I am going to start this review by saying I have been in a massive reading slump – I haven’t finished an actual novel since I graduated last May and have been mostly reading comics. I did however fly though this book in a few days. While I have some issues I will get into, this book is pretty much exactly what it sets out to be – a short (at 290 pages), cheesy romance. Something I didn’t realize when I picked it up, but enjoyed, is that this book is dual POV, switching between Lucas and Oliver’s POVs. The book is heavily character driven, with a lot of dialogue and little plot beyond the romance.

The book leans heavily on tropes (sometimes too heavily, telling us our two MCs are enemies without really going deeper into why or what it means beyond snarking at each other). This is where my issues with the book lie – for a character-driven book, the characters feel very shallow. We are introduced to a cast of side characters – from the other teammates of our MCs (who I could not keep straight, they felt almost inter-changable), to family members (which we are told about repeatedly before meeting, and mostly to give us info-dumps about our MCs backstories).

Lucas’s character in particular feels…inconsistent might be the best word. We are told he has no time for friends – this is his core conflict with Oliver, who wishes Lucas had more time to hang out with the team – but he is also seemingly best friends with a girl on their sister team. Oliver is also pushy with Lucas’s boundaries (particularly Lucas wanting to keep their relationship a secret) in a way I wasn’t a fan of. We are told more of their personalities then we are shown it felt, and they seem to hate each other (while pining?) simply for the sake of hating each other, rather than any actual conflict – all conflicts can seemingly be solved with a two minute conversation, but they seem to repeatedly have the same conversation.

The pacing felt fast – which for such a short romance makes sense. They go from enemies to secrely-pining-friends-with-benefits very early on, and then slowly move to actual lovers. There is sex in this book, though more of the fade-to-black, told-the-acts-not-described-them variety than the smutty variety popular in many romance novels. This is preferable to me, but might not be for everyone.

Very little development seems to happen in the second half of the book. I was pretty hooked for the first half and then very bored for the second half. Partly, this is because very little new developments seem to happen with our characters’ relationship, partly this is because of some forced outing by the media (which is a trope I dislike in general), and partly because of an injury. The injury wasn’t graphic, and its a premise I’ve seen in sports books, but I don’t think it was utilized very well in this book. In general, we are given a lot of details that don’t ever become relevant – Oliver’s dead ex for example is constantly mentioned, but for no overall meaning that I can tell other than to give him a tragic past.

I enjoyed - but didn't adore this sports romance. Lucas and Oliver are both on the British men's gymnastics team. Lucas is a lone wolf among the group - and definitely focused on his sport, his school, and family - to the exclusion of all else (including his teammates). Oliver is the team captain and generally speaking a friendly extrovert of a person. He and Lucas have been at odds for years, knowing each other but having diametrically opposed opinions and lives. Both have quite a bit of baggage to go along with it as well.

I really liked both Lucas and Oliver - although Lucas really is kind of a jerk at the start of the book. He comes across very clearly - both from his perspective and others - as selfish and cold. That leads to some really positive character development which was great. I also enjoyed Oliver's depth of character - he is definitely more than just the happy-go-lucky party boy he first appears to be. I liked them together a lot - and could have done with more on-page time between them than we really got. There were parts of this book that really didn't work well for me. For one thing - this book has a lot of sex - but only a smattering of open-door moments. It was just odd. I'm fine with closed door - but this wasn't exactly that. It was an odd hybrid that I didn't love. the book also ends on a Happy For Now with good hopes for the future. I am guessing the author may be looking towards publishing a sequel to this couple - but maybe not. It leaves us with a lot of questions and concerns for the future - and a couple that seems to be looking positive, but definitely has a lot of hurdles ahead. I think I would have preferred a more solid ending for them as a couple. There is also a LOT happening in this book - the olympics, side character drama, public outing of Oliver, grappling with grief, etc. Maybe some of it needed to be left to the side to focus more on one or two of the plot points instead of all of it.

I received this via NetGalley as an ARC, but these opinions are all my own.

When I went into this book I expected to get an m/m from enemies-to-lovers romance that played during the Olympic Games and I’m really happy to say that this was exactly what I got. Sure not everything about this book was perfect, but if you don’t overthink every single moment you’ll have a really good time and just page through it. At least that’s what I did and I enjoyed the book immensely. So first things first: Let’s address the big elephant in the room, the love story between Lucas and Oliver.

I personally loved their chemistry and the way they grated on each other. I always enjoy a good “from enemies-to-lovers” trope but very often authors don’t dare to actually go for it because it’s not easy to create two characters that dislike or even hate each other at first and then fall in love. To write this trope is certainly a challenge, but I think Rebecca J. Caffery did a good job with it. At the beginning of the book Lucas and Oliver are clearly not all too happy to be forced to share a room together but they just grit their teeth and go with it because they are both adults and they know how to be professional. Or well, at least that’s what they think until they actually share said room together. It doesn’t take long before they are at each other’s throats and the tension that built up between them over the course of four years almost gets the better of them. The thing is whatever the tension between them, it’s most definitely not entirely hostile and they both realize this pretty quickly when they go at each other without anyone to interrupt their fights.

I really lived and breathed for this because you could see their struggle while they tried to make sense of their attraction. It was always there and had been there for a long time, but none of them ever considered acting on it, or at least not until they were suddenly thrown in a room together without anyone who could stop them from doing something extremely irresponsible and stupid. Some might say the change from enemies to lovers went too quickly and I can see why some people would come to this conclusion, but I personally think it was done well. Those two boys had four years to check each other out and I’m sure if they’d have opened up to each other sooner they certainly would have been a couple already. It just took the Olympics to get them in a room together and to force them to talk. Also I don’t think Oliver was mean because he invited Lucas to tag along with the team but didn’t really expect him to say “yes” or kind of hoped he’d say “no”. If you’ve tried to befriend someone for four years and that person always declines your invitations you’ll get frustrated. It’s only natural and human. Plus and this is important Oliver, Tom and Julius are best friends and Lucas was busy with school and graduating. It couldn’t have been easy for Lucas to always turn them down, but he probably always felt uncomfortable with the group because it’s not easy to befriend three best friends that already have their inside jokes etc. So yes, I could understand both sides and was okay with the way they thought about each other at first. Once they hit it off, though! Oh, boy!

Their interactions were amazing and full of sass and their banter was great! I always love it when people are honest and direct and those two knew exactly what they wanted and didn’t beat about the bush. It was really refreshing to see them just go for it and the fact they spoke about what they liked was something I truly appreciated. Of course they both think it’s only sex, for the reader it’s pretty clear it isn’t just sex, though. They were just too cute together and the way they cared about each other spoke volumes even if they tried to deny it all the time. I think they needed to have a go at each other in order to open up and to be able to get to know each other. And there were a lot of things they didn’t know about the other which brings me right to the surprising and well done grief rep of this book.

I didn’t expect to find a grief representation in this story but in my opinion it was done very well and the effect it had on the characters involved was pretty realistic. The focus clearly wasn’t on the grief rep and it was just a tiny part of the overall picture, but it really helped to understand where the characters were coming from. As the plot moves along we find out more and more about Lucas’s and Oliver’s backgrounds and why they are the way they are and this added a lot to my enjoyment of the book. As did the fact that this story played in the Olympic village and that we got to read about the competitions and sport events as well as the male gymnastics team practicing their routines on the floor. This aspect of the book was very interesting and I liked it a lot. I don’t know anything about gymnastics so I have no idea if the representation of the sport was done well. As a layman all I can say is that I enjoyed what I read and that it worked for me so please take this with a grain of salt if your knowledge about gymnastics is more extensive than mine. What I CAN say (as someone who danced professionally for years and took quite some injuries from it) is that the topic of a career in a physically demanding sport was handled very realistically and that I could relate to it. If you are an athlete you learn the limits of your body pretty quickly and to be at the Olympics is a one-time opportunity you have to grab with both of your hands.

To be honest, just to read about how much Oliver appreciated Lucas’s skill made me happy because it’s one of those things only someone who does sports can understand. There is some beauty to moving your body in time, an invisible rhythm to your movements that causes you to lose track of time and allows you to live in the moment. It’s not just a pleasure if you do it yourself, you also gain so much enjoyment from just watching someone doing something they love and are good at as well. I absolutely adored this aspect of the book because it wasn’t just visible when they were on the mat but also when Oliver and Lucas watched each other secretly without the other even noticing. It was a lovely analogy and fit perfectly to them and their mutual love for gymnastics. I see what you did there, dear author. ;-)

All told I had a really great time with “Olympic Enemies” and the book gave me everything I signed up for. Lucas and Oliver were a cute couple and their way from enemies to lovers might have been a little bit fast but also comprehensible. The banter and the friendships were amazing and I had a good time reading about the Olympic Games. If there was one thing I didn’t like about the book then it was the fact that the ending was too abrupt. I really would have liked to see some sort of exploration of the aftermath of the Olympics and how the characters dealt with their new reality. I guess that’s just a personal preference though and I can live with the ending the way it is. If you like m/m books about sports, the enemies-to-lovers trope and great friendships this book definitely might be a good read for you.

Red, White & Royal Blue, but make it Olympic gymnastics. Still with the intrusive media, and without international political consequences, but that's just a minor detail.

Lucas and Oliver have never gotten along, but now it's finally their time to shine as members of the UK gymnastics team and hopefully get a gold medal. But they can't do that if they keep avoiding each other. But of course then they realise that there's a really fine line between hate and love. And maybe they never really did hate each other after all.

I flew through this novel, and when it suddenly finished I was left wanting more. If the author wants to write another same-sex romance between athletes, I'll be first in line to read it.

That's not to say there weren't issues with this. I don't think the author really knows a lot about gymnastics, but I found it quite easy to ignore that. The relational shifts Lucas and Oliver make, however, are quite sudden. We don't really get a lot of insight into how their feelings change over time, it's just told to us that they're now in love and no longer hate each other. Okay, but then show that progression maybe?

All-in-all a very cute romance, set during the Paris 2024 Olympics. I'm sure there will be more books in this particular niche, but I'm really glad I got to read this book before any of the others.

A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

This story did not work for me, pretty much from the start. I didn't get that far into it before I set it aside for something else and picked this up again during a flight. I skipped a lot, which is sad because I so wanted to like this. It felt like there was a lot of filler to make the book longer and I got bored. Even by skipping a large amount, I didn't miss anything and knew what was going on.

I love the gymnastics portion of the Olympics, specifically the women's but I have on occasion watched the men if it aired at the right time. It takes a lot of strength, both mental and physical to do what they do I think the author captured that perfectly. There are a few good points for this story, the friendship of the men's team, their families, reading about how they train and the descriptions of of what they do with their body, I could totally see everything.

It's the relationship between Lucas and Oliver that really wasn't working. They don't like each other and then they are kissing, then in love. It's shades of insta-love, and the dramatic back and forth of being together, then splitting up but how can you split up if it was just friends with benefits, and back to being together. They took stupid, STUPID risks when they had sex in public places. Seriously, they are sharing a room, they don't need to add excitement to their sex life by adding the risk of getting caught. They're kids! Well, young adults. They can't be so bored with their sex life already they feel like they have to spice it up. Lucas had worked so hard to be at the Olympics only to risk it for sex. I didn't buy it. He should have been the stern one and set better ground rules.

I wish I could give this a better rating but it was only ok for me. 2 stars. I can see how others would like it more though.

What a heartwarming read, I loved getting to know both Lucas and Oliver and read their story. I am an absolute sucker for a sports romance and this one did not disappoint!

I really enjoyed this! I love queer sports romances and I love the Olympics so I knew this would be right up my alley and it was!! Once I got into this I couldn’t put it down. The book definitely wasn’t perfect and I think there was some additional editing and pacing that could have been fixed but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment much. I did sometimes struggle to remember whose POV I was reading because they sounded very similar. I really liked how Oliver helped bring Lucas out of his shell and I liked seeing how the teams relationship evolved throughout the story. I do wish we could have had the ending expanded a little more with their relationship or had an epilogue but I was still happy with where it ended! This was a 4.5 stars for me! Thank you to NegGalley and Wild Rose Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Big thanks to NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press for providing me with an ARC.

This was well …oof. Enemies to lovers slash sports romance sounds exactly like something I would enjoy but sadly it was somewhat of a miss for me. I didn’t dislike it, it’s just not particularly memorable or made me invested.

I didn’t have that many issues with the story itself I guess, although (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) it felt like there wasn't nearly enough sports for a sport book. I liked the friendship and family aspects. There was potential to explore some themes like grief or queerness in sports more but it wasn’t.

The two main characters hooked up pretty fast and then they went back and fort for the rest of the book, which is fine in terms of plot I guess I just didn’t really feel the ~vibe~ or the chemistry. The build up between them was lacking and there is nothing worse for me than when I just don’t care. Like I didn’t really care about the stakes, the relationship or the characters. The plot goes in the direction of friends (enemies?) with benefits and a large portion of the story is them trying to hide it from the others. Add a lot of miscommunication on top of that and then only somewhere closer to the end to they start bonding more which didn’t feel as enough for me to actually root for them or care at this point. I mean the idea of “what if we hated eachother but then we had to be rOoMaTes” sounds so lit but the “enemies to lovers” trope wasn’t giving anything really because the whole point of it is to have that slow transition which wasn’t happening here. It seriously feels as majority of books today get pitched with certain tropes just to attract readers but the thing is a lot of them will be disappointed when the book well… doesn’t actually have… that.

Since it’s in dual pov the voices kept overlapping for me. Like I rarely comment on the writing style, as English is not my native language so I don’t always notice as many issues as others would, but the writing here felt very stiff?? Unpolished??

Idk I feel like this would be great for anyone who wants quick carefree queer romance but I also think it would benefit from better pacing and a lot more editing. I wish I could say more positive things but it’s been like a month since I read it and like I mentioned it’s just not very memorable…

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for giving me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review of this novel.



I really really enjoyed this novel. At times it reminded me of Casey McQuiston's 'Red, White and Royal Blue'. In fact, many of the other reviewers choose that reason alone to trash this novel and I have to disagree with that assessment. Enemies to lovers is a trope. I loved 'Red, White and Royal Blue' but Casey McQuiston doesn't own the trope. Other author's can use it as well. That novel had an American and British MC's. This one had two British MC's. That novel revolved around American Politics and the British Royal family. This book revolved around The 2024 Paris Olympic games and the British Men's gymnastics team. Some similarities but a lot of differences too.

Both MC's Oliver and Lucas were compelling characters. Lucas, the lone wolf and non-team player was made out to be the “bad guy” in the beginning of the story by the other teammates. We were, as the reader, shown his thoughts and reasons for acting this way, so I liked him from the start and only liked him more and more as the story progressed. Oliver, the captain of the British men's gymnastics team was always the good guy and did in fact have a good influence on Lucas first as a friend and then as his love interest. By the time the games started they were a unified team and I was routing for the British team even though I am an American. I really loved these two characters as a couple and would enjoy a second book about them after their gymnastics careers are over. I definitely recommend it and give it 4 ½ stars.

This was a quick and relatively easy read, and I loved the idea behind the story, but it could use some work.

I felt like there were inconsistencies with the story line and there was little difference between the characters. There were too many similarities between the two sisters that Oliver and Julius dated, and I kept confusing Julius and Tom in my mind.

There's nothing wrong with using a common trope, but Oliver and Lucas felt too much like they were made from an 'enemies to lovers with miscommunication' cookie cutter.

The night with drinking and getting tattoos felt very out of place, almost like the author suddenly remembered that there needed to be some conflict and this was their first idea.

Realistically, I don't expect to remember much about this book after a week.

Also, can we please stop with having characters be forcibly outed? It's beyond past time to drop that plot element.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been going back and forth on how to rate this book. On the one hand, I absolutely devoured the premise. I love books that revolve around the Olympics, and this was no exception. Olympic Enemies follows Lucas and Oliver, who are teammates on the gymnastics team for GB. Normally, I read books where the athletes compete for different countries, so this was a different take and I was here for it. Lucas is more quiet, introverted, and one of only a few athletes that is open about his sexuality. Oliver is the captain of the gymnastics team and, while he labels himself as bisexual, has never admitted it out loud.

I loved Lucas as a character. For some reason, I found his character POV to be more fully fleshed out and I just got more emotionally from him. I dont know if it's because I feel like I would be a Lucas instead of an Oliver, or if there was truly more effort put into his POV, but I adored him. Oliver on the other hand, annoyed me. I wanted to love him as much as Lucas, and I didn't HATE him, but he was annoying. And his friendship with Tom and Julius in the beginning really irked me. They were like a little band of bullies. I will admit that I felt different towards the end though.

The one other thing that niggled at me was the pacing and flow of the book. On the whole, I felt like it jumped around a lot. And I kept flipping back and forth on my kindle wondering if I accidentally skipped a page. The flow was just all wrong for me. Despite that though, I did enjoy this book and it was quite an easy read.

I had such a fun time reading this book! Loved the characters and the journey they went on. So fun!! Highly recommend

Olympic enemies was a book I picked up on part because of the title, and though I thought it showed promise, and hints of something great, unfortunately it did not meet up to my initial expectations. I thought on the whole the characterisation of Oliver and Lucas was good, they both felt like they had good motivations, and they felt like realistic people. Unfortunately, some of the background characters blended together and I don’t think they felt particularly distinct.
As for the relationship, I wasn’t really convinced by the enemies to lovers dynamic. It all just seemed to happen fast without a lot of development, and I was left confused as to how these characters currently felt about each other. They seemed to jump from hating each other to being ride-or-die rather quickly, which isn’t inherently a bad thing but it just felt rather unexplained. The tension at the start of the book was good, and I wish we had seen a bit more of that and focused on how that developed as their relationship changed.
Now, the setting of the Olympics was one of the main reasons I picked up this book! I love everything about the Olympics and was super excited to read a book set during it. I think that overall the Olympics setting was fun, but often it felt repetitive. Lots of the gymnastics practice scenes felt like they were the same thing over and over, and I think the book could have benefitted more by taking place over the majority of the Olympics instead of mainly the run up to it.
The writing style was good, and flowed nicely. It wasn’t overly flowery, but it served to move the story along nicely.
Overall, though this book did not meet my expectations, I still thought it was fun. I just wish that the plot and characters had been more defined.

The start of the book felt hard for me to get into, just because I felt like everyone on the team had a hatred for Lucas that they didn’t even want to fix. As the book when on the only issue I had was I was a bit emotion emotionally confused with how often Oliver got mad at Lucas for not wanting to be besties with everyone on the team. When the romance started it was easy to fall in love with Oliver and Lucas! They have a lot in common and while the anger and arguments were very venomous, the mushy love was so darn cute!

I love rival stories. This was no different. Rival romance stories just have that extra something that makes them better, and this was great.

Date finished: 12th February 2023
Publish date: 6th February 2023

3.5⭐
📱

Thank you to @Netgalley for approving this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Enemies to lovers, fake dating tropes and gay? Sign me up.
I had pretty high expectations for this one as it's got all the things I love in a romance. Unfortunately, this book was just an average read for me.

I found the first roughly 25% of this book quiet uninteresting. The enemies to lovers felt really weird, like there wasn't really any reason for both main characters to have that much anger towards each other. There was also absolutely no chemistry between Lucas and Oliver at all. What made it even weirder, and almost had me considering dnfing this one, was how Lucas and Oliver went from this pointless hating of each other, straight to having sex.

With that being said, the book definitely did get better, even if it only started getting better around the 40% mark. The fake dating trope felt a lot more realistic. It also felt like there was at least a tiny bit of chemistry building between Lucas and Oliver.

As an avid Tom Daley fan, I was so excited to read this and it did not disappoint. I started reading this at the tail end of a reading slump, and it helped pull me back into my love of reading, and in particular, my love of reading romance. Enemies to lovers is an overplayed trope, but I very much enjoyed it here in the setting of not only olympians, but olympians on the same team. Both Oliver and Lucas have valid points…Lucas wanting his solitude is understandable, and Oliver wanting Lucas as a part of the team is also understandable. Neither are right, and neither are wrong, and that makes for a compelling conflict as the story pushes forward. Once the romance starts, it burns hot and is quite enjoyable. Every character in here is enjoyable from the duo down the Lucas’ family. The pacing was a tad bit off, if I’m honest. We went from complete loathing on both ends to kissing each others face off at break neck speed…but overall a light, fun, and heart warming read.

I really really liked the premise of this book and it had all of the right things to be a great book but it just feel flat for me. It was really hard for me to connect with Lucas and Oliver and the book definitely suffered from having too many side characters. It was at times hard to tell the side characters apart. I also really wished that Lucas and Oliver stayed enemies a little longer, they got over their issues very quickly and it made me feel like what they were feeling was lust and not love. The book is also in a weird in-between of open-door and closed-door romance which I guess one would describe as high steam, regardless I wished it leaned one way or the other. Also while I usually hate books that have a flash-forward epilogue, I feel like this book definitely needed one. I really wanted to see Oliver and Lucas' future especially when it came to their career. Thank you to Netgalley and WIld Rose Press for this free book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was super cute. I loved the enemies-friends plot line. I was super invested in both boys and their Olympic journey. I know some people will say the author's description of the Olympics is unrealistic but I didn't care. My only gripe was that the last 50 pages went from 0-100 and over the top in terms of how the boys got back together.

Also I would say the spice level is PG 13. Nothing explicit but still 🔥🔥

I’m not entirely sure how to sum up my thoughts on Olympic Enemies. It’s not the best sports romance I’ve ever read, not by a long shot. It had some pretty major pacing issues and I didn’t always vibe with the writing style. But, it is genuinely a lot of fun and I positively flew through it.

Gymnastics are my absolute favorite part of the Olympics and I’m always on the hunt for more unique types of sports romances, so when I saw the synopsis for Olympic Enemies, I knew that I had to check it out. And ultimately, I’m glad that I did. Lucas and Oliver were really fun characters to follow around, even if I didn’t always agree with their decisions or their emotional outbursts, and I really enjoyed their connection and dynamic. At the beginning of this book, you truly feel the hostility between the two of them - their arguments are pretty upsetting and mean-spirited - ESPECIALLY from Oliver, who never held back from dishing out the lowest blow. But it also made me believe this enemies-to-lovers dynamic moreso than I normally do in books. After an explosive argument turned sexual tension, they develop this friends-with-benefits situation, without realizing that they’re falling for each other, and I LOVE that dynamic. Once they stopped fighting all the time and actually listened to each other and broke down their walls, they had a lovely and healthy relationship that I was rooting for.

I also really loved all of the side characters. Julius, Tom, and Alicia are unconditionally supportive of Lucas and Oliver and I loved watching them all as a group. I also really liked the few scenes we got with Lucas’ sister Lucy (though…come on…couldn’t pick any other name??).

My primary complaint with this was the writing style. It desperately needs another passthrough or two from an editor to clean up the mistakes and work on the pacing. The characters are already starting to feel “love” by the 50% mark and it just leaves you wondering where it’s going to go from there. (I wish that we had gotten to see more of the actual Olympic Games instead of most of it happening during training segments.) While I enjoyed the characters, I ultimately wanted more emotional depth from all of the scenes. There was a lot of telling and not showing how these intense emotional moments were impacting the characters. In a lot of the more serious moments, the dialogue stood out as especially unnatural - perhaps that’s more of a cultural difference that I didn’t understand, but they felt exceedingly formal with each other and it didn’t feel conversational.

All of that said, I had a really good time reading this. It’s low-stakes and easy to devour. I would definitely read this if you’re looking for something to get you out of a reading slump!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!