The Rival by Emma Lord

❝ 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞; 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟. ❞

- The Rival by Emma Lord

Genre: contemporary romance

Overall rating: 5/5 stars

# books in series: standalone

Song: "Once And For All" by the Newsies Ensemble

My review:

Emma Lord does it again with The Rival.

I'm convinced at this point that she's actually incapable of writing a book I don't like. Every January it's become a ritual for me to devour her next new book in two days flat, and I will continue to do so as long as she keeps releasing them because each one is a little different as far as tropes, setting, and new signature unhinged dessert go, but has that classic Emma charm that so strongly characterizes everything she writes. The Random Acts of Chaos club? That's something that very obviously crawled out of the pink and sparkly recesses of only her mind. Also, the plot of this book is basically just Newsies. The vibes are very much there – I could hear The World Will Know playing in my head the entire time, and I also marked a specific scene that was literally the reprise of Watch What Happens.

This book had me laughing out loud so frequently (and hard) that I got more than a few concerned looks from my own roommate. All Emma's books are funny, but given Sadie's whole career as a comedian, I feel like she was able to let loose with the chaos in a way she didn't with her backlist as much. @thatbibliobabe mentioned in her review how Sadie's writing style feels very Buzzfeed, which makes sense given that Emma used to write for them, and I have to agree wholeheartedly. I loved every second of it.

Sadie and Seb's relationship is adorable as well. I will say, they're not my favorite Emma couple (that's a tie between Pepperjack and Riley & Tom)– the pacing felt a little choppy at the beginning. I have a personal issue with books advertised as rivals to lovers where they don't deeply, genuinely despise each other for at least the first half of the story, but are instead clearly infatuated with each other and repressing their feelings. I get that that's some people's thing, and that's fine, but it's a pet peeve of mine that did bother me a bit at the beginning (especially for a book titled "The Rival" – which, speaking of, I really hate as a title. It's so generic and boring. Emma's other titles are excellent, so I'm not sure what happened here). That said, Seb and Sadie definitely found their groove fairly early on. The childhood besties to enemies to friends to lovers pipeline gave me strong Seven Percent of Ro Devereux vibes, so if you like Ellen O'Clover's books (and if you don't, try re-evaluating your priorities) this one is definitely for you.

Finally, the whole student-organization plotline was so much fun – especially Newsbag. I was in my junior year of high school when Begin Again came out, so this was my first Emma book set in college while being in college myself, and it added a whole other layer of immersiveness. I loved Betty's chaotic pancake house, and wish we could have that near campus instead of an IHOP.

This was the perfect read to binge while stuck in bed with the flu, and I can't wait for next January to hopefully do it again! (Binge read Emma's new book, that is. Not be stuck in bed with the flu.)