Jane Austen's first title for Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions. She drafted it in her early twenties, a publisher turned it down unread, and when it finally came out in 1813 the title had changed to name the two faults that keep Elizabeth and Darcy apart. That is the whole trick of the best enemies to lovers books: the hostility is real, it has a cause, and the turn is earned. Before you start one, you want to know how long the hostile half lasts and how hot the other half gets.
So this list ranks nine of them on exactly that. Each pick has a spice meter, content notes, and one line on where the turn happens. If you want the trope explained first, with the sub-types and the reasons it works, the enemies to lovers hub covers that. This page is the books.
⚡If you only have tonight
How I ranked them
Two things mattered. First, whether the enmity has a reason beyond "he's rude": a war, a promotion, a family, a dead parent. Second, whether the book does the turn on the page instead of skipping it between chapters. Popularity broke ties. Spice did not count either way, because a closed-door book can do this trope better than an explicit one.
⚔️The list
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The Hating Game, Sally Thorne (2016)
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman are executive assistants to two co-CEOs of a merged publishing house, they sit facing each other all day, and they play staring games to pass the time. Then the same promotion opens up for both of them. Most of the book is two people who notice everything about each other insisting it means nothing, and Thorne writes Lucy's voice so dry that the jokes land even on a reread.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️3/5, open door, arrives late
Content notes
- Strained family relationships on his side
- Workplace rivalry, no cheating
- Low angst overall
Where it turns: well before the end, so the second half is all payoff. Ranked first because it is the trope with nothing else in the way.
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Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (2023)
Violet Sorrengail is sent to Basgiath War College to train as a dragon rider, a path that is built to kill someone her size. Xaden Riorson has every reason to want her dead: her mother, the general, had his father executed for leading a rebellion. Yarros keeps the pressure on with deaths among the cadets, and the romance runs underneath a plot that would work without it.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️4/5, open door, several scenes
Content notes
- Graphic violence and frequent deaths of classmates
- Chronic illness (Violet's fragile joints)
- Parental death, war
Where it turns: slowly, through training and one very bad night. Ranked high because the enemy reason is the plot, not decoration.
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Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813)
Darcy calls Elizabeth "tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me" within her hearing, and she spends the next half of the book collecting reasons to despise him. His first proposal is so insulting that her refusal is one of the great scenes in English fiction. It is the cleanest version of the trope ever written, and it is genuinely funny.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️1/5, closed door, no sex on the page
Content notes
- Nothing heavy
- A teenage sister runs off with a con man
- Period attitudes to class and marriage
Where it turns: the letter after the first proposal. The blueprint every other book here borrows from.
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Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase (1995)
Jessica Trent goes to Paris to drag her brother away from the Marquess of Dain, a man who ruins young idiots for fun. Dain ruins her reputation instead and refuses to fix it, so she shoots him. Chase gives Dain a childhood that explains, without excusing, why he thinks he is unlovable, and it is the most re-read title on most historical romance shelves for good reason.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️3/5, open door after the marriage
Content notes
- Childhood emotional abuse in his backstory
- She shoots him (he lives)
- Period attitudes
Where it turns: once they are married and still fighting. The best enemies to lovers in historical romance, and the funniest.
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The Cruel Prince, Holly Black (2018)
Jude watched her parents murdered when she was seven and was raised in the faerie court by the man who did it. Prince Cardan torments her at school with a real nastiness that YA rarely allows. Book one is mostly court politics and Jude learning to poison herself in small doses for immunity; the romance is a few charged scenes and one kiss.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️1/5, a kiss, YA
Content notes
- Bullying
- Murder of parents (on page, opening chapter)
- Near-drowning, poisoning, violence
Where it turns: across the whole trilogy, not this book. Read the series if you like the hate to last.
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Serpent & Dove, Shelby Mahurin (2019)
Lou is a witch hiding in a city where witches are burned. Reid is a witch hunter sworn to the church. A public scandal forces them to marry, and he has no idea what he married. It is the most fun premise on the list, two people sharing a bedroom and a lie, and the banter carries it.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️2/5, one scene, not graphic
Content notes
- Witch burnings and violence
- Religious zealotry
- Blood magic
Where it turns: when he finds out. A good bridge between YA and adult if you started with The Cruel Prince.
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The Spanish Love Deception, Elena Armas (2021)
Catalina needs a date for her sister's wedding in Spain, and the only volunteer is Aaron Blackford, the tall, unsmiling coworker she has disliked since the day they met. It is long and very slow, which some readers love and some find padded. The payoff is the trip itself, with her whole family watching.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️3/5, open door, late in the book
Content notes
- A bad past relationship (emotional)
- No cheating
- Low angst
Where it turns: in Spain, in front of her entire family. Pick it if you want fake dating and enmity at once.
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From Blood and Ash, Jennifer L. Armentrout (2020)
Poppy is the Maiden, veiled and forbidden to be touched, and Hawke is the new guard assigned to her. For a long stretch this reads like forbidden romance, and the enemies part arrives late with a twist I will not spoil. Armentrout's style is chatty and heavy on internal monologue; you will know in ten pages if it is for you.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️4/5, open door, explicit
Content notes
- Graphic violence and gore
- Kidnapping
- Betrayal
Where it turns: two thirds in. Ranked lower because you wait a long time for the enemy half.
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Twisted Hate, Ana Huang (2022)
Jules and Josh have hated each other for years, mostly because she is his sister's best friend and they cannot be in a room without a fight. They agree to sleep together on the condition that nothing changes. It is the explicit end of this list and the least subtle book on it, and readers who come for the heat do not seem to mind.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️5/5, open door, frequent and explicit
Content notes
- Blackmail plot from her past
- Past trauma
- Explicit sex throughout
Where it turns: in bed first, in the heart much later. Read it when you want the trope and the spice to arrive together.
Which one first
If you are new to the trope, read Pride and Prejudice and The Hating Game back to back. One is closed door and two centuries old, the other is a modern office comedy, and they run on the same engine. If you want to go darker after that, Fourth Wing and Lord of Scoundrels both have real damage behind the hostility. Not sure about the heat? The spice level checker will tell you where your line is. And if you would rather pick by hero, the book boyfriend quiz sorts the Darcys from the Xadens.
This trope also travels well outside novels. There are separate guides for enemies to lovers anime, K-dramas where the leads start out at war and gay enemies to lovers romance. If you want the fight to last longer before anyone kisses, the slow burn list is the next stop.
📖Read enemies to lovers stories free on NanoReads
These are serials on NanoReads where the author has tagged the book enemies to lovers or built it on a rivalry. They are shorter and faster than the novels above, and chapter one of each is free. The heat notes come from the authors' own tags, and most of these are steamy.
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The Rival's Daughter, Mystic Ember
Mafia · kidnapping · eroticaThe son of the biggest mafia family in the northeast kidnaps the daughter of their west coast rival, and they fall for each other while she is his hostage. Captor romance, so expect the power imbalance. Start with chapter 1, free
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Boys Like Them, Vivian Monroe
Reverse harem · college · eroticaOne heroine, four men, a coastal college town, and they start out as enemies. If you liked the group dynamics in Fourth Wing and want more of them, this is the one. Read the first chapter
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Tempting My Father's Rival, Olivia Sinclair
Billionaire · forbidden · steamyHer father dismisses her. His worst enemy, Noah Sterling, does not, and offers her revenge. Rivals by proxy, with the enmity inherited from her father. Chapter one is free here
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Bound to Our Enemy, Luna Carlisle
Werewolf · two heroes · steamyLena, daughter of the Silver Moon Alpha, faces the twin heirs of the pack sworn to destroy hers at peace talks. Two enemies, not one. Open chapter 1
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My Enemy Alpha's Secret Baby, Ava Sinclair
Werewolf · secret baby · tagged abusiveLena has hidden her son from his father, a warlord alpha, for five years. Then she is captured and brought before him. The author tags it abusive, so check that before you start. Try the first chapter
If shifters are what you want, the forbidden romance hub has more of the inherited-feud kind, and if you only want the dragons-and-courts end of things, the romantasy glossary entry is a good starting point.
❓Questions readers ask
What is the best enemies to lovers book to start with?
If you want heat, start with The Hating Game: it is short, funny, and the rivalry is the whole plot. If you want fantasy, Fourth Wing. If you have never read the trope at all, Pride and Prejudice is still the cleanest version of it, and it is closed door.
Are enemies to lovers books always spicy?
No. The trope is about the relationship arc, not the heat. Pride and Prejudice and The Cruel Prince have nothing on the page beyond a kiss. The Hating Game and The Spanish Love Deception are open door but take their time. Twisted Hate and Fourth Wing are the explicit end of this list.
What is the difference between enemies to lovers and rivals to lovers?
Rivals compete for the same thing, like a promotion or a title, and usually respect each other underneath. Enemies stand on opposite sides of something bigger, like a war, a family feud or a crime, and one of them may have actually hurt the other. The Hating Game is rivals. Fourth Wing and Serpent & Dove are enemies.
Is The Cruel Prince enemies to lovers?
Yes, but slowly. In the first book Cardan is openly cruel to Jude and the romance is barely there. The enemies to lovers payoff is spread across the trilogy, so read it for the politics first and the romance second.