What do you think?
Rate this book
Olympic Enemies
Three weeks at the Olympic Village.
Two Gymnasts who’ve been rivals for half a decade.
One tonne of sexual tension.
Forced to share a room at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Oliver and Lucas are less than happy. After five years of fighting, the team needs them to learn to work together if they stand any chance of medalling.
To make matters worse, Lucas, king of lone wolfs, has absolutely no desire to become best friends with the three musketeers who make up the rest of the male British Gymnastics team.
So when the press becomes intrusive towards Lucas and Oliver finally steps in to defend him, things are looking up. Until that sliver of common ground truly demonstrates how thin the line between love and hate really can be.
However, when their fighting turns to kissing which results in headlines in every newspaper and potential heartbreak for the pair, it isn’t just gold on the line - it’s their hearts
Two Gymnasts who’ve been rivals for half a decade.
One tonne of sexual tension.
Forced to share a room at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Oliver and Lucas are less than happy. After five years of fighting, the team needs them to learn to work together if they stand any chance of medalling.
To make matters worse, Lucas, king of lone wolfs, has absolutely no desire to become best friends with the three musketeers who make up the rest of the male British Gymnastics team.
So when the press becomes intrusive towards Lucas and Oliver finally steps in to defend him, things are looking up. Until that sliver of common ground truly demonstrates how thin the line between love and hate really can be.
However, when their fighting turns to kissing which results in headlines in every newspaper and potential heartbreak for the pair, it isn’t just gold on the line - it’s their hearts
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 6, 2023
19 people are currently reading
1642 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca J. Caffery
6 books228 followersRebecca J. Caffery is a queer romance author from Birmingham, UK, whose stories celebrate love, electric chemistry, fierce
emotion, and found families. She rediscovered her passion for writing in 2017
during a study abroad year in Canada, and she’s been writing one too many
enemies to lovers tropes since.
Rebecca is best known for her high-octane F1 romances, Pole
Position (2024) and First to Finish (2026), where fast cars meet
even faster hearts. With plans to expand into small-town romance, she continues
to craft stories that celebrate queer love in all its intensity and joy.
When she’s not writing, Rebecca can be found devouring queer
romance novels, binge-watching romantic dramas and romcoms, or passionately (read
screaming at her TV) supporting Arsenal Women’s football team and McLaren Formula
One Team.
Where else to find her?
Instagram - @RJCafferyAuthor
TikTok - BeckaWrites
emotion, and found families. She rediscovered her passion for writing in 2017
during a study abroad year in Canada, and she’s been writing one too many
enemies to lovers tropes since.
Rebecca is best known for her high-octane F1 romances, Pole
Position (2024) and First to Finish (2026), where fast cars meet
even faster hearts. With plans to expand into small-town romance, she continues
to craft stories that celebrate queer love in all its intensity and joy.
When she’s not writing, Rebecca can be found devouring queer
romance novels, binge-watching romantic dramas and romcoms, or passionately (read
screaming at her TV) supporting Arsenal Women’s football team and McLaren Formula
One Team.
Where else to find her?
Instagram - @RJCafferyAuthor
TikTok - BeckaWrites
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
March 21, 2023
I’m on BookTube now! =)
*I received this book as a free eBook ARC from NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for approving my request.*
”We fell asleep perfectly slotted together, my arm wrapped around his frame, holding him against my chest. Part of me never wanted to let go, and the other part was scared to death about what that might mean.”
trigger warnings:
When I went into this book I expected to get an m/m from enemies-to-lovers romance that played during the Olympic Games and I’m really happy to say that this was exactly what I got. Sure not everything about this book was perfect, but if you don’t overthink every single moment you’ll have a really good time and just page through it. At least that’s what I did and I enjoyed the book immensely. So first things first: Let’s address the big elephant in the room, the love story between Lucas and Oliver.
I personally loved their chemistry and the way they grated on each other. I always enjoy a good “from enemies-to-lovers” trope but very often authors don’t dare to actually go for it because it’s not easy to create two characters that dislike or even hate each other at first and then fall in love. To write this trope is certainly a challenge, but I think Rebecca J. Caffery did a good job with it. At the beginning of the book Lucas and Oliver are clearly not all too happy to be forced to share a room together but they just grit their teeth and go with it because they are both adults and they know how to be professional. Or well, at least that’s what they think until they actually share said room together. It doesn’t take long before they are at each other’s throats and the tension that built up between them over the course of four years almost gets the better of them. The thing is whatever the tension between them, it’s most definitely not entirely hostile and they both realize this pretty quickly when they go at each other without anyone to interrupt their fights.
I really lived and breathed for this because you could see their struggle while they tried to make sense of their attraction. It was always there and had been there for a long time, but none of them ever considered acting on it, or at least not until they were suddenly thrown in a room together without anyone who could stop them from doing something extremely irresponsible and stupid. Some might say the change from enemies to lovers went too quickly and I can see why some people would come to this conclusion, but I personally think it was done well. Those two boys had four years to check each other out and I’m sure if they’d have opened up to each other sooner they certainly would have been a couple already. It just took the Olympics to get them in a room together and to force them to talk. Also I don’t think Oliver was mean because he invited Lucas to tag along with the team but didn’t really expect him to say “yes” or kind of hoped he’d say “no”. If you’ve tried to befriend someone for four years and that person always declines your invitations you’ll get frustrated. It’s only natural and human. Plus and this is important Oliver, Tom and Julius are best friends and Lucas was busy with school and graduating. It couldn’t have been easy for Lucas to always turn them down, but he probably always felt uncomfortable with the group because it’s not easy to befriend three best friends that already have their inside jokes etc. So yes, I could understand both sides and was okay with the way they thought about each other at first. Once they hit it off, though! Oh, boy!
“What are you saying, you want to sleep together again? Why?”
“Again and again and again,” I added because why the fuck not. I could see, from the sparkle in his eyes and how the tip of his ears burnt red beneath his auburn curls, he was considering it.
Their interactions were amazing and full of sass and their banter was great! I always love it when people are honest and direct and those two knew exactly what they wanted and didn’t beat about the bush. It was really refreshing to see them just go for it and the fact they spoke about what they liked was something I truly appreciated. Of course they both think it’s only sex, for the reader it’s pretty clear it isn’t just sex, though. They were just too cute together and the way they cared about each other spoke volumes even if they tried to deny it all the time. I think they needed to have a go at each other in order to open up and to be able to get to know each other. And there were a lot of things they didn’t know about the other which brings me right to the surprising and well done grief rep of this book.
”I ran my fingers softly through his curls and in his sleep he shuffled closer to me until he had a leg thrown over my thigh. Lucas Evans was killing me and it was fucking ridiculous. He’d always been gorgeous, but it was so much easier to despise him when he was moody and set on going at this alone. Now, not so much.”
I didn’t expect to find a grief representation in this story but in my opinion it was done very well and the effect it had on the characters involved was pretty realistic. The focus clearly wasn’t on the grief rep and it was just a tiny part of the overall picture, but it really helped to understand where the characters were coming from. As the plot moves along we find out more and more about Lucas’s and Oliver’s backgrounds and why they are the way they are and this added a lot to my enjoyment of the book. As did the fact that this story played in the Olympic village and that we got to read about the competitions and sport events as well as the male gymnastics team practicing their routines on the floor. This aspect of the book was very interesting and I liked it a lot. I don’t know anything about gymnastics so I have no idea if the representation of the sport was done well. As a layman all I can say is that I enjoyed what I read and that it worked for me so please take this with a grain of salt if your knowledge about gymnastics is more extensive than mine. What I CAN say (as someone who danced professionally for years and took quite some injuries from it) is that the topic of a career in a physically demanding sport was handled very realistically and that I could relate to it. If you are an athlete you learn the limits of your body pretty quickly and to be at the Olympics is a one-time opportunity you have to grab with both of your hands.
He performed a full spin like it was nothing, like his feet were glued to the six inches of wood below him. “Was this worth losing two hundred pounds over?” he asked, arms fully extended in the air as he steadied himself for what I was sure was going to be a flawless flip sequence.
“Every penny,” I commented as I leant back against the chalk pit and followed the curve of every muscle as he flipped once, twice, and a third time to the other side of the beam without a single wobble. I’d always admired him on the floor, to the point I don’t think I appreciated he could be just as good on any other apparatus. He’d truly proven me wrong. His balance was impeccable.”
To be honest, just to read about how much Oliver appreciated Lucas’s skill made me happy because it’s one of those things only someone who does sports can understand. There is some beauty to moving your body in time, an invisible rhythm to your movements that causes you to lose track of time and allows you to live in the moment. It’s not just a pleasure if you do it yourself, you also gain so much enjoyment from just watching someone doing something they love and are good at as well. I absolutely adored this aspect of the book because it wasn’t just visible when they were on the mat but also when Oliver and Lucas watched each other secretly without the other even noticing. It was a lovely analogy and fit perfectly to them and their mutual love for gymnastics. I see what you did there, dear author. ;-)
”I wanted to wrap Oliver up and protect him from the world and that wasn’t normally how I felt towards anyone other than my best friend and my family. Yet Oliver had wormed his way into a place quite close to my heart and even if I didn’t want to admit it right now, this was way more than sex for me.”
Conclusion:
All told I had a really great time with “Olympic Enemies” and the book gave me everything I signed up for. Lucas and Oliver were a cute couple and their way from enemies to lovers might have been a little bit fast but also comprehensible. The banter and the friendships were amazing and I had a good time reading about the Olympic Games. If there was one thing I didn’t like about the book then it was the fact that the ending was too abrupt. I really would have liked to see some sort of exploration of the aftermath of the Olympics and how the characters dealt with their new reality. I guess that’s just a personal preference though and I can live with the ending the way it is. If you like m/m books about sports, the enemies-to-lovers trope and great friendships this book definitely might be a good read for you.
_____________________________
This book was so cute and gave me everything I signed up for. Enemies-to-lovers, Olympic games, competitions, sports, found family, the MCs being famous and an m/m relationship!
Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed it! =)
I just wish the ending would have been explored more, but I’ll get to that once I write my review!
This said: Full RTC soon! Stay tuned.
______________________________
I got this book as an ARC from NetGalley and because I had troubles with my e-copy I’m only reading it now. The idea of two male Olympic gymnasts that have an enemies-to-lovers trope going on was just too appealing and I couldn’t resist.
I’m extremely curious about this book now and I hope it will be a winner! (Pun intended! ;-P) *fingers crossed*
Find me on:
My Blog
Instagram
*I received this book as a free eBook ARC from NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for approving my request.*
”We fell asleep perfectly slotted together, my arm wrapped around his frame, holding him against my chest. Part of me never wanted to let go, and the other part was scared to death about what that might mean.”
trigger warnings:
When I went into this book I expected to get an m/m from enemies-to-lovers romance that played during the Olympic Games and I’m really happy to say that this was exactly what I got. Sure not everything about this book was perfect, but if you don’t overthink every single moment you’ll have a really good time and just page through it. At least that’s what I did and I enjoyed the book immensely. So first things first: Let’s address the big elephant in the room, the love story between Lucas and Oliver.
I personally loved their chemistry and the way they grated on each other. I always enjoy a good “from enemies-to-lovers” trope but very often authors don’t dare to actually go for it because it’s not easy to create two characters that dislike or even hate each other at first and then fall in love. To write this trope is certainly a challenge, but I think Rebecca J. Caffery did a good job with it. At the beginning of the book Lucas and Oliver are clearly not all too happy to be forced to share a room together but they just grit their teeth and go with it because they are both adults and they know how to be professional. Or well, at least that’s what they think until they actually share said room together. It doesn’t take long before they are at each other’s throats and the tension that built up between them over the course of four years almost gets the better of them. The thing is whatever the tension between them, it’s most definitely not entirely hostile and they both realize this pretty quickly when they go at each other without anyone to interrupt their fights.
I really lived and breathed for this because you could see their struggle while they tried to make sense of their attraction. It was always there and had been there for a long time, but none of them ever considered acting on it, or at least not until they were suddenly thrown in a room together without anyone who could stop them from doing something extremely irresponsible and stupid. Some might say the change from enemies to lovers went too quickly and I can see why some people would come to this conclusion, but I personally think it was done well. Those two boys had four years to check each other out and I’m sure if they’d have opened up to each other sooner they certainly would have been a couple already. It just took the Olympics to get them in a room together and to force them to talk. Also I don’t think Oliver was mean because he invited Lucas to tag along with the team but didn’t really expect him to say “yes” or kind of hoped he’d say “no”. If you’ve tried to befriend someone for four years and that person always declines your invitations you’ll get frustrated. It’s only natural and human. Plus and this is important Oliver, Tom and Julius are best friends and Lucas was busy with school and graduating. It couldn’t have been easy for Lucas to always turn them down, but he probably always felt uncomfortable with the group because it’s not easy to befriend three best friends that already have their inside jokes etc. So yes, I could understand both sides and was okay with the way they thought about each other at first. Once they hit it off, though! Oh, boy!
“What are you saying, you want to sleep together again? Why?”
“Again and again and again,” I added because why the fuck not. I could see, from the sparkle in his eyes and how the tip of his ears burnt red beneath his auburn curls, he was considering it.
Their interactions were amazing and full of sass and their banter was great! I always love it when people are honest and direct and those two knew exactly what they wanted and didn’t beat about the bush. It was really refreshing to see them just go for it and the fact they spoke about what they liked was something I truly appreciated. Of course they both think it’s only sex, for the reader it’s pretty clear it isn’t just sex, though. They were just too cute together and the way they cared about each other spoke volumes even if they tried to deny it all the time. I think they needed to have a go at each other in order to open up and to be able to get to know each other. And there were a lot of things they didn’t know about the other which brings me right to the surprising and well done grief rep of this book.
”I ran my fingers softly through his curls and in his sleep he shuffled closer to me until he had a leg thrown over my thigh. Lucas Evans was killing me and it was fucking ridiculous. He’d always been gorgeous, but it was so much easier to despise him when he was moody and set on going at this alone. Now, not so much.”
I didn’t expect to find a grief representation in this story but in my opinion it was done very well and the effect it had on the characters involved was pretty realistic. The focus clearly wasn’t on the grief rep and it was just a tiny part of the overall picture, but it really helped to understand where the characters were coming from. As the plot moves along we find out more and more about Lucas’s and Oliver’s backgrounds and why they are the way they are and this added a lot to my enjoyment of the book. As did the fact that this story played in the Olympic village and that we got to read about the competitions and sport events as well as the male gymnastics team practicing their routines on the floor. This aspect of the book was very interesting and I liked it a lot. I don’t know anything about gymnastics so I have no idea if the representation of the sport was done well. As a layman all I can say is that I enjoyed what I read and that it worked for me so please take this with a grain of salt if your knowledge about gymnastics is more extensive than mine. What I CAN say (as someone who danced professionally for years and took quite some injuries from it) is that the topic of a career in a physically demanding sport was handled very realistically and that I could relate to it. If you are an athlete you learn the limits of your body pretty quickly and to be at the Olympics is a one-time opportunity you have to grab with both of your hands.
He performed a full spin like it was nothing, like his feet were glued to the six inches of wood below him. “Was this worth losing two hundred pounds over?” he asked, arms fully extended in the air as he steadied himself for what I was sure was going to be a flawless flip sequence.
“Every penny,” I commented as I leant back against the chalk pit and followed the curve of every muscle as he flipped once, twice, and a third time to the other side of the beam without a single wobble. I’d always admired him on the floor, to the point I don’t think I appreciated he could be just as good on any other apparatus. He’d truly proven me wrong. His balance was impeccable.”
To be honest, just to read about how much Oliver appreciated Lucas’s skill made me happy because it’s one of those things only someone who does sports can understand. There is some beauty to moving your body in time, an invisible rhythm to your movements that causes you to lose track of time and allows you to live in the moment. It’s not just a pleasure if you do it yourself, you also gain so much enjoyment from just watching someone doing something they love and are good at as well. I absolutely adored this aspect of the book because it wasn’t just visible when they were on the mat but also when Oliver and Lucas watched each other secretly without the other even noticing. It was a lovely analogy and fit perfectly to them and their mutual love for gymnastics. I see what you did there, dear author. ;-)
”I wanted to wrap Oliver up and protect him from the world and that wasn’t normally how I felt towards anyone other than my best friend and my family. Yet Oliver had wormed his way into a place quite close to my heart and even if I didn’t want to admit it right now, this was way more than sex for me.”
Conclusion:
All told I had a really great time with “Olympic Enemies” and the book gave me everything I signed up for. Lucas and Oliver were a cute couple and their way from enemies to lovers might have been a little bit fast but also comprehensible. The banter and the friendships were amazing and I had a good time reading about the Olympic Games. If there was one thing I didn’t like about the book then it was the fact that the ending was too abrupt. I really would have liked to see some sort of exploration of the aftermath of the Olympics and how the characters dealt with their new reality. I guess that’s just a personal preference though and I can live with the ending the way it is. If you like m/m books about sports, the enemies-to-lovers trope and great friendships this book definitely might be a good read for you.
_____________________________
This book was so cute and gave me everything I signed up for. Enemies-to-lovers, Olympic games, competitions, sports, found family, the MCs being famous and an m/m relationship!
Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed it! =)
I just wish the ending would have been explored more, but I’ll get to that once I write my review!
This said: Full RTC soon! Stay tuned.
______________________________
I got this book as an ARC from NetGalley and because I had troubles with my e-copy I’m only reading it now. The idea of two male Olympic gymnasts that have an enemies-to-lovers trope going on was just too appealing and I couldn’t resist.
I’m extremely curious about this book now and I hope it will be a winner! (Pun intended! ;-P) *fingers crossed*
Find me on:
My Blog
February 4, 2023
”Just don’t try and kiss me again,” he whispered as his whole body brushed against mine to get out of the room, before he slammed the door behind him.
Olympic Enemies follows Oliver Ramsey and Lucas Evans, two British gymnasts heading to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. five years of animosity intensifies when they’re forced to share a room in the Olympic Village and face everything unspoken between them.
i immediately loved Lucas, i really connected with him— he’s pretty stoic, cold, and introverted, preferring his own company and thriving in his solitude. his type of character are always a personal fave. i guess i see a lot of myself in his type of character so i had a soft spot for him.
while Oliver...
he definitely wasn’t my favourite. i found him to be quite insincere, one of those “nice guy” types that claims is all love and is seemingly nice to everyone (so if anyone has an issue with them, it looks like it can’t possibly be anything they did because they’re just soooo nice... you know the type??).
i eventually warmed up to him once the romance took off, but im gonna explain below what exactly it was about him that i wasn’t the biggest fan of.
so, i ultimately had two main issues that makes this a general three stars:
a) the pacing.
b) the hostility between Lucas and Oliver
some authors really need to attend a writing class in pacing because it’s astounding how many authors shoot themselves in the foot when they don’t get this aspect right... arguably the most important aspect in constructing a well-written book— especially when it comes to romance.
i found the sudden shift from their tension-filled animosity, where they spewed a lot of venom at each other (at times i thought they took things a little too far), to being soft, wholesome and sweet.
don’t get me wrong, i actually thoroughly enjoyed their romantic relationship. the way they were so soft with each other made me all squishy inside. i was genuinely rooting for them and was fully convinced of their connection. i was just disappointed by the pacing because the depth and complexity of their relationship could have been fleshed out so much more but it wasn’t in favour of the jarring switch between love and hate.
i think it was more frustrating than usual here because the pair genuinely disliked one another pretty severely. like they couldn’t stand each other at all, it wasn’t weak, apathetic feelings.
which segues perfectly into the other aspect of this book that had me kinda
lemme tell you that some of their arguments in the beginning of the book had me WINCING. like it was so petty and mean and not in a juicy fun way... some of the insults were such low blows. mainly from Oliver. he could be so dismissive of Lucas.
Oliver made it his mission to simultaneously bring Lucas into the fold of the team (since he’s the captain) and isolate him. he said something of this sentiment several times:
I wished I could figure out how to break him out of this bubble, his bubble. It made me so angry I couldn’t find a way to get him out.
it was a vicious cycle of Oliver wanting to include Lucas but going about it in the most insincere way possible (one time he outright asks Lucas to come to dinner with them and says in his inner monologue he hopes Lucas says no????), get turned down by Lucas to only then be pissed off at Lucas for not wanting to join the team... and take all of his anger out on Lucas. REPEAT.
i read it like “well maybe if you’re less of a dick he’d feel more inclined to join you??? idk maybe that’s just me being crazy huh?” Oliver has made his opinions on Lucas pretty well known, so i didn’t blame Lucas for wanting to remain alone amongst the fold of his teammates.
it was an incredibly frustrating start to the book. i was worried i wouldn’t be able to get into it from this point onwards. but luckily the fast pacing was a blessing and a curse because it allowed me to see the authentic, fun-loving soft side of Oliver and we didn’t dwell too much on their past.
so as you can see the book has left me super conflicted 😭😭 i did enjoy this but im frustrated with aspects because i can see so clearly the potential this book has to be taken to the next level!
i genuinely think this had the bones to be a phenomenal story but it just felt a tad surface level. more time fleshing both sides of Lucas and Oliver’s relationship would have made this a fantastic read.
i will also add i loved the setting! the Olympics, but gymnastics in particular, was so fun to read! it was super refreshing, since i read so many mm sports romances that are exclusively hockey and American football. it was a nice change of pace.
also need to know if the author is British or not lmao. bcos if she’s not she nailed the vernacular but the characters saying “mom” made my eyeballs twitch. they were all so stereotypically British until they said that.
thank you to Backlit PR for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
January 14, 2023
Actual rating 2.5 stars.
Olympic Enemies gave me Red White and Royal Blue meets Boyfriend Material vibes. Just think: two guys who hate each other immensely start liking each other and keep their relationship a secret until the press finds out. Two guys named Lucas and Oliver (did Rebecca J. Caffery do this on purpose?).
Sadly, those vibes didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The story felt like a pale imitation of the two books mentioned above. Don’t get me wrong, the book is incredibly easy to read, it’s sweet, I loved the humor, and a smile danced on my face whenever Lucas and Oliver interacted. But the two voices were very indistinguishable, and sometimes I didn’t know if I was reading Lucas’ or Oliver’s chapters. Furthermore, this book needs far more editing, and can I scream for a moment about the constant use of the word whilst? Besides, I didn’t understand why Olympic athletes carelessly drank alcohol. They’re fulfilling their dream, and on their day off, they’re just getting drunk, including a visit to a tattoo shop at 1 AM?
I flew through the story within twenty-four hours, mostly because I started scanning the text instead of actually reading it at a certain point. And when the third-act breakup arrived, I almost threw my Kindle away in frustration.
I always hate it when I’m writing a more negative review. Sorry!!! And I know a lot of you will probably love this romance. So, if you want to read this book, please check out other, more positive reviews and just ignore mine.
Actual rating 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because I liked the sweetness of the romance.
I received an ARC from Backlit PR and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Follow me on Instagram
Olympic Enemies gave me Red White and Royal Blue meets Boyfriend Material vibes. Just think: two guys who hate each other immensely start liking each other and keep their relationship a secret until the press finds out. Two guys named Lucas and Oliver (did Rebecca J. Caffery do this on purpose?).
Sadly, those vibes didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The story felt like a pale imitation of the two books mentioned above. Don’t get me wrong, the book is incredibly easy to read, it’s sweet, I loved the humor, and a smile danced on my face whenever Lucas and Oliver interacted. But the two voices were very indistinguishable, and sometimes I didn’t know if I was reading Lucas’ or Oliver’s chapters. Furthermore, this book needs far more editing, and can I scream for a moment about the constant use of the word whilst? Besides, I didn’t understand why Olympic athletes carelessly drank alcohol. They’re fulfilling their dream, and on their day off, they’re just getting drunk, including a visit to a tattoo shop at 1 AM?
I flew through the story within twenty-four hours, mostly because I started scanning the text instead of actually reading it at a certain point. And when the third-act breakup arrived, I almost threw my Kindle away in frustration.
I always hate it when I’m writing a more negative review. Sorry!!! And I know a lot of you will probably love this romance. So, if you want to read this book, please check out other, more positive reviews and just ignore mine.
Actual rating 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because I liked the sweetness of the romance.
I received an ARC from Backlit PR and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Follow me on Instagram
January 14, 2023
2.75 🌟
Okay, writing this review is going to be hard, but it has to be done. This book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, as artistic gymnastics is my other big passion aside from reading. I have been following the sport for years now, and I have also practiced it myself, even if never at an agonistic level. So, you could say I know a thing or two about it.
I firmly believe in doing your research and doing it well, when you set about writing a book on a topic you are not well versed in. Caffery’s research was sloppy at best. You could see that she tried, but she did some very stupid mistakes when talking about the sport and the competition. It’s a romance, and that’s not the point, but it still bothered me a lot.
I know no one cares (you can skip this paragraph), but I do, so I am going to list some of the one I have encountered: 1) Gymnasts changing their routines two weeks before the Olympics, without actually talking to their coaches first isn’t something that happens, and usually athletes will downgrade their routines if they feel off, rather than upgrade them without having had the time to master the new skills, which takes a lot of effort and training, by the way; 2) At some point the author said that one of the secondary character’s floor routine lacked certain elements. I am sorry to inform her that there are core requirements in this sport, and no one would be stupid enough not to have them on their routine, because it doesn’t just cost them some minor deductions, it costs them whole points, so much so that competing would be pretty useless, to be honest; 3) The same character is then astounded when one of the MCs tells him he is going to help him by touching him while practising. Why would he be surprised, when coaches and teammates help each other this way all the times? 4) Some things didn’t make sense considering these people where Olympic athletes, you know, people who have spent their whole life training for this single moment. I do not think they would get wasted this close to competition, nor I think someone like Oliver wouldn’t talk about a specific thing I am not going to spoil before it was too late; 5) The competition order was wrong, there’s a specific sequence from qualifications to the last final, and that was not the one in the book.
I’m stopping the numbered list, but there were a lot of details that showed how little Caffery knows about the ins and outs of this sport: you cannot compete just one vault and say you could have gotten the final (you need two scores for that), you cannot compete a “Yurchenko” and have the highest scoring difficulty (Yurchenko is a group of vaults, you need to add 3.5 twists for it to score high), China isn’t usually great on Women’s floor, China and Japan are great in MAG, but Russia is as well (not saying, they will compete in Paris, but they were great before), the code of points changes every four years, so comparing one’s score to Max Whitlock’s from 2012 or 2016 doesn’t make any sense and you couldn’t have an E score without deductions in 2024.
As I said, I know that no one cares about this, but I was so annoyed every time I encountered a mistake like this. All you needed was to actually ask a gymfan, not a casual watcher. There are plenty of us on Twitter alone, I am sure you could find someone. I haven’t counted all this in my rating, by the way, or it would have been way lower.
Another annoying thing about the book, which wouldn’t have bothered me if the author hadn’t said anything, which made me detract 0.15 to the 3 stars I was intially going to give it, was that she declared on her social medias that Lucas is demisexual. In the book itself, Lucas says he is neither aro nor ace, and that he was just focussing on other things. Why on Earth would you say your MC is demi if he denies it himself? And it is not just some instance of internalised aphobia, because then the topic is never brought up again. I want some explanation, and I want it yesterday, it was so weird for me. Had I never seen the post, I would not have had any problems with it, because it wasn’t something said in a disrespectful way, just a very naive way, and I can tell the author did not have ill intent, however I am really wondering why one would go out their way making promo material stating something that is then contradicted in the book itself. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Some other issues I had with the book were that the switch from hardcore rivals to friends with benefit/lovers was too sudden; they said pretty mean things to each other and the next page they were having sex and being all smitten with each other… Also, and I think all of this can be explained with a lack of editing, the writing style was extremely amateurish and repetitive. Like, entire sentences were repeated over and over again and there are just so many times I can read that the MC has strawberry blonde curls before I throw my Kindle out of the window. At times it also felt like there were entire paragraphs missing, because the things being said didn’t seem connected in any way or they even contraddicted themselves one or two chapters later. Maybe it was a problem with the formatting of my ARC, but it was quite off-putting. I don’t really know how to judge this, honestly.
The reason why I am still giving this book almost three stars, is because I actually liked the characters, especially the secondary one, and it had some of my favourite tropes in it. The romance was also kinda cute, if you overlooked the sudden switch mentioned above.
I liked Ollie and Lucas’ backstory and the grief discourse was interesting. The way each of them dealt with their problems was interesting and I enjoyed how both of them lived their respective sexualities. I also liked how they supported each other throughout the book, and had there been a few more pages before it came to them being this cute, I would have enjoyed it even more. Tom and Julius were also interesting characters, and I would die for Alice, even though she had very little page time and she deserved a lot more.
The best thing, anyways, was how close to their family each of the characters were, because they were all different kinds of family, and it was nice to see all of them interact with each other. I liked that the families were supportive, for once, and they were all lovely.
In general, it was an entertaing read, one you can surely fly through. It’s short, it’s quick and it’s cute, and if you aren’t a gymnerd like me, you may even enjoy the sports bit in here. The demisexuality thing remains a mystery to be explained, but since it’s related to publicity and promo, I decided not to make it matter as much as I would have if the book had actually been problematic. If you go into this knowing there won’t be any demisexual representation, you will surely live this one better than I did.
Do I recommend this book? I don’t really know, to be honest. I mean, personally I would have edited the book a lot more, but maybe some readers won’t mind as much, seeing as the romance — which is the main point of a romance book, I am well aware — is cute, if a bit cheesy. I just wish everything else was just as well cared for as the romance.
Oh, and if you are expecting spice, this is not the book for you; the characters have a lot of sex and there’s a lot of sexual tension, but the scenes are not really described. It’s like when in some animes the characters just fade into the background, which wasn’t something I minded, but if you are looking for some explicitly described sex scenes you won’t find them in here. Again, it’s up to you and what you are looking for in a romance book.
Okay, writing this review is going to be hard, but it has to be done. This book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, as artistic gymnastics is my other big passion aside from reading. I have been following the sport for years now, and I have also practiced it myself, even if never at an agonistic level. So, you could say I know a thing or two about it.
I firmly believe in doing your research and doing it well, when you set about writing a book on a topic you are not well versed in. Caffery’s research was sloppy at best. You could see that she tried, but she did some very stupid mistakes when talking about the sport and the competition. It’s a romance, and that’s not the point, but it still bothered me a lot.
I know no one cares (you can skip this paragraph), but I do, so I am going to list some of the one I have encountered: 1) Gymnasts changing their routines two weeks before the Olympics, without actually talking to their coaches first isn’t something that happens, and usually athletes will downgrade their routines if they feel off, rather than upgrade them without having had the time to master the new skills, which takes a lot of effort and training, by the way; 2) At some point the author said that one of the secondary character’s floor routine lacked certain elements. I am sorry to inform her that there are core requirements in this sport, and no one would be stupid enough not to have them on their routine, because it doesn’t just cost them some minor deductions, it costs them whole points, so much so that competing would be pretty useless, to be honest; 3) The same character is then astounded when one of the MCs tells him he is going to help him by touching him while practising. Why would he be surprised, when coaches and teammates help each other this way all the times? 4) Some things didn’t make sense considering these people where Olympic athletes, you know, people who have spent their whole life training for this single moment. I do not think they would get wasted this close to competition, nor I think someone like Oliver wouldn’t talk about a specific thing I am not going to spoil before it was too late; 5) The competition order was wrong, there’s a specific sequence from qualifications to the last final, and that was not the one in the book.
I’m stopping the numbered list, but there were a lot of details that showed how little Caffery knows about the ins and outs of this sport: you cannot compete just one vault and say you could have gotten the final (you need two scores for that), you cannot compete a “Yurchenko” and have the highest scoring difficulty (Yurchenko is a group of vaults, you need to add 3.5 twists for it to score high), China isn’t usually great on Women’s floor, China and Japan are great in MAG, but Russia is as well (not saying, they will compete in Paris, but they were great before), the code of points changes every four years, so comparing one’s score to Max Whitlock’s from 2012 or 2016 doesn’t make any sense and you couldn’t have an E score without deductions in 2024.
As I said, I know that no one cares about this, but I was so annoyed every time I encountered a mistake like this. All you needed was to actually ask a gymfan, not a casual watcher. There are plenty of us on Twitter alone, I am sure you could find someone. I haven’t counted all this in my rating, by the way, or it would have been way lower.
Another annoying thing about the book, which wouldn’t have bothered me if the author hadn’t said anything, which made me detract 0.15 to the 3 stars I was intially going to give it, was that she declared on her social medias that Lucas is demisexual. In the book itself, Lucas says he is neither aro nor ace, and that he was just focussing on other things. Why on Earth would you say your MC is demi if he denies it himself? And it is not just some instance of internalised aphobia, because then the topic is never brought up again. I want some explanation, and I want it yesterday, it was so weird for me. Had I never seen the post, I would not have had any problems with it, because it wasn’t something said in a disrespectful way, just a very naive way, and I can tell the author did not have ill intent, however I am really wondering why one would go out their way making promo material stating something that is then contradicted in the book itself. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Some other issues I had with the book were that the switch from hardcore rivals to friends with benefit/lovers was too sudden; they said pretty mean things to each other and the next page they were having sex and being all smitten with each other… Also, and I think all of this can be explained with a lack of editing, the writing style was extremely amateurish and repetitive. Like, entire sentences were repeated over and over again and there are just so many times I can read that the MC has strawberry blonde curls before I throw my Kindle out of the window. At times it also felt like there were entire paragraphs missing, because the things being said didn’t seem connected in any way or they even contraddicted themselves one or two chapters later. Maybe it was a problem with the formatting of my ARC, but it was quite off-putting. I don’t really know how to judge this, honestly.
The reason why I am still giving this book almost three stars, is because I actually liked the characters, especially the secondary one, and it had some of my favourite tropes in it. The romance was also kinda cute, if you overlooked the sudden switch mentioned above.
I liked Ollie and Lucas’ backstory and the grief discourse was interesting. The way each of them dealt with their problems was interesting and I enjoyed how both of them lived their respective sexualities. I also liked how they supported each other throughout the book, and had there been a few more pages before it came to them being this cute, I would have enjoyed it even more. Tom and Julius were also interesting characters, and I would die for Alice, even though she had very little page time and she deserved a lot more.
The best thing, anyways, was how close to their family each of the characters were, because they were all different kinds of family, and it was nice to see all of them interact with each other. I liked that the families were supportive, for once, and they were all lovely.
In general, it was an entertaing read, one you can surely fly through. It’s short, it’s quick and it’s cute, and if you aren’t a gymnerd like me, you may even enjoy the sports bit in here. The demisexuality thing remains a mystery to be explained, but since it’s related to publicity and promo, I decided not to make it matter as much as I would have if the book had actually been problematic. If you go into this knowing there won’t be any demisexual representation, you will surely live this one better than I did.
Do I recommend this book? I don’t really know, to be honest. I mean, personally I would have edited the book a lot more, but maybe some readers won’t mind as much, seeing as the romance — which is the main point of a romance book, I am well aware — is cute, if a bit cheesy. I just wish everything else was just as well cared for as the romance.
Oh, and if you are expecting spice, this is not the book for you; the characters have a lot of sex and there’s a lot of sexual tension, but the scenes are not really described. It’s like when in some animes the characters just fade into the background, which wasn’t something I minded, but if you are looking for some explicitly described sex scenes you won’t find them in here. Again, it’s up to you and what you are looking for in a romance book.
January 17, 2023
NetGalley/Backlit PR Early Access - Honest Review. Olympic Enemies by Rebecca J Caffery (2023) has potential, but execution misses the mark. ★★
I soooo wanted to love this book since I first heard about it last year. Team GB 🇬🇧 Men’s Gymnastics at the Paris 2024 Olympics?! Sign me up! So I’ll give points to the overall idea and setting.
Lucas and Oliver are world class gymnasts representing Team GB at the Olympics. But after competing and training together for five years, there is no love lost between the two - enemies would be more like it.
We all know there’s a fine line between hate and lust 😉. They become roommates at the Olympic Village, and their years of animosity/passion finally takes over.
There are some cute moments, but I feel this story doesn’t really deliver. The pacing of the story seems clunky and dialog stiff, with jumps between chapters that don’t entirely follow. One chapter it says they have two days before something, and the next is that day.
I also would have liked some more illustration of the Olympic experience - opening ceremony seemed too quick and simple. I thought the same with many of the scenes and overall relationship dynamic. They got together fast, moved from friends w/ benefits to liking each other fast, fought and made up fast.
Overall - I still think it could be cute, but needs a lot more editing and revision.
I truly hate to give negative feedback, but I wish nothing but the best for this… it’s probably too late for major changes to occur, but one can wish?
I soooo wanted to love this book since I first heard about it last year. Team GB 🇬🇧 Men’s Gymnastics at the Paris 2024 Olympics?! Sign me up! So I’ll give points to the overall idea and setting.
Lucas and Oliver are world class gymnasts representing Team GB at the Olympics. But after competing and training together for five years, there is no love lost between the two - enemies would be more like it.
We all know there’s a fine line between hate and lust 😉. They become roommates at the Olympic Village, and their years of animosity/passion finally takes over.
There are some cute moments, but I feel this story doesn’t really deliver. The pacing of the story seems clunky and dialog stiff, with jumps between chapters that don’t entirely follow. One chapter it says they have two days before something, and the next is that day.
I also would have liked some more illustration of the Olympic experience - opening ceremony seemed too quick and simple. I thought the same with many of the scenes and overall relationship dynamic. They got together fast, moved from friends w/ benefits to liking each other fast, fought and made up fast.
Overall - I still think it could be cute, but needs a lot more editing and revision.
I truly hate to give negative feedback, but I wish nothing but the best for this… it’s probably too late for major changes to occur, but one can wish?
March 14, 2023
A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
This story did not work for me, pretty much from the start. I didn't get that far into it before I set it aside for something else and picked this up again during a flight. I skipped a lot, which is sad because I so wanted to like this. It felt like there was a lot of filler to make the book longer and I got bored. Even by skipping a large amount, I didn't miss anything and knew what was going on.
I love the gymnastics portion of the Olympics, specifically the women's but I have on occasion watched the men if it aired at the right time. It takes a lot of strength, both mental and physical to do what they do I think the author captured that perfectly. There are a few good points for this story, the friendship of the men's team, their families, reading about how they train and the descriptions of of what they do with their body, I could totally see everything.
It's the relationship between Lucas and Oliver that really wasn't working. They don't like each other and then they are kissing, then in love. It's shades of insta-love, and the dramatic back and forth of being together, then splitting up but how can you split up if it was just friends with benefits, and back to being together. They took stupid, STUPID risks when they had sex in public places. Seriously, they are sharing a room, they don't need to add excitement to their sex life by adding the risk of getting caught. They're kids! Well, young adults. They can't be so bored with their sex life already they feel like they have to spice it up. Lucas had worked so hard to be at the Olympics only to risk it for sex. I didn't buy it. He should have been the stern one and set better ground rules.
I wish I could give this a better rating but it was only ok for me. 2 stars. I can see how others would like it more though.
This story did not work for me, pretty much from the start. I didn't get that far into it before I set it aside for something else and picked this up again during a flight. I skipped a lot, which is sad because I so wanted to like this. It felt like there was a lot of filler to make the book longer and I got bored. Even by skipping a large amount, I didn't miss anything and knew what was going on.
I love the gymnastics portion of the Olympics, specifically the women's but I have on occasion watched the men if it aired at the right time. It takes a lot of strength, both mental and physical to do what they do I think the author captured that perfectly. There are a few good points for this story, the friendship of the men's team, their families, reading about how they train and the descriptions of of what they do with their body, I could totally see everything.
It's the relationship between Lucas and Oliver that really wasn't working. They don't like each other and then they are kissing, then in love. It's shades of insta-love, and the dramatic back and forth of being together, then splitting up but how can you split up if it was just friends with benefits, and back to being together. They took stupid, STUPID risks when they had sex in public places. Seriously, they are sharing a room, they don't need to add excitement to their sex life by adding the risk of getting caught. They're kids! Well, young adults. They can't be so bored with their sex life already they feel like they have to spice it up. Lucas had worked so hard to be at the Olympics only to risk it for sex. I didn't buy it. He should have been the stern one and set better ground rules.
I wish I could give this a better rating but it was only ok for me. 2 stars. I can see how others would like it more though.
June 21, 2023
Edit to review (5th Jan 2023) - I never even thought I'd have to write anything like this - but this book was planned by myself in 2019 and the first draft was written in early 2020, I hadn't even heard of or read Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. Whilst Boyfriend Material is a UK based M/M Romance with two characters called Oliver and Luc and Olympic Enemies has two British characters called Oliver and Lucas this is where the similarities end. This is a sports romance, with enemies to lovers as its main trope and Boyfriend Material is a contemporary romance with fake dating as it's main trope. Both sets of characters also have very different personalities.
This book idea lived rent-free in my mind for way too many years!
I fell in love with gymnastics as a sport at the 2012 London Olympics and have followed it ever since. Then in 2017 I fell in love with reading Sports Romance books and it seemed absolutely stupid to not combine my favorite sport to watch with the books I loved to read and three years later, during the pandemic, the first draft of this baby was born in 2020.
Olympic Enemies is a book that deals with many forms of grief - from the loss of a loved one to the loss of a dream, but it also contains every form of love. Bromances, sibling love, falling for the first time, trying to make it last forever. Every kind of love and it's one of the main things I truly adore about this book!
I'm so excited for everyone to finally get a chance to read it in February 2023!
This book idea lived rent-free in my mind for way too many years!
I fell in love with gymnastics as a sport at the 2012 London Olympics and have followed it ever since. Then in 2017 I fell in love with reading Sports Romance books and it seemed absolutely stupid to not combine my favorite sport to watch with the books I loved to read and three years later, during the pandemic, the first draft of this baby was born in 2020.
Olympic Enemies is a book that deals with many forms of grief - from the loss of a loved one to the loss of a dream, but it also contains every form of love. Bromances, sibling love, falling for the first time, trying to make it last forever. Every kind of love and it's one of the main things I truly adore about this book!
I'm so excited for everyone to finally get a chance to read it in February 2023!
undecided
January 3, 2023you see.... this book actually sounds fun. but THIS COVER IS FUCKING ATROCIOUS!!!!!! seriously who designed and illustrated it?? it's the ugliest cover i've seen in a long time. no author deserves this 😭💔 rebecca i'm so sorry they did this to your story :(
March 18, 2023
[Thanks to NetGalley for proving me with an arc!]
4.5 ⭐️
Maybe a little bit generous, but so what? This book made me feel things and I loved it!!!
4.5 ⭐️
Maybe a little bit generous, but so what? This book made me feel things and I loved it!!!
February 18, 2023
Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I've been going back and forth on how to rate this book. On the one hand, I absolutely devoured the premise. I love books that revolve around the Olympics, and this was no exception. Olympic Enemies follows Lucas and Oliver, who are teammates on the gymnastics team for GB. Normally, I read books where the athletes compete for different countries, so this was a different take and I was here for it. Lucas is more quiet, introverted, and one of only a few athletes that is open about his sexuality. Oliver is the captain of the gymnastics team and, while he labels himself as bisexual, has never admitted it out loud.
I loved Lucas as a character. For some reason, I found his character POV to be more fully fleshed out and I just got more emotionally from him. I dont know if it's because I feel like I would be a Lucas instead of an Oliver, or if there was truly more effort put into his POV, but I adored him. Oliver on the other hand, annoyed me. I wanted to love him as much as Lucas, and I didn't HATE him, but he was annoying. And his friendship with Tom and Julius in the beginning really irked me. They were like a little band of bullies. I will admit that I felt different towards the end though.
The one other thing that niggled at me was the pacing and flow of the book. On the whole, I felt like it jumped around a lot. And I kept flipping back and forth on my kindle wondering if I accidentally skipped a page. The flow was just all wrong for me. Despite that though, I did enjoy this book and it was quite an easy read.
I've been going back and forth on how to rate this book. On the one hand, I absolutely devoured the premise. I love books that revolve around the Olympics, and this was no exception. Olympic Enemies follows Lucas and Oliver, who are teammates on the gymnastics team for GB. Normally, I read books where the athletes compete for different countries, so this was a different take and I was here for it. Lucas is more quiet, introverted, and one of only a few athletes that is open about his sexuality. Oliver is the captain of the gymnastics team and, while he labels himself as bisexual, has never admitted it out loud.
I loved Lucas as a character. For some reason, I found his character POV to be more fully fleshed out and I just got more emotionally from him. I dont know if it's because I feel like I would be a Lucas instead of an Oliver, or if there was truly more effort put into his POV, but I adored him. Oliver on the other hand, annoyed me. I wanted to love him as much as Lucas, and I didn't HATE him, but he was annoying. And his friendship with Tom and Julius in the beginning really irked me. They were like a little band of bullies. I will admit that I felt different towards the end though.
The one other thing that niggled at me was the pacing and flow of the book. On the whole, I felt like it jumped around a lot. And I kept flipping back and forth on my kindle wondering if I accidentally skipped a page. The flow was just all wrong for me. Despite that though, I did enjoy this book and it was quite an easy read.
Read
January 15, 2023DNF'ed at 27%
So much exposition thrown in your face right off the bat made for a really weird start of this book. Had to dnf after giving it several more shots as the writing wasn't great. I didn't see any sort of chemistry between the leads and was honestly surprised that they suddenly were kissing out of the blue. Interesting concept but this one wasn't for me.
I received an ARC from Netgalley.
So much exposition thrown in your face right off the bat made for a really weird start of this book. Had to dnf after giving it several more shots as the writing wasn't great. I didn't see any sort of chemistry between the leads and was honestly surprised that they suddenly were kissing out of the blue. Interesting concept but this one wasn't for me.
I received an ARC from Netgalley.
February 6, 2023
Oliver and Lucas don't get along—they never have. Lucas has a chip on his shoulder the size of Wales and resents the fact that his gymnastics teammates haven't had to do as much as he has to get by; Oliver, as team captain, resents the fact that Lucas doesn't want to be best mates with the rest of the team.
I'm no gymnastics expert: I took a gymnastics class as a kid and was fast-tracked into the "you are too incompetent to ever turn a cartwheel" group (literally, they taught us "modified cartwheels" because they didn't think we had the talent for anything more complex), and that was the end of my gymnastics career. But I have a soft spot for gymnastics books, and it's rare to find one about men's gymnastics. The difference is fascinating to me for a couple of reasons, starting with that gymnastics is a rare sport in which women get more attention than men...but also because male gymnasts, who are usually older than female gymnasts, often get a very different training approach—they're allowed to have things like friends, and opinions, and maybe even occasional carbs. (They have some sport-specific similarities, too, like small stature—successful gymnasts tend to be on the short side because being short makes rotating midair easier. Something to do with center of gravity and other physics-related things!)
So here we have a book about two male gymnasts (plus their teammates), complete with pommel horse and rings. It will resonate well with fans of enemies-to-lovers books, I think; there's a great deal of screaming at each other and smoldering gazes before they get on with the boinking. For people more interested in gymnastics, though, I'd probably take a pass—it was hard to believe that these Olympic athletes in a body-focused sport were, well, Olympic athletes in a body-focused sport. A bit too much gorging on fast food, getting drunk as a skunk just days before competition, and the coach(!) covering for Oliver and Lucas when they bailed on practice(!), at least for my tastes. This is a book in which the heroes are tall and strapping, as befits a romance novel, but not necessarily as befits a book about gymnasts. My priority is the characters flipping through the air, but if your priority is the characters flipping out, flipping each other off, and then flipping naked into bed, this might be a better fit for you.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.
I'm no gymnastics expert: I took a gymnastics class as a kid and was fast-tracked into the "you are too incompetent to ever turn a cartwheel" group (literally, they taught us "modified cartwheels" because they didn't think we had the talent for anything more complex), and that was the end of my gymnastics career. But I have a soft spot for gymnastics books, and it's rare to find one about men's gymnastics. The difference is fascinating to me for a couple of reasons, starting with that gymnastics is a rare sport in which women get more attention than men...but also because male gymnasts, who are usually older than female gymnasts, often get a very different training approach—they're allowed to have things like friends, and opinions, and maybe even occasional carbs. (They have some sport-specific similarities, too, like small stature—successful gymnasts tend to be on the short side because being short makes rotating midair easier. Something to do with center of gravity and other physics-related things!)
So here we have a book about two male gymnasts (plus their teammates), complete with pommel horse and rings. It will resonate well with fans of enemies-to-lovers books, I think; there's a great deal of screaming at each other and smoldering gazes before they get on with the boinking. For people more interested in gymnastics, though, I'd probably take a pass—it was hard to believe that these Olympic athletes in a body-focused sport were, well, Olympic athletes in a body-focused sport. A bit too much gorging on fast food, getting drunk as a skunk just days before competition, and the coach(!) covering for Oliver and Lucas when they bailed on practice(!), at least for my tastes. This is a book in which the heroes are tall and strapping, as befits a romance novel, but not necessarily as befits a book about gymnasts. My priority is the characters flipping through the air, but if your priority is the characters flipping out, flipping each other off, and then flipping naked into bed, this might be a better fit for you.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.
January 29, 2023
Olympic Enemies turned out to be one of my guilty pleasure books.
I was super excited for this story since the blurb came out, and while the execution of a very promising idea was quite sloppy, I thoroughly enjoyed most parts of the book.
Olympic Enemies is pitched as a sports enemy to lovers, but to be honest the reasons Luc and Oliver were "enemies" are really weak and childish - and the fact they leave their animosity behind quite quickly confirms this. As it's happens quite often with a dual POV romance, I could empathize with one of the characters way more than the other: Oliver was on the right almost every time for me, while I found Luc's mindset very bewildering and frustrating at times.
The romance is very sweet and the author succeeds in creating a swoony (but still kind of secret) relationship which makes you root for the couple.
The book has some problems, like the fact that the gymanstics aspect of the story is not carefully researched, that the whole grandeur surrounding an Olympic Games final is kind of hurried, some of the side characters looked to be set up for a bigger role and then nothing happenned (Brayden) and that Luc's character can be super annoyin - but it's overall an easy and pleasant read!
Thank you NetGalley and Wild Rose Press for the ARC!
I was super excited for this story since the blurb came out, and while the execution of a very promising idea was quite sloppy, I thoroughly enjoyed most parts of the book.
Olympic Enemies is pitched as a sports enemy to lovers, but to be honest the reasons Luc and Oliver were "enemies" are really weak and childish - and the fact they leave their animosity behind quite quickly confirms this. As it's happens quite often with a dual POV romance, I could empathize with one of the characters way more than the other: Oliver was on the right almost every time for me, while I found Luc's mindset very bewildering and frustrating at times.
The romance is very sweet and the author succeeds in creating a swoony (but still kind of secret) relationship which makes you root for the couple.
The book has some problems, like the fact that the gymanstics aspect of the story is not carefully researched, that the whole grandeur surrounding an Olympic Games final is kind of hurried, some of the side characters looked to be set up for a bigger role and then nothing happenned (Brayden) and that Luc's character can be super annoyin - but it's overall an easy and pleasant read!
Thank you NetGalley and Wild Rose Press for the ARC!
January 10, 2023
An enemies to lovers queer love story of Olympic hopefuls. I love everything gymnastics and to have a love story within it was amazing. Lucas and Oliver were teammates and roommates at the Olympics. They never got along until they were paired up as roommates. The romance and friendship unfolded in a beautiful way. I loved Lucas and Oliver together. They were so cute together. The emotional, physical and mental hardships to be an athlete and being queer was understandably difficult. Which was sad. Love is love.
I had a few oh no about the rest of the story. One was that the scenes were not consistent. For instance they were going to the gym to practice and then they were off to their room without actually practicing their skills. For Olympic hopefuls that seemed unlikely especially with their coaches around. Also since I’m a huge fan of gymnastics I know how the Olympics showcase the events. The author decided to switch them around and I wasn’t a big fan of that. I started to pick apart some of the apparatus skills or events because she wasn’t correct on some of them. Which took away the joy in reading this story. There also was a degrading word used for being small that I won’t repeat but it was very offensive. I felt there was no need to describe a 5 ft person with that word.
The ending felt unfinished. I would like to know what happened to them in six months time.
Overall, I enjoyed the love story itself, but everything else was a bit of a mess and I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have loved to.
I received this Arc from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
I had a few oh no about the rest of the story. One was that the scenes were not consistent. For instance they were going to the gym to practice and then they were off to their room without actually practicing their skills. For Olympic hopefuls that seemed unlikely especially with their coaches around. Also since I’m a huge fan of gymnastics I know how the Olympics showcase the events. The author decided to switch them around and I wasn’t a big fan of that. I started to pick apart some of the apparatus skills or events because she wasn’t correct on some of them. Which took away the joy in reading this story. There also was a degrading word used for being small that I won’t repeat but it was very offensive. I felt there was no need to describe a 5 ft person with that word.
The ending felt unfinished. I would like to know what happened to them in six months time.
Overall, I enjoyed the love story itself, but everything else was a bit of a mess and I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have loved to.
I received this Arc from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
January 2, 2023
Stories about rivals who end up lovers are like catnip to me. These two British fellas have been enemies for years and end up on the same small men's gymnastic team at the Olympics. They're both initially thrilled of course to be roommates as they get ready to compete in Paris on top of everything else. Slowly they figure out that they maybe don't have the whole picture of the other and end up becoming friends and then more. Neither of them especially needs the media attention so it's a lot of secretive schmoozing.
The only thing I didn't love about this was that I'm not incredibly familiar with gymnastics lingo and had to Youtube what everything meant because we just jumped right in there. If I was more familiar with the sport, I would have been able to context clue my way through it. But that might be 100% a me problem so don't hold it against the book. I would not say it has any more or less lingo than any other sports romance I've read lately, it was just unfamiliar.
Thank you to Netgalley, Rebecca J Caffery, and The Wild Rose Press, Inc. for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.
The only thing I didn't love about this was that I'm not incredibly familiar with gymnastics lingo and had to Youtube what everything meant because we just jumped right in there. If I was more familiar with the sport, I would have been able to context clue my way through it. But that might be 100% a me problem so don't hold it against the book. I would not say it has any more or less lingo than any other sports romance I've read lately, it was just unfamiliar.
Thank you to Netgalley, Rebecca J Caffery, and The Wild Rose Press, Inc. for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.
January 8, 2023
Rebecca Caffery brilliantly creates a story that of Lucas & Oliver, enemies to lovers, that has you not wanting their story to end! I love the concept of Olympic Enemies & how the two overcome the obstacles that are put in their life to only grow closer together & into each others lives. It’s through our pain that we can find relief & those around us that help us through difficult times. I greatly enjoyed how the topic of Oliver being outed by the press & the anger he experienced from that moment, because it’s a precious moment that some are forced out. A very happy read & loved the the inclusion for the upcoming Olympics. Here’s to hoping that we can see more of Lucas & Oliver! I know we aren’t supposed to judge a book by the cover but having curly hair myself my only gripe is that Lucas’s curly hair is constantly referenced yet neither of the characters on the cover have curly hair.
Thank you NetGalley & Wild Rose Press for this eARC!
Thank you NetGalley & Wild Rose Press for this eARC!
June 15, 2023
This book was so cute! I enjoyed the two main characters tremedously and I'm always here for some enemies to lovers tropes.
January 5, 2023
I have been wanting an olympic romance book for so long and this book delivered me exactly that. Oliver and Lucas are adorable and I need more of them. I loved seeing all of the different small ways that they fell in love with each other.
I need a book about Tom and Alicia.
I received an arc through netgalley.
(The book has way too many b99 references and I hate that but it's a personal thing)
I need a book about Tom and Alicia.
I received an arc through netgalley.
(The book has way too many b99 references and I hate that but it's a personal thing)
January 9, 2023
This book had a lot of potential, and there were a lot of things I enjoyed about it, but ultimately, it didn't live up to its potential for me. I enjoyed the setting and the plot. The story certainly has a fun premise, and I liked the execution. But I found the writing to be a little rocky, and I especially felt like the pacing of the romance was off, which is mainly where the book lost me. They would go from fighting to being nice to each other to having sex super quickly, and sometimes they went right back into fighting, and every time their fights had barely any substance, it all felt a little forced. Because of this, I didn't really like their dynamic, and I wasn't convinced by the romance.
Read
February 25, 2023Big thanks to NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press for providing me with an ARC.
Won't be rating this because my rule is not to rate ARCS if I would give them below 3 stars. I will still share my honest opinion.
This was well …oof. Enemies to lovers slash sports romance sounds exactly like something I would enjoy but sadly it was somewhat of a miss for me. I didn’t dislike it, it’s just not particularly memorable or made me invested.
I didn’t have that many issues with the story itself I guess, although (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) it felt like there wasn't nearly enough sports for a sport book. I liked the friendship and family aspects. There was potential to explore some themes like grief or queerness in sports more but it wasn’t.
The two main characters hooked up pretty fast and then they went back and fort for the rest of the book, which is fine in terms of plot I guess I just didn’t really feel the ~vibe~ or the chemistry. The build up between them was lacking and there is nothing worse for me than when I just don’t care. Like I didn’t really care about the stakes, the relationship or the characters. The plot goes in the direction of friends (enemies?) with benefits and a large portion of the story is them trying to hide it from the others. Add a lot of miscommunication on top of that and then only somewhere closer to the end to they start bonding more which didn’t feel as enough for me to actually root for them or care at this point. I mean the idea of “what if we hated eachother but then we had to be rOoMaTes” sounds so lit but the “enemies to lovers” trope wasn’t giving anything really because the whole point of it is to have that slow transition which wasn’t happening here. It seriously feels as majority of books today get pitched with certain tropes just to attract readers but the thing is a lot of them will be disappointed when the book well… doesn’t actually have… that.
Since it’s in dual pov the voices kept overlapping for me. Like I rarely comment on the writing style, as English is not my native language so I don’t always notice as many issues as others would, but the writing here felt very stiff?? Unpolished??
Idk I feel like this would be great for anyone who wants quick carefree queer romance but I also think it would benefit from better pacing and a lot more editing. I wish I could say more positive things but it’s been like a month since I read it and like I mentioned it’s just not very memorable…
Won't be rating this because my rule is not to rate ARCS if I would give them below 3 stars. I will still share my honest opinion.
This was well …oof. Enemies to lovers slash sports romance sounds exactly like something I would enjoy but sadly it was somewhat of a miss for me. I didn’t dislike it, it’s just not particularly memorable or made me invested.
I didn’t have that many issues with the story itself I guess, although (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) it felt like there wasn't nearly enough sports for a sport book. I liked the friendship and family aspects. There was potential to explore some themes like grief or queerness in sports more but it wasn’t.
The two main characters hooked up pretty fast and then they went back and fort for the rest of the book, which is fine in terms of plot I guess I just didn’t really feel the ~vibe~ or the chemistry. The build up between them was lacking and there is nothing worse for me than when I just don’t care. Like I didn’t really care about the stakes, the relationship or the characters. The plot goes in the direction of friends (enemies?) with benefits and a large portion of the story is them trying to hide it from the others. Add a lot of miscommunication on top of that and then only somewhere closer to the end to they start bonding more which didn’t feel as enough for me to actually root for them or care at this point. I mean the idea of “what if we hated eachother but then we had to be rOoMaTes” sounds so lit but the “enemies to lovers” trope wasn’t giving anything really because the whole point of it is to have that slow transition which wasn’t happening here. It seriously feels as majority of books today get pitched with certain tropes just to attract readers but the thing is a lot of them will be disappointed when the book well… doesn’t actually have… that.
Since it’s in dual pov the voices kept overlapping for me. Like I rarely comment on the writing style, as English is not my native language so I don’t always notice as many issues as others would, but the writing here felt very stiff?? Unpolished??
Idk I feel like this would be great for anyone who wants quick carefree queer romance but I also think it would benefit from better pacing and a lot more editing. I wish I could say more positive things but it’s been like a month since I read it and like I mentioned it’s just not very memorable…
February 10, 2023
I’m not entirely sure how to sum up my thoughts on Olympic Enemies. It’s not the best sports romance I’ve ever read, not by a long shot. It had some pretty major pacing issues and I didn’t always vibe with the writing style. But, it is genuinely a lot of fun and I positively flew through it.
Gymnastics are my absolute favorite part of the Olympics and I’m always on the hunt for more unique types of sports romances, so when I saw the synopsis for Olympic Enemies, I knew that I had to check it out. And ultimately, I’m glad that I did. Lucas and Oliver were really fun characters to follow around, even if I didn’t always agree with their decisions or their emotional outbursts, and I really enjoyed their connection and dynamic. At the beginning of this book, you truly feel the hostility between the two of them - their arguments are pretty upsetting and mean-spirited - ESPECIALLY from Oliver, who never held back from dishing out the lowest blow. But it also made me believe this enemies-to-lovers dynamic moreso than I normally do in books. After an explosive argument turned sexual tension, they develop this friends-with-benefits situation, without realizing that they’re falling for each other, and I LOVE that dynamic. Once they stopped fighting all the time and actually listened to each other and broke down their walls, they had a lovely and healthy relationship that I was rooting for.
I also really loved all of the side characters. Julius, Tom, and Alicia are unconditionally supportive of Lucas and Oliver and I loved watching them all as a group. I also really liked the few scenes we got with Lucas’ sister Lucy (though…come on…couldn’t pick any other name??).
My primary complaint with this was the writing style. It desperately needs another passthrough or two from an editor to clean up the mistakes and work on the pacing. The characters are already starting to feel “love” by the 50% mark and it just leaves you wondering where it’s going to go from there. (I wish that we had gotten to see more of the actual Olympic Games instead of most of it happening during training segments.) While I enjoyed the characters, I ultimately wanted more emotional depth from all of the scenes. There was a lot of telling and not showing how these intense emotional moments were impacting the characters. In a lot of the more serious moments, the dialogue stood out as especially unnatural - perhaps that’s more of a cultural difference that I didn’t understand, but they felt exceedingly formal with each other and it didn’t feel conversational.
All of that said, I had a really good time reading this. It’s low-stakes and easy to devour. I would definitely read this if you’re looking for something to get you out of a reading slump!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!
Gymnastics are my absolute favorite part of the Olympics and I’m always on the hunt for more unique types of sports romances, so when I saw the synopsis for Olympic Enemies, I knew that I had to check it out. And ultimately, I’m glad that I did. Lucas and Oliver were really fun characters to follow around, even if I didn’t always agree with their decisions or their emotional outbursts, and I really enjoyed their connection and dynamic. At the beginning of this book, you truly feel the hostility between the two of them - their arguments are pretty upsetting and mean-spirited - ESPECIALLY from Oliver, who never held back from dishing out the lowest blow. But it also made me believe this enemies-to-lovers dynamic moreso than I normally do in books. After an explosive argument turned sexual tension, they develop this friends-with-benefits situation, without realizing that they’re falling for each other, and I LOVE that dynamic. Once they stopped fighting all the time and actually listened to each other and broke down their walls, they had a lovely and healthy relationship that I was rooting for.
I also really loved all of the side characters. Julius, Tom, and Alicia are unconditionally supportive of Lucas and Oliver and I loved watching them all as a group. I also really liked the few scenes we got with Lucas’ sister Lucy (though…come on…couldn’t pick any other name??).
My primary complaint with this was the writing style. It desperately needs another passthrough or two from an editor to clean up the mistakes and work on the pacing. The characters are already starting to feel “love” by the 50% mark and it just leaves you wondering where it’s going to go from there. (I wish that we had gotten to see more of the actual Olympic Games instead of most of it happening during training segments.) While I enjoyed the characters, I ultimately wanted more emotional depth from all of the scenes. There was a lot of telling and not showing how these intense emotional moments were impacting the characters. In a lot of the more serious moments, the dialogue stood out as especially unnatural - perhaps that’s more of a cultural difference that I didn’t understand, but they felt exceedingly formal with each other and it didn’t feel conversational.
All of that said, I had a really good time reading this. It’s low-stakes and easy to devour. I would definitely read this if you’re looking for something to get you out of a reading slump!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!
January 14, 2023
This is a dual point of view between the two leads, which I always love in a romance with getting both sides of the story.
Gymnastics books are rare & as gymnastics was basically my first love for 15 years, I get ecstatic when I find one!
I will say occasionally the way gymnastics moves were described was strange to me, but perhaps that’s my being an American thing & we describe them differently?! Also, as they competed they didn’t follow Olympic order of the events, which seems odd. & not to be pedantic, but the order in which team & event finals unfolded didn’t follow the Olympic pattern. I have never been to the Olympics but I have watched avidly for years & as a competitive gymnast of over a decade, these moments took me out of the story.
There was an instance described where one of the leads pushed the other one against the wall in anger & that didn’t feel safe, sound or necessary, nor did it create a solid foundation for a relationship, enemies or not.I did keep reading & the switch from hostile enemies to lovers happened extremely quickly.
As I kept reading, I did enjoy the last third of the book & how everything happened. There were some great bits that conveyed important things, which I don’t want to spoil.
I wanted to love this so much & I thought the concept was amazing, but it just wasn’t quite right for me personally.
Massive thanks to NetGalley & The Wild Rose Press for the arc, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.
Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains brief mentions of death of loved one who is pregnant, grief, injury & forced coming out via leaked photos.
Gymnastics books are rare & as gymnastics was basically my first love for 15 years, I get ecstatic when I find one!
I will say occasionally the way gymnastics moves were described was strange to me, but perhaps that’s my being an American thing & we describe them differently?! Also, as they competed they didn’t follow Olympic order of the events, which seems odd. & not to be pedantic, but the order in which team & event finals unfolded didn’t follow the Olympic pattern. I have never been to the Olympics but I have watched avidly for years & as a competitive gymnast of over a decade, these moments took me out of the story.
There was an instance described where one of the leads pushed the other one against the wall in anger & that didn’t feel safe, sound or necessary, nor did it create a solid foundation for a relationship, enemies or not.I did keep reading & the switch from hostile enemies to lovers happened extremely quickly.
As I kept reading, I did enjoy the last third of the book & how everything happened. There were some great bits that conveyed important things, which I don’t want to spoil.
I wanted to love this so much & I thought the concept was amazing, but it just wasn’t quite right for me personally.
Massive thanks to NetGalley & The Wild Rose Press for the arc, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.
Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains brief mentions of death of loved one who is pregnant, grief, injury & forced coming out via leaked photos.
January 19, 2023
I picked up this book because I adore both rivals to lovers and also the Olympics, especially the gymnastics. It focuses more on the relationship between the two main characters, Oliver and Lucas, than the Olympics or gymnastics itself though, which can feel more like a setting and sometimes plot device rather than a central part of the story. The romance itself was fairly cute though and I enjoyed it for the most part although sometimes I had to remind myself that I was reading about men and not boys, as they seemed a tad immature and somewhat separated from the more senior adults in the novel.
There is a great base story here but I do think it could do with some more editing and perhaps a new cover. The balance between the athletes personal lives and their training at an Olympic level seemed somewhat skewed although I’m guessing their amount of training was probably not written about as much in favour of how they spent their free time in the Olympic village and Paris, despite the fact that the two men would have been sharing a training room almost all day every day. Sometimes I also got the POV’s between Lucas and Oliver mixed up if I happened to put the book down in the middle of a chapter, they can come off as fairly similar at times despite the story trying to tell us how different they are from each other.
It’s a quick and easy read though and if you enjoy the things mentioned in the synopsis, being mostly romance, gymnastics and the Olympics, then I’d recommend giving it a try.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review and opinion!
There is a great base story here but I do think it could do with some more editing and perhaps a new cover. The balance between the athletes personal lives and their training at an Olympic level seemed somewhat skewed although I’m guessing their amount of training was probably not written about as much in favour of how they spent their free time in the Olympic village and Paris, despite the fact that the two men would have been sharing a training room almost all day every day. Sometimes I also got the POV’s between Lucas and Oliver mixed up if I happened to put the book down in the middle of a chapter, they can come off as fairly similar at times despite the story trying to tell us how different they are from each other.
It’s a quick and easy read though and if you enjoy the things mentioned in the synopsis, being mostly romance, gymnastics and the Olympics, then I’d recommend giving it a try.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review and opinion!
January 4, 2023
I could not be happier that my first book of 2023 (I refuse to count the two I dnf’ed) was a four-star story. Olympic Enemies is a gymnastic sports romance, enemies to lovers, with only one bed set in the Olympic Village in Paris. Can I get a yes, please?
Lucas and Oliver have been rival gymnasts for the past five years but are currently on the same team for the 2024 Olympics. Not only do they have to see each other every day, but they also have to dorm together (sniggers evilly). The two can’t seem to speak to each other without flying off the handle, several times nearly coming to blows. The tension is thick, and Oliver keeps baiting Lucas because it’s the only time the man shows emotion.
The story starts with arguing, shouting, and manhandling before suddenly, it's not fists clashing but lips. The only thing I could say here is that the switch between hating and f*cking was quick. I get that the tension they held towards each other was pretty heated, and both wanted this for a long time, but Oliver and Lucas jumped from hating each other to pretty much boyfriends (though they were denying it) very quickly.
Besides this small niggle, I liked everything else about this book. The story was quick and filled with anticipation and excitement as the boys, including Julius and Tom, who made up the rest of team GB, trained and took part in the Olympics. I loved the team; they had so much banter and friendship that it was great to read. Highly recommend.
TW: mention of past death of a partner and unborn child, past trauma, public outing,
Lucas and Oliver have been rival gymnasts for the past five years but are currently on the same team for the 2024 Olympics. Not only do they have to see each other every day, but they also have to dorm together (sniggers evilly). The two can’t seem to speak to each other without flying off the handle, several times nearly coming to blows. The tension is thick, and Oliver keeps baiting Lucas because it’s the only time the man shows emotion.
The story starts with arguing, shouting, and manhandling before suddenly, it's not fists clashing but lips. The only thing I could say here is that the switch between hating and f*cking was quick. I get that the tension they held towards each other was pretty heated, and both wanted this for a long time, but Oliver and Lucas jumped from hating each other to pretty much boyfriends (though they were denying it) very quickly.
Besides this small niggle, I liked everything else about this book. The story was quick and filled with anticipation and excitement as the boys, including Julius and Tom, who made up the rest of team GB, trained and took part in the Olympics. I loved the team; they had so much banter and friendship that it was great to read. Highly recommend.
TW: mention of past death of a partner and unborn child, past trauma, public outing,
Read
January 15, 2023I'm going to refrain from rating this. I definitely enjoyed the concept and found the romance cute, but there was no easing from 'enemies' to 'lovers', which I have to admit, bummed me out a little. And while I warmed up to them later, I think the first impression made by the boys on the readers could have been better. I also definitely think Lucas felt a little bit too stereotypically 'pick-me', with a pretty self-centered attitude that we never really see addressed.
It was a very fast-paced book which was a win for me because I have NO attention span, but I wish there was more tension and variation in the pacing.
Overall, if you're in it for the romance, this is for you! If you're in it for the 'enemies-to-lovers', or for the sports, this book may not be the first that comes to mind.
I was given an e-ARC by Netgalley in exchanged for an honest review. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this.
It was a very fast-paced book which was a win for me because I have NO attention span, but I wish there was more tension and variation in the pacing.
Overall, if you're in it for the romance, this is for you! If you're in it for the 'enemies-to-lovers', or for the sports, this book may not be the first that comes to mind.
I was given an e-ARC by Netgalley in exchanged for an honest review. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this.
January 22, 2023
3.5 ⭐️
Forever on the hunt for something that will give the same feels as RWRB? The good news is that this comes close!
Lucas and Oliver are teammates competing at the Paris Olympics and are roomed together, which is great except they hate each other. I think you can fill in the trope blanks from there.
Overall, I enjoyed it, this was better than other sport romances because of a personal attachment to the Olympics so I really loved that. However, I felt the plot jumped around a lot without really getting to the meat of what was going on, while also really telling the reader what is happening instead of showing us. Also, I read this as an ARC so there were quite a few errors I noticed, but I’m sure these would have been cleaned up for publishing.
Overall / would recommend!
Forever on the hunt for something that will give the same feels as RWRB? The good news is that this comes close!
Lucas and Oliver are teammates competing at the Paris Olympics and are roomed together, which is great except they hate each other. I think you can fill in the trope blanks from there.
Overall, I enjoyed it, this was better than other sport romances because of a personal attachment to the Olympics so I really loved that. However, I felt the plot jumped around a lot without really getting to the meat of what was going on, while also really telling the reader what is happening instead of showing us. Also, I read this as an ARC so there were quite a few errors I noticed, but I’m sure these would have been cleaned up for publishing.
Overall / would recommend!
February 16, 2023
*3.5🌟
I don’t have anything negative to say about this, but I didn’t love it either. I really liked Lucas and Oliver as both individual characters with their respective but strong character development, and as a couple - and the romance was super cute, but the plot and story overall got a tad bit boring here and there. This wasn’t the sort of book I couldn’t put down or procrastinated school for (maybe that’s for the best anyway? lol) but it was still a cute and sweet little romance and I would definitely pick up a sequel if it ever comes out, cause I really did enjoy Lucas and Oliver’s relationship and their chemistry!!
I don’t have anything negative to say about this, but I didn’t love it either. I really liked Lucas and Oliver as both individual characters with their respective but strong character development, and as a couple - and the romance was super cute, but the plot and story overall got a tad bit boring here and there. This wasn’t the sort of book I couldn’t put down or procrastinated school for (maybe that’s for the best anyway? lol) but it was still a cute and sweet little romance and I would definitely pick up a sequel if it ever comes out, cause I really did enjoy Lucas and Oliver’s relationship and their chemistry!!
January 4, 2023
Words cannot explain how much I loved this, but I’m going to try. This book was like Red, White, and Royal Blue meets Head Over Heels, both of which I love. It’s an enemies to lovers sports romance with a bit of a sexual awakening storyline.
I love the inside look this provided into the world of competitive Men’s gymnastics. I’ve always been fascinated with both the sport and the culture as there’s so much to it both physically and mentally that those of us in the outside can’t even begin to understand. This book did an amazing job showing us a lot of what’s involved for these elite athletes-the pressure, the physical demands, the emotional stress, and the mental game. Apart from spotlighting elite athletes, this book also shines a light on what it’s like to be a QUEER elite athlete. Throughout the course of book we watch these characters struggle with not only the demands of their sport, but struggles of a more personal variety including sexual identity and keep their personal lives out of the media.
Both Lucas and Oliver really warmed my heart and were just SUCH easier characters to love. I loved watching their relationship progress throughout the course of the book and I was on the edge of my seat until the very end. This book showed us high highs and low lows and took me on a JOURNEY and I love every second!!
I was given an ARC by NetGalley and Backlit PR. All opinions are my own.
I love the inside look this provided into the world of competitive Men’s gymnastics. I’ve always been fascinated with both the sport and the culture as there’s so much to it both physically and mentally that those of us in the outside can’t even begin to understand. This book did an amazing job showing us a lot of what’s involved for these elite athletes-the pressure, the physical demands, the emotional stress, and the mental game. Apart from spotlighting elite athletes, this book also shines a light on what it’s like to be a QUEER elite athlete. Throughout the course of book we watch these characters struggle with not only the demands of their sport, but struggles of a more personal variety including sexual identity and keep their personal lives out of the media.
Both Lucas and Oliver really warmed my heart and were just SUCH easier characters to love. I loved watching their relationship progress throughout the course of the book and I was on the edge of my seat until the very end. This book showed us high highs and low lows and took me on a JOURNEY and I love every second!!
I was given an ARC by NetGalley and Backlit PR. All opinions are my own.
February 7, 2023
Olympic Enemies was super sweet. I read it in one afternoon and was quickly caught up in the chapters alternative though Lucas and Oliver's points of view. The secondary characters were great and really added some much needed support to the story. It was a feel good queer romance, set against the backdrop of the Paris Olympics and full of emotion.
I'll admit it was a little rough in places, lots of little spelling errors and such, but it was still a very enjoyable read. Fans of Red, White & Royal Blue will enjoy this one!
I'll admit it was a little rough in places, lots of little spelling errors and such, but it was still a very enjoyable read. Fans of Red, White & Royal Blue will enjoy this one!
January 5, 2023
Thank you Wild Rose Press and NetGalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I loved this book! Lucas and Oliver are both on the Great Britain Olympic gymnastic team. They are both competing in the 2024 Olympics, the only problem is the can’t stand each other. But when their ability to win gold will depend on them playing nice and working as a team can they do it? And what happens if something unexpected starts to develop between them? During the first 25% of the book I did struggle but it had nothing to do with the writing or the story, I think it’s just that after that point I was so hooked that it made getting their seem a little slow! I loved the dynamic between Lucas and Oliver and their back and forth was perfect! Add it some really fun supporting characters and I couldn’t put the book down. Their journey of how they do in the competition was intriguing and nerve wracking! Rebecca Caffery wrote a lovely story about lust, anger, angst, love, competition, and complications! This book put me in all my romantic feels and reminded me why I love enemies to lovers! I can’t wait to read this again when it comes out!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews