This debut lays a solid groundwork for what could grow into a truly compelling series. While the writing style took some getting used to, it gradually found its rhythm. I found myself increasingly drawn in.

The character interactions are where the book shines. The witty, often sharp banter added to the story and kept me engaged even when the pace was slow.

Looking ahead, I hope book two dives deeper into the lore and fleshes out the worldbuilding hinted at here. There’s a lot of potential waiting to be explored.

Big thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK / Orbit for the ARC, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

This book definitely has potential, and I’m interested to see where the story goes in book two. The prose took a little getting used to; it’s a bit dense and stylized, which made the early chapters feel less engaging than I’d hoped. That said, the pacing picks up in the second half, and by the end, I was much more invested. The banter between characters was a highlight for me; it added a great dynamic and kept things lively even when the plot slowed down.

I’m really hoping the sequel delves deeper into the plot and expands on the worldbuilding, which feels like it has a lot more to offer. There’s a strong foundation here, and I’m excited to see how it develops.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK / Orbit for the ARC. I truly enjoyed the read and appreciate the opportunity.

I’m having mixed feelings about this book.

It was intriguing and good, but something felt missing. The premise is that an assassin and a healer need to work together to heal Osric. Osric is arrogant, too confident and self-absorbed (but in a comical way), while Aurienne is witty, quick, and funny. She despises everything he does and is very reluctant to help him. As time goes on, the tension between them intensifies.

I really enjoyed the tension between the two, the sarcasm, and the quick wit replies to one another. They were funny and kept me interested. However, there was minimal world-building and character development. I couldn’t connect with them fully or imagine the world. It’s set in London, but no idea when. The pacing also felt off, with some chapters jumping a month or so. Due to this, I was only invested in the slow-burn romance, not much else.

It’s a very low-stakes fantasy read, which at times was refreshing, but I just wanted a little more. I do think others will love this and it will be a favourite for many, especially those who enjoy a low-stakes fantasy with a slow-burn romance and forced promiscuity. If you’re a fanfiction fan, then this would definitely be worth the read for you.

Thank you to Orbit, Little Brown Books, and Netgalley for the e-arc.

I'd heard a lot of buzz around The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy so was excited to get to it! Overall it was a fun start to an enemies to lovers series and I'm intrigued to see where it'll go next!
I went in to this book blind, not really knowing the setting or premise and I actually don't think that helped me this time. I was a bit confused at the beginning in terms of setting/time as it's got fantasy to it but also based in the UK, which I wasn't expecting. I spent the beginning being confused as to what was going on as a lot of fantasy vocabulary was used without being fully explained so I didn't really get what was going on. It took me a while to get into the book and therefore through it and I don't think I was really fully engaged at all. I also thought it was a standalone (my own fault for going into the book blind) so was getting a bit concerned towards the end.
I did enjoy the general premise, once I got to grips with the characters and what was going on and enjoyed their very slow burn. Personally, I'd have liked a little more romance between them but once I realised it wasn't standalone I understood why it was so slow and enjoyed their interactions and realisations of romantic feelings.
I found the storyline interesting and am definitely intrigued for the next book, to see what'll happen next.
If you like urban fantasies with slow burn enemies to lovers, then I definitely recommend The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy!

This did take me a good few chapters to get into, I think this was down to both the setting up of the world and the vocabulary and writing style throughout. The book does have a very unique voice, which I think will be hit or miss for readers. I will say it is worth giving a go.

Possibly the best part of this book was the banter between the two central characters and the sharp wit of the writing. It provided some of the most entertaining writing I have read in a while. Not all of the crude jokes landed well with me, though.

The slow burn of the dynamic between the two characters was also very welcome. The plot of the book provided a fun way for the characters to truly develop alongside each other. There is still room for more individual character development outside of how they interact with each other.

Overall, this felt like a fresh entry into the romantasy genre, and I enjoyed my time reading it. Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the digital copy.

I can see why people may like this, but it was very much a 'not for me' book. Whilst the premise of the book could have been good I think it was very badly executed. The romance was pretty unbelievable, going from hate to love with no real build-up, they just suddenly decided they were in love. They had very valid reasons to hate each other and there didn't seem to be any reason at all to fall in love. Their 'banter' was just insulting each other by pulling random words out of a thesaurus. The world building was pretty lacklustre and needed expanding some more outside of the glossary. There was also only one real plot thread which got no resolution at all by the end of the book. This could definitely have been a standalone with some more editing. There were some loveable side characters (deofols and Mrs Parson) that could have been given more spotlight to improve the book but the MMC and FMC fall very flat. I think the fanfic that this was originally based on was much better executed. I would like to stress that this is my opinion of the book, I do think that other people will have a very different opinion and will love it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown for the ARC.

I'm sorry to say this book just wasn't for me, I had to DNF at 19%, it just wasn't for me and this saddens me, I was so excited to read this, but I found the language to be very hard to understand and the story just wasn't keeping me intrigued enough to carry on.

Hands down one of the best book I’ve read this year! Definitely the best ARC for sure!
I flew through those pages like a madwoman running down a hill. I could. Not. Put. It. Down.

The dynamic between the two MC is wild!
Force a cold queen to collaborate with a truly unhinged shadow daddy and you get some of the funniest lines ever written!
And the slow-burn, the tension between these two…!!
And the plotting!!
And the action/crime-packed pages!!
And the familiars!!
And the unexpected!!

Do not trust this cover, the story is not pink… more like crimson 🩸 and I don’t know what it says about me but I LOVED every single page of it! (Read trigger warnings, they’re not a joke…).

Loved the characters and the development of them in the course of the story. The banter between them made me laugh numerous times, I look forward to the next installment.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 4.5 stars

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy was such a good time. It’s got that classic enemies-to-lovers vibe, but with a really fun twist that made it feel fresh. I loved how low-stress and easy it was to get into — perfect for when you just want something light that’ll still hold your attention.

It had that rom-com feel but wasn’t too cheesy. A few moments were absolutely unhinged (in the best way), and I actually laughed out loud more than once. The dogs’ names? I’m still not over them.

And just when I thought I had the tone figured out… that ending. Jaw. Dropped.

If you’re after something funny, chaotic in the right places, and a little different, definitely give this one a go.

Not to be dramatic but this right here, is my new favourite read of the year! I've seen mixed reviews but I knew in my soul this book was for me. Thank you Orbit Books and NetGalley for this early copy <3

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy is dry, sarcastic, slow-burn perfection - basically me in novel form. I read it over two evenings and genuinely wish I could hand it to every new person I meet and say, “This is who I am, read this and you will understand me, fundamentally. You’re welcome.”

Aurienne is that woman. She’s grounded, whip-smart, deeply respectful of her work and her peers, and unapologetically firm in who she is. She’s the kind of strong female character we aspire to be, and if someone calls her unlikeable, it’s giving “threatened.” Let’s be real.

And Osric? Unhinged. Unwell. SO addictive. I am clutching my pearls, screaming into a pillow, etc. We are all in love, and we are not subtle about it.

What I adored most is how their relationship unfolds, as the story progresses, you can feel their mutual respect and emotional connection growing quietly, long before either of them even entertains the idea of romantic interest. Clearly our beloved main characters are in deep denial to say the least. The slow burn? Absolutely criminal in its pacing - and I mean that as the highest compliment. It wasn’t just about longing glances and tension; it was deep, layered, emotionally intelligent. And the writing?? Out of this world. Some of the lines were so gut wrenching I had to stop and stare into the void.

And yes, the “mind the gap” moment gave me PTSD. Every. Single. Time. Also, the FORK?? The dual POV added so much richness to their story as well, again a great moment to say how deep the denial is for both characters. It’s sharp, funny, romantic, painful, alive.

Brigett Knightley, you’re now on my auto-buy list (*threat*). I adore this book with my whole entire being!

Arc provided by NetGalley
Jeez, where do I even start with this? My real rating is more a 2.5/2.75 ish that I'm generously rounding up to a 3 since GR doesn't do halves or quarters. My overall feeling with this book is just that it was very underwhelming. I went into it expecting a fun romp but it ended up falling flat in a lot of areas. The only thing I really enjoyed was the setting of an alternate England and the use of Old English. At first it seemed to be enjoyable, but quite quickly the humour got to be too much - it was too dry and sarcastic. The enmity between the mains felt shallow and never progressed to any depth beyond "I hate you because of your Order". Sure, Aurienne had at least a justifiable hatred for Osric being an assassin but there was just a massive emotional detachment. In fact, emotional detachment was my main takeaway from the writing as a whole. We know going in that this is an enemies to lovers story so I'm already prepared to invest in the relationship, already rooting for them from the start expecting all this delicious development, but I didn't get a chance to feel anything because it was so dry and almost matter-of-fact and sarcastic. I don't care about how long the slow-burn was (that never bothers me) but I should still be enjoying the enmity as the foundation blocks for the future development of the relationship. I felt like it just wasn't there. Witty exchanges simply aren't enough of a substitute for a decent connection. I also left at the end asking myself what the true plot conflict was? The child pox epidemic felt more like a minor backdrop, the mission to heal Osric largely went nowhere, and the discovery towards the end came so late that it felt like a throwaway setup for the sequel. In the end it felt there were no stakes to any of it. There was no true world-building with an exploration into politics - which there should have been given the emphasis on the Orders and how they worked with/against each other. The characters had no true depth to them - sure Aurienne healed and Osric assassinated but it felt like they were going through the motions. We were being told they did stuff without any major insight into their psyches. And that was another issue, this book was a whole lot of telling and no showing. (I got seriously bored of being told Osric was seductive and successful at it all the time without actually getting to witness it.) This had all the marks of something I should have enjoyed and really wanted to enjoy (I jumped for joy when I was approved for the arc!) but in the end I came away frustrated and feeling a profound emotional detachment, from within myself and from the writing too. And perhaps the more frustrating thing is that I'm probably going to keep thinking about it (or at least what it could have been) but also that I'll definitely still read the sequel when it comes out because I can't help myself that despite it all I'm still curious to see the development of Osric and Aurienne's relationship. This probably sounds a lot more negative than the experience I had reading it, I still had a somewhat good time but I also came away not feeling a whole lot of anything (in terms of emotional attachment to the characters and world) and therefore a general frustration.

I also wonder whether an audio experience of this would make me view it in a different light - the humour did get to be too much at times (like weird pube humour?) but I do think that perhaps with narrators leaning into the comedic tone would give me a vastly different experience than the one I had filtering everything through my own internal voice.

I really enjoyed this book - the enemies to lovers was perfection. And the slow burn??? STUNNING. There was a great balance of serious plot versus comedic relief/banter - I genuinely laughed out loud at points. The high contrast in personalities/morals of our MMC and FMC was great. I loved them both, Osric slightly more than Aurienne. We love a morally grey MMC.

When I first picked up this book, I thought it was going to be super high fantasy that required loads of my brain power and concentration to understand, due to the few pages of definitions and world-building. However, I didn’t spend too much time trying to make sure I understood and remembered all the terms and was able to easily pick it up along the way.

I enjoyed the plot but felt the original reason for our character’s teaming up kind of fell to the wayside of the plot that developed later on. I can’t wait to find out how the story develops and resolves with the continuation of the series!

I have read my fair share of a certain type of fan fiction so was more than excited to get stuck into The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy. I expected to almost match this to the character's in the fan fiction and was greatly surprised when that didn’t happen at all.
It feels like a fresh new premise with a unique magic system and deeply flawed but lovable character’s.
The story centres around Osric Mordaunt who, after years of killing and maiming as part of his order (A Fyren) is slowly losing the ability to use his internal magic, so called Seith. So, he enlists the help of a well know and intelligent healer to use her earlier thesis to hopefully recover his seith.
The world outside their relationship is a bleak one. Children are struggling from a deadly disease, which is the back plot to the book and takes a clear second place to Osric and Aurienne’s relationship but this is what will drive the series going forward.

There’s a definite enemies to lovers trope with the standard morally grey MMC and it’s done so well. The bickering and banter between the two character’s is flawless and adds a cool element of humour to the story.
The magic system is well thought out and I found very few, if any, flaws. Reading on a kindle I did have to keep returning to the beginning to understand the different orders and elements of magic within the book, but after a while it sinks in really well.
I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t too keen on the ending, because well, it just ended. There was no major cliff hanger or jaw drop moment. However, that being said, I have pre-ordered the hard copy, I will read it again and I will get any sequels and isn’t that what this is all about?

I never wanted this book to end.

My goodness, what a delight! The humor, the world building, the banter, the tension—everything about this book is perfect. It’s witty. It’s charming. It’s absolutely well-crafted. I was invested from the get-go and couldn’t put it down!!

My only critique is that its sequel isn’t out yet. Because I need. ASAP.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the chance to review this impeccable book in exchange for an honest review. I will never shut up about how amazing it is.

‘The Irresistible Urge To Fall For Your Enemy’ is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.
It is an extremely well written, humorous romantasy that had me hooked from the first page.
Aurienne is such a strong and intelligent FMC who has such a strong love and compassion for her work and her order.
Osric is a hilarious, strong willed “villain” who has an answer for absolutely everything. And honestly, I would swoon for him any day.
The sarcasm and the humour throughout this book was incredible and I was not expecting it at all. I’ve never r highlighted so much of a book on Kindle before but I couldn’t stop as there was so many parts I loved.
It’s rare you come across a book where the banter and whit seems so natural and unforced, but this was that book.
Also!!! One thing I appreciated was the fact it is an enemies to lovers, but finally one where the enemies don’t fall for each other within the first few pages. The tension that slowly builds is *chefs kiss*.
I had the best time during this book and I can not wait for the next one😮‍💨

I wanted to love this 😭 veryyy slow but the last 15% had me hooked

I haven't read the original fic but knowing it has been rewritten Knightley has created their own magic system which is interesting and complex (I love the Deofol)

The first 50% was quite slow, then once the book got its pacing the last 20% or so felt rushed.
I enjoyed the ending and the overall story line and will be reading the next one but this could have more banter between the characters

2⭐️ | from a person who hasn’t read the fanfic & who is not the biggest HP fan but liked the cover

Tropes: HP inspired, enemies to lovers, magic, grumpy x sunshine

Osric is in a need of a healer (Haelan), so he turns to the best one everybody has talked and recommended to him Aurienne. The only problem is he is an assassin (Fyren order) and she is a healer (Haelan) and they hate each other dearly. She agrees to heal him on some conditions and that’s how the story starts.

Pluses:
The story was interesting enough to follow, orders, communication via pets, even their hate to each other was great.
Osric even though a killer had big heart and was adopting dogs on his way, and never leaving animals in need without care.

That’s it, i actually can’t say i saw there more plusses and minuses overweighted it all, and thats why i decided i dont need a special edition of this book.

Minuses:
1. Language🙈OMG it was killing me. It was switching from 1st POV to third and back again. and again and again and I couldn’t catch the story at all. I was many times wondering ok, what’s going on now and who are we seeing in the scene.
Either it’s proofread really badly or it needed much much much more work before being published at all. For me personally it was 65% unreadable and i wanted to dnf it each 5%.

2. The author gives glossary at the beginning to main terms, but if you are not HP great fan or have not read 1000 fanfics on dramione i had NO idea to 40% of vocabulary being used. I have read and skipped the words i didn’t know but it could be better. I was lost most of the time in what is this or that…

3. The ending?!?!? It was unexpected to me that it’s a SERIES!!!!!! I went in with a thought that it’s a standalone like fanfic!!!! Who knew? At 98% of the book there is still SO MUCH going on that when it finishes SO ABRUPTLY on 99% like middle of scene i was like What? I was mad!!!!!

To conclude, i don’t think if you are not dramione stan this book would be for you. Yes,!!! i did like the overall idea but its implementation was poor and weak unfortunately.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC of this book, the opinion i provide is my own.

Unfortunately the de fanficing didn't quite work for me. The new world building wasn't dense enough to replace knowing this started as HP fanfic.

I will probably give the next book in the series a chance as this may improve.

i had a little trouble deciding on a rating for this book, because my feelings for this book are completely split between the first half and the second half. it took me a really long time to get in to this book in the beginning, and i honestly considered dnf-ing the book (i am really glad i did not though, so please read this full review, because i ended up loving this story by the end, and i actually do recommend the book). i found the world building not well explained at all, the glossary at the beginning was definitely not enough and so confusing in of it self that it didn't help at all. so i felt really thrown in to this complicated world that i did not understand at all, and that unfortunately almost ruined the experience for me because i couldn't connect with the world i was reading about, and you really had to understand the world to fully enjoy the first half of the book since it was the majority of the topic. which leads to another problem i have with the first half of the book, it was really slow, i honestly did not feel like anything was happening, the story barely begins until the half mark. there was no "action", no stakes and very limited actual mystery or journey we were following, nothing really to hook the reader in and get them excited and wanting to continue and know what happens next. we were kinda just following the characters living their lives and doing the same things again and again, but i didn't feel enough of a connection to the characters yet to be enjoying that.

when we reached the half way mark of the book though, that's when the story really starts going for me, my feelings toward the book completely changed and i ate up the rest of the book so quickly. the second half was action filled and exciting. i was starting to enjoy the characters and connect to them so i was rooting for them and wanted to follow their journey and see what happened next. i also started enjoying the characters more and started really feeling the hot slow burn that they were. i was giggling at their connection, swooning at the cute moments between them, laughing at the dark humour and their banter, i was at the edge of my seat reading about their journey and the "mystery" they were trying to solve. i suddenly didn't want the book to end because i loved the characters, their connection, their humour and the story.

the romance really is the best part of this book in my opinion. it was actually perfect, i loved their banter, i loved watching them fall for each other but try to deny it because they didn't want to fall for each other. i loved how protective they were of each other, but at the same time pretending to hate each other. the dark humour was the second best thing, it really is a dark humour, which i guess is not for everyone but it really is for me, i laughed so often, especially at them bickering, there were parts where they were basically behaving like children and trying to be mean to each other but actually they were just throwing childish remarks and insults at each other. it actually was hilarious.

even though i had trouble with the beginning, i ended up loving this story, and i will definitely be continuing this series, i actually can't really wait for the next book, i will probably read it as soon as it is published. i also think i might re-read this book, which is not something i do often, but i am hoping to enjoy it more during a second read because i will understand the world better and already feel connected to the characters, i have a feeling i might even give it a higher rating after my second read, because thinking about this book now, i really love it, but my feelings and experience during that first half of reading this book are just too important for me to not take that into consideration while rating this book for now.
i also just really want to read their banter again, it really is that good.