Childhood Rivals
There's pining for a childhood crush... and then there's pining to crush your childhood nemesis
You know I love drama and strife. And if there’s not enough reason to kinda lowkey despise someone you just met, that’s where books about people who were rivals as children come in! No one can hold a grudge like a person who was wronged as an eight year old. These three books are extremely different from one another, and yet they all scratch the same itch. Enjoy!
The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne. It’s been years, but French agent Justine DeCabrillac and British spy Adrian Hawkhurst will never forget their time as childhood friends slash rivals during the Napoleonic Wars, and though they were close (and then… closer….) at different points of their dual rises to espionage legend, they were ripped apart seemingly once and for all.
Until Justine is stabbed and poisoned by an unknown foe and there’s only one person she can turn to in order to save her life and find the culprit… Adrian, of course. But have the realities of their opposite allegiances, not to mention the situation that tore them apart in the first place, sunk in too deeply? Or can they trust each other and, perhaps, finally fight on the same side for once?
Joanna Bourne is a genius, and this is one of my favorite historical romance series of all time. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
A Reckless Match by Kate Bateman. Love a good long-time family feud! It’s giving Julie Anne Long’s Pennyroyal Green series. It’s giving a fun, sexy riot of a Kate Bateman book. It’s giving life.
Madeline Montgomery and Gryffud “Gryff” Davies grew up with bordering lands, separated by a contested bit of land that they have to shake hands at every year otherwise whoever doesn’t show forfeits it to the other family. As kids, they pranked each other and were generally menaces, as children from feuding families are want to be, but now, as adults (and with Gryff having just inherited the Earldom), their rivalry suddenly looks a little different.
And now they have a shared problem: someone’s smuggling on this shared land, and there’s a secret tunnel system leading to… something… and since neither Maddie nor Gryff will concede their ownership, they have to team up to get to the bottom of a potentially dangerous secret.
There’s an exceptional danger bang in this book, lots of sexy sniping, and generally just good vibes overall.
How hot? 🔥🔥
Enemies with Benefits by Roxie Noir. My only contemporary on the list, but it’s no less a part of this category! The first of the Loveless Brothers series, which I enjoyed a lot, sees Eli and Violet, formerly K-12 schoolyard nemeses, now having to work together at an event venue after many years sight unseen. Eli’s the chef, Violet’s the event planner, and there’s plenty of pent up animosity to go around… except that’s not ALL that’s pent up.
What begins as a way to blow off steam from a shared workplace enemy starts to become a lot more meaningful to both of them, except they’re a little too stubborn to admit it, to each other and themselves. Can they get their collective heads out of their asses fast enough to thwart a plot against them and claim the love that’s been in front of their faces all this time?
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ve got an interview with Jeannie Lin, author of the Lotus Palace mysteries (and my former UCLA Extension Romance instructor)!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
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