So on the whole I liked this, but I have a few thoughts.

The world building is essentially non existent. I’m assuming it’s because it’s a heavily adapted Dramione fic and obvs everyone knows the world there, but there’s nothing really explained here.

I don’t know how to explain the writing style other than to say you can tell it’s a fanfic writer? If that makes sense.

Having said that, I thought it was funny, it’s deffo a slow burn, and I’m assuming there’s a sequel based on the ending? The ending did feel very abrupt incidentally. I would deffo be interested in a sequel.

3.75/5, rounded up.

Thanks for Netgalley for the ARC.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy
⤷ ⭑⭑⭑.𝟮𝟱

⟡ ݁₊ . ❝ He looked at her as one who wished to worship, and one who wished to defile. ❞


꒰ Osric Mordaunt, an arrogant and well-respected Assassin of the Fyren order, seeks the services of Aurienne Fairhrim, a renowned Haelan healer, to cure an unknown illness affecting his Seith. ꒱

release date: july 8, 2025 ⟢

⌞ what to expect: ⌝
⌗ enemies to lovers
⌗ lots and lots of banter
⌗ very slow burn
⌗ heavy world-building
⌗ romantasy

⟢ the first book in the Dearly Beloathed series (i just love the name), and i can say it was a pretty interesting experience. also, can we all talk about this cover? i get why people confused this with the Dramione fanfic (like i did), but this is a whole different story.

our main leads just love hating each other. i found the banter to be quite comedic, as one would expect from Brigitte Knightley’s writing. however, there were moments when i struggled to connect with either the characters or the plot because some of their humor leaned towards crudeness, which was too much for my liking—specifically, the scene critique crickets, which critiques people that come across them.

the magic system, although interesting, was much complex than what i'm usually used to. the pacing felt slow because of all the witty banter and dialogue-heavy scenes, and i felt that the events were repetitive.

another itch to pick was the writing format. there were numerous instances of random capitalizations, and the writing lacked consistency. if it wasn’t the random capitalizations, it was the descriptions in parentheses that were inconsistent. additionally, the vocabulary used was quite extensive, featuring words that i don’t encounter in everyday situations. this seemed to be an attempt to elevate the scene or story, but it confused me and often required me to look up definitions instead of enhancing clarity to the situation.

despite these quirks, the characters managed to capture my affection as they revealed sides of themselves that deviated from their usual personas. that being said, this is an unserious book that readers can dive into for a bit of fun.

i’m curious to see how this chaotic couple's relationship evolves in the next book, especially with their realizations and blossoming affection.

i honestly gasped out loud when i read the email that the publisher approved my arc request, so i'm really thankful for the experience since this title is on my list for anticipated reads for 2025. just a gentle reminder: be sure to check the trigger warnings before diving into this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK, and of course, Brigitte Knightley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Please remember that this opinion is my own. ⭑

𓈒⟡₊⋆∘˚⊹ ࿔

💭 #QOTD What's your love language??

Title: The Irresistible Urge To Fall For Your Enemy
Author: Brigitte Knightley
Pages: 416
Rating: 5/5
Spice/Romance level: 🩷🩷🩷 a couple of sporadic vanilla scenes

#Arc eCopy ( #gifted ) - review left voluntarily
UK publish date - 8th July 2025

Oh my gosh. I couldn't wait any longer to read this. It's been sitting in my arc for a while and I had to dive right in.

This was just absolute perfection. I laughed so much. I was invested in the characters, the plot, the world. There were so many emotions stirred up. The pure stubborn headedness of the two characters. It just left me wanting more, and I've got forever to wait because it's a duology!!! I do hope @brigitteknightley
has started writing the next one. Not to mention the high stakes of the threat from the baddies!!!

This left me howling with laughter. The bickering. The banter. The urge to bang their heads together! The visual images created in my mind. I even want to make my husband read it!!

There will definitely be a book trophy or two for the shelf of this!!

I'm invested!!

You'll love this book if you like
- Romantasy
- RomCom
- Enemies to lovers
- forced proximity
- slow burn
- he falls first
- hard headed self aware MCs
- morally grey mmc

→ 3.5 stars

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy had all of my favorite tropes such as:

- enemies to reluctant allies to eventual lovers
- opposite attracts (healer x assasin)
- competent ice queen x lowkey golden retriever murderer
- banter
- insults as a love language
- the slowest of slowburn

Overall plot of the book is that <b>Osric Mordaunt</b> (H) has a disease that is slowly killing him. He goes to <b>Aurienne Fairhrim</b> (h) for help, because she is a genius in that area of expertise. Since their orders are opposites, she refuses to help him, until Osric makes a donation to her order to help curing a virus that’s been going around. Now Aurienne is forced to help Osric with his disease and they go on a journey of trying to not <s>kiss</s> kill each other…

I feel very conflicting about TIUTFFYE. On one hand I adored the romance. Aurienne and Osric made me feel so giggle and reminded me why I looove slowburn so much. every insult, very touch and every glance felt like something special and made me kicking my feet. BUT it took me 50% of this book to really get into it, because the writing so so fucking pretentious. I know I’m not a english native speaker, but I literally didn’t understand so many words that were used.. what the helly is “quixotic” or “canescent” or “obstreperous” I could continue with this forever. If the goal is to make me feel stupid then the mission was accomplished to the highest degree.

Besides the lexically rich writing, I was very confused about the world building.. the author threw us into this world without explaining ANYTHING. No order, no magic, nothing. We should just know, because instead of “healer” it’s “healen” so easy enough right? Instead of “engineer” it’s “ingenaut” makes sense right? RIGHT??? This world is easy enough to follow that its possible to get the hang of it after a while, but it wouldn’t have hurt to add some sentences.

<blockquote>’Resources as blood-drenched as yours cross certain ethical bounds.’
’Your ethical bounds keep you so confined, it’s a wonder you can move.’
’I don’t know how you move, given the weight of your sins.’
They glared at one another.</blockquote>

But and here is the big buuut that made me lowkey ignore all the negativ things about this book is that <b>I love love love the romance</b> so much.

Aurienne and Osric really went from feeling only disgust for each other to falling for each other. And let me tell you they are fighting these feelings like their life depends on it.. they hate these positiv feelings, but slowly seeing them embracing them is everything. That’s why enemies to lovers will always be the superior trope for me because you see a person at their absolute worst and still love them for who they are. The way Osric is everything Aurienne detest and fight against and still when he is getting hurt she can’t let him die, even though knowing letting him live will doom so many other people who will get killed by him.

The most hilarious things is that they are so in denial of their feelings that they justify it that they need to protect each other, because they are an means to an end (he needs her to heal his disease, she needs him to get more information on what’s going on) dksdksdks these fucking clowns. I love it see it. It’s peak delusion.

The first half of the book was tedious to get through I’m not going to lie, but at some point I just coulnd’t put the book down and gobbled up every little aurienneosric scene. I need the next book right now, because I need these two idiots to admit their feelings for each other.

After finishing TIUTFFYE I went on to read every positive as well as negativ review about this book and I agree with every single one of them.. the positive and the negativ points lmao. Don’t go into this book expecating peak literature.. it’s a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously and neither should you. Just read it to see two competent idiots in their field trying so hard not to fall and fail every step of the way <3

*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

"The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy" follows Osric and Aurienne, rival members of magical factions, who end up needing each other's particular set of skills. The world building is dense as first exhibited by the glossary at the beginning, but this first book in the series is more streamlined to the immediate adventures of the titular enemies. They're both good company and the dialogue is funny, but I didn't find the story propulsive until about 3/4 of the way in. I definitely want to read what happens in further books but the ending felt abrupt after waiting so long to feel on board with everything. I'd love to listen to an audiobook version to experience the cutting dialogue and comical asides performed as I bet it would work a treat in dual narration.

Words cannot describe how much I absolutely adored this book! Slow burns and enemy to lovers can often fall so flat but The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy doesn’t have a single dud moment.

Osric and Aurienne belong to enemy Orders and are completely different people, he is a murder happy assassin and she is a phenomenal, morally good healer. They loathe each other on sight yet are forced to work together.

The loathing with a strong dollop of yearning between these two is almost unbearable. The insults that fly throughout are constant and hilarious yet never repetitive, I haven’t laughed so much at a book in a long time. Enemy’s to lovers can often be more of mutual dislike to love but these two are enemies through and through. Likewise slow burns can often be insta lust/love but that’s certainly not the case here. The slow realisations that they might actually find each other attractive (who cares about pretty ankles - certainly not Osric) and then - shock! - actually like each other is so brilliantly written.

This is definitely more of a romance book set in a fantasy world than the other way round, the world building and magic system is very undeveloped so if you’re looking for a fantasy book with a bit of romance sprinkled in then this won’t be for you.

I absolutely cannot wait for the second book, I’m dying to see more of Osric and Aurienne together!

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for this ARC.

I DNF this. I have read this author on certain fan fic sites and i do like her writing but I just couldnt get in to this.

The writing wasnt for me (weirdly) and the plot line just didnt seem to gel for me.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t quite work for me. I went in with high expectations, but the writing style wasn’t what I had hoped for. The pacing felt rushed, giving little room to settle into the story or connect with the characters.

One of the main issues I had was the introduction to the world-building. The glossary at the beginning throws a lot of information at the reader right away, but much of it is barely explained or developed further in the story. As a result, I found it difficult to fully immerse myself in the universe.

While I can see the potential and understand why others might enjoy it, it simply didn’t click with me. However, it gave me a little something of "Assistant to the Villain" and I think I'd recommend this book to those who enjoyed it !

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is the first book in the Dearly Beloathed duology. This book is an absolute delight to read. The characters are amazing, and the banter is so good. With an assassin and a healer as the ultimate enemies to lovers duo, it’s a story you won’t want to miss. I love it so much. If you enjoy slow burn romances, definitely pick up this book. I can’t wait to read the conclusion. Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'll post my review closer to the publication date.

What happens when an assassin turns to a healer for aid? Well, in The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy he's met with an icy stare and a firm no thanks! That is, until a bribe that's too good to ignore is made...

I had really mixed feelings about this book. Let's start with a basic rundown of my pros and cons:

Pros:
- Slow burn that feels natural and unrushed
- Faction rivalries and some minor political intrigue
- Interconnecting pieces of plot that pull together as the story moves forward
- Lots of doggos
- Interesting settings during healing attempts

Cons:
- Repetitive dialogue
- Clunky narration
- Hard to like characters
- So many crude jokes that weren't all that funny
- Confusing politics
- Plotting jumps around frequently and nothing is resolved by the end of book one
- Lack of world building and unclear magic system

I like the two main story threads (healing Mordaunt and the spreading of Pox), but they often felt completely separate. Once I started to become invested in one, it completely leaves it behind to deal with the other. It was difficult to become fully engaged because of this.

The characters are both pretty flawed, and their relationship mainly consists of name calling, sex jokes/potty humour, and disagreements. By the end of the book I was starting to sympathize a bit with Mordaunt, but I still feel like I know nothing about Fairhrim other than she likes to follow rules and she's really good at her job. I really hope they characterisation of both evolves and becomes more detailed in book two, as right now I am not overly sold on either person or their romance.

Something that stands out about this story is how laid back everyone is about grisly murders. Fairhrim is totally against using violence, but she's not screaming or fainting when Mordaunt brutally and efficiently kills everyone is sight. They are bantering through it all, and I did find myself chuckling at how darkly comedic some of these events were.

This ends on a cliffhanger, and I'm interested enough to pick up book two as I want to see if/how things resolve. I'm hoping the sequel will have more world building and tighten up the plot and bit. There are some great moments in this (like the lighthouse and the barrow scenes!) but I want to be captivated like this more consistently.

Overall, there are some funny interactions and the series shows potential. If you want an enemies to lovers, opposites attract, forced proximity fantasy romance with a really slow burn, try this out.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me but that doesn’t mean you won’t like it. Going into this I was super excited to read enemies to lovers romantasy not knowing this was based on fanfic, which could have helped getting into before starting this one.

If you love the original fanfics you’ll love this! It has slow burn enemies to lovers romance and magic systems.

At times I had difficulties with the writing style and I also had to turn back to the glossary at times. I wished there was more explaining about the magic systems and the world-building it just felt rushed.

<b>Thank you to Brigitte Knightly, NetGalley, and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the chance to read and review this e-arc in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions remain my own.</b>

The banter in this is fantastic! The hype is very real for this one and worth every bit of it!

It’s longing, denial, lust, enemies to lovers. It’s forbidden and awkward. It’s so much packed one juicy morsel of a book!

I love how strong and resilient Aurienne is. She is powerful in her order and does so much good. She the light to Osric’s dark.

Very much “he only has a heart for her.”

Delicious! That’s all I can say. Can’t wait for the next one.

First, I want to thank NetGalley for providing me with this ARC, giving an honest review in return.

It has come to my attention that this book used to be a Dramione fanfic, but with the Harry Potter lore taken out because of licensing. I do think I would maybe have like that original fanfiction better because I love the Harry Potter world. And I think it might have done the story a little injustice by keeping that lore out. Of course I can never be too sure, because I haven’t read the fanfic.
Now let’s get to my review of this book.

Let me start off by saying this book did NOT have a good start. For me, the world building was lacking, and from the very start, terms like tãcn and seith are thrown in. And pardon my French, but there´s random French words and/or terms thrown in throughout the whole book, which caught me off guard.
Also, I feel like almost nothing happened during the first 70% of the book. And if executed well, I love a slow burn. I expected the book to build up tension, but even that was hardly noticeable during the first half of the book. I honestly think this is the slowest burn I have ever read.
I really had to struggle myself through the first half of the book, to the point I considered DNF’ing. Which coming from a person who finds it really hard to DNF says a lot.

With that getting out of my system, the book also had good parts.
To start with the main characters, I really liked them both from the start. They are total opposites, and both have their own funny quirks. On one side, we have Aurienne, who´s a very serious and talented healer. On the other side, we have Osric, the chaotic assassin with low morals.
The banter between these two characters is absolutely hilarious. The bickering between the two characters is very amusing and is what kept me reading through the first part of the book.
Another thing I liked about the book - apart from the French - is how it reads away easily. Because scenes were described as detailed, it was easy for me to picture what was going on.
The plot was written well, but only came together at the very end. The pacing of the first half of the book was too slow for me. However, the last few chapters made that up. The moment the slow was finished and I finally got to the burn, the story took a beautiful, somewhat wholesome turn.
The last few chapters are written beautifully , and the plot came together beautifully.
The book has an open ending, so I am curious if there’s going to be a sequel. If there is, I think it would have the potential to be a great story if the pacing will be somewhat faster.

This was absolutely brilliant, really really funny, love the sarcasm and the humour. The plot was great and the characters were very well written and likable. I enjoyed this book loads. Proper enemies to lovers.

This book gripped me from the very first few chapters, I simply could NOT put it down. The British humour, the witty and intelligent writing, the magical science of it all… an absolute delight!

I had no idea going in that this was a rewrite of a popular Dramione fanfic, but let me preface this by saying that this story is wholly original. Nowhere in the book did I feel like the magic system or the world building was directly derived from HP. Had I not stumbled upon this information on the authors IG page, I would never have even considered the fact.

Regarding the romance, it’s barely there — which in my opinion isn’t a fault at all. It’s an incredibly slow burn, and I’m sure the wait will be worth it!

The plot at first is quite low-stakes. We follow Aurienne and Osric throughout their journey in the UK to try and find a cure for an incurable disease. But further into the story we discover a plot, full of mystery and deceit.

The two MCs truly despise each other at first, but towards the end they learn that they have more in common that they first thought.

This book was full of humour, sweet moments, intrigue, science and lovable characters. And I can’t recommend it enough!

I thought this would be another Dramione inspired fanfic turned published novel aibwould enjoy, I was wrong.

This book right from the moment felt too cliched and lacking of immersive world building. The dialogue and writing I just couldn't connect with. I spent more time trying to get into the writing and not grimacing than trying to understand the whole space-esqe/ stars wars vibes i was getting.

This book was definitely not for me.

Pre thoughts
- Enemies to lovers

Overall
This is a lovely adventure read with the integration of STEM/medial terminology. It is definitely a very slow burn romance and I cannot wait for the next book. this book built a great story and I was able to see the characters development over the span of the novel, while also having some humour thorough the text.

Tropes
- slow burn
- Enemies to lovers
- Conflict
- FMC in medicine
- MMC falls first

Stars 4/5
Spice 0.1/5

Thank you to little brown books UK, net galley and Brigitte Knightley for the opportunity to review this ARC, all thoughts are my own xx

4.5 stars – A hilariously sharp, slow-burn romantasy that’s as charming as it is addictive.
Never have I laughed so hard over a bag of onions—but here we are.
This book took the enemies-to-lovers trope and made it feel fresh. Healer Aurienne is blackmailed into helping Osric, a deadly assassin, and they could not be more opposite. She heals, he kills. She’s got a rigid moral code, he’s... morally challenged at best. And yet, their chemistry is off the charts.
The banter had me literally laughing out loud. Their conversations were so sharp and witty, I found myself flipping pages just to get to the next verbal sparring match. What I loved most is that their animosity felt real—not just “we’re enemies for the sake of drama,” but built on actual conflict and personality clash.
This isn’t a typical epic fantasy. There’s no chosen-one arc or dark lord to defeat. The stakes are low, but the emotional payoff is high. It reads like a romantic comedy in a fantasy world—with a sprinkle of mystery and adventure to keep things moving.
Aurienne and Osric are unforgettable. Arrogant, ridiculous Osric made me laugh constantly, and uptight Aurienne was funny without even trying. I adored them both and felt their slow-burn connection build page by page.
The ending hit hard in the best way. I’m desperate for book 2.
Highly recommend if you love witty banter, true enemies-to-lovers, and a cozy fantasy setting that centers the romance.

This was such an enjoyable read! The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy had great banter, lovable characters, and just the right amount of tension. The enemies-to-lovers dynamic was really fun to watch unfold. Some parts were a little predictable, but overall it was a delightful romantic escape. Would definitely recommend to rom-com fans!

I requested this book purely because I'm such a fan of dramione and wanted to see how this book looked traditionally published. In short: a triumph. I was worried going into it and by the cover that it wouldn't be my kind of book, but it exceeded all expectations. It was hilarious and fluffy in the exact way that I needed. The slow burn was done so slow and so well, absolute perfection. I really recommend reading this, a fan of dramione or not.