“Rivals-to-lovers gets an academic send-up in this charming and irresistible romantic comedy from Emma Lord, New York Times bestselling author of Tweet Cute and Begin Again!

At long last, Sadie has vanquished her lifelong academic rival — her irritatingly charming, whip smart next door neighbor, Seb — by getting the coveted, only spot to her dream college. Or at least, so she thinks. When Seb is unexpectedly pulled off the waitlist and admitted, Sadie has to compete with him all over again, this time to get a spot on the school’s famous zine. Now not only is she dealing with the mayhem of the lovable, chaotic family she hid her writing talents from, as well as her own self doubt, but she has to come to terms with some less-than-resentful feelings for Seb that are popping up along the way.

But the longer they compete, the more Sadie and Seb notice flaws in the school’s system that are much bigger than any competition between them. Somehow the two of them have to band together even as they’re trying to crush each other, only to discover they may have met their match in more ways than one.”

If you want to know anything about my reading tastes (at least for straight YA romance), all you need to know is that I am an Emma Lord stan first and everything else second.

Emma Lord does many things well. Her friends-to-lovers stories can’t be beat, with You Have a Match, When You Get the Chance, and The Getaway List ranking at the top of my favorite books of hers. However, her enemies- or rivals-to-lovers stories are also strong—Tweet Cute had a online enemies relationship between two people who knew each other in real life, while When You Get the Chance had two rivals from a high school theater department competing for an internship.

The Rivals should have been a slam dunk for Lord, combining tropes that she is already well-versed in. It has the long history between the love interests of Begin Again, as Sadie and Seb’s parents are two sets of best friends, and the pair grew up next door to each other and in constant contact. If you like stories where the main couple know each other better than anybody else could even attempt, this is for you. Lord also proved with When You Get the Chance that she can do rivals-to-lovers driven together by a competition effectively, and, indeed, I could see a lot of parallels between these two books.

I’ll begin with the thing the book does best, which is the connection between Sadie and Seb. They have known each other their entire lives, grew up best friends, and were driven apart when a prank turned malicious in middle school. From there, they spent their time competing for all of the same extracurriculars and grades at school, pranking each other at home, and putting on a nice face for their families so that they wouldn’t know about the animosity between them. The story starts with Sadie thinking she has finally escaped Seb’s orbit, as he didn’t get into their first-choice college, until Seb shows up having gotten off the waitlist They now must compete for the single staff position available on their college’s prestigious zine. The tension between Sadie and Seb is palpable—while many rivals-to-lovers stories begin with the protagonists not knowing they have feelings for each other, Sadie knows from the start that she is attracted to Seb but tries to convince herself it doesn’t matter. The deep connection between the two drives the book’s plot, as both work for what they want but know they can’t get it without the other losing. Their chemistry is tangible in every conversation, to a point where the reader truly can’t help but root for them.

The plot falters a little, however, when it comes to Sadie’s character. She wants to be a comedy writer and refers several times to her running internal comedic monologue, but her narrative voice just isn’t funny enough for that to truly be believable. It’s not that I was expecting biting wit from Emma Lord, but the choice to write this book in the first-person meant that the disconnect between Lord’s natural writing style and the personality of this protagonist is striking and disrupts the reader’s immersion. It’s not that the prose is bad, but rather that it just doesn’t quite work for this protagonist.

I’m not quite sure what to say about the most prominent side plot of the book, which is Sadie’s college cutting funding for student organizations. I’m not sure if it’s because Emma Lord hasn’t been in college for a while or if we’re just supposed to buy that this is a very strangely run college, but so much about the budget issues that were a central plot point just did not make sense to me, at least in comparison with how I know my university runs its budget. There was just too much going on, and Lord’s worldbuilding choices seemed strange—why are there no typical clubs (Model UN, Debate, a regular newspaper, etc.) but there’s an Apocalypse Club and a Paranormal Investigation Club? What does Sadie’s roommate’s scholarship and strenuous athletic schedule have to do with cutting funding for clubs? Why can’t the clubs do fundraisers to supplement school funding? There were just so many things going on in this plot that didn’t help much to develop Sadie as a character or drive her and Seb’s relationship forward. It’s fun and chaotic and a good time, but I had so many questions about it as well.

There’s also a smaller note of it being unclear who the target audience is meant to be. It’s marketed as YA, and the plot complexity and maturity of the characters definitely mark it as YA (there’s no mention of sex outside of a poor sexual education system for one), but the characters curse all the time (“f**k” is dropped 42 times), leaving me unsure of whom, exactly, I’m supposed to recommend this to. It’s bridging the gap between YA and NA, so if you like both then you’ll enjoy it, but it’s written in such a way as to be difficult to place in either category firmly.

I want to be clear that this is an excellent read. Emma Lord is at the top of her romance-writing game here, with Sadie and Seb being quite possibly my favorite couple of hers (and, if you can’t tell, I’m very familiar with her work). The competition setting is fun, and the chaotic personalities of the two protagonists makes the book a wholly entertaining read. Lord also uses the opportunity to talk about sex ed, particularly the lack of information for queer teenagers, in a way that I do think is important to address in a book about adjusting to life at college and figuring out how to be an independent person. The things I’ve raised as concerns aren’t dealbreakers at all, and rather are small weaknesses in Lord’s writing that are slightly strange for somebody usually so adept at writing YA contemporary. I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anybody who’s a fan of both YA and NA contemporary books or who’s just looking for a cute romance about transitioning to college life and adulthood. 4/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.