‘The Rival’ review: A delicious rivals-to-lovers rom-com

Emma Lord novels should come with a warning label: Will cause undeniable snack/food cravings. If snacks cannot be procured, you will be hangry until procured. Read at your own risk. 

For The Rival, I had an insatiable desire for pancakes. This is all thanks to one of the settings of the book, Pancake or Leave It, a charming pancake establishment with a grumpy yet soft chef who whipped up incredible pancake combinations that made me crave every type of griddle cake, flapjack and crepe around. I know this place is fictional, but like all of Emma Lord’s fictional food establishments (I’m looking at you, Bagelopolis), it felt like a home away from home. Lord’s characters feel that way, too–like childhood best friends that you’re finally getting to see blossom and find themselves and each other. Their triumphs feel real and hardwon, and every small fictional victory felt like I was cheering them on from the sidelines. 

What is this pancake novel about?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. If you’re reading this review, you need to know what it’s about besides pancakes.

The Rival, like Emma’s previous book, is an upper YA novel, set at Maple Ride, a liberal arts college with a penchant for a shady school administration and zero work life balance for scholarship athletes. Despite it’s flaws, Maple Ride is Sadie Brighton’s dream school and getting in means a shot at earning a spot at the popular campus zine, Newsbag. This means a chance to step out of the responsible, dependable persona she’s crafted at home to keep her rambunctious loud family at bay. But when her childhood best friend turned rival, Seb, gets off the waitlist and competes for a spot at the zine,  her dream of using her writing career to spin a new comedic and spontaneous version of herself gets more complicated. 

Emma Lord excels at Rivals to Lovers

Rivals to lovers (especially academic rivals to lovers) is a fun trope because of the stakes. In The Rival, the stakes are as high as possible for teenagers on the cusp of adulthood. For Sadie, a chance at writing for Newsbag means shucking a version of her that hides who she wants to be. At home, she keeps her family at bay by being a peacekeeper, shadowing the witty, competitive girl who started a prank war with her next-door neighbor in elementary school.

At school, she plans good chaos to get the administration’s attention and make lasting changes for the students. She also writes satirical pieces that make the zine editors take notice. Alumni of the zine have gone on to writer’s rooms at comedy TV shows and popular websites—all things that Sadie wants. The only thing standing in her way is Seb, who needs the zine to show his dad that he’s serious about his writing career and his place at Maple Ride. 

The best rivalries end with kissing

Sadie and Seb are adorable. Their banter, their past history, and their shared goal make reading their interactions delightful. I loved seeing their rivalry unravel and their friendship and romance blossom. I didn’t want either of them to win a spot in the zine because it meant the other would lose. That, along with their college antics, made me feel like I was going to Alphabet parties with them or pranking Sadie’s sister at her resurrection mystery party. 

When they finally share their feelings (because the best rivalries end with kissing) it feels natural. Lord knows how to write romance and she knows how to make us want to see the relationship through, even through the rocky third act breakup. If you love feel-good YA contemporaries or just food related rom-coms, this novel needs to be your next read. 

The Rival is available now in hardcover, e-book and audiobook.