A deliciously sharp romance that had me hooked from the first snarky exchange.

This isn’t a soft rivals-to-lovers situation — it’s a real enemies-to-lovers. The verbal sparring is absolutely top-tier. I found myself laughing out loud more than once.

Full of fiery tension and sharp wit.

3.5
I love when books have a glossary. It sets the tone for the book and sometimes, like in this case, let's you see where the author pulled inspiration from.

My initial draw to this book was the cover. It reminded me of Star Wars, with Aurienne looking like Leia or Ray and Osric reminiscent of an Imperial Officer. Apparently I'm delusional because this story was actually fanfic of another series, but I didn't know that at the time, though it does become more obvious as the story goes on.

However, if you don't associate the characters or story with another series, they're really quite one dimensional.

The story was rather lax in world building, which is odd to me considering it started with a glossary. The characters while bantery feel very basic and shallow. Little is known about what makes either of them tick or propels them in what they want to do. Though we've gotten miniscule hints that this will be approached later on.

So far we know he is seemingly evil, or atleast without morals. He grew up in poverty, killed his father in defense, collects stray animals and dotes on them, has an ego, likes to indulge in vices, is fond of himself, and is trying to impress a dead person or people. Not the most complex, but at least we know him.
While she...has strong morals and is dedicated to her work. Why, we do not know. Her POVs give little insight into who she is.

While I'd really like to know what happens, I felt like this book ended rather abruptly, and in a lull, so im not clamberinf for the next one. There was no overarching plot for this installment. While I understand this is a romance, I think a little bit more plot throughout would've been helpful, or at least give us something so we can feel some sense of satisfaction from the end of this chapter in the story.

My favourite part of the book was the writing style and the humor. The cock and balls jokes weren't really my style, but there was so much more (dry) humor I enjoyed in the narration style, with all its interruptions and judgements. A lot of the formatting writing also had very clear fic-y habits (the chapter titles, use of capitals, etc) which I enjoy, but others may not.

The story could've easily been one slightly longer book. Though I don't mind a duology in theory. The pacing here just needed some work. Either to impose some more plot in between the first attempts at healing (a cause that seems to have been quickly forgotten once other things come up) and the rest, or just forgo plot entirely and have a singular book where they interact at the full moon and see the progress that way. The in-between for me just isn't working.

Thank-you NetGalley and Orbit for allowing me to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Okay, I’m going to be honest—this book took me a while to get into. I kept picking it up and putting it down, trying to get a foothold. But I’m so glad I stuck with it, because once I cracked the code on these characters? I was hooked.

Knightly’s brand of humour is ridiculously sharp. Like, actually-snorted-laughing-on-public-transport sharp. Osric’s deadpan sass, combined with Aurienne’s hyper-literal science-speak, makes for one of the funniest and most emotionally repressed duos I’ve ever read. It’s Enemies to Lovers at its finest: disdain-fueled banter, inconvenient sexual tension, and just enough knifeplay to keep things interesting (yes, I am talking about literal evisceration as a form of emotional intimacy—don’t judge me).

Osric was brilliant and just damn right hysterically funny. The man is a disaster in a cloak, a professional killer who has no business being that soft on the inside. And Aurienne? My queen of clinical detachment and righteous fury. Watching them unravel together—slowly, agonizingly, delightfully—was pure entertainment. The slow burn burns, people.

These two aren’t just falling in love; they’re trying to stop a literal plague while grappling with their ideological differences and inconvenient horniness.

If you love:
✅ Enemies to lovers with high IQs and no chill,
✅The “he falls first and harder” dynamic
✅And science, murder, and sexual tension in equal measure…

Then The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is your next read. I’m already counting down the days until the next installment. Knightly, you’ve made me feel things. Against my will. Bravo.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me.

I found the plot really confusing and therefore for me it didn’t flow and I couldn’t get lost in the storyline.

I’m gutted because I really wanted to love this and was really excited that I got this arc!

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley and I’m so sorry this wasn’t for me.

I won’t be posting a review on my socials.

Love love loveeeeed this book!! If you’re a fan of enemies to lovers definitely pick this one up! Thank you so much for the eArc!! Will 100% be recommending this book.

This was a huge let down for me.

I was promised witty banter and high tension in a well written enemies to lovers classic. Instead I was met with cringe worthy flirting, needless moments where the author was determined to show they were edgy and characters that fell horribly flat despite already being based on two previously written characters.

Yeahh….no. This was not a book for me. World building? Don’t know her. Magic system explained? Don’t know her. We get a big glossary of all the different orders, creatures and words, but we don’t get any explanation or background for practically anything. It’s hard to get a good flow in the text because you have to circle back to the glossary all the freaking time. Such flat characters, ZERO personality, which means the slow burn isn’t giving anything. They’re just plainly annoying and boring, This is supposed to be a Dramione fanfic, but that’s a disgrace to miss Hermione Granger and mr Draco Malfoy. The only good thing this book had going for it, was the banter, that did get a couple of laughs from me. But that was it. Apparently it’s a duology, but I’m not gonna continue. Nope, not my cup of tea. Sorry.

I really wanted to like this book as I’d heard such great things and read other rave reviews about it, but it just didn’t end up being the book for me.

I think my main problem was the multiple pages at the beginning of the book giving a glossary, trying to introduce the world magic system, and a pronunciation page. Whenever I didn’t know what something meant, I had to keep going back to the beginning of the book to try and understand what was going on, and because this was an arc version there was no chapter breakdown to be able to go back and forth!

I also didn’t love the characters that much. Granted, I did dnf this relatively early on, but it just give me vibes of assistant to the villain except there seemed to be no goodness/humour in the villain of this story, and the heroine just seemed tired and uncharismatic. There wasn’t any chemistry upon the MMF and FMC officially meeting, or if there was I might have missed it during all the talk of sacks of onions. I struggled to want the two of them together from the outset as well, with him immediately planning to lie his way out of a commitment.

I think I would likely try this book in a different format (ie in paperback), but the e-book version was difficult to read and didn’t hit the mark for me as I hoped it would based on the description and other reviews I had read.

Ok, so this was a highly amusing read and had high entertainment value for me. I appreciated the witty banter that did have me laughing out loud in places.
Fairhrim and Osric hate each other, and their journey to not hate is amusing. Also I want more Leofric in the next book please!
Definitely recommend this as an entertaining read.

I enjoyed reading this book, I thought the characters and their interactions were great. He’s an assassin with a messed up magical system and she’s the only healer that can help, only problem is their orders hate each other. They start off barely tolerating each other but slowly things begin to change. The banter between Osric and Aurienne was good fun, both being quick witted and fast to insult each other.

I loved how strong and capable Aurienne is, she has a well established career and esteem. She’s hard working and cares deeply for her patients. It was great when Osiris would try to flirt with her and she easily shot him down.

The magic system was really interesting but I do wish it had been explained more. It was definitely entertaining however I thought there were too many crude jokes and the plot took a while to get going.

I would recommend this book for those who love enemies to lovers with fantasy and humour.

I’m so disappointed that I really didn’t enjoy this book, after really wanting to love it.

I went into this knowing this was previously a fanfiction, however, being trad published, I didn’t expect it to still read like one. The writing style felt woefully underdeveloped and childish. This works for some people, but sadly, it didn’t land for me.

The world building and magic system also felt incredibly under explained, and relied on having knowledge of the fanfictions basis in order to understand. Which is fine for a fanfic, but make it difficult for work outside of this world to stand on its own merit.

Now, the book was humorous at times. There were points were it going a smile of giggle out of me, but honestly the crude jokes got old quite quickly. The relationship between the FMC and MMC heavily relies on this and I really didn’t feel a spark between them, or a connection to the characters myself.

Also, as someone who is British, there is such a thing of writing TOO stereotypically British, it became a bit cringey at times. I was also confused by the randomly included French when not to do with the French character?

Thank you to NetGalley and the author to the chance to read this, and I’m sorry it wasn’t up my alley!

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a fun, banter-filled read.

I, admittedly, struggled with the writing at first. I found it to be quite immature/childish, both writing style and in tone (which is contradictory to some of the adult language / imagery used). As the book went on however, I found myself getting in to it and the writing style didn’t bother me as much.

I did find the world building in this really confusing - I could never work out when it was set! There was just a jarring mix of modern technology and yet also ancient medieval ways of living. It all got a bit too confusing at times. There are entire paragraphs of text where it’s talking about the medicine / technology / magic that just went over my head because it was using phrases/words that just made no utterance sense because the world building wasn’t really there.

I did love both Mordaunt and Aurienne, their hate for each other was hilarious. I love how their relationship grew, they had amazing chemistry and really played off of one another.

Finally, what the heck was that ending?! That wasn’t an ending!! That was giving up!! Where’s the rest?? You can’t just leave it there!! It felt so abrupt but it has set up the sequel…which I will be definitely reading!!

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK | Orbit for this e-arc!

I was really excited to read this book. Unfortunately the book fell a bit flat for me.

I liked the characters personalities and the banter between them. There were times the dialogue made me laugh. I also found the writing style really easy to read.

But I wish there was more plot going on. There was not much happening beside the healing part of the story. And there was not much worldbuilding. I couldn’t really imagine how everything looked like and it was hard to understand the world and what was happening.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC!

I literally had to put the book down several times because I was reading it on the train and had to physically restrain myself from laughing out loud.

Needless to say the banter and humor was an absolute 10/10 and I loved how they basically operated on dry sarcasm and insults (also shout out to the critique cricket!!). Even tho the romance is very slow burn and the book has a slower pace in my opinion it never felt boring or like it was dragging. The challenge of healing Osrics illness as well as the mystery of the Pox outbreak really kept me going and I fear I need some answers asap!!

I really loved both of the main characters and I was a big fan of Auriennes dedication and strong will and Oscrics all over the place moral compass and is hidden soft side. The little moments they had together and them growing more attached to each other aside from needing the other for something was such a cute development to read about and I cannot wait to see how their relationship develops throughout the series.

I thought the magic system with the orders and order specific powers was super cool and I also loved that we got magical animal companions!! The idea of the portals was also super intriguing but all in all I just wished we got more background information on the magic system and world building, but I’m hoping that will come with the following books as well!

This book had SO many promise, from start to finish, but it never really hit for me. It had enemies to lovers trope, it had tension, it had banter, it had heart, and drama. But I don’t feel that any of that was used within the book properly.

Who doesn’t love an enemies to lovers? One of the most highly anticipated tropes in the book world, but if used correctly.

The pacing of the book was extremely slow, it was very uneven, very staggered and didn’t have much flow.

The romance lacked anything at all. I didn’t feel chemistry, I didn’t feel anything that I was supposed to, and I was very underwhelmed with the overall romance.

Some characters motivations were musty, I didn’t know who was good, who was bad and who was anything in between. Some side characters felt unneeded. And then we have the world-building which in a fantasy book, I expect so much from but although promise with the glossy given to us, I was very underwhelmed.

There was however witty dialogue and banter in the book, although very overdone, it was still funny.
There was times where you felt emotional, and felt real emotions for the characters in certain situations.
And the setting was there, just lacked anything major.

This is a story that has SO MUCH POTENTIAL but just unfortunately a story that never came together. For avid fantasy readers - I don’t think it’ll scratch the itch but lovers of the tropes? It might.

This was a wild ride - I loved the characters and the neurodivergence coded FMC. The humour was dark and dry and wonderful.

For a romantasy that has been marketed as more romance I was so impressed by the world building and magic system.

This is definitely an adult book due to some mature themes.

The healer/stem aspect I was so invested in as it was a new take on romantasy. Only sad part was it ending as I did not realise it was a duology so the ending is very blunt and caught me by surprise.

I want to read more from this author

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

The banter and back and forth remarks between the two main characters flowed throughout the entire story. I felt the need to dive into the book and witness for myself what I thought would be an impossible chemistry. In the end, I found myself rooting for them, and kicking my feet around after a blossoming friendship of unpredictable circumstances turning absolutely magnetic!

Thanks NetGalley & Little Brown Book Group for this arc, I really appreciate it!

Sadly this book just wasn't really for me, but I can see why it has been so raved about & have loved seeing the thoughts other people had on this. There were whispers I'd heard about this being traditionally published fanfic which we love to see, but there was something with this one that just didn't click.

Given this was reworked from a previous reference (HP), neither the characters or the setting felt fleshed out enough for me. Though I can excuse it in this case, knowing that when it was originally written there was obviously the pre established thoughts on who they were. Any new character that was introduced I found myself not able to picture them in my head at all, too consumed with trying to pinpoint who they Would Have been.

I did enjoy the dialogue between the main characters and think there will be others that totally love this, but I'll be on the outside looking in 😌

A story of finely tuned contrasts, of light and shadow, humour and sincerity, danger and romance, healing and killing. Spell-binding from the start with charming characters, slowly building attraction, and a mystery to solve. Reads like a familiar and beloved story, but with fresh twists.

Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me. So much about the description appealed to me (enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, women in stem, being compared to the love hypothesis) however it was the writing that didn’t work for me. The MMC was arrogant and petulant, and the FMC was so righteous and stern that I felt no chemistry between them. Some of the language used felt a bit clunky in an attempt to create a sense of atmosphere/add a flourish to otherwise one-dimensional characters. I prefer my romance books to have more humour, especially with an enemies-to-lovers trope, and neither of the characters had much of a sense of humour. The tone of the book reminded me of Emily Wilde, which I also didn’t love, so I definitely think this could be a good rec for fans of that series, just sadly not to my tastes.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the opportunity to read the ARC.