I thought this would be more up my alley, but I realized while reading that I'm not actually the best reader for this. It was a little too cheesy for me at times and the actual fake dating took up less of the book than I expected. Also, in terms of a romance reader, I read more YA, so while I understand the appeal, I didn't really connect as much to Irene as I thought I would. However, it generally does deliver what it promised: a fun romcom full of tropes, hence the high rating. I also liked the discussion of expectations and following your heart. I think this would be a great read for readers who really enjoy romance novels, tropes, and cliches.

Synopsis: Irene is a popular romance book reviewer who loves everything romantic in books, but struggles to apply it to real life. When she starts college, she decides it's her turn to be the main character and fall in love. So she uses the one method she understands, book tropes. To Irene's surprise, she is not the only popular romance book reviewer at her college. Her rival, Aiden Jones, is also an incoming freshman like Irene. He challenges her to a competition: Fall in love by trope first. As Irene tackles love and dating, she also struggles to find her place in college when it becomes clear life is not like a romance novel. In order to get the HEA she deeply craves, Irene is going to have to finally be the main character she always reads about.

This is my first read from this Susan Lee but it will not be my last. While I am not typically a YA reader, the synopsis drew me in right away and I knew I had to try to get my hands on an ARC. This was everything I want in a romance book. The banter between Irene and Aiden is to die for. You can fell the tension on every page.

I love how not only is this book a love story, it is very much a coming of age story. We see Irene ignore her college coursework, and how it catches up to her later on. I love that it deals with the common struggles of being away from home from the first time, and what it means to find your place in the world.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book for review*

Susan Lee’s YA romances are always a lot of fun. This one was no different. Watching Irene and Aiden learn how to become friends instead of rivals - and then become more - was pure joy.

I really liked Irene’s character. She was funny and smart, even though she doesn’t always make the best choices. I loved that she wanted to find her happily ever after, and tried to find herself. It was super relatable!

The trope challenge was fun. I loved Jeanette. She is such a fun friend and I love how close they got so quickly. Aiden and Charles rounded out the friend group really well. I loved how the friendship dynamic grew, and that group chat was hilarious! I loved that Jeanette and Charles caught on right away to Aiden and Irene‘s banter and flirty vibes. The fact they had their own side bet going made me laugh

The romance was really sweet and I particularly liked the discussion of consent and intimacy. When they finally kissed - I almost fainted, I was SO READY and it was so cute!Their first time doing more than kissing was really relatable. Susan handled these scenes with care and levity, and it felt safe. It was one of my favorite things in the book!

One of the best surprises was the final couple of chapters being from Aiden’s POV. It was awesome to be inside his brain for a little bit and his origin story - so cute! A fun, lighthearted romance 💜

STOP. This is so stinking cute!! I adored it.

What a wonderful love letter to the trope-loving romance lovers. This coming of age YA book is Susan’s best yet.

The characters were great, the pacing was engaging, the plot was fun, and the lessons ageless. Totally binge-worthy!

And yay for Asian rep in romance!!

What an adorable Happily Ever After romance, and clearly a love letter to the genre!!! I loved the incorporation of different romance tropes through a competition. Pacing felt natural and the storyline didn’t feel super rushed. I’m also demanding that we get a full manuscript for the wolf romance, because I absolutely ATE that book-within-this-book UP!!! Love this story so much, and it made my trope-loving heart very happy.

I really enjoyed this as a romance novel, it had that overall concept that I wanted and enjoyed the feel of this story. The characters had that charm that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall journey with them. Susan Lee has a strong writing style and was able to connect with the characters overall. It uses the romance element that I wanted and enjoyed the use of romance novels.

Susan Lee does it again!

Susan has such an innate ability to write love letters to a specific topic in each book, and Romance Rivalry is definitely Susan's love letter to romance. I thought it was fresh and fun that each chapter began with an epitaph from Irene and Aiden and then went into another trope. And each chapter got us closer to Irene and Aiden falling in love, though it was so obvious that Aiden would fall first. And it made it even sweeter when they fell, and to see Aiden be such a book boyfriend. Supporting Irene while still dealing with his out trauma, I loved that this book shied away from nothing. And each side character was so fun to read about and see how they intertwine and play off each other.

Susan did a great job taking Irene with the pressures of an Asian family, school, and her side hussle and even though I'm not Asian, made it so relatable. There has been times where I had so much to do that I just dropped everything, so I felt very seen in Irene's character. Then pair her with Aiden where she thinks everything is so easy for him, even calling out our misogynistic society where males do have it easier than females when being judged. I loved watched Irene's journey from being a people pleaser to being a people pleaser starting to establish boundaries. That's a hard lesson for people to learn.

I also think Susan is the nicest person ever, so I'm glad to see her continued success with this book! Can't wait to read more of her books!

This rivals to friends to something more is so delicious! Set against the backdrop of the main characters’ freshman year of college, this is a fun look into YA romance and the world of romance book influencers. The writing and pacing keeps you interested, it’s very much a binge in one night. It is not very spicy only a 🌶️ but I wasn’t expecting anything crazy! A great book for a beginner in romance!

2.5 ⭐️

The Romance Rivalry had such great potential, but I feel like it was slightly lacking. Especially since I literally finished this book yesterday and I’m already struggling to remember the details. I feel like a lot of parts felt rushed and could’ve been developed better. I think how each chapter was about a specific trope was a really unique concept, but the shortness of the chapters made everything seem underdeveloped. The author was trying to put in so much information in too little space, each chapter was very short and then things would happen, and sometimes not be addressed again. The romance wasn’t really developed either, they hated each other and then they were suddenly in love? Overall, I think the idea behind this story is excellent; but its execution wasn’t.

I don't read a ton of contemporary books, generally reading more serious adult fantasy books when I'm feeling an itch to read. I'm not exactly sure what made me decide to request this arc but I'm happy that I did. It was refreshing and made me develop a new appreciation for the genre!

Irene is a book blogger, and a super successful one at that. As the middle child with 2 accomplished siblings, it's her pride and joy and what she feels is a major part of her identity. Her days revolve around creating blog posts raving about the latest romance and competing with her biggest online rival, Aiden Jeon. She heads off to college at her parents encouragement and realizes that she somehow ended up in the same college, with the same major as her biggest rival, which causes a ton of banter and starts a competition between the two, seeing who can have the most dates in college(with tropes as themes for each) and fall in love, allowing their fan base in on the action.

I loved the competition aspect of the book along with seeing how difficult the transition into college can actually be for people, seeing them struggling under the new weight of academics and the competition and friendships. I also really enjoyed the dates and the frantic need to win the challenge, and how slowly it brought our two leads closer together. The one thing about the book that I felt was the weak link to an otherwise cute book was the lack of information about Aiden that we got, and how the conflict with his family wasn't really sorted out for the reader. Other than that, it was a really fun little book that I know I can use as a fluffy read whenever I read something a bit heavier!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc for an honest review. All thoughts are my own and have not been influenced by the publisher in any way.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=3.25 | 😘=3 | 🤬=3 | 15+

summary: girl has a giant online romance review following and wants to get this brand deal and thinks she’ll be more qualified for the deal if she has a boyfriend? so she uses romance tropes to try and get a boyfriend and then this guy who just so happens to be her online review rival is at her college and they like compete and fall in love and stuff???

thoughts: very silly motivations, but still mostly a good time! cheesy and infuriating in a cute classic way. like we know he’s in love with her less than halfway through and at the end of the day that’s beautiful. I read it in one sitting—like within hours of the ARC approval, which is kind of iconic of me. also, the love interest writing an Omegaverse novel is so funny. such an out of pocket character decision. I love it. it’s also very impressive that I almost never cringed at the BookTok etc elements of the book, so well done on that front!

however, I do have a handful of critiques!!

- I HATE baby as a pet name. I hate it so much. so much. absolutely not.

- don’t think Aiden got any character resolution w his family etc, or at least it was a very hasty denouement. Classic “we know everything about the heroine and nothing about it the hero,” and tbh Irene’s arc was similarly messy. like the sponsorship never felt THAT serious at the end of the day.

- I HATED the fade-to-black scene; I don’t think Irene was in an emotionally good spot. she was upset with Aiden and didn’t understand his actions on the livestream, and then Aiden just rips off his shirt and is like “I don’t want to talk about the last ten minutes let’s have sex now.” no! bad!!

anyways!! there were still cute moments, and I think the chapter titles were clever! overall a good time ft. an almost-equal number of swoons and slight cringes. if you liked Better than the Movies , you’ll LOVE this—a very fitting comp title.

First of all, thank you so much netgalley and the publishers for the arc.
OH. MY. GOD. OH. MY. GOD.
I WAS ACTUALLY PLANNING ON WRITING A BOOKSTAGRAM REVIEW BUT I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK I MIGHT HAVE TO WRITE A BLOG REVIEW AHHHHH BUT I WON'T BE ABLE TO TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK WITHOUT GIVING SPOILERS.... BRO I'M COOKED!!!!

age rating: 16+
spice rating: 1/5
spice info: references to intimacy, and things got heated in chapter 14, then abruptly faded to black. i was honestly thinking 'um, yeah, this does NOT belong in a young adult book,’ and had to skim.

i absolutely devoured this.
i thought irene was such a sweet and relatable MC, and as a bookish girlie who adores romance and makes it basically the center of her delulu world, i have never felt so seen. LOL
the bookstagram/media representation
was great, and was something i really enjoyed reading about. i cannot stress this enough; bookish romance girlies- this book is for you!!

chapter names were literally tropes, i was giggling and squealing half the time, and aiden is such a freaking green flag. where can i find a guy who reads romance, who'll banter with me irl and online, and has good hair and dimples??
¡ loved seeing both his and irene's character development grow alongside their relationship. both of them had such intense private battles going on, whether it was about their workloads, family pressure and expectations, or even considering themselves unworthy of love.
*whispers* if you love the rivals to lovers trope, miscommunication, friends to lovers, forced proximity, fake dating, and everything in between, you're going to adore this book.

shout out to dr. kingston and his chili pepper obsession
the romance rivalry releases may 13th <3
thank you so so much netgalley and harper collins for allowing me an e-arc copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the opportunity to read an arc of The Romance Rivalry 🥹

I can’t even give it a stars rating, it was just a ♾️/5!!!!

The story? Perfection from beginning to end!!!!
The characters? All ultra lovable 💞

This book is basically a love letter to romance readers and books influencers🥹

I cannot wait to grab a physical copy to annotate and obsess again about it 🥰

I like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me a read.

I really enjoyed his book, more than her other book I read - The Name Drop. This one seemed to be a love letter to reviewers, romance novel fans, and inexperienced gals.

This one - the guy falls first. The guy falls first, but to her he is her rival. Rival in terms of a guy who loves / reviews romance novels, and comments on her reviews. Sometimes his comments trigger angry fans who stick up for him and try to put her reviews down. He hardly ever agrees.

Our female goes to college, and while going to college, she is a approached by a Korean Dating Company who hopes her reviews can help boost their website. However, it's not a done deal, and the offer for this position was sent out to multiple people - including our male lead, who also ends u being in the females college... and ends up as her year partner.

So as the summary says, while doing their partnered project for class, she admits to him she is trying to use all her knowledge (er, dating tropes) to end up with a guy and make her sound more creditable for this company. She comes to find out the company has reached out to hm too, and the game is now on - who will win? If she wins, he must shut down his review platform.

I just loved the male lead, he was the perfect type of swoony, charming but cocky, male lead that it's quite obvious he has feelings for her, but you want her to realize this and the way he is playing along is ... ugh, it gave me the feelz. There is also side characters that are cute too, and who are helping the male and female lead in their quest (their roommates, respectively).

The book, as I said, is a love letter to reviewers and people who love romances. I felt this was a perfectly cute book for teen readers.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me an arc of this book! I love Susan Lee's work—especially The Name Drop, which seemed tailor-made for me—so I was super excited to read this! The romance in this book is definitely super cute, I loved the sweet moments between Irene and Aiden, and I especially loved their rivalry at the start. I'm a sucker for one-sided rivalries or annoyances-to-lovers, so I really enjoyed the romance! I also loved that it was set at university—my kingdom for more YA books set in first-year uni.

My only con would be the writing style—it definitely felt more stream of consciousness and I guess... online? than I'm used to. I totally get that it's the point of the book since Irene is a romance reviewer and definitely in the online space a lot, but I definitely struggled with it as it took me out of the escapist narrative I built for myself in my head.

My favourite Susan Lee still remains The Name Drop, but I'm always excited to try more from her. I would give this a 3.5/5 stars.

I loved this book so much that I devoured it in one sitting! It was so cute! Aiden is the perfect boyfriend for Irene. He loves her for who she is and he’s so supportive of her. Irenes love for Aiden is so romantic! Everyone deserves to have the type of friendship that Irene and Jeannette have. This book made me laugh and cry. I can relate a lot to Irene’s character. It was beautiful to see Irene grow and blossom as a character. This has become my favorite romance book of 2024 so far. I highly recommend this book to all romance lovers.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.