Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!The Irresistible Urge was definitely not what I expected. I really did like the mystery element and some of the banter.
Unfortunately much of the rest was not for me.
The worldbuilding was almost non existent, the magic is there and the characters only personality traits were that they sniped at each other at every given opportunity.
That’s essentially all there is; just pages and pages of them bantering back and forth. And I did have fun with it for a while but it lost my interest eventually.
Reading from the male MC’s point of view left me really confused that we were supposed to find him attractive as a love interest. He was awkward and sounded like he was 14 years old.
Everything and I mean everything has some overcomplicated name or description straight from the thesaurus or is a made up word with some extra vowels in it.
Overall this is a very unserious book despite all the murder and I think if it’s the kind of humour someone likes it will be a great hit! You will get so many pages of just that to enjoy with just enough flavouring to make a story. Just on this occasion it unfortunately did not work for me.

3.5/5★

I have mixed feelings about this one.

It was good but at the same time, I wasn’t overly invested in it. It may be the writing or the way it’s been told but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It did start to pick up a bit, halfway through and did eventually become interning. I found it hard to like these characters, they didn’t feel grounded and the romance felt a little forced.

There were funny moments and the whole moment with how politics plays a huge role in how it governs the kingdom which relates to today's standards of how people are just trying to survive while people in higher power look down on others. I also felt the chapters went on a bit too long and could easily be two or even three chapters each. I did find Certain scenes were not needed, and that’s from someone who enjoys a bit (or quite a bit) of spice.

When it came to the world-building, I felt very lost as I couldn’t picture anything and it confused me, I just started picturing basic places to fit the characters somewhere that wasn’t the void. For most of this, I used the read also and I was in stitches.
But these are my opinions and others may enjoy it more.

I did find the critic crickets funny, with all their one-liners. I would also like to know these ways of killing someone with a potato.

ARC REVIEW:
💖 Thanks again to Little Brown Book UK and Brigitte Knightley for this incredible opportunity, I'm so grateful 💖

Where to start? I actually loved this book SO MUCH. It was so refreshing to read.
Between the two characters unceasing bickering, the mysteries, the quest for a desperate healing… Everything was on point. This is such an easy read, and I was so impressed. I’m not really into witty writing, but, well, I DEFINITELY FOUND MY THING 😭

I loved Aurienne and Osric’s relationship, and I couldn’t stop smiling at my screen. All of their interactions were so good. All of this is so beautifully written. I wish I could have more of it because I already miss them. 

This is a book for you if you like:
🔮 Magic system with multiple powers 
🔮 Enemies to allies 
🔮 Ultra-confident characters (when I say confident, they actually fought each other to know who’s the prettiest)
🔮 Healing mission 
🔮 Mysteries and secrets 
🔮 What’s good or bad?
🔮 Smart brains 
🔮 Fun interactions (and inner thoughts)
🔮 Sarcastic characters 

Osric is so boyfriend material and deserves the world, AND I WILL DIE ON THAT HILL. 👑🤍
(And as a French girlie, I should say that I felt like a badass. 👀)(I will definitely re-read this one when I’m feeling down…..)

Thank you to Orbit/Little Brown, Netgalley and Brigitte Knightley for this e-arc.

This has to be one of my favourite books in 2025, rating it five stars was just so easy! I was so excited and beyond happy to have been given an ARC, and this book did not disappoint. The world building, banter, characters and incredibly slow burn romance was just amazing, I was gripped and laughing throughout, then crying out that I have to wait for book 2.

There are a lot of new words that you have to follow due to the magic system of the story but I found it easy to follow. You can't take it too seriously especially with the names that are thrown around (my new favourite nickname is offcially Onion Boy), this is definitely a book to pick up if you want a light romantasy where the MMC and FMC throw plenty of snarky yet witty insults at each other whilst trying to accomplish the task they are begrudgingly trying to complete.

Aurienne is one of the brightest healers (Haelan), completely dedicated to her work, and the rules. Osric is an assassin (Fyren), ruthless without apology, and only cares about himself. When he is told only a Haelan healer, namely Aurienne, is his only chance of living he makes an offer she cannot decline (nor is allowed to), she knows it will help the epidemic that is breaking out across the childen across their lands. As she very reluctantly, with a lot of criticism and insults, starts to help Osric as they also uncover a underlying mystery that could effect them all.

I'm ready to read this again and cannot wait for book two to come out.

'Invalids? You're the most invalid of them all. I've never dealt with such congenitally weak intellect.'

- Enemies to lovers
- Forced proximity
- Bickering banter
- He falls first
- Slow burn
- Dual POV
= Shadow assassin MMC
- Ice queen healer FMC

First and foremost, the biggest of all thank yous to Orbit and Little Brown for granting me the ARC. I never thought I'd get lucky enough to get one of the holy three, but here I am and damn, if this wasn't exactly what I hoped for.

Meet Osric Mordaunt and Aurienne Fairhrim. Two characters who couldn't have more differences and yet are so similar, it's laughable they don't see it themselves right from the start. Aurienne is a healer, in desperate need to fund the healing and research of a new outbreak of the pox, infecting hundrets of children. It seems like a divine intervention (or her personal nightmare from hell if you were to ask Aurienne), that filthy-rich Osric just so happens to look exactly for her, in order to save him from his grim fate, something only she's able to do in his opinion. What ensues is a forced collaboration between two touch-starved, high functioning idiots who do their damn best to fight every ounce of feeling that manages to wield its way through their thick skulls.

I would go as far as saying, they forcefully try their hardest to misinterpret everything in the worst way possible from each other, just to justify their hate towards each other. But the line between love and hate is especially thin between these two and sooner or later (or in their case, the latest possible moment), they're forced to see it.

This book is peak lovers to enemies, and I'm not talking about them pretending to hate each other for three chapters, only to fall in bed. I'm talking about wanting to rip each other apart, not being able to be in the same room without jumping each other's throats and not confronting their feelings until the last possible moment.

The world-building? Rich and so interesting and unique, I haven't read much like it before. I'm saying this in the best way possible: This book gives exactly the fanfiction vibes, I usually miss in traditional publishing. I'm talking about, sitting down and devouring 300k word fics in two days kinda vibes.

As a big fanfiction fan I've known Brigitte's works on AO3 for a long time now and can confidently say, I love them so damn much. So of course, I wanted to read her book when I saw, she finally got the deal she so well deserved. She has this unique way of telling stories, to pack the hard stuff and darker plot into this package full of cute banter with a little bow on top.

Brigitte's writing, while full of wit and banter, gives her characters unique voices, which not only make them interesting but also make for a good foundation to let them grow and evolve. She has a style, you easily recognise as hers, which made me so happy, because it's exactly the kind of voice that made me fall for her works in the first place. Both her prose and her world-building aren't only unique but also immersive and pull you in immediately.

I can't wait to read the next book of this series and see what happens to these two idiots and their world. Can Aurienne truly help Osric? Can they stop the pox outbreak? What else will happen? Only time will tell.

This book is a must-read for everyone looking for something unique; for fantasy with a romance subplot and so much action and adventure, you don't know where to start. If you're searching for a real enemies-to-lovers, this book right here won't disappoint you at all.

Brigitte, I hope you know that you catapulted yourself on my auto-buy list now. Thank you for writing this.

Thank you NetGalley for this Advanced Readers Copy!
I read Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Falling in Love a few years ago and really adored both the story and writing style. Because of that, I was super interested in seeing how Bridgette Knightley would rewrite this story, and what would change in The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy (release date 8.7.2025!!)

The gorgeous writing and dry humor are exactly the same, and the banter between Aurienne and Osric is pure gold. I really enjoyed the plot, it has some great similarities to the original story, but the changes work really well and create an intriguing plot and world (when world building obviously wasn’t necessary in the fanfiction). This is going to be a duology, which is understandable with how long the story was originally, and I enjoyed how this first part ended. There was some great character growth and plot advancement, but there is still so much to solve and figure out in part 2.

I have 2 main complaints, and the first one is the names. In a fantasy world you obviously have to create the fantasy mythicism with words and terminology. In this book there is a multiple page glossary in the beginning, with explanations for the words and also background info on the different Orders etc. to avoid having to do a massive infodump in the story itself. For the first 20 pages, I was very much confused, but I quickly understood enough for the story to be enjoyable. My issue is that I feel like, when you use words like Haelan instead of Healer, the character names have to be more simple. Even small changes like Adrienne and Omar, with the same last names (Mordaunt and Fairhrim), would make the reading experience more enjoyable, because the character names shouldn’t be so complex and different that it stumps your reading every time you reach them. Especially with equally complex last names, in a book where they constantly refer to each other by their last name, and themselves in third person by their first name? That way, you make the text easier to read, without having to simplify the world and use more common terms.

My second comment is that I think this could have done with about 50% less sex jokes. I loved the dry humor, but I felt like the humor can be equally crude without this many sex jokes. I laughed out loud at the first one, but towards the end there are so many that they don’t stand out anymore, and just read as if everything is super sexual all the time, which then makes the love story seem more lusty, which I feel doesn’t align with the character growth these two have.

Here is an example of both the writing style I loved, and the dry humor I adored:

”A hirsute Chimera wound its way across the pub’s faded sign, which had lost several letters, and advised Aurienne thus:
SHAG
HIM
Aurienne received the instruction with hostility.”

All in all, this was very enjoyable. 7/10.

DNF @ 34%
I really, really tried to get into this but I just cannot force myself to read anymore of this. The writing is a weird mix between utter gibberish and super pretentious/academic and I am struggling to even figure out what’s going on half the time. The characters are unlikeable, the world building was confusing - this is just not for me unfortunately.

Okay, I need the sequel. One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Brigitte Knightley must be on something to write like that - her way with metaphor, sarcasm, and dark humor is insane. I want whatever she’s having.

It was so well balanced. Between dirty jokes and a genuinely intriguing plot, you're just waiting for Osric and Aurienne to finally make a move, to throw themselves at each other and… nope. It’s slow...slow burn level slow. And when something finally happens (barely anything), it cranks up the tension so much, my heart clenched more than once.

The enemies to lovers is "aux petits oignons" (if I may say so). Finally, a trope that’s been done right. They hate each other, insult each other, are as egocentric as it gets (seriously, I’ve never seen such vain main characters), and they spend all their time bickering. Un régal.

The worldbuilding might be a bit messy for my taste. At times, it felt like the book threw info at me and went, “figure it out.” It’s light on explanations, heavy on vocabulary and honestly, I wasn’t here for a complex universe anyway.
The Deofuls deserve a special mention, they reminded me of the Dæmons from Northern Lights and the message-carriers in The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. It was the perfect match.

I think this is my first British original version read, especially one with such old-fashioned language and an intricate writing style. It definitely made me question my own reading skills. But at the same time, I’m so glad I read it in the original version, because the little winks to the French language are everywhere.
As a French reader, I honestly don’t see how you could translate this book. The humor is so sharp and biting, so rooted in its native language… how do you translate that without killing its soul?

I don’t think it’s a book for everyone. You’ve got to have a very open mind, laugh at anything, and have a seriously weird sense of humor with layers of irony (a lot of it). But it’s also a book full of surprises – just when you think the paragraph is going somewhere serious, you turn the page and bam: the punchline, the burst of laughter.

Reading this book felt like opening a door and having it slam shut from a sudden gust of wind. A comfort zone constantly teased by surprise.

Madame Knightley, let’s have a night out together. I think I’m funny. In your case, that’s not a guess, you are. We’d walk out with sore abs and aching cheekbones.
Thanks for the unexpected fits of laughter. Can’t wait to get the paperback and fill it with a hundred annotations.

Thank you, NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, for this ARC

3.5 ⭐️ A Netflix rom-com with magic. Knightley is the master of banter and perfectly timed insults. I was laughing out loud throughout this book. It's hard to come across a true enemies to lovers romance with a tension filled slow burn but this hits the mark with complete sufficiency. The plot itself fell behind the budding romance. It didn't grip me until the second half of the book but I enjoyed the dynamic between our two main characters enough and the debauchery of the world they live in. It's not a book I will be running to reread but it's perfect for those looking for something light and funny. I do look forward to reading the next one.

5/5 stars! I am so in love with this book. I almost don't have words. It is just perfection. The cover? Amazing. Women in STEM? Check! Sexy, swoony assassin MMC? Mhmmmm. I think I may have drooled a bit during a couple of these scenes. This is a slow-burn, without much explicit spicy, but their chemistry was so flammable I didn't miss the spice. These characters are so deeply developed that I felt like I had known them forever. Cannot wait for book two in this duology.

Thank you to the publisher for the earc!

Well, I don’t know what to say. Wait, I do, I’m (once again) extremely disappointed in an upcoming hyped release. This was definitely not what I expected.

Let me start with that if I didn't know it was originally a Dramione fanfic (though I don’t know which one, as I don’t read fanfics), would have never been able to tell you. There was nothing that resembled anything from the original work. One huge point for the world building and magic system. Was it perfect? No, but it’s a fantasy, so I’m good with a few unexplained things. Plus, this is the first book, it’s possible we’ll get more explanation in the sequel.

The other good point was the story itself. Aurienne looking for a way to heal Osric while simultaneously trying to save countless children from dying. Does she want to heal Osric? No, but as their research funds are blocked, and no royal wants to give them money to find a cure for the Pox, his offer to pay the necessary money in exchange for her knowledge gives very little room to object.

I did not like Aurienne at all. She’s constantly saying how hard it is to be the Best, to be Perfect. Like, chill, just because you’re good at one thing, it doesn’t mean you’re the Best. Do I love a confined FMC? Yes, but she’s not confident, she’s smug and annoying. I hope we can see more of her personality in the next book, because so far, we haven’t seen much of that.

On the other hand I did like Osric, but you know I have a soft spot for light haired, morally gray characters with tragic past, excellent sense of style, an unhealthy amount of sarcasm and a lot of scars (both physical and emotional). So yeah, absolutely no surprises here.

Why such a low rating if I liked many things? The writing. It was bad. I should be the last person to criticize anyone’s writing, but it wasn’t good. I seriously can’t explain what was wrong with it, but it’s true that I got slightly better in the second half. Another thing was the unholy amount of English medical terms. It probably just shows how uneducated I’m in that way, but it quickly got annoying, that I only understood half of the sentences. And if you mix it with a lot of made-up words, it gets even worse. I constantly had to stop and think “Is it a real medical word or just made-up for the book?” Plus many times I wasn’t sure what’s going on, it felt like sometimes sentences were missing. I wish it had another round of edits, it would have done miracles for this book.

I think I’ll read the sequel, but not sure if I would recommend it.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for your Enemy follows Osric and Aurienne who are forced to collaborate with one another in order to heal Osric’s illness and find out why a deadly pox is resurfacing all the while denying the growing attraction between one another. This book is part of a series which is unfinished.

Firstly, this book is not as serious as one would think. The writing style on the page is very short, snappy and to the point which means it is, in essence, a very quick read. The humour did occasionally tickle me and the romance was very slow burn.

I would like to point out, before I get into a more critical viewpoint, that the last 100 pages or so of the book were much better than the rest. The pace quickened, the relationship between multiple characters was beginning to bloom and the descriptions were much more welcome compared to some descriptions throughout the book. The last 100 pages really salvaged it for me and I would be happy to read the next book in the series, purely because of this.

However, I must warn future readers of the following as I went into this book incredibly disillusioned because of excitement.

The humour throughout the book can become boring quickly. There’s a lot of crude words used throughout the book which are funny at times but can become repetitive and can pull you out of the flow of reading. Granted, some of the insults are very unique.

The writing style was not what I was expecting at all. I felt like initially we had no plot, there wasn’t a lot of character introduction but there was some character development throughout the book. It just felt like you were travelling in a straight line until the last 100 pages when you actually finally got an insight into what is going on with everything.

There was also the Capitalisation of Random Words. I get what Knightley was doing - it’s like when one of your parents gives you the Look but it got irritating quickly because some of the capitalisation was just unnecessary and didn’t make sense. Likewise, there were a lot of big words in there which I was regularly having to look up because I didn’t understand what they meant. This would also pull me out of the story and I felt stupid for not knowing other words which also meant something as simple as “scowling”.

Overall, this book would suit those who like to read slow-burn romances with intense humour.

sadly, i didn’t enjoy this one at all and so i don’t have much to say either!
maybe it’s because i just didn’t connect with this book, but i had so many issues with it:

- i couldn’t wrap my head around the world building. without the glossary, it was almost impossible to make sense of anything.
- this book feels like it’s just told through dialogues and interactions—there were chapters and chapters of conversations, and only a few paragraphs of actual description or narration. - it felt like i was just listening to the characters talk the whole time.
- the banter between our two mcs got a little too much. it wasn’t as humorous as it could’ve been, and i just got annoyed with the two at some point.
- also, osric says “gods” way too many times. it was so overused.

i think i just wasn’t the right audience for it, but everyone’s been excited about it so i decided to request the arc and give it a go.

I enjoyed this!!! Can’t go wrong with an enemies to lovers!! I did not read the fanfic version of this so it was nice going in blind.

3.75/5 ⭐

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy was such an anticipated read for me, ready to be pre-ordered in my basket. The cover grabbed me from the first moment of seeing it and I cannot wait to receive my copy of it upon release. I did get very lucky, however, and I was approved for an eARC of it when I was browsing on NetGalley.

I'm a little disappointed to admit that it took me over a month to read. Partly because I got very busy and partly because I didn't vibe with it for a good portion of the book. I'll start with the drawbacks because they're the reason why this has taken so long and then I'll get to the good points.

The writing is witty and funny, genuinely a good time. However, it's part of the reason I felt a little underwhelmed. The banter was relentless, not something I would usually complain about but it just felt like the two main characters had nothing to speak about; all their conversations, serious or not were verbal jabs which made me feel like they held no real vulnerability. In saying that, however, I need to admit they used some good comebacks with each other; they were very well-matched as far as wit goes. I guess that's the point really, they're well-matched.

Another point I have with regard to why I didn't give this a higher rating is the plot development. The first half of the book was the journey of our main characters to healing Osric; many different trips to close locations to do the same thing over and over with no plot in between. It just lost me a fair few times, I'm sorry to say.

A big HOWEVER to everything I've said so far comes halfway through the book when things start to pick up a lot. We get a second plot point and a genuine collaboration between our two enemies-to-lovebirds. We have a fast-paced storyline, vulnerability, we see different sides to Osric and Aurienne and I can really see how this is meant to develop into genuine love. At this point I felt like the banter WAS so well placed and added to the story, it gave me more information and appreciation for our fmc and mmc.

I came out of reading it feeling excited for the second book.

I didn’t realise I was one of gods favourites but here we are: ARC in hand.

This is a partially biased review as I’ve read Brigitte’s previous Fanfiction work and thoroughly enjoyed it and have been DESPERATE to read this. Anyway, on with the review!

The writing style was fantastic and hilarious, not just exhale through your nose hilarious but laughing out loud hilarious. The world building was really interesting but honestly wasn’t explored nearly enough. There was SO MUCH POTENTIAL! But out of the many different classes, only the two main characters classes were explored in detail, the others barely got mentioned. One other class was mildly touched upon later on, and even then it wasn’t fleshed out much. Coming from writing Fanfiction where the world building was already done, I get why this may have been overlooked but it was still disappointing.

The relationship between the main characters was great, their banter and story was entertaining and engaging. The story and plot itself was brilliant, easy to follow and kept me reading. There was an Easter egg to DMATMOOBIL 5% in which had me kicking my feet, and one entire chapter where I was crying with laughter.

The magic system was unique and very much like modern medicine in the sense of “idk how or why this works but if I do this then this happens so let’s roll with it”.

Overall, incredible read and I’m VERY EXCITED for book 2!

My personal rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What I feel it deserves:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - the world building needed more, it was the only let down.

Thank you to Netgally and the publishers for the ARC!

This was such a fun read with absolutely exquisite writing.
The story builds so much potential for future books, but still doesn't neglect what's happening in the moment. There is still so much of thia world to be discovered.
And the characters? Perfectly written. The internal rationalizations and denials were so good!
Will not give spoilers, but trust me and don't miss out on this masterpiece. It's 100% worth it!

I think this book has had a lot of hype surrounding it which tainted my view going in… It wasn’t quite what I expected. We follow two points of view Aurienne Fairhrim a Haeler and Osric Mordaunt an assassin in desperate need of help to cure him…. I found we didn’t really get to know these characters to any real depth….when things did get interesting I felt I was pulled out of it with a rude quip which I just felt was quite jarring overall…. I didn’t find myself cheering on the enemies to lovers storyline as I didn’t particularly warm to either of the characters as I feel I don’t truly know them… I think Osric as the MMC could have had more depth to him than killing and rudeness. I really hoped the STEM aspect which had interested me initially when applying had shone through more…. The overall premise of this story was so promising but the execution could have delved further into these characters and world. Overall, it just wasn’t for me. Thanks to net galley for allowing me to read this e-arc.

One word: OBSESSED!!! This was my first 6 star read of the last couple of years if I’m honest and I had an absolute blast reading it. The prose is beautiful and the world-building is so fully fleshed out that even without the glossary I could have figured out the vibes. The banter and the wit in every line, that’s the best part.

Also an assassin and a healer in a forced proximity relationship that both of them hate. Perfection. I have no other words. It was amazing and I’m so grateful to have gotten to read it.

Also as a stem girlie myself, I loved how much science and logic featured into the magic system. It worked so so well. I’m now just devastated that I have to wait for the second book to come out though. I didn’t realise it was a duology until I got to the end - totally my own fault. But I enjoyed it so much and will defo re-read when it’s out.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing this ARC.

I audibly laughed on multiple occasions; this was an incredibly witty read! Super fun and intelligent, this author is most definitely one to watch.

Beware: this was a slow burn to end all slow burns and I need the second book immediately.