10 best enemies to lovers fantasy books, ranked
From Romeo and Juliet to Pride and Prejudice, authors of old knew they struck gold with the enemies to lovers trope. The narrative device works because it’s just as fantastical as the fae worlds its lovers inhabit. How often does a person find someone they truly hate that actually turns out to be a solid, non-toxic, entirely misunderstood romantic partner? While pursuing a relationship with someone you despise may be rare (and not therapist recommended) in real life, it’s the stuff of fantasy brilliance. So here they are, the 10 best enemies to lovers fantasy books, ranked.
10. Angelfall
Those highway billboards saying “REPENT” were right. The end of the world has come, and Armageddon is nigh. In Susan Ee’s Angelfall, the world has ripped a page out of Revelation, and angels are causing the destruction of mankind. The nation formally known as the United States has been reduced to a wasteland, and angels have taken many of its citizens captives. One of these angelic prisoners is the sister of 17-year-old Penryn, and our fearless protagonist took her sibling’s capture personally. She embarks on a trek across the nation to rescue her kin, accompanied by an enemy – the fallen angel Raffe. As the human/divine pair press on in their journey, their misunderstandings soon give way to mutual admirations and even adorations. He really is an angel, in the personality sense, after all.
9. The Cruel Prince
Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince is perhaps the apex of a popular fantasy trope: girl gets nabbed by the fae. Jude is a painter, who makes a living slinging a brush for high and mighty faeries who request portraits of their ethereal features. After Jude paints a fae prince with a slightly too-human expression in his eyes, the outraged royal captures her and takes her to the faerie kingdom for judgement (preceded by cruel yet sexy imprisonment). But as much as he denies it, he does indeed carry a mortal sadness behind his eyes, and Jude is just the type of willful protagonist to figure out why. It’s probably got something to do with all the rival political plots that the prince has to deal with on the daily – that would depress anyone.
8. These Violent Delights
According to Chloe Gong’s These Violent Delights, 1920’s Shanghai was not for the faint of heart. The city was at war with itself, as rival crime families attempted to assert dominance over illicit markets. As if being on opposite sides of gang warfare couldn’t make them enemies enough, Juliette and Roma are also ex’s. Dramaaaaaaaa! The pair soon realize that they have to put their bitterness aside in order to solve a psychological threat: a plague of madness is worming its way through the city’s criminal underbelly, and these two lovers emeritus have to figure out why – while inadvertently rekindling their old flame in the process.
7. Captive Prince
Warrior prince Damen was supposed to someday serve the sovereign of his people, but the heir to the throne of Akielos sees his life upended after he is betrayed by a family member and sold as a captive to a faraway kingdom. Now a prisoner of the kingdom of Vere, Damen is forced to serve the pleasures of Prince Laurent. As it turns out, Laurent’s court is plagued with plots of its own, and the pair are soon forced to work together in order to thwart the machinations of Vere’s political elite, and maybe get Damen’s throne back in the process.
6. Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo made big waves with her Shadow and Bone trilogy, birthing an extended universe (or Grishaverse) in the process. Six of Crows sets us in another part of Bardurgo’s flintlock fantasy world, and revolves around the life and times of career criminal Kaz Brekker, who is tasked by a mysterious benefactor to rob an impenetrable fortress for an astronomical sum. Say less. Kaz assembles a crack team of thieves , two of who couldn’t be further away from each other on the ideological scale. Nina is a Grisha, and Matthias is a drüskelle who once held her and her people captive. The pair have to overcome decades of prejudice and bad blood over the course of the heist, but eventually realize that they have more alike than they thought. Despite not being the central focus of the book, their rocky relationship is one of the finest enemies to lovers plots in fantasy fiction.
5. The Bear and the Nightingale
Taking place in the bitter winter lands of imperial Russia, Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale is the story of a country girl named Vasya, who has been blessed with the ability to see the supernatural world. One of the fae world’s denizens is particularly easy on the eyes: the frost demon Morozko. While Morozko (being a demon and all) is initially subject to Vasya’s suspicions, the pair soon overcome their mortal/magical differences to team up against a greater threat. A vengeful bear spirit that is the literal personification of death has hoodwinked religious leaders into serving it, and is hellbent on eliminating life from the already harsh landscape – unless our enemies to lovers duo can figure out how to stop it.
4. An Ember In The Ashes
abaa Tahir’s An Ember In The Ashes is the story of the Martial Empire, a brutal regime inspired by the Ancient Roman government of old. Young Laia and her family eke out a living in the armpit of the imperial city, doing what commoners do best: keeping her head down and hoping the government doesn’t notice. Laia’s brother didn’t get the memo, and ends up an imperial prisoner after being accused of treason. Laia is soon contacted by a shadowy resistance group that offers her a deal: in return for her brother’s safety, she must agree to infiltrate the empire’s top military academy. Bet. While in cahoots with the rebellion, Laia meets a young soldier sworn to uphold the empire’s rule. While the pair couldn’t be more ideologically opposed from the jump, they soon find a common ground in their mutual hatred for those in the high halls of power. The enemy of my enemy is my lover.
3. From Blood and Ash
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the story of Poppy, chosen from birth to become a Maiden – a title which usually implies control, capture, sacrifice, or some heady combination of the three. In Poppy’s case, it means that she must spend her days sequestered away to remain pure for the gods above. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and Poppy soon finds herself blazing with desire for one of her bodyguards – a man named Hawke who wasn’t fully honest in his job application. After a betrayal throws her for a loop, Poppy will have to learn to trust Hawke again in order to save her realm from an ancient curse threatening to doom them all.
2. The Bone Season
Priory of the Orange Tree author Samantha Shannon is back with a brand new enemies to lovers fantasy romp! The story takes place in Europe in the middle of the 21st century, where the continent is under the harsh rule of the Republic of Scion. Scion law forbids all kinds of magic, a rule that high ranking criminal underworld Paige Mahoney is content to break by living life as a dreamwalker – a clairvoyant. She’s soon found out by the powers that be, and sent to live out her days in a penal colony as punishment. It’s there she meets Rephaite, a member of a race of sexy angel aliens that pull the strings of the Republic Scion from the shadows. It’s an otherworldly enemies to lovers plot about two opposites shaking up the status quo, inter-dimensional repercussions be damned.
1. Gideon the Ninth
Goth lesbian space opera? I’ll take twelve. Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth is set in a faraway star system ruled by a space emperor and the Nine Houses that serve him. Each of these Houses are the keepers of their own form of necromancy magic, compete with each other by offering their finest warriors to serve in emperor’s personal guard. Young warrior Gideon is a reluctant servant of the Ninth House, and is sent to accompany the Ninth House’s heiress Harrowhark “Harrow” Nonagesimus to a distant planet to compete for the emperor’s favor. While not a romance tale in the traditional sense (this book is so much more complex genre-wise) the pair’s lifetime of mutual hatred soon shifts into a relationship based on uneasy admiration, trust, and eventually, some weird and malformed up species of love.
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