The Rival

Gr 9 Up–Readers trust Lord to bring fun to the contemporary YA romance genre, and here she delivers again. Sadie is a freshman at the college of her dreams, and she’s about to apply for a staff position at Newsbag, a well-known, college-published zine. She hopes that joining the staff will open up journaling doors for her upon graduation. However, her hopes and dreams are quickly shattered when her high school nemesis, Instagram star Seb, walks in to compete for the same spot. As Sadie navigates this new college life away from her loud and rambunctious family, she banters, competes, and even flirts with Seb for the coveted writing role, but also begins to come into her own in the process. Between the seriousness of trying to convince college admins to loosen their grip on organizational budgets to scoring invites to their first “Alphabet Party,” the main characters are amusing and lovable. Lord has it covered with the enemies-to-lovers trope as well as some noteworthy supporting characters. She offers a sweet, coming-of-age romance that is reasonably predictable. This particular story falls somewhere between young adult and new adult since the main characters are freshman in college, but it focuses mainly on how relationships are developed and/or affected when a teen grows into an adult.