The Best YA Enemies to Lovers Books
I’m here to talk about The Best YA Enemies to Lovers Books! Who doesn’t love a hate to love romance trope? I’m here to recommend the Best contemporary YA enemies to lovers books, all the good YA academic rivals to lovers books, and even the best hate to love YA fantasy. If a book has enemies to lovers romance, I’m here for it!
The Best YA Enemies to Lovers Books
Y2K YA Contemporary books with hate to love relationships:
The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
brat character + sex positivity + secret romance + feminism
The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson
nerd culture + academic rivals + fandoms
One Night That Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt
revenge quest + fun and sexy dares + exes who still have feelings
2000s YA Fantasy books with hate to love relationships
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Fae/ human romance + you murdered my family
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas (2015)
beauty and the best retelling + Fae + PG 13
The Winners Curse by Marie Rutkowski (2014)
rich girl poor boy + royalty + high stakes
Shatter Me by Tahareh Mafi
girl with special powers + hatred of her captor + love triangle
Best 2020s YA With a Hate to Love Theme
Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Solomon
senior class games + 24 hour timeline + school rivals
Ten Things I Hate about Pinky by Sandhya Menon
fake boyfriend + opposites attract + forced proximity
Tweet Cute by Emma Lord – check out my post on the NYC World of Emma Lord, which includes this book!
NYC setting + restaurant rivals + social media war and hijinks
Best 2020s YA With Academic Enemies to Rivals Themes
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (2023)
rival journalists + war between the Gods + magical letters
A Study in Drowning by Ave Reid (2023)
academic rivals + an epic Fae book + Gothic castle vibes
The Rival by Emma Lord (2025) YES Emma Lord also loves a rivals romance, as this is her third!!
college rivals + journalism competition + most fun campus setting ever
Bonus: Best Athlete Enemies to Lovers YA books
I have to mention my favorite hate-to-love movie: The Cutting Edge (1992)
If you haven’t seen the movie, you need to get yourself on Netflix and have a look. Sheer escapist summer fun! The remake? Meh. The original formula was genius:
spoiled skating princess + injured hockey player + hate to love + skating costumes + Winter Olympics
Sound good? Here are two Y2K YA books that have some of those same elements
Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler. You can read my review of Bittersweet here.
Hudson isn’t a spoiled princess, but she had her skating aspirations crushed. Now she waitresses, dreams up cupcake recipes, and looks after her quirky brother. This book’s formula:
skating + cupcakes + small town life + hockey boys + waitressing at the diner
Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler. Back in 2010 I told you to read this book. If you missed that, you can click here to read more about this book and my other Best Kept YA Secrets of 2011.
Chelsea, a basketball player, suffers an injury that puts her sports career in jeopardy. She and her family head to a Minnesota lake camp, where Chelsea’s father hires ex-hockey player Clint to help her with her rehab. Formula:
two down-on-their-luck-athletes + smoldering attraction + summer at the lake
Tell me in comments: do you have any YA hate to love recommendations? Have you seen the Cutting Edge?
I really want to read Bittersweet!!! Good old hate to love relationships. I loved The Duff! I was disappointed with The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson. I wanted her with Keith. I loved how Keith kept picking on him!!! Muhahahaha!!!! I still need to read One Night That Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt. I have it on my shelf.
Keith???? What? That guy was no good for her.
He was sweet and fun. When she went to visit him an he had a new gf I felt soooo bad for her. Then she got stuck traveling with all of them. That was the most awkward road trip ever. I just loved how Keith kept putting his clothes in snow and messing with him.
I totally have a thing for love to hate relationships. As a self-proclaimed MJ fangirl, I am embarrassed to admit that The Last Little Blue Envelope is sitting unread on my headboard.
I think it is better than the first book, which I also enjoyed. She does a great job of writing the hate-to-love relationship.
I bought Bittersweet in January and still haven't read it yet, but I really need to. The Cutting Edge is such a great movie!! I want to watch it now!!!
I'm glad there are other people who like it!!
I love love love this list! I haven't seen The Cutting Edge, but um . . . it was because I wasn't even alive when it came out (OMG I KNOW I AM SO YOUNG.) and I don't even have netflix.
Yeah. this is awkward. However I have Bittersweet and will read it once I get to it? Good compromise? Okay, fantastic. I'LL GET RIGHT ON THAT.
Wow, you are really young. That's okay. Sorry you missed the 90s!!
I see Bittersweet on my library shelf, I just haven't ever picked it up…Might need to fix that :o)
I have seen the remake/sequel to the Cutting Edge – and thought it was pretty cool. But I haven't seen the original yet, though I hear it's pretty awesome. I think the library now owns it, so will try to get my hands on it :o) I've got a thing for The Olympics, LOL!
Maybe I just enjoyed the original so much I was not going to give the remake a chance….
I love all the Cutting Edge Movies. I would always watch them when they came on! Playing Hurt seems really good, I might check that out! Smoldering Attraction is ALWAYS good.
I really enjoyed Playing Hurt!!
I like what the movie is about so yes I will be searching through Netflix. Hate to Love relationships are very entertaining to read. I have only read The Duff and One Night That Changes Everything but the others in this list sound just as great. I recommend Ember by Carol Oates, there is constantly hate and love and more hate going around.
Ooh, thanks for the recommendation.
I LOVED Bittersweet! Such a cute contemp.:) I haven't heard of the other but it sounds great!
I also loved it!!
I've read Bittersweet and I thought it was really good. I've not read Playing Hurt but it sounds really good.
Give it a try!!
I Loved Bittersweet!! So good! It doesn't hurt that I'm a hockey fan! Loved that part about Bittersweet. The other one sounds good too 🙂
I also really liked Cutting Edge. Now I want to watch it again! 🙂
Ha ha –glad there are other Cutting Edge fans out there. It's a guilty pleasure, for sure.
I've never heard of the Cutting Edge before… There's been lots of hype about Bittersweet. I still don't understand the hype
You didn't like it??
I LOVE LOVE LOVED ALL of the Cutting Edge movies:) LOL and i love figure skating:) I think it is so cool, but i myself am a terrible skater lol:)
-JennyC
So happy to find so many Cutting Edge fans 🙂
TOEPICK! I have to admit that I have watched The Cutting Edge and obscene amount of times. When I watch it now I am embarrassed by how cheesy the music is, how awful their clothes are, and how much I still love when he asks her to take of her engagement ring because it cuts up his hand during practice! AHHHH!
I also love hate-love, like, a lot. It is my most favorite romance dynamic. The minute I get the hint of it in a book I am thrilled. I can't wait to check out your list. I need to read The DUFF because I keep hearing great things about it. If its got the love hate, i'm there.
It is pretty cheesy. But in a good, 90s way.
I am also a huge fan of hate to love. I love seeing how the author pulls off the transition 🙂
I loved the way the romantic relationship in The Duff developed-probably my favorite on this list. Although I think I tend to like best friends into romance the best (and I have a soft spot for love at first sight), the hate to love can be very appealing. I alos love The Cutting Edge especially the skating sequences.
Ooh, maybe I'll do a post on friendship to love. That is a fun dynamic too. And, like you, I don't hate love at first sight as long as it makes sense!
I've actually seen THE CUTTING EDGE with D.B. Sweeney & Moira Kelly. It was fun to watch.
Thanks for the book recommendations. I'll check them out.
I agree — a fun movie!!
I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I've never watched Cutting Edge before. Heck, I hadn't even heard about it before I read this post! My excuse: I'm only sixteen years old. But I'm going to the video rental store tomorrow, so I might check it out 😀
Also, you should give Adorkable by Sarra Manning a try if you're looking for more books with a hate-to-love relationship. The main character's name starts with J and she has an awesome blog, just like you!
If you were born in the 90s, you might not think the movie is as good as those of us who are slightly older do. Just saying I have tried to show it to someone who is 13 and she was not so impressed!
But I will put Adorkable on my list with your name!
Haven't seen that movie but I've read Bittersweet and it was lovely! 🙂
Have a great time on your vocation 🙂
I thought so too!
Vacation is great so far!
Oh wow, I remember seeing The Cutting Edge multiple times at the dollar theater with my roomates when we were in college. We loved it so much. The next year I was at the Indy 500 parade and D.B. Sweeney was in the parade. My sister and I screamed for him very loudly and he waved at us. I think we were his biggest fans the whole parade! Such a great movie. I'll have to try some of those books out.
I love that parade story!!
The Cutting Edge is one of my favorite movies! I vaguely remember a remake, which I guess says how good it wasn't 😉 I will definitely be checking out these books. Playing Hurt sounds especially good.
I've seen all four Cutting Edge movies but none compare to the original! Bittersweet has been on my TBR forever, I really need to get a move on and read it already =) Now I'm going to add Playing Hurt to my list too, and Adorkable (that's like the cutest title ever!)
I've had a busy two weeks and am just now catching up on your blog. Thanks for the link back to the 2011 list! Some of these look good – more books to add to my tbr. 😉
Alright, time to get caught up on your lovely blog–AGAIN! Sorry I keep getting like 2 weeks behind! I hope to get caught up on all my blogs soon and then stay caught up. We'll see how long that lasts.
I LOVED The Cutting Edge back in the day! I think most people around my age really wanted to become ice skaters after that movie came out! I know I did! These are some great suggestions–I'll have to check them out!