enemiestolovers

Changing on the Fly

by Em Maddax

Tropes: enemiestolovers, humor, athlete

Hunter Valentine is a junior at North Chicago University. He spends his college days playing ice hockey, hanging out with his best friend and getting tormented by his team captain. The kid who was once a prodigy with promise is now a bench-warming, insecure center who sees the puck even less than he sees a good night's sleep. For a reason Hunter can’t figure out, his captain has made it his mission to make sure the younger player hates the game even more than he hates himself. When one ice-shattering lapse of judgement leads to a brutal fight with even worse consequences, Hunter is faced with the truth of his teammate’s intentions. He’s now forced to decide if he should let the echoes of self-doubt or the pleasure of a forbidden touch dictate his next move. CHANGING ON THE FLY is a queer love story about trusting yourself, listening to your heart and going for what you want, no matter the risks. [Read More]

The Penalty Box

by Rebecca Zorg

Tropes: slowburn, forcedproximity, firstperson

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He doesn't remember ruining her life. She's going to make sure he does. IVY Seven years ago, Gabriel Castellano took the best night of my life and turned it into a punchline. It cost me my spot on the national team and the only future I'd ever planned. Now he's here. Traded to Whistler, parked in my booth with his new teammates, telling me to surprise him like he's never seen my face before. As far as he knows, he hasn't. So I did what any professional would do. I "accidentally" poured a pint of our worst IPA straight down his six-hundred-dollar shirt. Surprise! Here's the problem: his team just partnered with The Penalty Box, keeping my late father's bar alive, and the town wants repairs that cost more than we clear in a season. Which makes the man I've spent seven years hating the closest thing I have to leverage. And every night he comes back, hating him gets more expensive. GABRIEL People have told me who to be since I was fifteen, and I've never once disappointed them. Golden boy. Franchise face. So I can't explain the bartender. She hates me. Openly. Specifically. Like she's had it ready for years. The worst part isn't that I don't know why. It's that I'm starting to think I should. A slow-burn, high-angst hockey romance with: - Enemies to lovers—he doesn't remember her. She remembers everything. - Forced proximity, one blizzard, one bar - A second chance carrying a seven-year grudge - A grovel that draws blood - Found family, a bar worth fighting for, and one mechanical wolf - Dual POV · Slow burn · Open door · Guaranteed HEA For readers who loved the grovel in Elle Kennedy's The Mistake and the BC-set slow burn of Stephanie Archer's Behind the Net. The First Line, Book One. [Read More]

The Sicilian Trap: A Grumpy Coach World Cup Spicy Soccer Rom-Com

by Mara J. Ova

Tropes: forcedproximity, firstperson, forbiddenlove

He demands absolute control to win the World Cup. She is the sunshine that refuses to bend. Grumpy Meets Sunshine • Forced Proximity • Steamy Soccer Romance • Opposites Attract • Workplace Romance • Protective Hero • World Cup Stakes • Slow-burn With Sparkling Chemistry • Hilarious Banter • Found Family • Italian Vibes Vincenzo Messina is a tactical genius who demands absolute control to win the World Cup, but his new PR director is a walking distraction. Armed with weaponized sunshine, Sofia Hofer threatens his sacred locker room, igniting a fiery clash of wills and sizzling chemistry they both refuse to acknowledge. Arriving at the secluded Base Camp, Sofia's relentless optimism immediately collides with Vincenzo’s dictatorial temper. She treats football as a passionless branding puzzle to protect, while the volcanic coach fiercely shields his squad from the media. Bound by a lucrative Armani sponsorship, they are forced into thirty days of inescapable proximity within a secure compound and high emotion during the matches. As the grueling tournament progresses, their battle lines blur. Sofia discovers the devout heart beneath his melodramatic touchline theatrics, while Vincenzo realizes her efficiency actually protects his players, shattering his defenses. He engineered the perfect tactical trap on the pitch, but her weaponized sunshine cornered his heart. With the championship final looming, they must choose between maintaining their rigid professional boundaries or risking a catastrophic public scandal for a passion they cannot control. The Sicilian Trap is a standalone, fast-paced, steamy soccer romantic comedy by Mara J. Ova featuring grumpy-meets-sunshine and forced proximity tropes. It is a perfect read during the US-hosted World Cup, and the Italian vibes make it an ideal summer escape. Scroll up and look inside to experience the explosive chemistry and high-stakes tension. [Read More]

Neighborly Chemistry

by Mary DCosta

Tropes: slowburn, firstperson, characterdriven

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She’s an overworked scientist. He’s a celebrity wellness guru. They share a wall—and an enemy. Victoria Darling has no patience for her infuriatingly serene neighbor. Determined to escape her parents' Beverly Hills dental empire, she's grinding through an MD-PhD program, working eighty-hour weeks in the lab of a Nobel Laureate. The last thing she needs is Stephen Souza. Stephen is Hollywood's favorite wellness guru, selling adaptogens, mindfulness, and immaculate vibes to A-listers who swear by him. Victoria sees him as everything wrong with modern health culture—until academic betrayal destroys the career she's spent her life building. Suddenly, the man she dismissed as a celebrity quack is the only person who can help—and the one person she never expected to fall for. Because Stephen Souza isn't who she thinks he is. And the man who ruined Victoria's future has a history with Stephen—one that could help her reclaim credit for a groundbreaking discovery and protect its future. A STEM romance for readers who want the STEM to actually matter. Expect real scientific detail, highly competent characters, enemies-to-lovers chemistry, humor, and a plot that depends on the science. [Read More]

Whispers of Stone and Silver

by Augusta Grey

Tropes: forcedproximity, forbiddenlove, darkromance

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He thinks she’s his prize; but she will be his reckoning. Lady Sybil Gilbert is a changeling; half human half fae trapped in a touchless marriage and a ruthless family of courtiers. She thought that she would give anything to be free of the suffocating constraints of her position but Sybil never asked to be widowed and taken as a captive by a ruthless vampire conqueror. Now her only chance at escaping the shadow of Terra Noxa is to seduce Bressal O’Brien Darkov, the commander of the force that took her husband, and her freedom. Bressal has risen far from his humble mortal beginnings in Munster and now he has returned to his homeland of Ireland to take revenge on the English who occupy his ancestral land. He doesn’t expect to find an English woman who upends everything he thought he knew about his precious hatred. His fated may be half fae but she is all English and he does not know what will win out; his heart or his thirst for revenge. [Read More]

Masks and Moonbeams

by Kanika Singhal

Tropes: characterdriven, dualpov, magic

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To be loved is to be known. Princess Lata moonlights as a vigilante and finds an ally worth dying for. But what does this man have to do with her good-for-nothing fiancé? Chakor captures the Moon God. Now she needs to let him go. Or watch him die. To keep her promise to her dying queen, General Ria lives her life under a mask. But an old friend returns, and now she has a choice – lose her heart or break her oath. Chitrani falls in love with a Snake prince as a child. Years later, why does her fiancé look so much like the boy she lost? And Kalindi – the village healer – tries to evict a long-healed warrior from her hut by making him do housework. She doesn’t know he is a prince. “... being truly seen beneath expectations, titles, and carefully guarded secrets.” – Amazon Reviewer, Canada “The romances are tender without being cheesy and the mix of mythology and folklore gives it personality.” – Amazon Reviewer, Spain In this collection of clean fantasy romance, five women find themselves seen — truly seen — by the last person they expected. Five stories. Five happy endings. No cliff-hangers. Masks and Moonbeams is the first book in the Of Queens and Rascals series — fantasy romance rooted in Indian mythology, folklore, and history — fierce heroines, heroes who earn their place, and love that sees through every mask. “... a shiny gate to escape from the reality of modern, fast-paced life.” – Amazon Reviewer, Germany [Read More]

Never Your Valentine

by Jordan Bloom

Tropes: firstperson, dualpov, foundfamily

Never Your Valentine is an opposites attract, grumpy-sunshine romcom packed with sizzling banter, small-town charm, and enough slow-burn heat to melt a Michigan winter. [Read More]

The Rival Hearts

by Anne Nikolaiken

Tropes: forcedproximity, firstperson, dualpov

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A steamy Married in Vegas Formula One romance featuring Rivals to Lovers. The race weekend plan didn’t include waking up married to the rival rookie driver. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right? Ethan Ethan St-Pierre is used to living in his brother’s shadow, but now he has no other option but to shine on the racetrack...and keep the St-Pierre legacy alive. Sharing his rookie season with his biggest rival shouldn’t be that difficult. They only have to interact on racetracks–and that’s plenty, thank you very much–but now sponsors are suggesting joint photoshoots with Maggie. Their rivalry is fuelling sales, sparks are flying, and Ethan wonders if there’s something more behind their shared, sizzling glances captured in photographs. Maggie Maggie Hoffsommer is the first female race car driver with a chance to win the Drivers’ Championship and prove her critics wrong. Her surprise debut at Kestrel Racing caused a media frenzy; her repeated pole positions and podium finishes created turmoil in the paddock, but the greatest shock is the one Maggie experiences when she wakes up married to Ethan St-Pierre in Vegas… and he suggests they give it a go? He’s the steamy distraction on track, putting everything she’s worked for in jeopardy. How can she consider staying married to him? This season, they have nothing left to lose but their hearts. Will Maggie and Ethan’s competitiveness put what they desire most at risk? This is a high-octane contemporary sports romance filled with open-door spice, swoon-worthy moments, and a guaranteed happily ever after. The Rival Hearts is book #2 in The Racing Line series. Each book can be read as a stand-alone, and do not need to be read in order to be enjoyed. [Read More]

Bonds of Shame, Bonds of Lust

by Jordyn Haart

Tropes: slowburn, forcedproximity, forbiddenlove

Dr. Lacey Bonds is a respected pediatric cardiologist, professional good girl, who has never been allowed to want anything for herself. She was taught that desire was shameful. On discovering infidelity, something long buried in her cracks open. Or maybe it finally wakes up. Guided by her hedonistic, pansexual best friend, Lacey begins saying yes to her suppressed desires. Soon she's saying yes to everything. Every temptation. Every fantasy. Every dangerous impulse. As shame transforms into arousal and arousal spirals into obsession, Lacey's carefully ordered world starts to unravel under the weight of cravings she can no longer control. This all changes when she finds herself falling for the formidable widowed billionaire father of her favorite little patient, a desire very much not allowed. Gruff, powerful billionaire Derek Harrington has always intimidated her. A widower, former Special Forces officer, and head of the hospital board, he is the one man who looks at her like he's actually paying attention. Behind the hardass exterior is a father raising his sick little girl Jessica on his own. And in Jessica's five-year-old eyes, Lacey is the answer to a question neither adult is ready to face. [Read More]

The Ripples of an Evil Prince

by Rebeka Volarević

Tropes: characterdriven, adventure, strongfmc

When Faery escapes an arranged marriage by journeying to parallel worlds, a sinister bond with a mysterious prince forces her to question who she is before the secret within her destroys everything and everyone she has fought to protect. Faery thought she was escaping her destiny, putting it on hold. She never imagined she was running straight toward it. In a medieval world where the existence of other realms is almost commonplace, Faery, a noblewoman bound to an unwanted arranged marriage, longs for escape. When she meets Astrifer, a scientist from another realm, that dream becomes possible. Defying duty, Faery, her wary guard Gawain and Astrifer set out on a journey across worlds, joined by Leon, a modern-day judge quick to accept the impossible. But her path grows darker when Prince Lucius appears, drawn to her by a mysterious and unsettling bond. What begins as freedom turns dangerous, as hidden truths surface and Faery is forced to confront not only the fate she tried to outrun, but the possibility that her own identity holds the greatest secret of all. [Read More]

Marked in Blood

by Emmett Vance

Tropes: forcedproximity, darkromance, dualpov

He cut his own hand instead of mine. It was the kindest thing he ever did to me. They sold me to the Sasso syndicate to seal ninety days of peace — a hostage, a clause in a contract, blood witnessed across two open palms while two armies watched. The new boss was supposed to be a monster. Kiril Sasso is worse than that, and better: a wreck of a man with shaking hands and a cruel mouth, so certain he ruins everything he touches that he'd rather bury me than risk keeping me. He locks the doors. He swears he'll end me when the ninety days run out. And when he reaches for me in the dark, he does it rough, like a man taking the one thing he's sure he isn't allowed. I was thrown away once, a long time ago. I learned the wrong lesson from it: I don't leave. Not when he's cruel. Not when he shoves me toward the door. Not when there's a debt in a ledger neither of us has seen, waiting a very long time to come due. So I'll do the one thing that terrifies a man who's never been kept. When the doors finally open — I'll stay. ═══════ WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT ═══════ ✦ Dark M/M Mafia Romance — Enemies to Lovers, Blood Vow ✦ Self-destructive boss × hostage who won't break (he cuts his own hand instead of yours) ✦ Forced Proximity — ninety days, one locked house ✦ Hurt/Comfort, Dual POV (Kiril + Eli) — broken man held, not fixed ✦ Explicit, on-page, 18+ — rough turning tender ✦ HEA guaranteed — Book 1 of a trilogy ═══════ CONTENT NOTES ═══════ Explicit on-page M/M sex (18+ / rough turning tender) / self-harm at the blood vow (he cuts his own palm) + blood / captivity + hostage / organized-crime violence / past child abandonment / HEA — not a cliffhanger, but one open season-thread. ═══════ FOR ARC READERS ═══════ If you're here for the dark, welcome home. Marked in Blood is for readers who want the broken one held instead of fixed. Book 1 of three. The Tally trilogy. HEA guaranteed. — Emmett Vance [Read More]