Trope Talk: Enemies to Lovers

One thing I want to do on this little blog of mine is talk about tropes. For those of you who don’t know or aren’t sure, a trope is a theme, a plot device or plot point that is found in certain genres. And all genres have them, not just romance. So a popular romance trope is “there’s only one bed.” The main character and the love interest somehow end up sharing a room with ONLY ONE BED. Or maybe they are friends to lovers. They have been friends a long time, and at some point they move to being in a relationship.

Another popular trope, and one of my very favorites, is enemies or rivals to lovers. And since I discussed The Hating Game recently, I thought why not?

So, with enemies (or rivals) to lovers, the main character and the love interest start out REALLY disliking each other. Like REALLY. Either they don’t get along or there was some sort of misunderstanding or they are competing for the same thing. Whatever the reason, they don’t like each other. But somehow, along the way, they see past their differences and end up living happily every after.

This is by far one of my FAVORITE tropes. Why? So many reasons. That hatred makes for such excellent banter and zingers. It’s fun! It’s exciting! That passionate hate that then evolves into passionate love! And it is always interesting to see how the two end up together in the end.

Because that’s the thing about romance – yes you know they are going to get their happily ever after. But it’s the HOW that makes it so interesting.

So these are a few of my favorite enemy to lovers books and movies (in no particular order):

  • The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (naturally)
  • Beach Read by Emily Henry
  • The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
  • Well Met by Jen DeLuca
  • The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa
  • You’ve Got Mail – this one has a double trope thing going with enemies to lovers AND the pen pal thing
  • The Proposal – another double trope! Enemies to lovers AND fake dating
  • The Cutting Edge
  • Sweet Home Alabama – Enemies to Lovers (actually lovers to enemies to lovers if we are going to be more specific) AND second chance romance

And if you are looking for a TV show or two, I think Emma Swan and Hook’s relationship on Once Upon a Time is fantastic. Also Mindy and Danny on The Mindy Project and Leslie and Ben on Parks and Recs. And I must mention one of my all time favorite TV couples Jake and Amy from Brooklyn 99.

*There are a lot other excellet ones, however I am going to stick to the ones that I have read / watched.

Now please tell me all of your favorite enemies to lovers books and movies and tv shows so I can watch them all.

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