Publishing Date: July 6, 2020
Pages: 361
Contemporary Romance
The Premise from the Author: "The feud between Weston Lockwood and me started at the altar. Only neither of us attended the wedding, and the nuptials happened decades before either of us was born. Our grandfathers had been best friends and business partners, at least up until my grandfather’s wedding day—when his bride-to-be blurted out she couldn’t marry him because she was also in love with Weston‘s grandfather. The two men spent years fighting over Grace Copeland, who also happened to be their third business partner. But in the end, neither man could steal half of her heart away from the other. Eventually, they all went their separate ways. Our grandfathers married other women, and the two men became one of the biggest business rivals in history. Our fathers continued the family tradition of feuding. And then Weston and I did, too. For the most part, we kept as much distance as possible. Until the day the woman who started the feud died—and unexpectedly left one of the most valuable hotels in the world to our grandfathers to share. Now I’m stuck in a hotel with the man I was born to hate, trying to unravel the mess our families inherited. As usual, it didn’t take long for us to be at each other’s throats. Weston Lockwood was everything I hated: tall, smart, cocky, and too gorgeous for his own good. We were fire and ice. But that shouldn’t be an issue. Our families were used to being at war. There was just one minor problem, though. Every time Weston and I fought, we somehow wound up in bed" (Keeland).
My overall thoughts and review: Vi Keeland has been one of my favorite romance authors for a while now, and so, when she has a new release coming out, you can bet I'm pre-ordering and waiting to gobble the book up! I knew about 50% into this book that I loved this book, and by the time I finished it, I sat there saying out loud: "this is my favorite book of hers yet!" Seriously, I don't know how she will top this one but I'm sure she will! ;)
I LOVED The Rivals. I love a good enemies to lovers trope, but this definitely exceeded my expectations. Weston and Sophia weren't just from warring families in the hotel business, they grew up with one another and have a bit of a history. Their grandfathers both fell in love with the same woman many years ago, and in the end, neither of them ended up with her. But she died and left both of them shares of her hotel. Both grandfathers decided to send Weston and Sophia in to manage their shares, but also work to outbid the other in the 2% share that belonged to an organization. So while we had the element of what they said was just pent up anger that brought them together because they were working together and in a way, competing against one another, there was a lot of history there too. We got to see what really happened many years ago on prom night and learn what they thought of each other over the years. I loved their chemistry so much and how it leapt off the page from the very first chapter.
I think what really made this book for me was that I loved both of them as characters so much. Weston is still grieving from the death of his sister, he is a recovering alcoholic, and has always felt like the black sheep in the family. He just doesn't think very highly of himself and carries a lot of emotional baggage. He didn't feel worthy of Sophia many times throughout the book and it was good to see him gain confidence in himself over the course of the story. On the other hand, Sophia is coming to this after the end of a disastrous relationship where she found her ex-boyfriend with her cousin. On top of that, her father has always sided with her half-brother and makes her feel undervalued and incompetent. (Both families are essentially hot garbage to both of them). I loved that they were both able to see the other for who they really were and also at the same time bring out the best in each other. I loved how they were both incredibly strong, but also vulnerable. They seriously had amazing chemistry.
All in all, this book was amazing and I'm already thinking of rereading it because I loved it so much 😍💕😍💕😍💕
My rating of the book: ✮✮✮✮✮ (5/5 stars)
GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53421505-the-rivals
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Disclaimer: I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from the author. All opinions are my own.
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