It’s been a couple of months since my last review—which wasn’t intentional, but felt oddly fitting as I worked my way through this one. Emma Lord is usually a big win for me, particularly when it comes to her YA novels, which I’ve consistently liked a lot. That said, her step outside of YA with The Break-Up Pact didn’t quite land for me, so going into this newest adult release, I was curious to see how it would stack up. Lord’s writing is still unmistakably hers—quick, charming, and dialogue-forward—but adult romance seems to bring out something slightly different. Whether that works here is…worth unpacking.

Once the most notorious rivals in the music scene, pop princess Mackenzie Waters and punk rockstar Sam Blaze electrified audiences as their bands clashed on stage. But behind the scenes, their simmering tension grew into something more—until suddenly both bands fell apart, and the idea of Mackenzie and Sam did, too.

Two years later, Sam has traded the rockstar lifestyle for a quiet life raising the son he didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Mackenzie is dealing with a postoperative change in her voice by only singing under a pseudonym. The only way to revive their public careers? A joint comeback album.

With fans over the moon and their futures on the line, Sam and Mackenzie face their biggest challenge yet: giving up the old rivalry and learning to work together. But as old sparks fly and new secrets emerge, they set off a chain reaction neither of them could have anticipated—one that proves that sometimes, the greatest hits are the ones yet to be written.

This one surprised me—and not entirely in a good way. While I usually breeze through Emma Lord’s books, I found myself far more invested in everything happening around the romance than the romance itself. The friendships, side plots and emotional arcs felt richer and more engaging than the main relationship, which never quite pulled me in despite the dual POV. It’s a solid story with a lot going on, but when the central couple isn’t the most compelling part of a romantic comedy, that’s hard to ignore.

What didn’t work for me

The main romantic relationship: I’m honestly not sure what the issue here was—especially because this was written in dual POV, which is usually my favourite when it comes to romantic comedies, but I just found these two kind of insufferable when they were alone or thinking about the other person. Maybe it was because it was so obvious that they were both super into each other that I was just impatient, but I was very much drawn to the rest of the plot points in the story more than them. Even the spicier scenes (which were not that spicy, in the grand scheme of things) felt a bit forced. I also kept thinking both Mackenzie and Sam were the female main character—I have no idea why. This just didn’t quite click for me. And Sam kept using water/depth puns because Mackenzie’s last name was Waters (things like, I’m in too deep with Mackenzie Waters), and that was…kind of annoying.

What I liked

The friendships: Mackenzie has two best friends in the story, Hannah and Serena, and I really enjoyed how they showed the ups and downs of real friendships. There are bumps in the road and misunderstandings, and I really liked to see how the relationship between Mackenzie and Serena (in particular) was played. And I also loved the relationship between Sam and Lizzie and Kara—there wasn’t space to explore this further, but I liked the dynamic that could have been very complicated.

The multiple plot points: While the actual main couple in the story didn’t draw me in, I liked that there were lots of different things happening throughout the story—it wasn’t just about the main couple. There was their relationship, sure, but there was also Mackenzie dealing with finding her new voice, Serena and Mackenzie’s relationship, all the Tick Tune/record label stuff, Hannah and Grayson’s slow burn, Sam’s relationship with his estranged father, Ben…and there are probably more that I just can’t think of right now. These secondary stories really saved the book for me when I didn’t find the romantic relationship that compelling.

3 STARS

“I would rather chance fucking up a great thing with you than settle for a good one on my own.” —Emma Lord, The Rival

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced book copy in exchange for my honest review.