A tragic mess of a book, from beginning to end. Some elements were interesting, but I can't help but feel Caffery was uncommitted to research, many details do not align with what we understand of Olympic games and villages.

DNF at 20% I sadly could not get through this, though the prompt sound promising. The story just progressed too quickly for my liking.

The same old cliched story.: enemies to lovers and bla bla bla. A good book to pass the time, cute and forgettable.

2.5 stars rounded down

When I heard about Olympic Enemies, I was very excited to read it. I am a big fan of gymnastics, so it peaked my interest to have a book set at the upcoming Paris Olympics.

Since I am a fan of the sport (though primarily with women's gymnastics), there were quite a few things that bothered me about the book:
1. The author changed the order of the events. Not too big of an issue if you are a casual fan, and I think it was done for the plot, but it just didn't really make sense and irked me.
2. Gymnasts that make it to the Olympics have spent their entire lives getting to this point. I have a very difficult time believing that some of the characters would be drinking alcohol a day or two prior to the qualifications.
3. About a week or two before qualifications, there's talk about upgrading tumbling passes. This would NOT happen so close to a huge competition. Gymnasts rely a lot on muscle memory and obtaining a new skill requires a lot of time.
4. There was also a scene that said one of the other gymnasts didn't have certain required elements in their routine. This would not happen either. Each routine has a minimum set of requirements, and if any of them are missing, MAJOR deductions happen.
5. While it is possible for men to do Yurchenko vaults, it's not common like it is in women's gymnastics. A popular, high difficulty one (for women, at least) is the Amanar -- a Yurchenko 2.5. Simply calling the vault a Yurchenko would imply a single twist, which is an elementary level vault in comparison to what is seen at the Olympics.

That's not exactly a complete list, but I think after 5 examples, you get the idea. It's clear the author did do some research on the sport and did make an effort, but if you are more than just a casual fan, these are glaringly obvious errors.

I did like the characters in the book, and felt like they were fully developed and had a lot of progression throughout the story. And even though a day of sightseeing prior to competition is unrealistic, those scenes were fun, especially because I would love to go to Paris.

The relationship between our two main characters did feel like there was a little bit of a pacing issue.... they went from enemies to lovers super quick. I would have liked for it to be a little bit more drawn out. But once they get together, I enjoyed their relationship. There's a lot of spice, but I appreciated that it wasn't super graphic. It was enough to be sexy and to know what was going on without taking away from the rest of the story.

The book was not terrible by any means. I think the author did do a good job, but the book could have gone through another round of fact checking and editing. There were quite a few grammatical errors I saw, and sometimes things got a little repetitive. So while I am only giving the book 2 stars, I think the author does have a lot of potential.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC, which immediately gave me Red, White, & Royal Blue/Boyfriend Material vibes. The guys were likable and story was interesting however I think because I loved those other two so much I found myself comparing this one to them which is not necessarily fair but was my reality - and it just fell a little short.

This was requested when I first found out about NetGalley and I had requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before they were archived. I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it! I am giving this book three stars, as I don't want to give it a good or bad rating, since I did not get to it and we have to leave a star rating.

I went into this with high expectations and was unfortunately disappointed. The story premise was intriguing and I enjoyed Lucas voice at the start of the book. I like the idea of dual POV but I found myself having a hard time with the insta-love between the two main characters. I felt there was a lot of room for character development for Oliver. We get his back story but it's very much a telling and info dump. There were a lot of cliches and I didn't get much of the emotional connection of the two leads.
The side characters were all pretty much outlines of stereotypes. I was not invested in them.
I had a hard time finishing and considered DNF at a few points but soldiered through. I think the pacing was awkward and the dialogue flat at times. This book needed a major editing pass. ARCs always have some errors that get cleaned up later but this book was literally riddled with them. Not just misspellings or missing words but tense mismatch, punctuation and spelling mistakes, homonyms used instead of correct word and more. I wanted to reach for a red pen. It truly distracted from the story.
This had so much potential but suffered from execution. I wanted to like this, I wanted good things for the characters, I wished I'd liked this more. it's just the premise I'd enjoy but this book was not it for me.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was an arc from netgalley and Backlit PR.
once again late on the review because of the great depression. This book was nice. Only adjective to describe it actually. Like it tried so hard to be both boyfriend material rwrb and a sports romance that it fell flat. It's not bad far from it actually, and when i got to it it was easy to get through. But i didn't enjoy it like i expected too. 2.5 stars.

This is a cute story with an intense storyline and interesting and entertaining characters. It'll make you laugh, and it'll make you cry, but it won't make you put it down.

started this book and never got the chance to finish. stopped at about 70%. i remember really enjoying it, but do also feel that it was pretty fast paced. much love <3

This was a little too typical and cliché for me. I've read many other books in this genre (and sure, most a quite alike) but this one wasn't a favourite.

GOSH, when I tell you that enemies to lovers - sports romances are my kryptonite... This was SO lovely, so full of humor and fun and swooning and laughs and just all the things that I look for in a great read! Five massive stars from me :)

Olympic Enemies by Rebecca J Caffery is a contemporary romance. Three weeks at the Olympic Village. Two Gymnasts who've been rivals for half a decade. Forced to share a room at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Oliver and Lucas are less than happy. After five years of fighting, the team needs them to learn to work together if they stand any chance of medalling. To make matters worse, Lucas, king of lone wolves, has absolutely no desire to become best friends with the three musketeers who make up the rest of the male British Gymnastics Team. So when the press becomes intrusive towards Lucas and Oliver finally steps in to defend him, things are looking up. Until that sliver of common ground truly demonstrates how thin the line between love and hate really can be. However, when their fighting turns to kissing which results in headlines in every newspaper and potential heartbreak for the pair, it isn’t just gold on the line -- it's their hearts.

Olympic Enemies is a un read with a nice balance of character and relationship development. I liked how well developed the main characters, and the most prevalent secondary character were. I thought the family and friendship ties, and the reasoning behind concerns and issues were all well built into the story. I liked the build up and resolution for the relationship between Oliver and Lucas. I thought the details about competitive gymnastics were well researched, and I loved getting a better understanding of what it can be like, and some of the stresses that the media and world in general can put towards those in the spotlight. I thought the team and coach dynamics were some of my favorite moments in the book, but I did find myself feeling like one secondary character was rather left out in the cold towards the end, and I would enjoy seeing them get some love in future books from the author.

Olympic Enemies is an engaging and enjoyable read.

This was really enjoyable and great, olympics, friends to lovers is good enough, but add in being in the closet, and dealing with stress of competition, I liked the two leads a lot and loved the friend circle as well.

Lucas and Oliver are teammates for the Great Britain Olympics team who really can’t stand each other so… naturally at the Olympics, they share a room. And you know what happens then!

What I hoped for was a great rivals/enemies to lovers story. What I got was something that never really seemed to come together cohesively. The characters all seemed a little vague, despite the dual POV chapters. I found it very hard to really root for this team, especially when one of them gets injured and pretends like nothing is wrong. The research of the how the Olympics works seemed more than a little sloppy.

When I finished this book, the only word I could think of to describe it was “lackluster.”

2.5 stars stars rounded up

Thank you to NetGalley and Wild Rose Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This had such a fun premise, two enemies sharing a room as they gear up for the olympics. It's clear how much knowledge the author has about gymnastics

Thank you, NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press for allowing me to read and review Olympic Enemies. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more by Rebecca J Caffery!
The characters are great and the relationships between all of them are adorable. I hope there will be much more to this story!

🥇olympic enemies🥇

✨ARC courtesy of @netgalley & @rjcafferyauthor ✨

this was such a cute & easy to read queer romance🏳️‍🌈 lucas & oliver were the best protagonists & i loved following the progression of their relationship🥺 it also combined some of my FAVE tropes, enemies to lovers🤬 as well as a twist on the one bed trope🛏️

i’ve never read a romance book set during the olympic before and the atmosphere was described so perfectly👟 & the knowledge that rebecca has of gymnastics is so impressive, i really felt part of that world🤸

the conflict between lucas & oliver was also so believable (i promise i won’t say anything more)🤞& most importantly, it didn’t take anything away from the subplots or completely undermine their relationship👨‍❤️‍👨

rebecca’s explored the really important topics of outing, queerness in sport, injury prejudice & much more🏟️, in such an accessible way, without understating the consequences of them🤩

it was just a little bit too spicy for me🌶️ and i really wanted more lucy, alicia, julius & tom content, i feel like their story arc’s were quite flat, i need a spin-off for ALL of them pls & thanks🙏

I wanted to love this but I didn't I did like it. It was fun in spots. A lot like Red, White and Royal Blue. But worth the read.

I am going to start this review by saying I have been in a massive reading slump – I haven’t finished an actual novel since I graduated last May and have been mostly reading comics. I did however fly though this book in a few days. While I have some issues I will get into, this book is pretty much exactly what it sets out to be – a short (at 290 pages), cheesy romance. Something I didn’t realize when I picked it up, but enjoyed, is that this book is dual POV, switching between Lucas and Oliver’s POVs. The book is heavily character driven, with a lot of dialogue and little plot beyond the romance.

The book leans heavily on tropes (sometimes too heavily, telling us our two MCs are enemies without really going deeper into why or what it means beyond snarking at each other). This is where my issues with the book lie – for a character-driven book, the characters feel very shallow. We are introduced to a cast of side characters – from the other teammates of our MCs (who I could not keep straight, they felt almost inter-changable), to family members (which we are told about repeatedly before meeting, and mostly to give us info-dumps about our MCs backstories).

Lucas’s character in particular feels…inconsistent might be the best word. We are told he has no time for friends – this is his core conflict with Oliver, who wishes Lucas had more time to hang out with the team – but he is also seemingly best friends with a girl on their sister team. Oliver is also pushy with Lucas’s boundaries (particularly Lucas wanting to keep their relationship a secret) in a way I wasn’t a fan of. We are told more of their personalities then we are shown it felt, and they seem to hate each other (while pining?) simply for the sake of hating each other, rather than any actual conflict – all conflicts can seemingly be solved with a two minute conversation, but they seem to repeatedly have the same conversation.

The pacing felt fast – which for such a short romance makes sense. They go from enemies to secrely-pining-friends-with-benefits very early on, and then slowly move to actual lovers. There is sex in this book, though more of the fade-to-black, told-the-acts-not-described-them variety than the smutty variety popular in many romance novels. This is preferable to me, but might not be for everyone.

Very little development seems to happen in the second half of the book. I was pretty hooked for the first half and then very bored for the second half. Partly, this is because very little new developments seem to happen with our characters’ relationship, partly this is because of some forced outing by the media (which is a trope I dislike in general), and partly because of an injury. The injury wasn’t graphic, and its a premise I’ve seen in sports books, but I don’t think it was utilized very well in this book. In general, we are given a lot of details that don’t ever become relevant – Oliver’s dead ex for example is constantly mentioned, but for no overall meaning that I can tell other than to give him a tragic past.