Diverse Rivals to Lovers: Sapphic, BIPOC, and Plus-Size Rep

There is something absolutely delicious about rivals to lovers, and I am not talking about enemies to lovers. While the two often get lumped together, a true rivalry focuses on competition and the drive for success. Whether it is a workplace promotion, a sports tournament, or a professional title, I LOVE IT! Today, I explore why this is my all-time favorite trope and share a curated list of recommendations ranging from office competitions to professional wrestling, including several titles currently on my TBR.

Key Takeaways:

• The difference between rivals to lovers and enemies to lovers in romance
• Why I love the one-sided tension that is sometimes created in rivals-to-lovers
• Multiple recommendations for the rivals-to-lovers trope

BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:

Naima Simone (Podcast)

Leigh Carron (Podcast)

Deanna Grey (Podcast)

Scribbles Bookshop

Storygraph Read What You Own Challenge

Storygraph Diverse Trope Challenge

Bookshop.org Rivals to Lovers List

The Huntsman by Naima Simone (Amazon)

The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa (Amazon)

The Accidental Pinup by Danielle Jackson (Amazon)

Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne (Amazon)

Outdrawn by Deanna Grey (Amazon)

Sweatpants Season by Danielle Allen (Amazon)

Guava Flavored Lies by JJ Arias (Amazon)

My Curvy Rival by Leigh Carron (Amazon)

Offtrack by Esha Patel (Amazon)

From the Top Rope by Tamara Lemus (Amazon)

Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly (Amazon)

Public Rivalry by Rebecca Kincaid (Amazon)

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

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This podcast was produced by Galati Media.
Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Alesia: There is something absolutely delicious about the rivals to lovers, and I'm not talking about enemies to lovers. The rivals to lovers. Today I'm gonna be sharing. My favorite rivals to lovers, romances, as well as some that are on my TBR, the difference between enemies to lovers and rivals to lovers and so much more. 

[00:00:24] Alesia Galati: Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only.

[00:00:32] Alesia Galati: Hey friends, let's go ahead and get into it. Today I'm gonna be talking about rivals, lovers, which is my mm, love it all time. Favorite trope. And I figured if we're gonna be doing some trope roundups here. I better start with the one that I love the most. So today we're doing rivals to lovers, and I want to get into why I love rivals to lovers so much, but also differentiate between enemies to lovers and [00:01:00] rivals to lovers.

[00:01:01] Alesia: Why I love rivals to lovers so much is that there's just something about them hating each other, especially the one-sided rivals we're, one of the individuals is really going hard trying to stop the other person from being successful because they wanna get the promotion or they wanna win, you know, whatever tournament or something.

[00:01:23] Alesia: And the other person is literally just living their life, not even caring, maybe noticing them and thinking they're hot. But that's literally as far as it goes. And I, mm, just love it. and I'd have to say next to rivals, to lovers is mutual pining. I feel like they go together very well because there is that bit of angst, and I want to hate you, but I also want to want you, that can happen in a rivals to lovers.

[00:01:49] Alesia: But before we get into recommendations for rivals, to lovers, I wanna talk about the difference between rivals to lovers and enemies to lovers. Enemies to lovers tends to [00:02:00] be kind of the fallback or like the main category. When we're talking about tropes for books, but there is a difference, and I have a book here that I think is a good differentiator for us to give us an example.

[00:02:15] Alesia: This is the Huntsman by Naima Simone, and we had Naima on the podcast. Go ahead and go check out her episode. It's fantastic. But one thing about Huntsman is that it is a mafia romance. So, you know, it's darker, it's bloodier. It is more gruesome. Definitely an enemies to lovers and not arrivals to lovers.

[00:02:37] Alesia: And the reason that I wanted to use this as an example is because there is a scene in this book where the female main character literally has a male man character. tied up and she is doing stuff to him, and also has a knife and is doing stuff with a knife to him.

[00:02:58] Alesia: And [00:03:00] that is not something rivals are going to do in enemies to lovers. There's higher stakes. Someone could die. It is a lot more intense. Then your typical rivals to lovers. In rivals to lovers. If one person loses out or if one person doesn't get the promotion, they just don't get the promotion.

[00:03:23] Alesia: It's not a matter of. Life or death. And that's where I think really that difference between enemies to lovers and rivals to lovers really happens. So today we're gonna be talking about some of my favorite rivals to lovers. And what better one to start off with then? The worst, best man.

[00:03:43] Alesia: And the reason that I have this one is because , this book is a ex fiance's brother romance, and they have to work together. To do a presentation for a client, and [00:04:00] they both have the same end goal of creating an incredible presentation for this client.

[00:04:05] Alesia: But in order to do that, they actually have to work together, but they don't like each other He was the reason why she did not walk down the aisle to his brother. And so this one, it's definitely got lots of angst, but I wouldn't consider it though some might an enemies to lovers because. No one's killing anyone. There's none of that drama, and so rivals to lovers. This one is really fantastic.

[00:04:31] Alesia: the next one I have is the accidental pinup. by Danielle Jackson, and this one is where the female main character has to work with a longtime competitor. And so this is a good one for people who maybe aren't necessarily workplace, but they both do the same job and so they have to work together in order to create something but their competitors and vying for clients constantly.

[00:04:59] Alesia: So this one [00:05:00] is super good It was honestly, I think, one of the first plus size romances that I read. Highly recommend, and it has a great diversity as well. The next one is a, I would say, a kind of towing the line between rivals to lovers and enemies to lovers, and that is pride in Protest by Nikki Payne.

[00:05:21] Alesia: He's a CEO and he is trying to tear down her neighborhood and she's going head to head with him, like, absolutely not. This is not gonna happen. So they are definitely have competing interests and they have to navigate that as they fall in love, which is very interesting.

[00:05:39] Alesia: It is a retelling of pride and prejudice. I listened to the audio book of this and really, really enjoyed it.

[00:05:46] Alesia: And then we have out Drawn, which is by Deanna Grey , who was on the podcast recently Out Drawn is a workplace rivals to lovers. And this one I love because it is one-sided

[00:05:59] Alesia: [00:06:00] in this one We have Noah, one of the female main characters who now has a job at a company with someone who was her college rival. They were in similar classes and constantly trying to get, kind of a one up on each other in their courses.

[00:06:17] Alesia: They also do some web comics and so they are vying for top place in those and then they end up working together and they have to work together on a project for the company that they're working for. And so this one has a few layers of the rivalry that kind of builds up to this moment. And I feel like Deanna does such a fantastic job with creating a rivalry.

[00:06:40] Alesia: In a lot of her books, so in they wouldn't dare, there was more of a frenemies to lovers. the female main character, had a lot of feelings about the male main character. And he was just kind of there and like, this is my tie to home and this feels comfortable and feels good, but also I'm just [00:07:00] gonna keep holding onto it and, keep doing this.

[00:07:03] Alesia: But I also don't like her. so that one was really interesting, but I just love how Deanna kind of navigates those relationships in the rivals and the frenemies to lovers.

[00:07:13] Alesia: A few others that are honorary mentions would be Sweatpants, season by Danielle Allen, and in that one they are not only coworkers, which they found out later. But they are also, working on a group project for a photography course that they're taking. And so they have to go to all of these events. The kind of feelings are stirring.

[00:07:40] Alesia: She stands very, , adamantly in her right for women to have rights and to, feel more empowered in the dating scene. And he's on a. Toxic Masculinity podcast where when she finds that out, it definitely grinds their rivals to lovers and

[00:07:59] Alesia: they're both also [00:08:00] working at a magazine together, and they're working on projects. So kind of he said, she said kind of collaboration, but only one of them will get the full staff position. And so they're vying for that as well. And they both need it in some way as they're falling in love. So that one's a fantastic one as well.

[00:08:18] Alesia: Another one is Guava Flavored Lies, which is by JJ Arias, that one is two women who are trying to run their families. Um, kind of, I wanna say it's bakery yeah, a pastry company and they both have small businesses. The families have been at odds for years and years and years.

[00:08:39] Alesia: They are the next generation for these, companies, and there's a lot of like pastry wars that happen, a lot of events falling in love. It's a SIC romance, This one I enjoyed. I did listen to the audio book and I found it a little more difficult to navigate 'cause it was the same narrator for both female main [00:09:00] characters.

[00:09:00] Alesia: So I would recommend reading it on your Kindle or in a book because it was a little harder to navigate who was saying what and where we were in the characters personally, as I was listening to the story. So that's one that I really enjoyed. Another one is my curvy rival by Leigh Carron.

[00:09:21] Alesia: We had Lee on the podcast. Definitely go check out her episode. What I loved about this one is that this one is rivalry businesses. They both have fitness businesses or wellness businesses, and the mailman character is very much into structure and. the female man character is more into flow and yoga and stretching your body and moving your body and movement is just exactly what you need in your life.

[00:09:48] Alesia: And he's like, no, we gotta have a regiment and a structure. And this one is really fun because I would say it's closer to novella, size. So it's got that, but it also has disability rep, some really [00:10:00] good dirty talking and, bipoc representation as well. So that one's a ton of fun.

[00:10:05] Alesia: And then of course, some books that are on my TBR that I'm excited to check out. The first one is Off Track by Esha Patel, and in this one it is a Formula One. Female racing driver and a male racing driver. So Formula One Romance, they are competitors. And so I'm interested in checking this one out. I've heard good things about that one.

[00:10:30] Alesia: Another one is from the Top Rope by Tamara limus. This one is a sic, romance professional wrestlers, very opposites attract. If you are watching this on YouTube, you can see the cover. One has pink hair and the other one is black hair with like a white stripe in it. And definitely opposites attract. What I love about this is my kids are obsessed with WWE right now, and so some of my Instagram feed is the women of wwe.

[00:10:59] Alesia: And I can [00:11:00] appreciate how the women of WE look. So this one I'm really excited to check out and I bought this one signed from a Scribbles bookshop. So I've mentioned scribbles a few times. I love how they package their books, how they send them.

[00:11:14] Alesia: They always have, uh, incredible customer service. Definitely recommend checking them out for buying books that are signed. Then Love and other Disasters by Anita Kelly.

[00:11:26] Alesia: , this one is a cooking competition, I feel like three years ago I heard a lot about this book, but I am excited to finally check it out. I'm not someone who tends to read what's popular, what everybody's reading.

[00:11:39] Alesia: So I'm gonna finally get around to this one as well.

[00:11:43] Alesia: Another book that is on my TBR is Public Rivalry by Rebecca Kincaid. I read the Streams and Schemes series by Rebecca Kincaid. Absolutely loved it. So I want to explore more of her work. And this is the first book in her billionaires successor [00:12:00] series. And this one is a Rivals to Lovers, and I'm pretty sure I own it on digital, so I want to try to also.

[00:12:06] Alesia: Read more of my digital books as well, which leads me to, if you are someone who is looking to read more of your digital books, I am hosting a story graph challenge with cla with Carla of, Carla is reading where we are encouraging you to read books that you have either bought or gotten for free with your stuff, your Kindle days. The goal is to start actually reading the books that we have purchased that are on our e-readers and to actually read them.

[00:12:39] Alesia: So I will put the link for the story graph challenge in the show notes and the YouTube description. Definitely go check that out. And then I also have arrivals to lovers category in,

[00:12:50] Alesia: the diverse trope challenge that is happening. All year long in 2026 and in August is our rivals to [00:13:00] lovers category. And if I am correct. Yes. Every single book that I mentioned today is one that can be used for that category minus Huntsman, 'cause that one is enemies to lovers. But all of the other books that were mentioned can definitely be used as options for your rivals to lovers and

[00:13:23] Alesia: if you are someone who is enjoying the heated rivalry kind of flow, you watched the show or you enjoyed the book, then these might be good options If you're looking for more of that angst or more of that rivalry with a representation. thank you so much for listening. I would be remiss if I did not mention that we have the after Dark Community, which is over on Substack and four or $5 a month. You can support the podcast, help keep us sponsor free. You get access to all of my blog posts, not just the ones in the last three months.

[00:13:58] Alesia: You get custom book [00:14:00] recommendations in the chat, as well as early access to books, and even some behind the scenes starting in season four. I'm gonna be recording some extra bonus episodes and some extra content with the people that I'm interviewing to give you some more access to them, as well as more information.

[00:14:17] Alesia: We're also gonna be doing a bit of a book club. Alright, until next time., happy reading.

[00:14:23] Alesia: Yeah.