Reading list
Enemies to Lovers Books
Books by Alisson Bento
Find your next romance.
Kindle edition · free to read with Kindle Unlimited where available.
Enemies to lovers books start with two people who have a real reason to stand on opposite sides: a rival company, a rival family, an old injury, a crown, a contract. The romance is in watching that reason hold, crack and finally give way. This guide gathers enemies to lovers romance novels by Alisson Bento across mafia, billionaire, sports, vampire and fantasy settings, free enemies to lovers stories you can start reading on this site today, and popular enemies to lovers books by other authors that the site has written reader guides for.
Every note below comes from the book’s own description or the story’s own teaser, so you can match the setup to your mood before you commit. Each book page lists its tropes, and each free story page lists its own, which is the quickest way to check whether a book adds forced proximity, a slow burn or a marriage of convenience to the rivalry.
What makes the best enemies to lovers books work
The trope lives or dies on the reason for the hostility. In the strongest setups, each person has a stake that the other threatens. In Overtime Sins, the heroine’s brother lost his hockey career to the hero’s hit. In The Bratva’s Prize, a painting in his gallery carries her grandfather’s mark from the raid that ruined her family. In Pit Stop for Love, a dangerous block on the final lap turns a racing rivalry into something personal. The conflict is specific, so any shift toward each other has to be earned.
The second ingredient is a reason they cannot walk away. Contracts, mandates and shared spaces do that work: a thirty-day due diligence clause in Ruthless Executives, ninety days of compliance logs in Overtime Sins, a shared glass office and a bet in the free story After Hours at Halvorsen. Forced proximity is not required, but it shows up often, and it keeps the arguments in the same room long enough for something else to happen.
The third is competence on both sides. Many of these heroines are good at something that matters to the plot: a provenance specialist who can spot false customs stamps, a charge nurse who has spent two years putting a surgeon in his place, a trained assassin facing a royal opponent who reads her patterns. When both people are capable, the rivalry reads as a contest between equals rather than a one-sided chase.
Enemies to lovers romance novels by Alisson Bento
Full-length books, each with its description, series and trope list on its own book page.
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Overtime Sins
Ivy walks into the Boston Rampart’s arena under her mother’s surname, carrying a private grudge against captain Kazimir Volkov, whose hit permanently damaged her brother Danny’s hand and ended his hockey career. Her new job gives her ninety days living where Volkov lives, monitoring his conduct and filing compliance logs twice a day, and one more reportable incident could end his conditional reinstatement. Start here if you want enemies to lovers built on a real wound: she holds the power to document his future while hiding why she wanted the job, and attraction unsettles her anger from their first meeting by the empty rink.
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The Winter King's Assassin
Lyra Ashenmoor slips into the Obsidian Spire with starmetal daggers made to pierce immortal defenses, sent by her guild to kill Caelum Draven, the tyrant it blames for slaughtered villages. The attack fails. He anticipates her, counters without drawing a weapon and answers her trained footwork with freezing magic, while her runic initiation scars burn at his power. This is the pick for readers who want an enemies to lovers book in a romantasy setting and paced as a slow burn, since the subtitle promises both, and it opens on the most literal kind of enmity: an assassin facing her target.
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The Bratva's Prize
Provenance specialist Lena Hart finds her grandfather’s hidden ultraviolet mark on a masterpiece in Vladimir Sergeev’s gallery, a mark that ties the painting to the collection lost in the raid that ruined her family. False customs stamps and an impossible registrar reference mean she has to refuse certification, and Vladimir wants her signature anyway. When she names the personal history behind her findings, he locks the viewing room. Choose this one for a mafia enemies to lovers romance where the heroine’s expertise is both her leverage and her danger, and where she blames his family for the destruction of her own.
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Ruthless Executives
Taylor Walters, chief operating officer of her family’s company, Walters Heritage, starts a thirty-day mandate sharing the Glass Suite with Callahan Rhodes, the venture capitalist threatening the business. A due diligence clause puts them at the same desk for six hours a day. His first demands concern room layout and secure servers, and she refuses to give up her workspace or the operational knowledge behind it, from warehouses and fleet to the debt her grandfather left. Read it if your favorite enemies to lovers setup is corporate: a boardroom fight, forced proximity and a family business under financial pressure.
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Pit Stop for Love
On the closing lap, Formula One driver Jack Brooks sees Bailey Jimenez gaining on his rear wing, and her family name brings back his brother Liam’s death and the bitterness he attaches to it. Instead of letting her pass, he makes a late, dangerous block that forces her to brake and damages her tires. He wins, then faces her fury in front of the cameras. Pick this rivals to lovers F1 romance if you like the hostility to start on the track, with grief and resentment underneath and a hero who refuses to recognize the skill of the woman racing beside him.
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Captured in the Night
Ainsley Powers climbs the Marrow Syndicate’s Boston tower to plant an incendiary in its servers, following a route laid out by her Aegis Society handler, Evan Carpenter. The guards are missing and a secure door opens before her decryptor can work, because she has been welcomed into a trap. Vampire syndicate leader Joseph Marrow knows her name and claims her mentor sent her as tribute to protect his own territory, and her attempt to fight him fails. For enemies to lovers with a paranormal edge, this vampire mafia romance starts with an operative’s loyalty collapsing inside the stronghold she came to destroy.
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Contracted Wife
Ava Barnes presents UBN Nightly News and lives by locks, exits and a hidden panic button, habits learned after a stalker’s intrusion early in her career. Then billionaire Lincoln Becker buys the network, and his assistant, Ida Parker, intercepts Ava before she can change and sends her, still camera-ready, to a private meeting. The book lists both enemies to lovers and marriage of convenience among its tropes, and the opening sets a public figure’s carefully guarded independence against a new owner’s authority. Start here if you want a billionaire enemies to lovers story where the first confrontation is about control.
Free enemies to lovers stories to read online
Exclusive novellas written for this site. The opening is free on the page, and the rest unlocks for free with a confirmed email.
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After Hours at Halvorsen
Priya Desai expected the CEO chair. The board gave it to the founder’s son, Erik Halvorsen, and ordered the two of them to share his glass corner office for the thirty days it takes to fight off a hostile raider. He is arrogant and infuriating, and she cannot stop watching him in the night-dark windows, so they make a bet: whoever cracks first gives up the deal. Its tropes include enemies to lovers, office romance and workplace forbidden, which makes it the free story to read if you want the boardroom version of the trope. It runs about 25,600 words.
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On Call with Dr. Vance
Charge nurse Bree Okonkwo has spent two years putting arrogant trauma surgeon Elliot Vance, Denver’s coldest surgeon, in his place. Then an elevator stalls with both of them inside, a blizzard locks the hospital down for thirty-six hours, and the only bed left is a narrow one in room 412. Its listed tropes are enemies to lovers, forced proximity, workplace romance, competence and a grumpy surgeon. Start here if you like a long-running feud that finally runs out of room, with a heroine who has always told him exactly what to do and now has to decide what she wants from him.
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Seven Nights with the Unseelie
Botanist Ros Ashgrove has hated the fae since they sent her grandmother home hollow, but her brother is dying and the only cure grows beneath a Cornish hill, in the garden of an Unseelie prince who cannot lie. Thane offers her the flower in exchange for seven nights at his court: each night, one truth or one touch, her choice, and he swears never to glamour her into wanting him. She wants him anyway, and the Queen is watching every move they make. Choose this free story for a fae bargain enemies to lovers romance with court intrigue and wordplay among its tropes.
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Above the Snowline
Wolf alpha Ronja Sundqvist breaks a three-hundred-year-old truce and climbs into dragon territory to find her stolen brother. Kaelith Rime, the Silvern flight’s merciless enforcer, is sworn to throw her back down the mountain, and then the men with the humming rifles turn out to want more than wolves. Its tropes list enemies to lovers, forbidden territory, fated mates, an ice-cold hero and forced proximity. Read it if you want the trope with shifters and dragons, where the line between enemies is a border their peoples have kept for three centuries.
Popular enemies to lovers books with reader guides
Books by other authors that the site has written guides for. Each note sticks to the publisher’s description and what readers have said, and the full guide covers series order and what to know before reading.
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Twisted Hate
Josh Chen, an aspiring doctor and the brother of Jules Ambrose’s best friend, has never met a woman he couldn’t charm except Jules, a former party girl studying for the bar exam. Their rivalry leads to one night together, and Josh proposes an enemies-with-benefits arrangement with simple rules meant to get her out of his system, until Jules starts to see more in him and past demons resurface. It is book three of the Twisted series and can be read as a standalone, and the site’s guide collects the author’s own content notes for it.
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The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Oraya is the adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king in a world where humans are treated as prey. She enters the Kejari, a legendary tournament run by the goddess of death, and is forced to ally with Raihn, a mysterious rival who is an enemy of her father’s crown and her biggest competitor. Readers praise its slow-burn, forced-proximity enemies to lovers arc and the pace of the tournament trials. It is book one of Crowns of Nyaxia, a series built from duets with different couples, and the guide covers the content warnings and reading order.
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Mile High
Evan Zanders is the Chicago hockey player fans love to hate, and he resents the new flight attendant on the team’s private plane. Stevie has been a flight attendant for years and promised herself never to get involved with an athlete again; she hates his image but not him, and road trips start to blur the lines. Its listed tropes open with enemies to lovers and also include forced proximity, found family and dual POV. It is the first Windy City book, and its author once worked as a flight attendant for an NHL team.
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Icebreaker
Anastasia Allen has worked her whole life for a shot at Team USA and skates on a full scholarship at the University of California, Maple Hills. When a facilities mishap forces the hockey team to share the rink with the figure skaters, she has to deal with captain Nate Hawkins, and she clearly cannot stand him. One reviewer singles out the way the book reverses the usual enemies to lovers roles, along with the banter and the hockey team’s humor and loyalty. It is book one of the Maple Hills series, and the guide walks through what the first chapter shows.
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The Predator
Morana Vitalio, a computer genius and the daughter of a rival family, infiltrates Tristan Caine’s house intending to kill him. Tristan is the only non-blooded member of the Tenebrae Outfit’s high circle, and a twenty-year-old mystery binds the two of them to a larger threat. The publisher lists enemies to lovers, forbidden romance and slow burn among its tropes, and bloggers praise the intense banter and the layered mafia world. It opens the Dark Verse, which is meant to be read in order, and every book carries a content warning in the author’s note.
How to choose your next enemies to lovers romance novel
Start with setting. If you want the office version, look at Ruthless Executives, Contracted Wife and the free story After Hours at Halvorsen, where the fight is over a company, a network or a CEO chair. For sports, Overtime Sins puts the rivalry on the ice and Pit Stop for Love puts it on a Formula One track, and the reader guides for Icebreaker and Mile High cover two more hockey takes on the trope.
For something darker, The Bratva’s Prize and Captured in the Night are mafia stories, the second with vampires, and the guide for The Predator covers a mafia rivalry that opens a connected series. For fantasy, The Winter King’s Assassin is a slow-burn romantasy, Seven Nights with the Unseelie is a free fae bargain story, Above the Snowline sets a wolf alpha against a dragon enforcer, and the guide for The Serpent and the Wings of Night covers a vampire tournament.
Then decide how long you want the rivalry to last before the turn. Some subtitles say slow burn outright. Others pair the rivalry with a second trope, like marriage of convenience in Contracted Wife or forced proximity in On Call with Dr. Vance, which changes how quickly the two are pushed together. The trope list on each book or story page is the most honest guide to that pacing.
Reading the free enemies to lovers stories
The free stories are novellas written exclusively for this site. They are not on Amazon or Kindle Unlimited. The opening chapters are free on each story’s page, and the rest unlocks for free once you confirm your email address. There is no payment and no subscription.
They are also a simple way to test a setting before choosing a full-length book. If After Hours at Halvorsen works for you, the billionaire rivals on the Alisson Bento shelf are the natural next step. If Seven Nights with the Unseelie or Above the Snowline does, the fantasy and paranormal books above are the place to look, and On Call with Dr. Vance points toward the workplace stories.
Questions readers ask
What is an enemies to lovers romance?
It is a romance where the two leads begin on opposite sides, as rivals, adversaries or people with a real grievance against each other, and end up together. The appeal is the turn: the reasons for the hostility have to be faced, not ignored. Some books frame it as rivals to lovers, where the conflict is competition rather than hatred, and the subtitles in the Alisson Bento catalog use both phrases.
Which Alisson Bento enemies to lovers book should I start with?
It depends on the setting you want. Overtime Sins is a hockey romance built on a career-ending hit, Ruthless Executives is a boardroom fight under a thirty-day mandate, The Bratva’s Prize is a mafia story about a painting tied to a raid, and The Winter King’s Assassin is a slow-burn romantasy that opens with an assassination attempt. Each book page lists its tropes and series.
Are there free enemies to lovers books to read online?
Yes. After Hours at Halvorsen, On Call with Dr. Vance, Seven Nights with the Unseelie and Above the Snowline all list enemies to lovers among their tropes. They are novellas written exclusively for this site, not sold on Amazon or Kindle Unlimited. The opening is free on each story page, and the rest unlocks for free once you confirm your email.
Are these enemies to lovers books standalones?
The Alisson Bento books on this page each describe themselves as standalones, even when they sit in a named series such as The Boardroom Rivals or The Laws of the Bratva. The third-party books vary: Twisted Hate can be read as a standalone, while the Dark Verse that opens with The Predator is meant to be read in order. Each reader guide covers series order.
What is the difference between enemies to lovers and rivals to lovers?
Rivals to lovers usually means competition: two drivers on the same track, two executives fighting over the same company, skaters and hockey players fighting for the same ice. Enemies to lovers often carries a deeper grievance, like a family destroyed or a career ended. The line is loose, and Pit Stop for Love calls itself rivals to lovers while its book page lists enemies to lovers.
How can I check what a book contains before reading?
Each Alisson Bento book page shows the book’s description, series and tropes, and each free story page lists its own tropes. For the third-party books, the site’s reader guides gather the publisher’s or author’s content notes where those exist. Checking those pages is the most reliable way to decide whether a book fits what you want to read next.