The powerful allure of a good rival

I love reading about rivals.

Grasping for the same goal means so much opportunity for sharp elbows and sharper banter. So much potential for characters to not realize (until they're in too deep) that perhaps they're a little too obsessed with each other.

It's astonishing, really, that the book I'm polishing up to release soon is my first with rivals. And oh, it's been so much fun to write.

A few of my favorite rivalcore lines from All the Many Ways:

Astounding that he doesn’t get his shins kicked daily. Hourly, even.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“I told you cleverness would catch up with you one day,” you point out.

He huffs an objection. “I recall saying that to you first.”

Your lips curve against your will. “No doubt we were both right.”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

The only wall without books has a huge window seat, perfect for reading said books. “Had you invited me to sit in here when I barged in, I would have stopped arguing with you immediately.”

He laughs as he pulls the curtains on the window closed. “Whyever would I want that?”

This book is interactive—you chart your way through the story, which has nine endings, all of which are happy and build on each other. That was a lot of fun to write, too.

As it happens, I was proofreading All the Many Ways as the first season of the Heated Rivalry TV show rolled out, so I finished 2025 with every spare brain cell taken up by rivals-to-lovers. And it was great. Rec me all your favorite rival romances, please and thank you.

📚🌟📚🌟📚

More cool & bookish things

Here's something particularly cool and bookish: A bunch of gaslamp fantasy authors have teamed up to offer you one book gift a month from now through summer.

First gift for you: Erin Elle's In the Cold and Quiet, a Victorian gothic romance. 

A confirmed spinster at nine and twenty, Memory Bane has never been told she is “too young.” But that’s exactly what Ethan Martens says when she arrives at his house for a new job. 

The snowstorm that prevents her from leaving gives her a chance to prove herself—and get to know the irresistible Ethan better. But then she finds out about the women who mysteriously disappeared from his house ...

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