From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Callihan comes a smart, emotional contemporary romance about finding love with the most unlikely of people.As kids, they hated each other. Macon Saint was beautiful, but despite his name, Delilah knew he was the devil. That he dated her slightly evil sister, Samantha, was no picnic either. When they broke up, it was a dream come true: Delilah never … come true: Delilah never had to see him again.
Ten years later, her old enemy sends a text.
Delilah’s sister has stolen a valuable heirloom from Macon, now a rising Hollywood star, and he intends to collect his due. One problem: Sam has skipped town.
Sparks still sizzle between Macon and Delilah, only this heat feels alarmingly like unwanted attraction. But Delilah is desperate to keep her weak-hearted mother from learning of her sister’s theft. So she proposes a deal: she’ll pay off the debt by being Macon’s personal chef and assistant.
It’s a recipe for disaster, but Macon can’t stop himself from accepting. Even though Delilah clearly hates him, there’s something about her that feels like home. Besides, they’re no longer kids, and what once was a bitter rivalry has the potential to be something sweeter. Something like forever.
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Thin line between love and hate is small!
Macon Saint had saint for a last name but he was anything but saintly with Delilah Baker, even giving her a nickname of Tater Tot that lasted all through school. Delilah had to deal with Macon being around when he was dating her younger sister Samantha, but when they broke up, she was happy to see the end of him. Delilah’s plans changed when he contacted her out of the blue claiming that Samantha had stolen a watch that had belonged to his mother. Delilah tried to pay Macon back for the watch but instead she volunteered to work as personal chef and assistant to repay him waiting for Samantha to contact her.
I know there is a thin line between love and hate but between Macon and Delilah that line is the width of a molecule because the heat that comes across in the story is the love between Macon and Delilah.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I absolutely loved this story, from the first to the very last page. Enemies to lovers, but not in a clichéd way. If you want lots of hot steamy sex then this is not for you. If you want a slow burn that ends in an explosion maybe this is the book for you. Macon (pronounced like bacon), and Delilah are mortal enemies from a young age. Even though Macon is pretty much part of her family as he’s been dating her sister Sam for the majority of their youth,the Fast forward 10 years and it appears they are still harbouring those same feelings of hatred x ten, but in order to pay off her sister’s debt they have to at list coexist together for a while. What a fun, angsty and emotional read. I love that the story centres around food, I think I put 10lbs on just reading it, and I loved the passion that both Macon and Delilah shared for each other and that they could both relate so well to each other while still fighting. This book needs to be made into a film. Just putting it out there, because I would definitely go and see it. Such a wonderful read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is my honest review.
Dear Enemy by Kristen Callihan a five-star read that you wouldn’t want to be enemies with. This one was a strange one for me I loved it then it was just okay then I loved it again. Its been a distracting day so it could have just been me that wasn’t focused on the middle as the rest was so great. I adored Delilah and she just warmed me no end, I was so pushing for her happiness and Macon Saint well he grew on me, the beautiful Devil that he is. I did struggle with Delilah at a couple of points mainly about her relationship with her mother, but overall, it honest. I will admit that Sam pushed everyone of my buttons, she just made me want to swing for something. This is one that you will love when you read it. Don’t miss this great story.
Dear Enemy was an ok read. I’ve loved this author’s work in the past and I will continue to pick it up. That being said, this one sadly didn’t hit me in the feels like some of the others have. While it was extremely well written and the story overall was good, the pacing just didn’t work for me.
It’s slow burn, childhood enemies to adult lovers, and there is a bit of taboo with the hero being the heroine’s sister’s ex. If those tropes sound good to you, then I’d give this one a try.
My head hurts from too much reading, but I am happy. So weird to begin my review with such words, but whatever. I’m so happy that this book was everything I love about a book and then some. Because I was honestly unsure whether to ask to read it or not, since I didn’t have a nice experience with a past book written by the same author.
What can I say, this is an enemies to lovers romance and the title describes it well. The first pages are an introduction to the story that I think makes the whole connection between the main protagonists, Delilah and Macon, even more real and strong.
Delilah and Macon met when they are 11, after her family moves to his neighborhood. She wants to become his friend, but he treats her bad and doesn’t give her a chance to do so. What’s worse is that Macon accepts to become her sister Samantha’s friend and later on, her boyfriend during hs. From that moment on Macon seems to antagonize Delilah every chance he gets: during middle school and during high school he makes her life a living hell, and her sister Sam seems to help him too. But Delilah knows how to protect herself and she challenges the boy, because she doesn’t want him to believe he won. She’s trying to hold on until graduation so she can finally move on from him, but during prom, everything is ruined beyond repair. What happens then represents the breaking point of Delilah’s relationship with Macon. Thankfully she won’t have to see him anymore, or maybe not?
Ten years later, Delilah lives in another town and she is trying to put her life where she wants it to be. She became a famous chef, but she doesn’t seem like that road is fulfilling her, so she wants to do something to inspire her. Macon contacts her by chance, and she can’t believe it. He is angry and out for blood, since he believes Delilah’s sis Sam has stolen something from him. Despite all the things her sister put through even during childhood, she wants to smooth things out with her old enemy so that he won’t press charges against Sam, and she offers him a proposition. This chance encounter could hurt Delilah even more, but who knows. It may be in Macon and her cards to meet again under these circumstances.
I liked that the first pages were about Delilah and Macon’s past. You could tell Macon was problematic, since the way he bickered with Delilah made him seem as if he didn’t consider her his equal. You start reading the story and as you see things from the past happen, you hate Macon too (and Sam as well). It doesn’t help that ten years later Macon has became a famous actor who also won an Emmy. He has everything even if you, as the reader, believe he doesn’t deserve it because of the way he’s behaved with Delilah. But as you slowly start knowing him better, you understand the motives and whatnot of why he did what he did.
Macon was such a complex character. During his childhood, he was the most popular guy in school because he was handsome, and his girlfriend was the prettiest girl in school as well, which in romance often equals to school royalty and bitchiness. Yet, even if Macon and Sam outcasted Delilah, they couldn’t ignore her, especially him. Delilah was the only person who dared to see through his bs and he saw him for what he was. And this scared the s*** out of him, because he didn’t want anybody to see the real him. He’d rather give this popular guy image and have superficial relationships, but never open himself so other people would like and love the real him. He didn’t want anybody to see that he, too, wanted to be loved and accepted for who he was, so he made others believe he was someone else. This is why, every time Delilah hit a nerve, he seemed to get a little revenge and kept her in the dark that he enjoyed their banter, it scared him. Because they had a deep connection, they could understand each other unlike anybody else. Macon realizes it but he’s still a teen, so he doesn’t act on it.
Not yet.
But the Macon of the present is given the chance to make things right this time, even though he and Delilah have to build the trust in each other from scratch, since the memories are painful for the both of them. Speaking for Macon, I loved his journey. We see how the complicated and apparently patronizing guy has always been aware that he felt something for Delilah, but he let her go because he thought that he didn’t deserve her after all the bad things he did and said to her during childhood. And ten years later, despite he is famous and loved as an actor, we see how he feels lonely and with no one around to trust besides his bodyguard. He doesn’t even flinch when he meets Delilah again, because he doesn’t want her pity. But she still sees through him and he finally lets his façade crack completely.
Macon is an anti-hero character with lots of sarcasm and I loved that he did everything he could to make Delilah trust him, even if it was hard for her. And I liked that he was patient with her and realized that she needed time to heal and not to let the past cloud her judgement.
They say the first impression counts when you meet somebody, and the way Macon replied to her surely made an impact. Delilah stands her ground against Macon until prom night, the night where everything crumbles and she thinks she will never forgive him for the shame he made her feel. Macon was sort of Delilah’s bully growing up, although even she was judgmental when it came to him. She never understood why he seemed to criticize everything she did or how she dressed, but that’s how many male teens work. Plus, in Macon’s case, he also had Delilah’s sister Sam as a girlfriend, and this worked against Delilah. She tried to protect herself against the opinions they formed of her, but of course they scarred her. To the point she gets mad every time she thinks about Macon when she’s an adult. To her he was the guilty party all the time, even if her sis is a piece of work and disappears out of the blue and she has to clean up her mess afterwards, which is not cool. Because Samantha is immature despite she’s 26 and Delilah is not a martyr. But I understand from where she comes from. She wants to protect their family and doesn’t want their mom to be anxious because her sister loves to roam around – and apparently also steal a 300K watch. So when Delilah proposes Macon that she’ll paid off her sister’s debt, I know that she is doing it out of sisterly protection but also because it intrigues her to see Macon after all these years.
Delilah is insecure even if she seems like she’s strong. Well, she is strong too, but she was also always constantly reminded that she was less pretty and other things by a toxic sister, so it’s normal that her confidence wavers. Especially when it comes to Macon, who always showed disdain whenever he interacted with her. Basically, given her history with him, she’d rather die than meet him again, but then when they were alone and her bitchy sister wasn’t in the picture like in the past, Delilah slowly discovers other layers of Macon she never expected to see, and to love. But still, despite trusting him at some point, the burnt of what he said and did to her in the past still lingers, and I liked that she doesn’t jump on him and declares her love too soon.
On the other hand, Macon and Delilah’s development was slow. I didn’t expect this to be a slow burn, but I was glad it was because we see how both characters try to come to terms with the past and to earn each other’s forgiveness and trust as they go. Plus, it wasn’t a sex fest like many other contemporary romances, and I appreciate it very much because sex scenes are not a requirement for me. I mean, I love a sex scene well written, maybe two, but the story also needs to have “substance” and this one had plenty so it wasn’t necessary to fill the voids with sex. So thank you Kristen Callihan, thank you. And I also want to thank the author because even if the other book I read by her left me a bit disappointed, she knows how to write a complex male character, and it isn’t easy.