There’s so much to love about so many of the most common romance book tropes, but perhaps the sexiest and most satisfying of all is the enemies-to-lovers setup. Sure, it’s sweet when longtime best friends finally fall for each other, and pursuing a forbidden romance despite all the obstacles is undoubtedly swoonworthy, but truly, is there anything more romantic than two people being so irresistibly attracted to each other that love wins out over any animosity or annoyance between them? I think not.
The enemies-to-lovers trope in literature dates back centuries: Shakespeare wove it into plenty of his plays, and Jane Austen, of course, immortalized it in her 1813 classic Pride and Prejudice, an enemies-to-lovers story so enduring that it has since sparked untold numbers of adaptations, riffs, and retellings on both page and screen.
