Hey, book lovers! Today, I’m bringing you a list of the best enemies to lovers romance books with a spicy twist. If you’re craving some intense chemistry and fiery banter between characters who start off on the wrong foot but end up falling madly in love, this list is for you.
The first two are my personal favourite enemies to lovers, which you may have heard of before. I also wanted to include on this list the books you may not have as well. Always make sure to check the content/trigger warnings before you decide to read a book to protect yourself as a reader ❤
Crows Crossing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
My 10 Picks For Enemies To Lovers
1. Fourth Wing
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
2. From Blood And Ash
Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.
A Duty…
The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.
A Kingdom…
Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.
3. The Bridge Kingdom
A warrior princess trained in isolation, Lara is driven by two certainties. The first is that King Aren of the Bridge Kingdom is her enemy. And the second is that she’ll be the one to bring him to his knees.
The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara’s homeland. So when she’s sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king.
Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she’s the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she’ll save . . . and which kingdom she’ll destroy.
4. Quicksilver
Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate.
Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen’s reservoirs for as long as she can remember. In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn’t much a girl wouldn’t do for a glass of water. But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.
When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares…but it turns out they’re real, and Saeris has landed right in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.
The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist’s magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him… or her. Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he’s the only way Saeris is going to make it home.
Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the details…
5. The Scattered Bones
When a mysterious man known only as The Stranger promises to return Kaid to her, Sellah is tasked with finding each one of her love’s scattered bones, his severed body hidden in the darkest corners of the realm. The quest is an impossible task, yet she must make the dangerous journey alone using only her own faith and fight. But the tasks at hand are brutal. They’re battles not easily won.
But Sellah doesn’t care how treacherous the challenges are. She’ll do whatever it takes because it was her fault Kaid was punished. Promised to the primordial goddess as a child, it was Sellah’s sacred duty to remain pure and untouched. To be chosen as the goddess’ vessel was the highest honor, one Sellah devoted her life to until the handsome thief Kaid broke into the temple. He obliterated her world, rewriting her future, and despite her vows, she couldn’t resist the beautiful longing that ignited between them. Their forbidden friendship bloomed into a doomed romance, sending her and her beloved thief down a dark path of heartbreak, unspeakable danger, and a love that not even death could conquer.
6. Pestilence
They came to earth-Pestilence, War, Famine, Death-four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity.
They came to earth, and they came to end us all.
When Pestilence, the first of the horsemen, comes for Sara Burn’s town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the angelic-looking horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed.
Too bad no one told her Pestilence can’t be killed.
Alive and furious, the horseman takes Sara prisoner, determined to make her suffer for impeding his mission. Despite her pleas, nothing and no one gets in the way of his orders to destroy humankind. Only, the longer Pestilence spends beside Sara’s bravery and compassion, the more he seems to understand her, and understand humanity. And the longer Sara travels with Pestilence and his plague, the more uncertain she grows about his true feelings toward her…and hers toward him.
Sara might still be able to save the world, but she’ll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.
7. Ruthless Villains
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend. It is the person whose heart I want to cut out.
In a world where magic is distributed equally, there are some people who refuse to share their power. Dark mages. Lethal. Selfish. And utterly without morals.
Audrey Sable is one of them. As a poison mage, she can bring men to their knees with a flick of her wrist. But the man she really wants to kill will not go down so easily. Callan Blackwell is also a powerful dark mage, and he would like nothing better than to see Audrey beg for mercy at his feet. But their hatred for one another will have to wait.
When the heroic champions of equality prepare to launch an attack that will wipe out the remaining dark mages, Audrey and Callan are forced to put their war on hold and instead work together. They have one chance to stop the self-righteous heroes before it is too late, but their mutual animosity is bound to get in the way of the mission. And the problem with blazing feelings like hatred is that it only takes one spark to turn it into burning passion.
Audrey and Callan’s temporary union is undoubtedly a dangerous one. To the world. But most of all, to their own ruthless hearts.
8. Court Of Blood and Bindings
They call him the Silent Death, because he kills without sound and leaves none capable of speaking in his wake…
When the empire’s deadliest fae murderer catches her wielding forbidden magic, twenty-year-old Emelin believes her hour has come. Instead, her inhumanly beautiful captor spares her life, but carries her off on his velvet wings – into the one place from which no human ever returns.
The heart of the Fae Isles. The treacherous Crimson Court, where the Mother of faekind has ruled unchallenged over fae and humans for decades.
The Silent Death is supposed to be the Mother’s loyal servant, her invincible warrior, her ruthless, soulless killer. But in the shadows he is playing a game of his own, and he needs Emelin’s magic to win it.
If she agrees to work with him, she could free all of humanity. But can she trust a fae male with so much blood on his hands? Worse, when his smouldering dark eyes and dangerous secrets reveal glimpses of the heart behind his murderer’s mask… can she trust herself?
9. Atonement Of The Spine Cleaver
Rorax Greywood lives in the Realms and was trained to fight, kill, and steal for the House of Ice’s special forces unit, the Heilstorms, from the time she was ten years old. During her time as a Heilstorm, Rorax committed more violent atrocities in the name of her House than she could ever remember, but the blackest stain on her soul remains the Siege of Surmalinn—an infiltration and near genocide in the largest House of Death city.
Years later, when Rorax is called upon by the Gods to compete in the Choosing, a deadly competition that decides the next Guardian of the Realms, it quickly becomes clear the only House strong enough to protect her is the House of Death.
Rorax knows she isn’t worthy to become the Realms’ new Guardian, so she somehow needs to convince the House of Death—and their brutally handsome lieutenant—to both help her find the next suitable Guardian, and free her from the Choosing before the Choosing kills her.
10. Velvet
A good princess does not seduce her enemies… but a desperate princess might
With her small kingdom teetering on the brink of war, crown princess Viviette hatches a dangerous plan: seduce the enemy diplomats threatening the Peaks and uncover their sinister schemes.
An excellent strategy … until she is caught red-handed by her father’s loyal Spymaster.
Jaghar is a mystery. A menace. A cold and bitter man she’s despised all her life. But rather than betraying her to the King, he offers her a bargain: in return for his discretion, she can join his clandestine army of masked spies who use pleasure and seduction to expose their enemies’ secrets.
Armed with nothing but cunning and resolve, Viviette delves into his shockingly seductive world of dark desires and intrigue. But the more she learns about the scarred, silver-haired spymaster at the heart of the conflict, the less she can deny the forbidden fire flaring between them …
Caught in a tangled web of passion and conspiracies, will their fragile alliance shatter under the weight of their secrets? Or will it be the key to their salvation?
These enemies to lovers romance books are perfect for readers who love a good dose of sizzling tension, passionate conflicts, and ultimately, a love story that will leave you swooning. So grab a cozy blanket, your favorite hot beverage, and dive into these captivating reads for a rollercoaster of emotions and an unforgettable romantic journey.
Happy reading! Leave a comment with what you thought of these books or if you’ve read some books that should be on this list!
