I love to hate and hate to love, so maybe that is why I’m so drawn to the enemies-to-lovers trope. Skyrocketing in popularity on BookTok and staying a fan favorite, it seems every writer is trying their hand at it. Unfortunately, not every writer has the hand for it. My main gripes with bad enemies-to-lovers books are as follows.

First, they aren’t actually enemies or are just barely enemies, which is a popular complaint I see with the book The Spanish Love Deception. Not only does this saturate the market, but false marketing is just annoying. I love and regularly read other genres, but I don’t want to see them under the enemies to lovers category. Actively seeking out something just to be met with something completely different is a frustrating feeling. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, some people take the “enemies” thing to the extreme. Committing unforgivable crimes isn’t sexy and will never be. There are limits, and pushing those just leads to a rushed romance nobody was rooting for. Mutual respect is such a big part of relationships, and shouldn’t be thrown away in favor of “getting to the good part”. 

Lastly, sometimes books, specifically enemies-to-lovers stories, are just plain bad. Taking the time to sit down and write a good story makes all the difference. Simply writing stories just to fill a niche can feel empty, especially in a romance story. 

Enemies to lovers has a lot of potential, which makes the current oversaturation of the genre especially disappointing. I can only hope that the quality stories will be able to withstand the test of time and overshadow all of the bad writing.