I really enjoyed this super slow-burn enemies to lovers story. The banter between Aurienne and Osric is so witty, barbed, and sarcastic,and adds quite the comical effect. I loved it! The world building and magic system is unique and had me really interested, and the writing was just wonderful. Taking aspects and creatures of myth and mixing them in to the story added a sense of the fantastical (I particularly enjoyed the critique crickets and their sarcastic insults), while setting the story in an alternate Britain lent a sense of the familiar. With the plot leading our would-be enemies to such places as a ruined castle at the apex of magical ley lines to a raunchy hot springs or a cheekily named pub, Aurienne and Osric really got around!
As the pair from opposing factions race against the clock to not only save Osric, but to solve a mystery, things really start to heat up! I thought that this was a stand-alone, but the cliffhanger ending really left me with my jaw hanging and wanting the rest of the story! Here's hoping for another book soon!

This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2025 and it didn’t disappoint! I must admit, I struggled with the world building and introduction of the magic system at the very beginning and found myself repeatedly flicking back to glossary, which made it difficult to fully immerse myself in the story. But within the first 100 pages I was hooked. I thought the character development was brilliant and loved how it weaved in folklore. It’s definitely a slow burn and now I’m eagerly awaiting the next instalment.

3.5⭐️. To sum up my feelings in one sentence: I liked this book but I didn’t love it.

We follow 2 POVs - Aurienne, who is a Healer, and Auric, who is an Assassin. Auric has an illness which is affecting the use of his magic and it seems that Aurienne may be the only one who can help him. However, her order is morally opposed to his, and so Auric offers a vast donation to support research for a vaccination to immunise against Platt Pox, a virus whose current outbreak has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of the poorest children.

What I enjoyed about this book:
- I liked what we saw of the world. It felt like more of a Holly Black-esque fantasy world with the references to the “other world” and hedge witches, but it also had its own uniqueness with the various orders (which are aligned to areas such as healing, engineering etc) and unusual creatures such as critique critics and deofols (which were a type of animal shadow familiar).
- The banter was good and there were a fair few moments that had me chuckling; however, as a word of caution, there’s a lot of English slang (like “boozer”), which might fall flat with non-Brits.

What fell a bit flat for me:
- I love a slow burn enemies to lovers, but this works best when there’s a good build up of tension, which I think was lacking here. The enemies part was done really well but the development towards romantic feelings was underwhelming.
- The world building could have been more fleshed out.
- But my main issue was that not a lot happens, so I didn’t find myself gripped by the story.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I loved EVERYTHING about this book. Absolutely no notes, I would read this all over again right now if I had the time!

Woman in STEM meets PhD of murders is completely accurate and I loved how at odds Aurienne and Osric are. The yearning hit a little different in this one. Giggling and kicking my feet is an understatement - I was screeching.

I don’t know why but I didn’t expect this book to be funny. I was cackling through most of this book. It was somehow so serious yet so lighthearted at the same time and it just made it so easy to read.

The wait for book 2 will be criminal, especially because this book isn’t even out until July!!

The Irresistble Urge to Fall For Your Enemy is a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world!

I had really high expectations going into this book but sadly it fell flat for me.
Whilst I think the premise of the book was really good I found it hard to connect to the characters, I feel like I need more from them and the enemies to lovers didn’t quite hit.
The author has created a very complex magic system which is impressive but often times left me feeling confused as there was just so much new terminology to wrap my head around.
There were some fun moments! And I can see why others would really enjoy it, there’s some great banter and back and forth.
It just missed the mark for me
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Enemies-to-lovers at it’s ALL TIME BEST. The animosity sparked by a little meet-cute blackmail between Osric and Aurienne was delicious and gave their romance the best tension. The slow burn was buuurrrrning and I was so freaking feral for these two.

I do wish the world was a little more fleshed out from the beginning because it was very easy to get swept up in the fast paced drama of the initial chapters, and then realise I was a wee bit LOSTTTT for a second.

Regardless, I ate this up and am so excited for the next book.

I hate to leave negative reviews but unfortunately this one didn't hit the mark for me. I felt the world-building was a bit clunky and I didn't feel connected to either of the main characters. I know there will be readers that adore this story but unfortunately it just wasn't for me!

Brigitte has served up an absolute gem with this one. This slow burn romance is everything I didn’t know I needed—a delicious enemies-to-lovers dynamic, razor-sharp banter, and the kind of tension that curls your toes and keeps you coming back for more.

It’s clever, cheeky, and oh-so-satisfying. I laughed out loud more times than I can count, and the slow burn? Criminally good. Think: two people with chemistry so potent they could power a small city… refusing to act on it. Until they do—and oh baby, when it happens? Fireworks.

This is romcom gold. Perfect for fans of witty, slow-building tension with heart and heat in equal measure.

Unfortunately, I DNF:ed this book at 49 %. I really tried to finish it as I was incredibly excited to receive this ARC, but the writing and humour was just not to my taste at all.

Before going into detail about what didn’t work for me, I would like to say that the banter between the two main characters has its moments, I liked the deofols (basically messenger familiars) and the general idea of the book is genuinely good.

But there are two major things that frustrated me. The first is that nothing is fleshed out (characters, world building, romance, magic system etc.). The second is that it wasn’t funny and tried way too hard to be. It felt like every other sentence was a joke or an attempt at humour, and a lot of it was very tasteless. One or a few crude jokes can work, but when it feels like they’re coming every other page I just cannot keep going. It was way too much and ended up not being funny at all. In general, most things with this book just fell flat to me.

I’m sure there are many people who will love this book, and humour especially is something very subjective. It’s rather clear to me that this was me not meshing with the style of storytelling in this book, and not that it’s an objectively bad book. But it was not for me and I will not be continuing this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Group UK for the eARC, you really made my day when I was approved for it.

When Osric the magical assassin gets an ailment that might be the end of him (in more ways than one), he asks (or bribes or forces) a doctor, sworn to do no harm, to help him. That is Aurienne. Rule-following, straight-backed Aurienne, who shouldn't put much effort into saving a man who profits off of literal murder. But...

Emoji-Aesthetic:🌜🥂🏥🔪

Listen to
🎶 The Alchemy - Taylor Swift
🎶 Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene - Hozier
🎶 Daylight - David Kushner

This book is such a fun, gory read. The writing doesn't take itself too seriously and I laughed so much while reading. I'm sure the humor is a bit juvenile for some, but I feel like it was just really fun and fit the tone well. I also really enjoyed the banter between Aurienne and Osric, especially the way it changed subtly with their relationship. The book is hella slow burn and it burns so goooood. I'm already looking forward to the way their relationship will continue to develop in future novels. Even though the relationship between the two isn't exactly explicitly romantic throughout the book, it's still pretty spicy. The humor in the prose and the banter and longing really play together for this.
The book has a relatively extensive trigger warning, but it does miss one thing I thought was missing: there's a noncon/dubcon(?) scene in here (he doesn't touch her), which I'm more than happy to discuss, including the way it influenced my rating, in my DMs (I want to keep this spoiler free). I feel like that's a pretty hefty oversight.
Generally, Osric really, really is morally grey. We're not talking secret hero here. He has an opinion and he has boundaries, but he also has a price. I thought this made the dynamic between the characters really interesting, especially as the story develops.
I thought this was a fun story that really could have used one extra TW (or a tiny scene edit literally it would have been one detail and it's not longer an issue, but I digress).

I received a complementary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

The world building and magic system in this book had me hooked from the get go. A witty, badass FMC with a morally grey MMC - sign me up. And this book did not disappoint.
Cannot wait to get myself a physical copy to adorn my shelves!
Loved it!

This was unfortunately not for me.
Very much dialogue based, which then makes the world building lack in information and feel underwhelming. There’s no character development and the banter between characters is unrealistic and, at times, boring.
It tries to be too funny which of course leads to be just plain cliche and unnerving.

This book has the funniest banter between MCs.
The MCs cannot be more enemies, and their back-and-forth is everything.
I acknowledge that the world-building is not smooth, and we are just dropped in this universe that I still do not understand. But I don't care. I laughed so hard...
It was brilliant!

Thank you @NetGalley for the copy!

Loved this! It's cozy and actually made me laugh out loud at times. It reminded me slightly of Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries with more of a romantasy vibe. One thing is that I do wish the side characters had been fleshed out more and that the MCs hadn't been carbon copies of Draco and Hermione. This is a great slow burn and the end left me dying for more

Thank you NetGalley and little brown book for letting me receive an e arc of this.

At first when I started reading I wasn’t sure it was for me. But when the mmc basically forced the fmc to treat his illness and instantly realised he’s gonna be a morally grey mmc I was hooked.

This is very slow burn enemies to lovers, the banter was funny and it wasn’t too much.

I feel like this book was such a breathe of fresh air as sometimes I think some books are very samey nowadays but this was unique and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

The storyline was really easy to follow and oh did I forget to mention that he’s an assassin?🤭

Also the cover of this book is incredible, easily stand out on everyone’s bookshelves!!

I can’t wait for everyone to read this when it’s out in July!!!

Unfortunately this book was a DNF for me, I enjoyed the characters & plot, however, I really struggled with the writing style, leaving me confused most of the time.

3.5 stars.

For those Dramoine lovers out there, I'm assuming this book is already high on your TBR; however, if it is not, you might want to add it!

Being a huge Harry Potter a fan, I was itching to pick this book up. And, honestly? I enjoyed it! I am a sucker for an enemies to lovers trope and this book delivered on that front.

Now, I love a spicy book, so let's talk about it; Let’s just say if looks could kill... we’d all be dead. 🔥 And if kisses could heal? Well, this book would be a full-on hospital. Hot, hot, HOT.

Unfortunately though, I couldn't rate this higher than 3.5 stars. For me, I found the world building to be extremely complex and confusing. Usually, I'm pretty quick at catching onto original terminology and references within books, but this just lost me. I found myself going back to the glossary to identify what each term meant. Sadly, this had a huge impact on my reading experience.

I do feel that Brigitte Knightley is a great author; I loved her writing style and I can see where she was trying to take us in the book, however it lost me time and time again.

Thank you, NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Is this book good? Not really.

I haven't read the famous fanfic of the author, but this book is supposed to be something entirely new anyway. I can't confirm or deny - however, this book reads very much like a fanfic.

The writing style is very typical. There are some truly awesome phrases, but unfortunately also quite a few in need of serious editing. Awkward dialogue, weird stylistic choices. At the beginning, I loved the banter and the humour, but it got boring. The book ended up full of crude jokes that stopped being funny after the first few times. Yes, we get it. Genitals are funny. As I'm not a fifteen year old boy, I might not be the right audience for this kind of humour.

The world building was all over the place. It somehow takes place in our world (we've got England and France, for example), but everyone is magic. How does the magic work? No idea. It's kind of cool though. The deofols were basically a mixture of HDM-daemons and patronuses, but they were cute.
There are certain magical orders you can get into. How do you do that? No idea. You can choose your own. But you don't have to. Each order has an extensive education and is very exclusive. Some of the orders hate each other. Some are literally evil. But it's still kind of legal? No one talks about it. Assassins seem to be something entirely acceptable.
Electricity exists. But it's not everywhere and fireplaces are common. People use carriages instead of cars, but we rarely see them, as there are more efficient magical ways of travelling.
As Aurienne is a healer, we've got quite a bit of medicine in this book. And it's modern and quite advanced. I honestly can't tell what age this is supposed to be. It's a mess.

Same goes for the conversations. The characters use a wild mixture of Victorian era sayings and modern slang. We've got a "mind the gap"-joke, that simply doesn't make sense without a subway system or another setting with a gap that needs minding. Yes, it's supposed to be funny. It actually kind of is. But it makes no sense and I prefer my jokes to make sense in the setting they're in.
There are also random French sentences and words in this. Sometimes it makes sense, as a couple of French characters exist, but sometimes it's entirely random. Maybe because French is supposed to sound fancy and sophisticated?

The characters are very cliché. Brooding assassin, stern healer. Enemies to lovers, no explanation needed.
Unfortunately, they are very one dimensional. Osric is arrogant and self-obsessed and sometimes plain stupid. I don't see his "educated" side. He mostly behaved like a spoiled child. Aurienne on the other hand has no time for humour or other emotions and she especially dislikes Osric. That's most of their character traits and unfortunately, neither of them really went through character development. I would've loved to see Aurienne turn softer and Osric get more serious.
Their relationship does change, but only barely. And they themselves are basically sill the same at the end of the book. I did enjoy their relationship, but I wanted more. It's very slowburn, which I like, but at the same time too sudden. After disliking each other, they suddenly seem to simply... stop. And start liking each other. With no apparant reason. We don't really feel the emotions. I couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when they started to change their opinions, but with the amount of hatred at the beginning, we need some obvious signs for change! Otherwise, it doesn't make sense.

As for the plot - it was nice, but also underdeveloped. There are a handful of different plot points and not one of them got solved in a satisfying way. There is some progress, but I feel like the author should've brought something to an end. It feels unfinished. And while it's fine to write multiple books, every instalment needs to be able to stand on its own.
Also, while the stakes were high, it didn't feel that way. Just like the relationships, I was too distanced from the characters. Give me all the emotions! Let me be terrified for them!

Overall - as I said, it reads like a fanfiction. Not exactly good, but still very much fun. I laughed a couple of times and I'm curious how this will continue. It does feel a bit like a parody, that doesn't take itself seriously, which is refreshing. But it didn't blow me away.

absolutely loved this read. I loved being able to pick this book up after a long day of university or work and going back to this world. I LOVEDDD the humour. I will die for a book with humour and this was just it.

The slow burn made me DIEEEE i was laying down and kicking my legs and giggling reading this book! I also love how strong the fmc is, she is amazing and i LOVED this world.

i will be recommending this book to all my friends to get them to read it, everyone needs to experience the amazing writing by brigitte and the amazing story and world. this is definitely a book i would reread just to revisit.

thank you so much for letting me read this book. absolutely loved it.

"The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy" by Brigitte Knightley is one of those books that's great to read, but then you finish, you start to think, and then the questions start piling up.

The premise of this book is our two MCs, Osric Mordaunt and Aurienne Fairhrim, are members of two opposing magic orders. Osric is part of the Fyren Order of shadow assassins, and Aurienne is part of the Haelan Order of magic healers. Osric has an incurable illness that will gradually kill off his magic powers (called seith), putting him at risk of being assassinated himself, and only Aurienne (who just so happens to specialise in seith system healing) can help. She doesn't want to; he drops a massive bribe to help her order funds for a cure for Pox, and now she has no choice but to help him.

I liked the switch up with the assassin character being the more jovial one and the healer being strict and no nonsense. While we don't get firm confirmation from Osric (he's a massive flirt with everyone), there's bisexual representation with Aurienne (hooray!). I liked the slow burn between our two main characters, who really give it as good as they got in terms of arguing and being sarcastic with each other, but sometimes it became almost too much with pages of dialogue and one-liners between the two. Emphasis on the 'slow burn' because they didn't seem to internally acknowledge that they might have feelings for the other until RIGHT at the end - and then the book ends. The main plot point of healing Osric and the urgency of healing him seem to suddenly vanish about ¾ into the book, with a different plot point taking over, and then are suddenly re-remembered right at the end.

The ending isn't a cliff-hanger but rather just...stops; we get a 'to be continued' where there's no conclusion to the main plot point and it ends abruptly during an extremely low-tension moment, so there's no sense of urgency to continue onto the next book. Ideally, Healing Osric could have been completed in one book, and then the second book (TBC) could have continued on with them sorting out the other major plot point.
My biggest beef with this book is the magic system, which is not really explained but rather just dropped onto the reader and you just have to try and figure it out. I later learnt the author is known for Hermione/Draco fanfics, and it shows a lot. I really found the deofols a fun idea until I realised they were repurposed patronuses.

There's a list of the various orders at the start of the book with their general functions, but we only see or hear about three of those in the entire book.

The setting is also...confusing. It's London, and we do get mentions of Glastonbury and France, but the rest of London is different and it's never clearly explained if it's an alternate universe or just borrowing some names. I have no idea of the time period either, as there seem to be both old and new technologies and old and modern language. The world having taverns, teleporting way stones, ancient magic, but also that our main female protagonist has a pair of hot pants with 'Make It Bounce' bedazzled on the backside caused a bit of mental whiplash.

Overall, it's a fun read if you don't think to hard about everything going on around the characters.

[This review is based on NetGalley ARC provided in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion]