If you liked The Hating Game then you’ll love these 10 more enemies to lover books. These books similar to The Hating Game are funny, sexy and swoon-worthy!
The Hating Game is one of the top recommendations for enemies to lovers romances and I devoured it in a matter of hours. It’s funny, sexy, romantic – the perfect contemporary romance.
And it’s coming to the big screen in December 2021 so there’s never been a better time to read it.
If you’re already a fan of The Hating Game and are looking for similar books to devour then check out these 5 books like The Hating Game.
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5 Books Like The Hating Game
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Unlike most romance books, The Unhoneymooners starts with the wedding. Ami and Dane are getting married and everything goes smoothly until the buffet lunch.
Suddenly the bride and grooming are taken violently ill and so are the rest of the room. It’s not pretty.
Turns out the fish at the buffet was bad and now the majority of the wedding party are sick. Apart from two people – the maid of honour and the best man – the bride and groom’s siblings.
Unable to go on their non-refundable honeymoon, the bride and groom insist that their siblings take the trip in their stead.
The pair will have to pretend to be the newlyweds but given that Ami and her sister Olive are twins, it shouldn’t be too hard to pull off.
The trouble is, Olive and Ethan hate each other. And have done since they met three years ago. But each is convinced that they’ll be able to enjoy the holiday whilst avoiding each other’s company.
Once they get there, they realised it might not be so easy to avoid each other and maybe neither is quite so hateful as they first thought.
The Unhoneymooners is told from Olive’s perspective and at first, Ethan appears to be an absolute knob.
However, as they’re forced to pretend to be a married couple whilst on their fake honeymoon in Maui, Olive realises that he might not be the horrid man she has made him out to be. In fact, she’s got him totally wrong.
I enjoyed that Olive herself went through a lot of self-growth in this novel. It was apparent to me from the beginning that Olive’s reasons for hating Ethan and thinking that he hated her may have actually been rooted in her own insecurities.
Although she has always been thought of as the “unlucky” sister, it turns out that she’s actually pretty brave and moral, and perhaps has her head screwed on more than her twin.
I thought that Olive was treated unfairly at some points in the novel but if you like a happy ending and are happy to look past this then you’ll really enjoy The Unhoneymooners.
There’s not quite as much chemistry in this novel as there is in, say, The Hating Game, and a lot of their initial attraction is physical, but it does develop into a really sweet romance with highs and lows.
Overall this book was funny, sexy and sweet and I’d highly recommend it if you’re looking for enemies-to-lovers books.
Buy The Unhoneymooners: Amazon | Blackwells | Waterstones
Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon
Make Up Break Up is an enemies-to-lovers romance about two tech CEOs who go head to head in a bid to win funding for their apps.
Annika Dev is CEO of Make Up, described as an app like Google translate that can help couples communicate with each other more effectively. She was inspired to create this by her parent’s love story, though her mother sadly passed away after she was born.
Then there’s Hudson Craft, CEO of the app Break Up. This app is designed to make breakups smoother as people often don’t know what to say in the moment. It’s described as the Deliveroo for breakups.
The person who wants to break up pre-records a breakup message and then a Break Up app worker physically visits the person being dumped to tell them this in person, giving them a link to watch the breakup video.
Yeah, it’s really as horrible as it sounds.
The pair met and hooked up once at some sort of tech conference where Annika shared her app idea with Hudson. Break Up came out sooner after and Annika has hated him ever since for copying and twisting her idea.
Then Break Up rents the office space down the hall from Make Up. Annika and Hudson are forced into each others’ company every day and Annika starts to realise that maybe she has Hudson all wrong.
This is the kind of book you can binge read in a single day. It’s an easy, cheesy romance that’s rather predictable but will leave you with a wry smile on your face as you turn the last page.
It’s amazing to see a female Indian American tech CEO as one of the protagonists in such a novel and there’s the odd nod to Asian culture. More definitely could’ve been made of this but it is quite a simple novel so this didn’t bother me too much.
The male protagonist in enemies-to-lovers romance books can often be overbearing (or just a bellend) but in this one Hudson turns out to be a pretty great guy.
Make Up Break Up is not exactly an original tale and the ending is rather predictable but it’s fun, there’s some diversity and it’s a very enjoyable read for light afternoon escapism.
Buy Make Up Break Up: Amazon | Blackwells | Waterstones
The Trouble With Hating You by Sajni Patel
The Trouble With Hating You is a fun, sexy enemies-to-lovers romance centring around Liya and Jay, two American-born Indians.
Liya has it all – beauty, brains, money and more. But she doesn’t have a husband and this is a source of much interest in her family’s community who like to play matchmaker.
Her parents arrange a meeting with Jay and his mother to see if the pair would be suitable for each other, but they don’t tell Liya that’s the reason they’ve invited her over.
As soon as she finds out, she’s running out the door and runs smack bang into Jay who is just walking up to the house. She runs away without saying anything, leaving Jay and his mother feeling embarrassed.
It turns out though that that’s not the last time Liya will see Jay as they now work in the same building. Circumstance throws the pair together a few times and a love/hate connection is formed.
I liked that Liya was a headstrong career woman and admired her for standing up for what she believed in despite the pressure from her family and community.
Her stubbornness could be a little frustrating at times and she was a hotheaded character, but her past traumas do inform that and make her actions more understandable.
Jay seems a little too good to be true – successful lawyer, loyal to his family, sexy af. And Liya is convinced that he’s not interested in anything “real”. But Jay is genuinely a great guy and you can’t help but root for the pair to be together.
The romance is a slow burner but there’s plenty of sexual tension. It’s one of the better enemies-to-lovers I’ve read recently!
It was refreshing to read this kind of romance set in America that wasn’t centred on a white couple.
TW – There are a few more serious themes explored – sexual abuse and grief. Both characters are battling their past demons.
Buy The Trouble With Hating You: Amazon | Blackwells | Waterstones
Kiss My Cupcake by Helena Hunting
If you’re a fan of the Great British Bake Off and you love a steamy romance then Kiss My Cupcake is the book for you.
Blaire has just achieved her dream of setting up a cupcake shop. Ronan has just taken over the bar next door. They immediately get off to a rocky start as the pair squabble over the noise of building works as Ronan sets up an axe-throwing area in his bar.
The competitive nature of both means they’re soon fighting for customers and trying to think of ideas to convince people to enter their establishment instead of the one next door.
There’s lots of banter between the pair and it soon becomes clear that maybe there’s also a hint of attraction there too. Ok, a lot of attraction.
Circumstance keeps throwing the pair together and they begin to learn more about each other. Neither is quite what the other expected.
The pair become friendlier but then they find out they are both up for the title of the best bar in their neighbourhood by a famous YouTuber.
But will the rivalry be the end of the blossoming romance?
This book has lots of sexy bits as well as lots of sensitive and cute bits. It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s the perfect contemporary romance to whizz through.
This is a very quick and easy read, perfect for a lazy beach day or when you just want to get lost in someone else’s romance. The “enemies” part slips away quite quickly in this one but it was good nevertheless.
Buy Kiss My Cupcake: Amazon | Blackwells | Waterstones
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
You Deserve Each Other is an enemies-to-lovers romance with a twist – the couple are already engaged.
They’ve fallen out of love with each other and play a game of chicken with each other to see who will pull out of the engagement first, as whoever does this will have to front the costs already spent.
(This last bit isn’t properly explained in the book btw, it is taken from the blurb. And without this context, it’s not obvious why the couple doesn’t just break up instead of hanging on to each other.)
Nicholas and Naomi fell in love quickly and fell in love hard. After a whirlwind romance, they get engaged. And then everything starts to go south.
It’s now clear to both of them that their relationship has stagnated but neither wants to walk away first. They know just how to push each other’s buttons so instead, they go to war, trying to see who can force the other to walk away first.
I loved the opening passages of this one as Naomi seemed like a really relatable and funny character. Nicholas, on the other hand, seems like a massive sourpuss.
Naomi works in a local junk shop whilst Nicholas is a successful local dentist and the difference between their jobs, attitude and ambitions sets them apart.
What did conflict me a little about this tale is that there were some bits in the middle where I thought the actions of both characters were so malicious that there wasn’t really a way to recover from them.
As the couple try to provoke each other into leaving the relationship some of the things they say seem just downright horrible. In these parts I found myself wondering why this couple would want to try repair their relationship.
Then things dramatically change around halfway through as a couple of incidents make both realise they’ve been horribly miscommunicating with each other. From then on, this book is rather cute and the later passages really hit me in the feels!
Overall I enjoyed this story of a couple repairing their relationship. However, I thought that some of the things that happened whilst the couple were “enemies” with each other went a bit too far.
It’s not my favourite book like The Hating Game on this list but worth looking up if the description takes your fancy!
Buy You Deserve Each Other: Amazon
More Enemies to Lovers Romances
The below are all on my radar and ones that I’m really excited to read! Click through to read a synopsis and check out these ones for yourself.
Dating You / Hating You by Christina Lauren
The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
Tools of Engagement by Tessa Bailey
Meet You in the Middle by Devon Daniels
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Fight or Flight by Samantha Young
The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa
Meet Cute by Helena Hunting
The Layover by Lacie Waldon
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Laura
Founder & Editor of What’s Hot?