Another solid YA romance from Emma Lord. This one didn't hit me as hard as The Getaway List did, but I still enjoyed it. I was more interested in Sadie's personal journey than the romance - that could just be because I prefer dual POV in my adult romances though.

The Rival is a wonderful coming of age romance between two friends who have known each other since early childhood. Best friends from the start, something happens early on which in some ways changes their dynamic, but not their love for each other, although they don't see that back then. What it does do is make them rivals in everything. Even bond they feel towards each other. The story is beautifully "Emma Lord" told as only she knows how. Most important, the positive messages enforced as these two friends must learn so much that they never knew about each other and themselves in order to move ahead in each other's lives.

The story, filled with family expectations, versus their own beliefs and wants, changing friendships, but more importantly, learning on how to become an adult and accepting the fact they aren't in high school anymore.

Sadie has just started college. She and her best friend are rooming together in a dorm, and she knows this is the beginning of her new life! She's free to do what she chooses for the first time, and she does...by cutting her very long hair very short! Her first grown-up decision made by herself. She also feels free to explore other areas of her life as her best friend Seb decided to go to another school. The first time they have been apart since they were in diapers...well, practically. As rivals in everything Sadie wants to blossom on her own. Until she sees Seb walking towards her! This is a dream. It can't be happening.

Now Sadie and Seb will once again have to breath the same air and yes, like it or not again compete with each other by no choice but their own. And the first competition will be for the only slot on the highly regarded school newspaper and sot after privilege. Sadie is already beginning to get depressed. But she decides she will fight to the bitter end to get what she knows she deserves.

As they both write their stories for the newspaper, a crisis arises on campus. Sadie begins to shine with some very avant-garde ideas which impress many on campus, including Seb. As they work together to fight the good fight, Sadie and Seb begin to realize it's nice to work together, rather than trying beat the other.

But unfortunately, life is never that easy. They both have family issues which need to be sorted out and as they grow closer, they also need to sort out what happened all those years ago to make them what they became towards each other.

The Rival is a charming rom/com with many poignant messages about how to let go of insecurities, finally come into your own, decide what you really want to do in life and of course, realize sometimes best friends don't have to always compete. They can actually just be in love.

Thank you #NetGalley #WednesdayBooks #EmmaLord #TheRival for the advanced copy.

Emma Lord’s writing is the best transportation to reliving teenage nostalgia I’ve ever found. This book was honest, refreshing and felt so realistic! I absolutely adored Sadie & Seb’s story.

Thank you so much to Emma Lord & her team for the ARC - a perfect beach read for this spring and summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC!

Things I liked:
1. The magazine subplot. The premise of the book is that the two characters are high school rivals who are competing for the singular open spot on their college’s magazine club. This club will provide them with so many opportunities for jobs and other things in the future, so it is extremely exclusive. As someone who has worked on a yearbook staff several times, I love to read about journalism.
2. The club/athlete protest subplot. I loved how they staged so many fun protests to gain more funding for the school clubs and less secrecy revolving around the funding given to the athletes. This worked perfectly because the MC’s roommate is an athlete, so we got to see both sides of the struggle. This is a very real thing on some college campuses, and I appreciate that it was a plot point without making the book feel too serious.
3. The pancakes!!! This tradition of weekly pancakes was super fun! I’ll have to try rainbow sprinkle pancakes one day because it sounds delicious!
4. The MC’s journey. She always felt like she had to be the peacemaker because her family was so loud and crazy, and over the course of the book, she learned how she can be fun and loud and crazy without feeling self conscious.

Things I didn’t like:
1. The romance. For a romance book, not liking the literal romance probably isn’t the best thing. It was sort of a mix between forced proximity and rivals to lovers, but also childhood friends to lovers? They’re ALWAYS together because their families are best friends, they go to the same college, and they are applying for the same club position. It was so obvious they would fall in love. I just think their bickering got annoying at some point.
2. I wish the side characters were more fleshed out. The MC’s roommate had tons of characterization, but I would have loved to see more of some of the others. There were so many characters but not enough time spent on each one.

Overall I had a fun time reading this, but I would probably recommend one of Emma Lord’s other books over this one.

A little bit disappointed with this one. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s not awful or anything but it definitely lacked the spark that Emma’s books always seemed to ignite with me.

Still, not mad that I read it, it was just another cute, quick read for an afternoon.

Enemies to lovers, childhood friends to rivals, this one hooked me right away. The story line was good 😊 the coming of age and everything tied together very well.

The Rival is a fun frenemies to lovers, YA novel that Emma Lord is known for. Sadie and Seb have been forced in each other orbit since birth. They were friends, who along the way turned into rivals always trying to one up each other. They are now at the same college, competing for yet another thing … a writer in the college paper.

Overall this was fun and cute. I felt it was more about coming into your own when you leave for college. About how you feel homesick but also like you can breathe for the first time. I feel like Lord captured navigating this in-between feeling well. I will say at times I was so annoyed by Sadie I just wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her. But as she started to become herself, she also seemed to grow on me.

Not my favorite Emma Lord novel, but still enjoyed it.

This was a really cute, easy read. I enjoyed the banter between the characters. At parts I was a little bored, but overall this was a cute enemies to lover book.

Emma Lord is an automatic buy for me, so I was thrilled to receive this book for review (even though I had already preordered a copy). If you're a fan of hers, this book will not disappoint. I love that Sadie's journey is in finding her loud, messy self after years of being the controlled one in her family. And Seb's challenge is to find is own wishes and vulnerabilities rather than going along with what his parents want for him. Together, they are electric. This is another fun, funny, romantic book from Emma Lord, and I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Fun rom-com of two students that have known each other forever. They finally think they are getting away from each other by going to different schools, when both get accepted to the same place. Now they must compete for the coveted spot on the campus newspaper where everything goes wrong. They realize their hate for each other is really deeper than they realize when they work together to solve a crisis with the newspaper. Competition that works together and becomes closer as their friendship develops throughout the novel.

This was so cute! The Rival follows Seb and Sadie, childhood neighbors and friends who spend all of middle and high school trying to one up each other until Sadie finally wins--she gets into her dream school and gets the chance to work at Newsbag--a comedy writing zine. Her dream comes crashing down on her way to the first meeting however, when she runs into Seb and learns he was accepted off the waitlist. As the two fight for the only staff writer position for Newsbag, they bond over shared homesickness, adjusting to college and familial expectations, and realize that they didn't have much to be fighting over after all.

I really loved this, this was a very sweet coming of age story and I love academic rivals and stories set in the comedy world. I really appreciated the perspectives on sex education and feeling ready for different firsts (Sadie has not yet had her first kiss at the start of the book).

Overall, I'd give this 4/5! I don't usually read YA romance, but I liked Emma Lord's other books and this was no different. Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was... flat?

I'm not sure why Sadie's central conflict was her being able to tell her family that she was funny?

Thank you to Net Gallley for the advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for reading and reviewing.

3.5 stars
I always really enjoyed Emma Lord's books and this one wasn't any different. It wasn't necessary my favorite but it still had all the things I love about the author's books. The plot was fun, and I enjoyed the characters a lot.

I may have had a couple issues with the content in The Rival, but Emma Lord is such an amazing writer, I didn't care. I really liked the characters, and I enjoyed reading about the college freshman experience. The rivalry at the center of the story was complicated and believable, and I rooted for the couple to get together the entire time, and really felt for them when obstacles stood in their way. Just an all-around excellent reading experience.

The Rival by Emma Lord tells of a ... academic rivalry between lifelong friends Sadie and Seb. They're now attending the same college and are in competition for the one open position on the school newspaper. And Sadie is harboring some feelings for Seb, but won't tell him. That's it.

I thought that I was an Emma Lord fan, but upon reading this (skimming mostly), I think I must admit that I'm out of her target demographic. I thought this read like a high school romance YA, not a college love story YA. I'm not sure how to explain the difference, but there really is one and iykyk. While I typically enjoy a good college YA romance, this one felt extremely young to me and I just wasn't that drawn in. I couldn't really relate to any of the actions or feelings the main characters were experiencing.

If you want an easy quick read that is low on spice (which I typically want), then this one is for you. There was no chemistry and no heat between our characters and it overall felt like nothing was happening.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was a fun cozy rom com that I thoroughly enjoyed! I always look forward to Emma’s books and was so happy when I got approved for this early read. It didn’t disappoint and I highly recommend if you love a good romcom

If Mary song by Taylor Swift was a book it be this I highly recommend this book for the high school early college romance, reader. Besides the cute will they won’t they romance? You also have the very real feelings of navigating the first few weeks of college definitely need more books like this in young adult genere

I just finished The Rivals by Emma Lord and this is my review.

Sadie sighs a huge breath of relief when she gets to the school of her choice because her long time rival is going somewhere else for school until he is moved from the waitlist and ends up on campus. Her blood boils instantly when Seb is there to continue their rivalry. Trouble is the more time they have to spend together, the more they can see past their rivalry but something more is going on at the school and it's going to take more than the pair of them to bring it to attention.

I didn’t think I was going to like this one. I got the audio and the e-book from @netgalley and honestly the narration was utter perfection and I had a hard time switching to reading.

I loved the rivalry. I thought it was done really well. They weren’t enemies, not really, they were childhood friends who’s friendship turned to a rivalry they never really came back from and it was fun. So much fun to watch them one up each other. The fact they were neighbors growing up too added to the complexity. It was really entertaining. I really enjoyed the setting. Being on a college campus really made it feel more exciting.

Watching them work together when they are competing for the same opportunity made for some compelling banter and they had undeniable chemistry!

I thought it all worked really well together and I enjoyed both Sadie and Seb, even though his name started to feel made up the more I heard it haha.

All round solid YA read.

Read if you like

- Slow-burn romance
- Rivals/enemies to lovers
- Childhood best friends to academic rivals
- University life
- Coming-of-age

4 stars

Thank you to @macmillanaudio and @stmartinspress for my gifted copies

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I love Emma Lord books! She is the queen of Young Adult cozy cute rom-coms! It was so fun following Sadie and Seb, best friends turned rivals continuing to compete in college. Thank you for the early release - this book was a delight. Highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really loved this one! I am not the best at writing reviews sometimes, but sometimes books take you by surprise and this one did just that. I got invested a few chapters in and couldn't put it done. It was so good! I highly recommend this one. But then again, there has never been an Emma book I didn't like, so I am not surprised I loved this one too!