · Last reviewed

All 29 books

Ranked so books where enemies to lovers is the point come before books where it is one element among many.

Cover of Divine Rivals

Divine Rivals

Rebecca Ross · Letters of Enchantment · book 1 of 2 · complete

Two rival journalists write to each other through an enchanted typewriter without knowing who is on the other end, while a war between gods swallows the countryside. Old-fashioned in the best sense, and the letters are genuinely lovely.

Best for Readers who want rivals-to-lovers with no spice and prose worth slowing down for.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
5/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Closed door throughout. The intimacy is entirely in the correspondence. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content war, death, injury, alcoholism

Cover of Spinning Silver

Spinning Silver

Naomi Novik · Standalone

A moneylender's daughter turns silver into gold well enough to attract the attention of the winter king, in a Rumpelstiltskin retelling with three narrators and a great deal to say about debt. Colder and cleverer than Uprooted.

Best for Readers who want a fae bargain plot with essentially no spice and exceptional writing.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Almost entirely closed-door. The romance is negotiated rather than consummated on the page. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content antisemitism, violence, forced marriage

Cover of The Wicked King

The Wicked King

Holly Black · The Folk of the Air · book 2 of 3 · complete

Jude holds the throne through a bargain with a year on it, and spends the book trying to keep a king who resents her from noticing how little power she actually has. The best-plotted book in modern fae fantasy and the source of one of its most famous endings.

Best for Readers who want scheming and yearning rather than spice.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
4/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

One extended kiss and a great deal of suppressed everything else. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, manipulation, drowning, betrayal

Cover of Uprooted

Uprooted

Naomi Novik · Standalone

A wizard takes one village girl every ten years, and this time takes the wrong one. Built on Polish folklore rather than the usual fae tradition, with a genuinely frightening forest and a magic system that feels like cooking.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the same premise handled by a much stronger prose stylist.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

One explicit scene, brief and late. The rest is antagonism and proximity. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content body horror, violence, war

Cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Heather Fawcett · Emily Wilde · book 1 of 3 · complete

A prickly Cambridge academic goes to a frozen village to finish her field guide to the fae, and her insufferably charming colleague follows her there. Written as her journal, which makes the romance funnier and considerably more painful.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the fae bargains with wit instead of spice.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
5/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Closed door entirely. The most explicit thing in it is a dance. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content peril, child abduction, cold-weather injury

Cover of Six of Crows

Six of Crows

Leigh Bardugo · Six of Crows · book 1 of 2 · complete

Six criminals attempt an impossible prison break for an impossible fee. A heist novel with six perspectives, four romances handled almost entirely through restraint, and the best-constructed plot on this list.

Best for Readers who want found family and yearning with no spice whatsoever.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

No explicit content at all. One of the romances turns on a character who cannot bear to be touched, and the book respects that completely. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, child trafficking, addiction, torture

Cover of The Cruel Prince

The Cruel Prince

Holly Black · The Folk of the Air · book 1 of 3 · complete

A human girl raised in Faerie by the man who murdered her parents decides that the way to be safe is to become dangerous. The cruelty is real, the politics are genuinely intricate, and the romance is almost entirely composed of hostility.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the fae court politics without the explicit content.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

Kissing and considerable tension. Nothing on the page beyond that. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, bullying, murder of parents, poisoning

Cover of Dragonflight

Dragonflight

Anne McCaffrey · Dragonriders of Pern · book 1 · ongoing

The book that invented the telepathically bonded dragon rider, and therefore most of this list. A kitchen drudge turns out to be the last of a noble line and impresses the only queen dragon left on a planet that has forgotten what it is defending against.

Best for Readers who want the original dragon-rider bond that every later book is answering.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
4/5
World
5/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Closed door, and written in 1968 — the one relevant scene has aged badly and readers should know that before starting. · Medium burn · Happy ending

Content dubious consent, period-typical sexism, violence

Cover of The Bridge Kingdom

The Bridge Kingdom

Danielle L. Jensen · The Bridge Kingdom · book 1 of 4 · complete

A princess is trained from childhood as a weapon and married to an enemy king she is meant to destroy from inside his own palace. She is very good at the job, and the problem is that he is not what she was told.

Best for Readers who want a marriage-of-convenience spy plot and a series that is finished.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
5/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Several explicit scenes, well spaced and used to mark the shifts in her loyalty. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, abusive father, war, betrayal

Cover of The Serpent and the Wings of Night

The Serpent and the Wings of Night

Carissa Broadbent · Crowns of Nyaxia · book 1 · ongoing

A human raised by the vampire king enters a tournament no human has survived, allied with a competitor who has every reason to kill her at the end of it. Tightly structured, genuinely sad, and better written than most of the shelf it sits on.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the tournament structure with sharper prose behind it.

Spice
Spice 4 out of 5, Explicit
Romance
4/5
Plot
5/5
World
4/5
Darkness
5/5
Craft
4/5

Several explicit scenes in the back half, unhurried and emotionally weighted. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content graphic violence, gore, death, self-harm, abuse

Cover of To Kill a Kingdom

To Kill a Kingdom

Alexandra Christo · Standalone

A siren who collects the hearts of princes is turned human and thrown into the path of the prince who hunts sirens. A Little Mermaid retelling in which both leads are murderers, which is the correct way to do it.

Best for Readers who want a self-contained enemies-to-lovers with no spice at all.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Kissing only. The tension is built entirely out of mutual intent to kill. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, murder, abusive parent, gore

Cover of A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas · A Court of Thorns and Roses · book 1 · ongoing

A huntress kills a wolf in the woods and is taken across the wall to answer for it, into a fae court where the punishment turns out to be a life she is not prepared to want. The first half is a slow, quiet Beauty and the Beast; the second half is not.

Best for Anyone who wants to understand what the entire genre has been arguing about since 2015.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
5/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Two explicit scenes late in the book, written at length. Everything before them is tension. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, torture, captivity, death of a partner

No cover

A Fate Inked in Blood

Danielle L. Jensen · Saga of the Unfated · book 1 · ongoing

A shield-maiden with a drop of a god's blood is bound by an oath to a jarl who intends to use her to unite Skaland. Norse-inflected, politically sharp, and unusually good on the mechanics of being someone else's prophecy.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the same intensity in a Norse setting.

Spice
Spice 4 out of 5, Explicit
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

Explicit and reasonably frequent, with the physical relationship complicating the politics. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content graphic violence, war, coercion, death

Cover of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

Jennifer L. Armentrout · Blood and Ash · book 2 · ongoing

The betrayal at the end of the first book becomes a journey across enemy territory with the person who committed it. Considerably more explicit than its predecessor and much more interested in the world it is crossing.

Best for Anyone who finished the first book angry and needs the next one immediately.

Spice
Spice 5 out of 5, Scorching
Romance
5/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
3/5

Explicit throughout, with several extended scenes and very little restraint. · Instalove · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content graphic violence, explicit content, gore, torture

Cover of Fireborne

Fireborne

Rosaria Munda · The Aurelian Cycle · book 1 of 3 · complete

After a revolution overthrows the dragonlords, an orphan and the surviving son of the old regime compete to lead the new order's dragon riders. A political novel about whether a just revolution stays just, with dragons.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the war college with real politics behind it.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
2/5
Plot
5/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

Kissing at most. The tension between the leads is ideological before it is romantic. · Slow burn · No happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content famine, execution, war, class violence

Cover of Kingdom of the Wicked

Kingdom of the Wicked

Kerri Maniscalco · Kingdom of the Wicked · book 1 of 4 · complete

A witch in nineteenth-century Sicily investigates her twin's murder and finds herself working with a Prince of Hell who is exactly as helpful as that sounds. Food, grief and demons, in roughly that order of loving description.

Best for Readers who want a devil love interest and a completed series to go with him.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

Building tension across the book with explicit content arriving in the sequels. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content murder, gore, mutilation, grief

Cover of The Foxglove King

The Foxglove King

Hannah Whitten · The Nightshade Crown · book 1 of 3 · complete

A woman who can raise the dead is blackmailed into spying on a decadent court by the Sainted King, handled by a prince who despises her. Court intrigue with necromancy, and considerably more interested in religion than most of the genre.

Best for Readers who want court intrigue and necromancy with a slow, hostile romance.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

A few explicit scenes, unhurried, arriving after a long stretch of hostility. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content death, drug use, gore, religious control

No cover

The Hurricane Wars

Thea Guanzon · The Hurricane Wars · book 1 · ongoing

A soldier of the Lightweaver rebellion is forced into a political marriage with the Night Emperor's heir, the man who has been trying to kill her for years. Southeast Asian-inspired, and the enemies part is unusually well earned.

Best for Readers who want enemies to lovers where the war is still going on around them.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Explicit scenes in the back half, arriving after a long and genuinely hostile build. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content war, violence, genocide, torture

Cover of The Night Circus

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern · Standalone

Two magicians are bound as children into a contest neither understands, played out through a circus that appears without warning and opens only at night. Atmosphere is the whole point; the plot is a rumour the book is happy to leave you with.

Best for Readers who want atmosphere above everything and do not need the plot to arrive.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
2/5
World
5/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Closed door. The sensuality is entirely in the descriptions of the circus. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content child endangerment, suicide, emotional neglect

Cover of A Shadow in the Ember

A Shadow in the Ember

Jennifer L. Armentrout · Flesh and Fire · book 1 · ongoing

A prequel series set centuries before Blood and Ash, following a woman raised as a Maiden and promised to a god she intends to kill. More explicit than the parent series and more interested in the gods behind it.

Best for Readers who want the spiciest end of the scale with a god as the love interest.

Spice
Spice 5 out of 5, Scorching
Romance
5/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
3/5

Explicit throughout and unusually frequent even by the author's standards. · Instalove · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content explicit content, graphic violence, death, grooming

Cover of Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing

Rebecca Yarros · The Empyrean · book 1 of 5 · ongoing

A scribe's daughter with a body that dislocates on principle is forced into a war college where cadets die on the first bridge and the dragons choose who lives. The rival trying to kill her turns out to have been the one keeping her alive.

Best for Readers who want competition and banter carrying as much weight as the romance.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Three explicit scenes in five hundred pages, detailed but not frequent. The tension is doing most of the work. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content graphic violence, death, chronic illness, war

Cover of From Blood and Ash

From Blood and Ash

Jennifer L. Armentrout · Blood and Ash · book 1 · ongoing

A girl raised as a holy vessel, forbidden to be touched or spoken to, is guarded by a man who does both. The premise is built entirely around denial, which is a cynical way to construct a romance and an extremely effective one.

Best for Readers who want forbidden romance where the prohibition is enforced by an entire state.

Spice
Spice 4 out of 5, Explicit
Romance
5/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Frequent and explicit from the middle third onward, escalating steadily. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, gore, sexual content, religious control

Cover of Quicksilver

Quicksilver

Callie Hart · The Fae & Alchemy · book 1 · ongoing

A thief from a walled human city is dragged into Yvelia by a fae warrior who despises her, into a court where she is a curiosity and a liability. The most direct answer to what people are asking for when they ask what comes after ACOTAR.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the same shape with the heat turned up two notches.

Spice
Spice 5 out of 5, Scorching
Romance
5/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
3/5

Explicit throughout and unusually frank, with scenes long enough to be structural rather than punctuation. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content graphic violence, sexual content, captivity, gore

Cover of These Hollow Vows

These Hollow Vows

Lexi Ryan · These Hollow Vows · book 1 of 2 · complete

A thief bargains with the Unseelie prince to steal three artefacts and free her sister, while the Seelie prince offers her a better deal. A love triangle between two fae courts, which is a structure the genre attempts often and lands rarely.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the fae courts at a much lower spice level.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Tension-heavy with brief on-page content. Considerably milder than ACOTAR. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, captivity, addiction

Cover of The Atlas Six

The Atlas Six

Olivie Blake · The Atlas · book 1 of 3 · complete

Six magicians compete for five places in a secret society guarding the world's lost knowledge, and are told plainly that one of them will not survive the year. Almost entirely conversation, and the conversations are the appeal.

Best for Readers who want dark academia that is mostly clever people arguing.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
2/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

Some explicit content, sparingly used and more interested in power than pleasure. · Slow burn · No happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content murder, drug use, self-harm, manipulation

Cover of Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass

Sarah J. Maas · Throne of Glass · book 1 of 8 · complete

An eighteen-year-old assassin is pulled out of a salt mine to compete for the post of King's Champion. The first book is a competition novel with a love triangle; the series it turns into over eight books is something considerably larger.

Best for Readers who want a completed eight-book saga to disappear into.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Kissing in the first book. The series becomes explicit from around the fourth. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content slavery, violence, torture, death

Cover of Powerless

Powerless

Lauren Roberts · The Powerless Trilogy · book 1 of 3 · complete

In a kingdom that exiles the powerless, an Ordinary hides among the Elites and enters the trials that would expose her. The prince assigned to hunt people like her is the one falling for her, which is the entire premise and it works.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the trials and the banter without the explicit scenes.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Kissing and one restrained scene. Written for a younger audience than most of this list. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, death, persecution

No cover

Serpent & Dove

Shelby Mahurin · Serpent & Dove · book 1 of 3 · complete

A witch and a witch-hunter are forced into marriage by a public misunderstanding neither can undo. The premise is the whole engine, and the book knows it — every scene is two people who should kill each other being obliged to share a room.

Best for Readers who want enemies to lovers with a completed trilogy behind it.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

One explicit scene late on. The rest is antagonism at close quarters. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content burning, violence, religious persecution, death

No cover

Zodiac Academy: The Awakening

Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti · Zodiac Academy · book 1 of 9 · complete

Twin sisters discover they are fae heirs and are enrolled in an academy where four heirs to the throne intend to break them. Genuinely brutal bullying-to-lovers across a very long completed series, with a reverse-harem structure.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the academy structure and a series they can finish.

Spice
Spice 4 out of 5, Explicit
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
5/5
Craft
3/5

Escalates sharply across the series; the first book is milder than what follows. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content bullying, assault, torture, graphic violence, explicit content

What enemies to lovers actually means

Two characters begin as genuine adversaries — with real cause to want each other to fail — and end as a couple. The distinguishing feature is that the hostility is earned rather than a misunderstanding, so the turn costs both of them something.

The payoff is proportional to the animosity. Readers seek it out because the moment of surrender lands hardest when the character has spent four hundred pages insisting it will never happen, and because it forces both people to change rather than simply meet.

Also asked for as enemies to lovers, enemies-to-lovers, rivals to lovers, hate to love, i hate you then i love you.

Where to start

The books most readers arrive from, each with a full list of what to read next.

Books Like ACOTARA Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. MaasBooks Like Fourth WingFourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Questions readers ask

What does enemies to lovers mean in a book?
Two characters begin as genuine adversaries — with real cause to want each other to fail — and end as a couple. The distinguishing feature is that the hostility is earned rather than a misunderstanding, so the turn costs both of them something.
Why do readers like enemies to lovers?
The payoff is proportional to the animosity. Readers seek it out because the moment of surrender lands hardest when the character has spent four hundred pages insisting it will never happen, and because it forces both people to change rather than simply meet.
What else is enemies to lovers called?
Readers ask for it as enemies to lovers, enemies-to-lovers, rivals to lovers, hate to love. All of those describe the same thing, and searching any of them on this site returns the same books.