At War

Andria Large’s At War works the enemies-to-lovers trope without softening the enemy part. The two leads genuinely don’t like each other when the book opens, and the reasons are real rather than manufactured. Watching them slowly recognize they were wrong about each other is the work the book does.

Large writes prickly heroines well. The female lead doesn’t apologize for her edges, and the man who eventually breaks through doesn’t ask her to.

The pacing is steady. The middle section, where the antagonism slowly cracks, is the strongest part.

For readers who like Penelope Douglas’s harder romances or Sawyer Bennett’s contemporary work, this fits the same shelf. Heat level is moderate to high. Comfort reading for fans of the trope, with enough character work to keep it from feeling generic.