Romancing His Rival is Book 3 of the Accidentally Yours Series by Jennifer Shirk. While this is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone. This was the first of the series I read and had absolutely no problems whatsoever in following the story.

Absolutely loved this sweet read. Romancing His Rival is a nice and clean romance that stays focused on the story and is true to the characters. Fast-paced, defined world, great storyline and engaging characters...a reader can’t ask for more. Nicely done Ms. Shirk.

Please note that an ARC was generously provided in exchange for an honest review of which this is both honest and completely voluntary.

Lucas and Elena go from rivals to being a couple. The struggle story starts with her almost knocking him out with a couch pillow. The more time they spend together, the harder it becomes for them to dislike each other. Lucas is always up for a laugh and uses that to break down the barriers Elena has built against him. He validates her feelings and shows her that what she was expecting from her ex-fiancée Scott was unrealistic. It is a wholesome and sweet story with a happy ending.

Thank you NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book. I really liked this cute story. It was lovely and sweet. The plot was a little predictable but I did not want to stop reading until the end. I really liked Lucas, he was charming and kind, and not to mention incredibly patient!
Elena could be a bit annoying at times with her excessive naivety.The fact that she was so oblivious about the kind of guy her ex was!
Overall an enjoyable read.

interesting hate-to-love romance book of course in these books usually one of the protagonists are stubborn as heck and does not wish to belief any thing else which i hate. But still a nice romance read I guess!

Jennifer Shirk always writes such sweet romances and Romancing His Rival was a great addition to the Accidentally Yours series.

The story was a little Hate-to-Love, which I always enjoy, though the hating was really only on Elena’s side. I liked seeing Lucas eventually win her over as she realized her preconceived ideas about him were wrong. I thought they had good chemistry together and I shipped them.

I was often frustrated by Elena, though. It’s so obvious that Scott is an awful choice for her, but she’s so desperate to be in a relationship that she refuses to see it. I have seen many women settle for a bad relationship that eventually ended and brought more pain just because they were so desperate not to be alone and I will never understand it. However, I did really love the lesson Elena learned about having to find happiness yourself and not depending on other people for it. So many Romances have the love interests “saving/fixing/healing” each other and it’s really refreshing to see a story that shows how romantic love can enhance your life, without being the reason for your whole life.

One thing I didn’t like, which isn’t really a comment on the story itself, is how I don’t feel the title represents the book well. The title, along with the synopsis, makes it sound like they’re both in the same field and have been competing against each other when they’re paired up on a project and have to work together. In reality, Lucas kind of has to beg Elena to help him on his project, as a freelancer. I think something like “enemy” would have been a better choice than “rival”. Also, Lucas never hated Elena, so while he might be her enemy/rival, she was never his. I know this is super picky to point out and while it didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book at all, it still bugged me.

Overall, I enjoyed Romancing His Rival. The romance was cute and I was glad to see Elena get a happy ending. I also really appreciated the message of not depending on other people to be happy. I recommend this one to fans of sweet Romances.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3.5 Stars

I loved this book. It was so funny to see Elena trying to keep suppressing her feelings for Lucas. Elena had some pretty idealistic, and unrealistic as well, views of what a good marriage should be. That did get somewhat annoying how crazed she was about having to get flowers every Friday to have a good marriage. It took some time and subtle comments by her friends and Lucas for her to realize her mistakes. Lucas was nice and thoughtful through it all even when Elena told him how much she hated him at the beginning. Lucas was a class A gentleman in my book. Scott was a jerk and though it took Elena a little bit to see that there eventually was a happy ending. Very enjoyable!
Mild language. No sex or violence.

DNF at 25%

Unfortunately I was not a fan of the writing, but others may enjoy this cutesy novel. The plot looked interesting, but the way Elena thought and spoke seemed almost childish to me.

Sadly this one wasn’t for me. I liked Elena and Lucas and their bickering was humorous and quick witted, but I just couldn’t become invested in this couple when one half was still somewhat infatuated with her ex. Especially when that ex is condescending, uncompromising and dismissive of Elena’s choices in life. Unfortunately they’re all elements I struggle with in my reads. However there’s no taking away the fact that the ending was satisfying and left me with a happy heart.

Also worth mentioning that both the cover and blurb are a total misrepresentation: this is well over a month late to the festive party—that’s in no way a slight at the author—but with a cover more suited to Valentines Day and no mention of the fact in the blurb, Elena wasn’t the only one “officially done with Christmas”.

This is another sweet romance by Jennifer Shirk.

Elena is a hopeless romantic, who wants love exactly like her parents had. Unfortunately, that is not exactly part of her ex-fiancés plan, who dumped her. Elena is convinced that it's because of "advice" from his divorced friend Lucas, who after his divorce is rather anti marriage. So Elena hates Lucas from the bottom of her heart.
Elena and Lucas end up snowed in together, which begins their cute enemies-to-friends to-lovers journey.

This is a “sweet and clean” book which means if you find on-page sex or cursing offensive, you have nothing to worry about here. The story is the main focus of this book.

Romancing The Rival is a really sweet read, but you have to bear with Elena. To say that she's not at her best in this story would be an understatement. She has moments where she's petty and a more than a tad obsessed with her ex (who is a total tool) but all of that stems from her insecurity and her bone-deep loneliness – something a lot of us women have dealt with in our lives. Maybe people who are happily married or settled don't understand that kind of loneliness, but I identified with it. She wasn't perfect, but she was relatable, if a bit over the top at times. While she might not be everyone's cup of tea, I really liked and identified with her. Lucas was flawed but he was also charming and funny. I loved how he fell for Elena and how he encouraged her to be stronger and to love herself rather than losing herself in someone else. While it was much easier for him to say than for her to do, I thought that was great. I also loved the looks in on the previous couples in the series. It was so wonderful to see how they were progressing.

Elena and Caleb were flawed and imperfect, but they were sweet and funny and I really enjoyed their love story. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever struggled with loneliness and trying to find their place in the world.

Romancing the Rival by Jennifer Shirk a five-star read that will make you swoon. This is the third novel in the Accidently Yours series, but I haven’t read the first two, I will pop back and get the first two as I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Elena Mason has annoyed me at times and did push meat points but overall, I adored her, she pulled through in the end and blew me away. Lucas Albright was so funny, watching him interact with people and come to some conclusions that you can see him struggle with on the pages, he really did surprise me. Cape Harmony sounds like a great place to live and I for one would love to go and visit, I suspect much like many others, I doubt I would want to leave. I will certainly be adding this author to my list of people to watch, she has a way with words that I adored.

Romancing His Rival by Jennifer Shirk. I am a fan of Jennifer’s. If you are new to her writing don’t judge her talent on this one. The writing is good; the heroine is going to get on your nerves and you may have a hard time finishing. The hero makes up for it. About the only time I liked and could relate to Elena was when Lucas was supporting her to take risks with her drawings.
Her unrealistic and crazy obsession with dates was not relatable. She was more juvenile than you expect.
The premise of the story is that Lucas who has a bad opinion of marriage, gives Elena’s fiancé some doubts about marriage. She blames him their breakup.
They end up working together on a project and she gets to see the real him. However she never seems to see the real side of the guy she wants to be her fiancé.
There were some sweet scenes between Elena and Lucas. Jennifer is also able to create chemistry and tension between the character and keep in clean which is why I rated the book a 4.
I recommend reading Jennifer’s other books that I think you will enjoy more.

Romancing His Rival by Jennifer Shirk is a cute, fast-reading romance in which Elena has been ditched by her fiance, Scott, because of something his best man, Lucas, said regarding marriage.

The first chapter has Elena and Lucas ending up snowed in for a night with Elena realizing that Lucas may not be the devil incarnate. It's a fun scene and really foreshadows all of the awakenings Elena will have through the course of the novel.

While I really enjoyed the novel, I wasn't thrilled with Elena's perception that she needed Scott to make her happy, that he was the end-all, that her life wouldn't be complete without him in it so that she could emulate her parents' romantic happiness. I was disappointed by her not realizing that she didn't need anyone other than herself to make her happy and not being more thrilled by a huge opportunity to pursue her art. In this way, Romancing His Rival read more like a novel from a few decades ago in which the heroine only wanted to get married.
However, if you disregard that bit of anachronism, the rest of the novel is enjoyable. It's light on heat for those of you for whom that's important. It's well-written and there's character development with both Elena and Lucas changing course.

Lastly, a little rant. What's with the title? This didn't feel like a triangle until near the end. Is it supposed to be she is Romancing His Rival except she wasn't doing the romance? It's certainly not he is Romancing His Rival. Ugh. I am obviously overthinking this, especially when I don't think we're really supposed to analyze it, but, I'd rather it said something cheesy like: Elena's Awakening or Let It (HIM) Go.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book a bit shallow - was not a fan of the main character although the male lead was okay. I didn't feel as warm and cozy about the setting but maybe that was because I hadn't read the first two books in this series. Overall, it was difficult for me to finish this one.

*Thank you Netgalley and Entangled for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

This book was really sweet, I liked the story a lot. Lucas and Elena's relantionship starts with some kind of animosity on her part, but it's all a misunderstanding. Throughout the book, they realize they have feelings for each other and it was well written and well built.

Ever since he opened his mouth to question her engagement to his best friend, Elena can't stand Lucas. Or so she thinks. Lucas the marriage skeptic could never wrap his mind around Scott and Elena as a couple, so he wasn't surprised when, after a few well placed questions, Scott broke off the engagement. Now, Lucas has to earn Elena's good opinion in order to get the promotion he's worked so hard for. As they spend more time together, Elena starts to question her hatred of Lucas, and he starts to question his hatred of marriage.

The story was sweet, with a nice arc, but light on substantial story development. The cabin situation seemed awkward and forced, as did some of the dialogue in the story. I didn't experience much chemistry between the main characters, so this was a quick read without much emotional investment on my part. I also found Scott, the ex-fiancé to be so much of a jerk that I respected Elena less for ever being attracted to him.

Overall, this was a nice way to pass a few hours with a sweet story.

Very very cute novel. I actually read it in one sitting, it's a short a adorable story and readers that like that kind of reading will certainly enjoy it

Well. I guess the story has its ups and downs. Maybe I’m not a romantic, because try as I might, I found Elena’s view on love to be so irrational and bordered on silly. I could understand her upset over what she believed as Lucas’ interference with her relationship with Scott. However, over the course of the story when it was practically shown clear as a day (to this disgruntled reader) how selfish and superficial Scott was and Elena still fixated on that awful man, I just went GAAAHHH!!!

I mean, I expected more from our heroine! Unfortunately, even her so-called best friends didn’t much help matter over her short-sighted view.

Considering how I felt with the heroine most of the time during reading, it is not surprising how tedious I felt the flow and length of “Romancing His Rival” was. The alternate POVs between her and Lucas didn’t really help uplifting my sentiment. Personally, I saw Lucas as the wronged character and he just took what Elena threw at him.

With the way I feel about this third story in “Accidentally Yours” series, it’s safe to say the first book is still my favorite and this one came (just like the order of released). A bummer really, as I actually quite like Lucas’ straightforwardness in admitting to his friend he was attracted to said friend’s ex and generally his (I mean Lucas, not Scott) overall conduct throughout the story. Honestly, he is the reason I didn’t have the heart to low-rating the book. Kudos to Miss Shirk to pair impossible Elena with this not-perfect-but-willing-to-understand man. I might throw away the book sooner if not for him.


Advanced copy of this book is kindly given by the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Some people have high standards for giving 5/5 on a review, however my only criteria involves whether or not I smiled the whole time I read it. I smiled the entire time I read this book. It was fun, cute and I read it in one sitting I was that into it.
This book had sexual tension like you wouldn't believe, but there was no sex scene... how impressive is that? Very, very impressive, I'm left wanting more for the characters. I loved their own personal growth/journeys that led them to making the choices they did.
Will this book win any awards? Probably not, but did it win a place in my heart? Definitely.

I almost always read just Christian fiction. I saw a friend of mine had this on her to be read list on goodreads and I thought I'd give it a try. The story was cute. I enjoyed the characters they were likeable. But honestly, the language was more than I could handle. The author used mild curse words but just too many in my opinion. Maybe that's a thing with mainstream books. I don't know. The book was clean though and a hea.
*I received a complimentary book by the publisher. This is my honest opinion.