Emma Lord delivers once again! I simply adore her books. Sadie and Seb are two great characters who feel so real- they have real world problems, similar crises of identity that I think every college freshman encounters. Parts were laugh-out-loud funny (Betty the pancake lady, who was HANDS DOWN my favorite character) and it was fun to root for the various characters throughout the book. I don't want to give too much of the plot and the shenanigans away, but I will say this is definitely worth reading.
I will definitely be recommending this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC!

This would be such a great book for a high school library. Emma Lord writes such lovely YA and this is no exception.

The Rival
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Honestly, Emma Lord is one of the very few authors that I trust to do a YA romcom that doesn’t have too immature of characters. This falls right in with that!

Seb and Sadie have been rivals for forever when they end up at the same college, vying for the same newspaper writer position. While they compete, the school’s clubs are on the brink of shutting down due to lack of funding. They and their cowriters must work together to stop the administration.

I enjoyed this a lot! Surprisingly a lot more plot to it than I expected going in. I would have loved dual POV, but Sadie was a good voice throughout.

Wow I loved this book so much! Emma lord you just get better and better! Thank you for the opportunity to read this book! I’ll have a more detailed review closer to the release date!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Emma Lord is my favorite YA author and this book did not disappoint. Sadie thinks she is finally free of her high school academic rival until he shows up at the same college as her. This was such a cute and fun read.

Sadie is ready to move on to college with a clean slate, leaving her family and rival Seb behind. She wants to make a new start for herself without her family's influence since she was the one that held the family together, pleasing everyone. Now she can be selfish and enjoy life at college on her own... until her once best friend and now rival Seb shows up, competing for the same position on the college newspaper as her. As the 2 of them compete, she realizes that they have more in common than she realizes and relishes in the comfort Seb provides. A really cute rivals-to-lovers story.

I would definitely have enjoyed this book more if I understood the motivations for saving the 'clubs' on campus better. I never took part in living on campus or joining any extracurricular activities at college, so it was hard to relate. It was a fun, feel good story, albeit very predictable.

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy of this book.

Emma Lord has created another adorable enemies-to-lovers and opposites-attract love story set in college. It was cute but didn't love it as much as her other ones - I found myself skimming some of the pages.

3.5 stars
It was a fun and cute book. I really liked the friendship between Sadie and Seb even if they were supposed to be rivals and hate each other. They had a lot of chemistry and they worked well together. The book was a mix of funny moments and deeper moments about the characters' struggles. While the funny moments were a bit too quirky for my taste, I appreciated the deep discussions between Seb and Sadie about finding oneself and more. Sadie and Seb were both well fleshed out and relatable. While I liked the first half of the book, the second half lost me a bit. While they make a cute couple, their friends/rivals dynamic they had in the first half was just more fun to read about than their romantic relationship for me.

Emma Lord's books are so fun! Her characters are always fresh, compelling, and all too real. I've enjoyed her YA books, and this foray into Emerging Adult was an excellent addition to her canon.

Lord's characters leap off the page. Sadie is fun and smart, masking her humorous side for a quest she doesn't really need to be undertaking. Her worries are relatable, and her banter with Seb lifts her off the page. On the flip side, Seb is sweet, funny, and driven, a really interesting foil for Sadie. They have so much in common, and even as they compete for a spot at the school paper, they also grow and change as people. I like that both characters had areas of growth, and I really loved the distinct voices.
The setting was great; the college feels real, with real college-student concerns, on-campus politics, and inter-organization relationships.

Excellent book, super fun read!

The Rival by Emma Lord is such a fun and relatable read! If you enjoy witty banter, complex friendships, and a bit of romance, this one’s for you. The story follows Tori, a high school senior who’s caught up in a fierce rivalry with her former best friend, resulting in plenty of drama and awkward moments.

What I loved most was how Emma Lord captured the ups and downs of teenage relationships—both romantic and platonic. The characters felt real, and their growth over the course of the book was really satisfying. Plus, there’s a lot of humor mixed in to keep things light, even when the stakes feel high. This is definitely a book I’d recommend to my library patrons looking for an entertaining, heartfelt read with plenty of twists and turns. Perfect for fans of coming-of-age stories and high school drama!

This book was another great one by Emma Lord. One thing that I love about all of her books is that the side characters are just as loveable as the main characters. Just wait until you meet Betty. Sadie's family was also extremely relatable and entertaining. I loved the relationship between Sadie and Seb. Another great YA novel!

Another cute rom com by Emma Lord! She has become a favorite romance writer of mine. If you are looking for sweet stories with adorable romance plots you need to read Emma Lord!

"It can't be easy, pretending to be something you're not all these years with the people you love most."

A super cute, rivals to lovers romcom that was just what I needed.

What I liked:

Sadie and Seb were so dang cute. They had great rapport, chemistry, and banter.

I loved the academic rivalry aspect. Sadie & Seb competed in just about everything and I ate all of it up.

Betty is quite possibly my favorite character in this book. The way I need some of her pancakes right now.

What didn’t work for me:

Nothing major

This was really cute! Emma Lord writes adorable romances and this was no exception. Really enjoyed the characters and the love story :)

Emma Lord can do no wrong in my book. I loved this so much. I really think she rivals Meg Cabot in teenage emotion, but with the heart of Sarah Dessen.

She just keeps hitting it out of the ballpark for me.

I absolutely loved this book! Emma Lord has such a knack for creating characters that feel like real people, and Sadie and Seb were no exception. Their academic rivalry was the perfect setup for a fun, tension-filled romance, and I couldn’t get enough of their banter. By the middle of the book, I was practically shouting for them to get together already!

Sadie’s voice was so refreshing—funny, relatable, and full of heart. I also loved the way her chaotic family added warmth and humor to the story. And Seb was such a great male lead with his charm and quick wit. The chemistry between them practically jumped off the page, and their journey from rivals to something more felt so natural.

The academic setting and their competition for the school’s zine gave the story an interesting twist, and the subplot about the flaws in the school system added some nice depth. Sure, the romance followed a predictable arc, but that didn’t take away from how much fun it was to read.

This was such an easy, enjoyable book, and I couldn’t put it down. Emma Lord always writes such heartwarming, layered stories, and this one might be one of my favorite!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you St. Martins Press, and NetGalley for the ARC! I have always loved this authors writing story however this one was a struggle for me. I’m not fully sure why though. I did love the banter, and the childhood friends turned rivals turned lovers! The quirks and sass of this novel were great. I just don’t know that I truly clicked with the characters and that could be partially due to my age or even wanting them to have been less of rivals and more of lovers. I know this novel will be loved by so many though! It’s a great new adult romance!

Emma Lord is one of my favorite authors and I've read almost everything she's written, including her recent adult romance release. This is a sweet story about two childhood friends turned rivals turned lovers. While it has a lot of Emma Lord's style - delicious food, quirky characters, heart and depth to each character, and more, I had a hard time getting through this one. Her other novels were propulsive reads that I couldn't put down, but I found Sadie to be a bit of a snooze fest. She just doesn't have main character energy and it's tough to imagine that charismatic, adorable Seb would put up with so much of her odd behaviors for so many years. There are also a few big emotional moments that sort of fell flat for me, because they didn't make any sense. There wasn't enough behind them to validate the characters' reactions and subsequent fallout. So, it's not my favorite from her line-up, but it's still a sweet story with a lot of heart and some fun moments that will hopefully grab and keep the attention of the target audience.

The Rival🗞️🥞
3⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pub Date: 01/25/2025

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an early eARC of Emma Lord’s newest book! This is about academic rivals who have known each other since they were babies. Overall this was pretty cute! Their banter was fun and knowing their history was also cute. I do think it was a little heavy on the “writing/academic” aspect and I wish there was a little more romance. They did have their sweet moments together but most of it was their rivalry hence the title lol. ✍🏼

I liked how this book talked about her relationship with her sisters, that was an unexpected plot point I really enjoyed! My favorite part was the alphabet party or all of the pancake dates. If you like pancakes, you will be craving them the whole time reading this book😋🥞 This book had quite a few slow parts and the romance was average. However if academic rivals is your thing, pick this one up!! It comes out in January 🎒

The Rival was a very cute young adult romance. Sadie and Seb are two childhood best friends, who found themselves to be rivals/enemies as they continued on to high school - thanks for one too many pranks and not enough communication. Emma Lord's young adult novels definitely excel at capturing the college experience and the shakiness of adjusting to college and changes. She delves easily into how so many relationships are changing at this point - with friends (old and new), family members, and possible relationships as well. Definitely a sweet, honest and humorous novel - absolutely worth the read! Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this novel.