Thank you to Net Galley and Brigitte Knightley for the ARC.

Plot 4.5/5
Characters 4.75/5
Ending 4.25/5
Interest 4.5/5

Overall 4.5/5

-This was such a fun read. I believe that this stems form a fanfic and I kinda love that about it. I heard great things about the fic before the book was being released so I needed to pick this book up. And to be honest, it wasn’t what u expect but I was not disappointed in the slightest. The world and magic system area really intriguing with the different clans and what they can and their relations with each other. Then adding the plot of the plague, the different illnesses. Everything was just great.

-I kept imagining Hermione and Draco as the characters and to be honest, I could tell where Aurienne got some go her character traits but Oscric felt quite far from the actually Draco Malfoy we know form the original book. But I still loved them fairly well. They had fun banter together and I was giggling and kicking my feet reading their scenes.

-I really want to read the sequel. I believe that this is a duology so it makes it even better to know that I only need one book to conclude the story that these characters are living and that I happening in this world. Their relationship is definitely something that I a major point in the book and to be honest it might what drew me in the most. But it ended on such a not that I am desperate for a sequel.

I feel like I've been waiting for ages to read this book, and I finally have, and gosh, this was so much fun!

Slow burn and enemies to lovers are two of my most favourite tropes ever, and this delivers on both!

An Assassin who's power is degenerating quickly and a healer who literally despises the order he belongs to but is the only person who can save him? Sign me all the way up!

When I tell you the dialogue between Osric and Aurienne is some of the wittiest I've ever read, I'm not lying! Honestly, my pelvic floor muscles are not what they used to be after two children, and the insults and clap backs these two share made me almost wet myself on numerous occasions (tmi sorry) 😆
I love a sarcastic MMC, and even Osric's inner monologue is hilarious! Underneath it all, though, you can tell he really cares for Aurienne, and he's my favourite kind of gentleman.

Aurienne is such a strong FMC, and the way she cares about her work and the passion she has for people really made me root for her!

I did get slightly confused at some points with the medical terms and felt the plot lagged slightly in the middle, but overall, I was thoroughly entertained. I love that this is a true slow burn romantasy as so many claim to be that and then their in love and bumping uglies after 60 pages. I can't actually wait for the second book because I just need them to love each other forever (hopefully) .

I think this is the biggest disappointment of the whole year, and I know it sounds a tad dramatic, but I was so disappointed by this one! It’s not that it didn’t deliver what it promised; it is that it has the most annoying female character ever. That’s it. If you just want the short version, you can stop reading here.

To be honest, there are some good things about the book. It’s not all bad. Evisceration as a love language is real here, and it is so funny. There is a scene, quite ahead in the book, where the male MC gives the best interpretation of this sentence, and it is the best scene ever! Sure, it’s gory and gross, but oh so good! I think that, all things considered, this book is worth a read only for this scene. It is amazingly good!
Even more so, because for once, we see Osric in all his glorious potential (and it was glorious!).

The banter is also pretty good, and we have lovely titles for the chapters. They were all quite funny. All in all, I cannot say that the book wasn’t fun. But it has some things that could have been done better, like the worldbuilding. The author’s idea is quite good, but it is not so developed. It is enough to work, we don’t have big holes that don’t make sense and that leave you wondering, but this book could have been a good fantasy book with the romance at its center, it’s not that a romantasy has to be shallow in worldbuilding and secondary characters’ development. You can have those, too!! And in this particular case, the foundations are pretty good; it is a waste to see that they were just sketched and left at that. I seriously think that this one could have been more. Oh, so much more!

But what really made me mad with this book is Aurienne. There is a lot of Hermione in her, but while I liked Hermione quite a lot, I despised Aurienne with the whole of my being. And no, I am not being dramatic. At all. She is just bad. She is such a hypocrite, and she is a really unpleasant person. She is the best healer ever, good for her, but as a human being… she is just bad. And she should be the good one. So, yeah. It’s not great.
And really, my dislike of her was so strong that it painted the whole of my reading experience.
Sure, Osiric is a good character, and around him we see some secondary characters that are more alive than the ones that surround Aurienne, but he alone cannot carry the weight of the whole book. She should have done her part, but every single time she appeared, I was so mad!

And then we have the ending. What was that? It’s not a cliffhanger, it’s a poor excuse for an ending, and an even more sad excuse to keep selling books. I was greatly annoyed with this book, but once I reached the end, I was completely done with it. I was reading a digital edition, because if I had the physical copy in my hand, I would have defenestrated it. With no doubts, and no regrets.
Every story has to be a beginning, a continuation, and an end. If it lacks one of those points, we have some problems. And here the end is nowhere in sight.

I cannot say that this book wasn’t funny, but it made me so mad! Spitting rage mad, to give you the exact measure of my feelings. Once I finished it, I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads, because I tried to be a tad objective, and to be honest the book is fun, we have a really slow burn, and the enemy part here is well done, sure, but even after a couple of months, my irritation toward it (to put it mildly) hasn’t dissipated, in the least. So now I am lowering my rating, because I am still so mad at it! It could have been an amazing read, but it didn’t work at all for me.

A superbly crafted fantasy adventure full of more thrills, wit, charm, romance and adventure than you've ever seen - but in the best way possible.

2.5⭐

Confusing language - takes you out of the story, have to really keep remembering each different meaning, ruined the flow of the story for me.
It had some good comedic timing, okay romance, really wanted to enjoy it more but was hard to read
I don't actually know how they got together because 50% in they only just stopped hating each other, feel like they only liked each other due to close proximity.
I wasn't really sure of the plot until like half way, and it got a bit boring.
The ending in particular felt very unfinished. I had high hopes and this just didn't meet them.

Thank you for the review copy in exchange of my honest review.

DNF @ 4%

I don't want to be a quitter so fast but WHAT is this writing style???????? And mind you, I'm not one who really is picky with the writing style of a book but oh my... 4% in and I'm already hating the writing. A very bad, bad sign. It's been weeks since I stopped too but I can't bring myself to pick it back up, so I guess it's a DNF for me.

(RIP the pretty SEs that were coming out for this too💔 Oh well, money saved there at least!)

Thank you Orbit UK for the ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I necessarily gave this book a fair chance, and DNFd quite early as the characters really irked me. They felt way too much like the tropes that this book was marketed on, and I just couldn't get into the story.

3.5

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Books for letting me read this incredibly fun e-arc.

If you are looking for a fun and light fantasy this is for you. If your are looking for a slow burn between a mix of enemies to lovers and forbidden love, you’re in the right place.

I laughed out loud more than once, the banter was on spot, and in general the comedy was good.

Also, this was originally a Draco Malfoy fanfic, and proof that fanfic can be good and that we need more to be published!

Finally, I was not expecting this to be a series but I’m here for it, I’ll the first in line to request the sequel!

Tension + slow burn + banter really is the best recipe.

This book delivered in the way I've been needing an enemies to lovers to deliver for a long time. The build up for why these two characters are enemies just made the slow burn pay off so much more worth it!

Okay now listen, this book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and I don't know how to feel about it.

On the one hand, I very much enjoyed the romance between Osric and Aurienne. Their banter was funny, their denial about growing feelings towards each other entertaining to watch and the little tender romantic moments they shared had me in my feels.
I liked Aurienne especially as a smart and determined FMC, that knew her worth and strengths. She was such a breath of fresh air compared to other characters in the romantasy genre that suffer very much from the whole "damsel in distress" thing.

But (and this is a very big but for me) everything else was lacking. The worldbuilding was non-existent. Random words - either in english or french - were thrown around with no explanation that the reader was just supposed to understand. The plot was lacking and I couldn't even tell you for the first 60% of the book what the main plot even was. Once it did hit, I found myself not caring for it.

I don't think this is a bad book by any means, but it just felt unpolished and unfinished. Like the main focus was to make the banter and the snarky comments as funny as possible and everything else fell through.
I'm certain this will be a big hit for romantasy lovers, because once again, the romance aspect of it is very enjoyable, but any experienced fantasy readers might be as dissappointed by this as I was.

This book was a fun ride overall, though it wasn’t without its flaws. The writing style felt a bit off at times, sometimes we got full dialogue scenes, and other times we were just told a conversation happened along with a summary of what was said. It made the flow a little inconsistent. It felt liek some extra editing could have helped a lot with this.

The humor is definitely one of those love-it-or-hate-it types. Personally, I appreciated it, but I can see how some of the jokes might make readers uncomfortable or not land for everyone. The pacing was actually quite strong, and it kept me engaged throughout. It was always interesting to see where the story would go next.

One thing this book really did well was the enemies-to-lovers trope. It actually felt believable, with solid reasons for the initial conflict and a gradual build-up to something more while they hated that it was happening. Unlike many recent books that claim to have this trope but don’t deliver, this one truly did.

Despite the issues, I’m definitely curious to see what happens next and I’ll be picking up the next book.

3.5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with a digital review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions. 🫶🏼

This Dramione-coded enemies-to-lovers fantasy rom-com is a very easy and entertaining read.

This is set in a fictional UK. Osric is an assassin of the Fyren Order and has a medical „problem“ (aka his magic is kind of dying, thus he risks of being offed himself given his profession) and he forces healer Aurienne (of the Haelan Order) to help him. They are enemies only because of their professions/Orders. More mysteries appear and together (not by choice) they try to solve them. So it‘s definitely also a forced proximity romance.

I heard a lot about its banter and it‘s compared to Emily Wilde, and while I can see the parallels, this book is HEAVY on the banter. There‘s hardly a normal conversation, which I found, at times, a bit tedious and unrealistic.

Tbh this was really difficult to rate. I really liked the ending and the slow burn. Plus the book is queer normative which I LOVE! More please!

But like I said, it was a bit too bantery and words like „smutty“ or „povvos“ seemed a bit out of place, given the setting (Osric‘s house still doesn‘t have electricity so…). Sure, they don‘t need to speak Dickensian, but it still seemed a bit weird to me.

The worldbuilding is also pretty nonexistent and I had no idea what some of the terms meant. There‘s a glossary at the very end, which would have been more helpful at the beginning. I tried to compare it to the HP world because it‘s based on a fanfic, but it‘s very detatched now, so I guess the extra confusion is on me.

So, I think this would be a very fun read for people who want an „enemies“-to-lovers romance with constant Gilmore Girls-ish banter but make it fantasy.

Osric and Aurienne may be Dramione coded but I got huge Assistant to the Villain vibes - Oric is just not that the villainy. He's more the bad boy who's actually a good man - he just does a few unalivings every now and then, lol.

Osric may be a thief and an assassin but he also has a lovely relationship with his housekeeper and the frenemyship he has with another assassin will leave you chortling. Aurienne is hyper intelligent, focused and a gifted researcher but warm and cuddly is not her forte. But even she cracks when the magical malady that is affecting children (and only the poorest at that) strikes the local population and she and her fellow healers are left, without any major resources, to try and stem the pandemic.

Osric and Aurienne are soon entangled together in a forced proximity blackmailship as he endows her medical institute with cash and in return she just has to cure him of an incurable illness! Theses two have wicked banter and the witty repartee was wonderfully glib.

The world is queer normative and there was never a big drama when a little nugget of someone's sexuality or preferences were dropped into the narrative. There needs to be more of these kinds of worlds in my humble opinion. This is not a spicy romance, in fact there's only one scene I think that could be called steamy but there is much alluded to and spoken about so may not suit a younger/easily offended reader.

If you need any more urging to read this wee gem, here are a few of my stand out quotes:

“Irresistible Bastard Meets Immovable Bitch”

‘There was a heap of steaming excrement right in front of Aurienne, and it could talk. ‘

Aurienne said thank you, she would consult him next time she needed advice from an Abscess with inferior hair. Mordaunt, vexed, said how dare she, when her bun looked like a perfect onion?’

‘Can you stop fingering him while I’m speaking to you?’

‘You do realise,’ said Wellesley, ‘that you’ve only got one man here.’
‘No,’ said Aurienne with ruefulness born of sad truth. ‘I’ve got a monster.’ Now Mordaunt moved.

This book was not for me. As much as I really enjoyed the plot the writing style really let it down. It often felt childish with relationships between characters feeling the same. Everyone has banter with everyone so there were no unique relationships. Every situation was sarcastic so nothing was taken seriously. It is the slowest of slow burns, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it did need a few more moments to show the main characters feelings changing.

Overall I had a good time with the plot but spent a lot of time wondering what the heck I had just read because of how it was written.

3,5 stars

The Irresistble Urge to Fall for Your Enemy has been highly hyped as an enemies to lovers. More than that, what appealed to me to request/pick this up was the slow born element. That slow burn is here. Mostly.

One thing to know before going in is that our characters aren't personal enemies. They don't even know each other before the start of this book. They are 'enemies' because they are in different factions. One is a healer and the other a murderer for hire. So the enemy bit isn't quite as strong as I was initially expecting.

Regardless their romance is an interesting to follow. As this is a duology we don't quite get a pay out at the end of this book. But that makes the slow burn element that much stronger. I liked reading about our two main characters. Osric with his adopted dogs. Aurienne with her friends at work. I liked those elements of the story. Osric truly is a bit of a cinnamon roll. One who murders, but still.

What I struggled with was the slight formulaic portions of the story. Like where they within a span of a day max, they both masturbated to the image of the other. That made me roll my eyes so hard. If one of them did it it would have been fine. But this felt like a very forced element of the story now.

Adding onto that I found the world building here lacking. There are bits and bobs but it could have taken place in any kind of fantasy world really. It needed more padding for this world to truly stand out.

Regardless I did find it a fun read and I will likely pick up the sequel.

4.5 ⭐️
This was such a breath of fresh air for me as a fantasy. At first I wasn’t too sure but ended up throughly enjoying it. It had me giggling out loud, Osric won not only Aurienne over but also me. The slow burn that’ is building has been totally worth it, the true enemies to lovers and the feeling the two have developed so far feel very realistic for the time spent together. I’ve loved every second of this read and can’t wait for the next!

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy
Brigitte Knightley
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Irresistible Urger to Fall For Your Enemy is a slow burn enemies to lovers fantasy romance set in an alternative UK.

Osric Mordaunt finds himself in dire need of a healer, a specific healer at that. Aurienne Fairhrim is the most experienced in her field of work, and her order finds itself in desperate need of funding to help heal the sick children. When Osric breaks into her office to bribe or kidnap her into helping, Aurienne's superior advises her to help him in exchange for a large sum. The only problem is she despises him and she's his means to an ends. Being thrust together, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other as they try to solve their current mysteries.

I struggled to rate this one because at times I loved it and at times I wanted to DNF it. The chapters were so long & I found some of the language used just pulled me out as I was constantly having to look up what some things meant or having to re-read paragraphs to try figure out what was being said as not only did they use a lot of old words but also quite a few made up ones also. The book also contained a lot of medical jargon that just went straight over my head.

I found myself enjoying the interactions between the main characters and then the next minute it would just be taken too far. I feel like the balance between finding having banter as relationship development and having banter because the author knows the audience likes that fell on the wrong side and sometimes it was a little too much.

Having said that I did enjoy the characters, Osric is a charming and vain with little thought to his actions and I really enjoyed his character. Aurienne is the total opposite, she is stoic, organised and all about following the rules. My favourite part was their deodols, which are similar to patronuses that can talk.

I did find that world building lacked slightly & it was a little confusing with all the different places. Given the storyline I would have liked to have known more about the Orders and the politics between them.

Overall, I enjoyed parts of this and disliked other parts. I think I will pick up the sequel to see how things wrap up, but we'll see if I still have interest when it comes around.

TROPES:
- slow burn
- enemies to lovers
- reluctant allies
- assassin x healer
- Shadow daddy
- banter

Thank you to @netgalley & @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The best love stories begin with hate at first sight... and this one proves it.

Pub Date: July 8
⭐⭐⭐/5

Meet Aurienne Fairhim — a gifted healer of The Haelan Order.
Enter Osric Mordaunt — an assassin for hire from The Fyren Order.

Aurienne needs funding for a crucial research project. Osric needs a cure only she can provide.
"Most people were either charmed or terrified by Osric. Aurienne was neither."

This is an enemies-to-lovers fan’s dream: magic, murder, and a slow-burn romance set in a spellbinding fantasy world.
Expect:
🗡️ Witty banter
🧪 Dangerous potions
✨ Betrayal & blood
⚔️ Swordplay
💋 And one hell of a kiss you’ll want to reread. Twice.

As someone still new to fantasy (this is only my third!), I was really looking forward to this one. It’s good and engaging—but I expected more. The pacing dragged, the chapters felt a bit too long, and I wanted more chemistry and tension between the characters.

Still, it’s a unique story, and I think seasoned fantasy readers—especially fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope—are going to love it.

Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC of #TheIrresistbleurgetofallforyourenemy in exchange for my honest review.

Xoxo😘

A huge thanks to NetGalley and LittleBrownBookGroup UK for this e-arc!

First, I need to say that I am not a fan fiction reader, I never read one, and I don’t fancy those dramione fanfic I hear about lately. When I received this book, I didn’t know that the author wrote a dramione fanfic before and that this book was in those fanfic vibes. Well, now that I’ve read it, I can say that I didn’t find it very related to a potentiel Draco-Hermione relationship, at all. For me it was just a healer and a killer, forced to work together to achieve some goals and a funky spicy enemies-to-lovers on the first row!

Now, what I loved in this book was that it was actually really entertaining. The conversations between the two main characters were the fun part, those sharp-spicy exchanges of words were so entertaining, I giggled a lot!
This book is about medecine (pandemic & curing incurable disease), war and political plots, and secrets.

Aurienne is a strong brilliant scientist specialized in medecine, one of the best for sure and she is so charismatic!
Osric, well, is our grumpy slaughtering-is-a-normal-pleasurable-job assassin and he has such a way with words. He develop this vibe of “touch her and die” while hating her for what she is but in the mean time need her (only her) for.. something you’ll discover while reading it because this book deserve your attention!

The only negative point that I can find was the length of the chapters, too long for me, at least in the beginning. In the end I was so much trapped in it that I didn’t really care, but sure to say, the chapters are quite long, be prepared!

You need to read it if you love:
🗡️ enemies-to-lovers
🔥 slow burn with high interaction between our MC
💀 “touch her and die” vibes
🫱🏼‍🫲🏻 reluctant allies
🪄 great worldbuilding & different human class with specific capabilities/powers

So basically, I loved it and I want the sequel like right now (please please thank you)

I absolutely loved this book!! The dripping sarcasm alongside the slooowest of slow burns, made for a fun read.