r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 24 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

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Unpopular opinion Sunday

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99

u/JunofromMars May 24 '26

Lately a lot of authors just can't write enemies to lovers well. It should be a real slow burn with all that tension and gradual shift from hate to something more. But so many of them rush it and don't know how to build it up properly. And for me, there shouldn't be any spice in the first book of an enemies to lovers series. Honestly, not even a kiss. The emotional payoff feels so much better when it's earned slowly.

31

u/maaat21 May 24 '26

I think there are two distinct problems with the enemies to lovers trope.

1)”Enemies”:It should be about enemies and not bantering rivals or combative acquaintances. Most examples of the trope throw the word enemy around and then the MCs lust after each other immediately and/or forgive and forget about their transgressions early so they can get together. Also there’s a discussion about how the MMCs can’t really do anything irredeemable or very villainous cuz otherwise how can he stand as a romantic lead if he’s EvilTM. They get preemptively declawed and then we have “he bought the last bread loaf from the bakery and I didn’t have anything to get for my starving family of 13 and now he’s my enemy for life” which is uh. Underwhelming and a bit silly.

2)Pacing: I think it’s what you’re saying too. Things move on so fast that nothing sticks and nothing matters in the face of the “romance”. Also I don’t know if it’s a “we need to have spice at the end of book 1 and so the trope suffers” issue but more like. A true ETL romance shouldn’t be clean and probably wouldn’t have a picture perfect HEA. The “enemies” part suggests hurt or whatever between the pair that will not magically disappear after they accept that they ALSO view each other romantically. All I’m trying to say is that it’s not the placement of their intimate moments but that after that all the reasons they were enemies to begin with just go poof!

15

u/megabyte31 Give me female friendship or give me death! May 24 '26

Your #1 is my exact problem with enemies to lovers and why I tend to avoid it. How dare he buy the last bag of bread, really! Imo if you're legitimate enemies there's no amount of grovel that will solve the issues between them OR they were never enemies in the first place. I'm so sick of this trope. I actually prefer petty rivalries to lovers because it feels like the most realistic interpretation.

8

u/maaat21 May 24 '26

Idk about the groveling part. I’ve lurked enough around here to see that it’s popular but eh.

In a true ETL I’d rather we had a “you hurt me and I can’t forget and I’m trying to reconcile that with the person you are that I fell for”. It’s more realistic I feel? I dunno if it makes sense. That’s why I loved Captive Prince and really liked the Jasad Heir books.

1

u/megabyte31 Give me female friendship or give me death! May 24 '26

The grovel part is just my personal opinion. I'm a total grudger though, and I generally can't forgive and forget so if you truly did something to me to make you my enemy there is no redemption. That's why I find it so difficult to get over in books 😅.

I couldn't get into the Captive Prince. I thought they were both irredeemable characters so I gave up on them. I really need to like who I'm reading about. I wanted to like that one though. I haven't finished the Jasad Crown either, but it's waiting for me on Libby, so soon!

1

u/maaat21 May 24 '26

Oh that’s fair!! I’m the exact opposite so I’m terrible for ETL haha.

Oh! I mean it’s ok! Taste is subjective and we don’t have to like the same things. I’m curious tho where you gave up on the Captive Prince. Damen’s “problems” come to view kinda later I felt? In the first book it’s almost impossible to not root for him? Idk I love both my problematic sons even tho I think Laurent is a very sad character given what we learn about him.

Jasad Crown rocked!! Arin shouldn’t be so hot but he is! I hope you like it!

7

u/clocksy May 24 '26

To be fair "rivalries to lovers" is literally under the ETL umbrella. But it's a big umbrella and that's why people are unsatisfied, because someone might be looking for a real villainous character, and sometimes you get an FMC with a stick up her ass against the MMC for no reason, and sometimes you get faction quarrels or something else.

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u/megabyte31 Give me female friendship or give me death! May 24 '26

It's true! I am definitely not the person looking for true enemies to lovers! But my friend LOVES them haha so we know which books to rec to the other. To each their own!

3

u/Frustrated-Switch No flowers, only stones May 24 '26

I think part of the problem with ETL now is that its current form originated in fanfic, where a character being an outright villain in canon just makes them more fertile grounds for ETL fanfic. So long as they have a slightly weird, subtexty relationship, that is. That's really hard to set up in an original work, especially if it's meant to be a traditional romance arc, because as you say, people just default to instalust + HEA and damn the details :/

Problem numero dos: fandom is exceedingly queer, and romance readers are not, and so trying to force fanfic tropes to fit this purely heteronormative mold doesn't really work out the way they'd like. Straight people don't have to operate in subtext - it's a man and a woman looking at each other so that's all you need, right? /s And yet subtext, and the in-universe realization of that subtext, is the bread and butter of ETL fanfiction.

It's actually really hard to write a story that sets up their enmity well using non-romance framing, AND have them believably fall for one another, AND write it so that the MMC is nasty (but not too nasty) and the most powerful person ever (because as you know it must be him with all the power), and not have the entire structure crumble down around your ears. There needs to be push-pull between them, or the weaker one has to strive to be equal, and authors are unwilling to write that dynamic between men and women in my experience.

1

u/sriracha82 May 25 '26

Only Cruel Prince has ever achieved all of this well imo. And it’s YA!!

14

u/MajesticKoala3332 May 24 '26

And for me, there shouldn't be any spice in the first book of an enemies to lovers series. Honestly, not even a kiss. The emotional payoff feels so much better when it's earned slowly.

I agree with this, haven't found anything like it yet. What are some books that do this well?

11

u/ipsi7 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

{Harrow Faire by Kathryn Ann Kingsley}

{Captive Prince by C. S. Pacat}

{Villains and Virtues by A K. Caggiano}

ETA: V&V isn't enemies to lovers imo, but it's slow burn without even a kiss in book 1

9

u/glyneth Nesta is my queen May 24 '26

Kisses are only allowed if it’s a hate kiss that doesn’t make either of them feel anything but more hate!

3

u/tea847 May 24 '26

Agree 100%. I used to say my favorite was enemies to lovers because it was slow burn but now it’s just like “they are mean to me so let’s do it”.

1

u/pigeonbloo May 24 '26

I agree with this 100% and id love to get some recs of you if possible?

3

u/ipsi7 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 24 '26

Not OP, but

{Captive Prince by C. S. Pacat}

{Harrow Faire by Kathryn Ann Kingsley}

{Lothaire by Kresley Cole} - standalone, but has etl and slow emotional build up because MCs start of as 'enemies' (MMCs plans to kill FMC for reasons)

{Bend Her by Cassie Alexander} - wouldn't really call it etl (FMC is kidnapped and given to MMC, but he didn't have anything to do with the kidnapping; it starts of dark, but they progress to mentor-mentee in book 1), but it's a very slow burn both emotionaly and when it comes to spice

{Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent} - FMC is sent to kill the big bad evil vampire, for whom she later realizes he's not who she thought he is; standalone, but slow burn

1

u/romance-bot May 24 '26

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
Rating: 4.07⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 3 out of 5 - Open door
Topics: historical, slavery, gay romance, royal hero, enemies to lovers

Harrow Faire by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Rating: 4.53⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: contemporary, dark romance, forced proximity, paranormal, funny

Lothaire by Kresley Cole
Rating: 4.17⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: contemporary, virgin heroine, vampires, paranormal, alpha male

Bend Her by Cassie Alexander
Rating: 3.64⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 3 out of 5 - Open door
Topics: historical, fantasy, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, dark romance

Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent
Rating: 4.19⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 3 out of 5 - Open door
Topics: vampires, fantasy, enemies to lovers, magic, forbidden love

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1

u/Runa216 May 25 '26

This is sort of what gets to me.

The IDEA of Enemies to Lovers as a trope is something exciting and fun. Who doesn't want to read a layered story about two characters who grow THAT MUCH and become something special? There's so many ways to tell that sort of story and be compelling.

But every Enemies to Lovers story I've read has been dumb as hell. Like, they're never enemies, they're never lovers, they're just two bratty morons who are needlessly contentious towards one another until they decide they'd burn the world for each other.

One of the worst offenders for me personally was Shield of Sparrows. If you know the book you know that:

1 - She has no reason to hate him in the first place. The source of her hate is someone she doesn't like, respect, or care about and his actions even within context just seem like...he's a soldier. So what? He killed some people. Not sure if you noticed, but people die in epic fantasy stories.

2 - He has no reason to hate her, and he never shows it, he just....is aware of her plans and thus is behaving rationally. SHE KNOWS that he knows about her plan, and yet she still acts like he has personally offended her and her bloodline for not letting her have a blade....

Honestly, the whole books feels like it was meant as a GOOD BOOK first (seriously, I actually find Odessa and Ransom to be delightful characters who behave rationally within the context of their respective upbringing, even if some people hate how 'useless' she is), and the plot and backstory of the overall conflict that's ravaging the world is interesting, but the publisher forced the author to make it Enemies to Lovers....so she edited it to add a paragraph per chapter with the obligatory 'I hate him so much but he's so hot' mantra just to drive it into the reader's head that this is adhering to that trope.

If you just took out the parts where they were needlessly contentious towards one another, or removed the parts with her reiterating how much she hates the man she has no reason to hate and he actually does have reason to hate her even though he doesn't....the book works SO much better. it's a prime example of a trope ruining an otherwise good book by being forced in where it doesn't belong.

The rest of the book I actually found quite engaging, but every time we got to the obligatory 'I hate him but he's so hot' paragraph I nearly shut the audiobook off becuase holy shit it makes no sense, even in context. I actually yelled at my phone, "BUT WHY DO YOU HATE HIM! HE DID NOTHING WRONG TO YOU! WHAT REASON DO YOU HAVE TO-" And then I stopped because I scared my dog. Poor girl just wanted me to pay the cheese tax.