While I did like some parts of this book I just didn’t vibe enough with the humour or got attached to the characters, so it ended up a little flat for me. At the same time, it was easy to read and enjoyable enough, just not the perfect fit for me.

2,5 stars

While the story was enjoyable I think it didn't stand well on its own away from the source material (which is problematic because of the author).

This book was fantastic, I was literally laughing out loud so many times. Yes, I fully admit I have the sense of humour of a 12-year-old because butt and nipple jokes? Hilarious. 😆 The banter between Osric and Aurienne was fantastic. I especially loved the deofols, they were so cute and hilarious. I’m honestly devastated that I’ll never get to have one of my own 😭

I’m so excited to see where the next book goes and can’t wait to follow Osric and Aurienne’s journey further.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy!

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for your Enemy was a highly anticipated release for 2025. The premise was inviting and the characters interesting. A large issue that surrounds this book is that it began as a HP fanfic, specifically a Dramione one. I in no way support the disgusting campaign by that author to target trans people. It is despicable and she deserves no recognition.
For this book, I didn’t see any great similarities. I have never been a big fan of the fanfic surrounding the books so I didn’t find myself associating the two. All in all, for those that ultimately relate the two together, I respect their decision not to read or support either author. I attempted to read this with no expectations.
This book focuses on the issue of good vs evil, enemies to lovers. Osric is an assassin for hire. He accepts his role and sees no issue. Aurienne is a healer, following a strict code of ethics. The pox are targeting young children and every haelan in the order are under significant pressure to heal as many children as they can while seeking a vaccine to control the spread.
Osric finds himself ill, after seeking advice from various medics, his last resort is a highly intelligent haelan in Swanstone named Aurienne. She discovers that Osric’s powers or ‘seith’ is dying, slowly depleting what makes him, him.
As the pair race to figure out how to cure this seith rot, the pair’s confusing feelings shift from loathing to companionship, to possibly something more.
I enjoyed this book. Aurienne was a great character. She was determined, passionate and selfless. Even though Osric was supposed to be the evil villain, he had a softer side. He took care of the people that work at his home, he takes care of stranded animals that he takes in. These glimmers of niceness make him a more enjoyable character rather than a cold and calculated killer.
The only thing I didn’t like was that the plot was incredibly slow. Nothing was resolved by the end of the book, and it ended suddenly as well. I think the plot could have moved quicker. I enjoy slow burn like everyone else but this was at a snail’s pace.
I’ll consider reading the second book upon its release, but I think if it plans on being a long series then I’ll bow out.
Thank you for the eARC!

I didn't love or hate this. this is my 2nd hp fanfic and i just don't think they are for me. I read rose in chains and didn't love it and i felt the same about this one..

4.5 stars 🌟

I loved this so much more than I anticipated!
At first, honestly, I thought I was going to hate it... It took me a little while to warm into the writing, but once I realised it was very much a tongue-in-cheek, dry-wit rom-com rather than a “fantasy” read, I was wholly on-board and loved the ride. I binged 70% of the book in one day, I simple could not put it down!

The stand out feature of this book it’s its humour. It had me cackling out loud at points, and relaying particular favourite quotes (some of which were just so outrageous and unexpected) to friends as I read them, through which, I might add, convincing them to also read it! (Special mention to ‘Death by a Thousand Sl*t$’.)

By no-means was this a “perfect” book. There are many plot points unresolved (assumedly left to be wrapped up in an upcoming sequel) and for a time I was left thinking “okay, but what is the significance of that?”. Most of those points were quickly mentioned at the end in a character epiphany, and the end felt a *little* rushed for my liking. But that aside, I was HERE for the romance. Enemies-to-lovers, he falls first, slow-burn, ‘yearning in denial’ perfection, with a sprinkling of spice. Bravo! More of this please!

There have been so many mixed reviews of this book, and in a sense, I can understand why, I can see it being a very marmite book - either love it, or hate it. But I very much fall into the camp of “love it” bracket, and will be recommending this to friends who I know will also love it.
I can’t wait for the next book (please hurry!)

Thank you Orbit Books for the eARC!

I love this book sooooo much, it is quirky and cute while being very well written with characters you can't help but fall for. Highly recommended.

Cannot wait for the next book to come out!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy
by Brigitte Knightley

📚 One of the best books of 2025

Tropes I’m obsessed with:
• True enemies to lovers
• The slowest and hottest of burns
• Banter so good it should be illegal
• Laugh-out-loud clever humour
• Literary prose that feels like a treat

Miss Brigitte… I need book two immediately, please and thank you.

I went into this one completely blind—first with an eARC, then caved and bought the gorgeous signed Waterstones edition (no regrets, it’s now a prized possession).

Our FMC is a healer and a textbook do-gooder, completely at odds with the brooding, morally murky, shadow daddy assassin MMC. When fate throws them together? Cue the slow-burn of all slow-burns—so tense, so delicious, and honestly better than 90% of romantasies making the rounds right now.

And the writing? Phenomenal. It’s clever, rich, and refreshingly different from the usual fare. Yes, you might learn a new word or two, but you’ll also be laughing, screaming, and quite possibly clutching at your pearls (if you know, you know).

I devoured this book and didn’t want it to end.
Now… where’s book two?

A cringy, underdeveloped romantasy.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall in Love with Your Enemy follows Aurienne and Osric. When Osric is diagnosed with an illness that threatens his magic, the only person who can save him is Aurienne. Whilst working out how to save Osric, they must also resist falling for each other.

Unfortunately for me, there were not a lot of redeeming features of this book. The characters were flat, the dialogue was cringy and the world building was non-existent. Ultimately the writing was the biggest problem for me when reading this book and was something I couldn’t get past.

The irresistible urge to fall for your enemy is a fun and sarcastically humoured read. The characters grow on you and the flow between the dual points of view is well done. The pace of the book is slow to medium with clear future projection. There is an element of mystery within the book which is fun to explore with the author.

The sarcastic tot for tat relationship draws the reader in and makes for a really enjoyable read.

I was waiting for this. As a new member of the dramione fanfic-turned-trad-publices-romance-novel fan club I am eating these up at the moment and this was absolutely no different.

I loved the humour in this book and the banter between the characters was a high point for me.

I did however, feel that this book could have been shorter. In places it felt drawn out and a chore to get through at times.

Thank you to Net Galley and Little Brown Book Group for the opportunity to read and review this book. All views are my own.

Just as a precursor to this review. I'm aware this had originally been a fanfic before being traditionally published and all references to that fandom have changed. I did not read the fanfic, so my review is solely based on this book with no prior feelings/knowledge of its predecessor.

1.5 ⭐️

Firstly, whilst I rarely give out low reviews, as I can often find positives in most things I read, I did struggle. The only positives I have were that the slow-burning enemies-to-lovers was exactly that. It was probably around 85%/90% in, that the feelings are known, and for me, that is a win. The Deofals were interesting and seemed to have some personality.

I was very close to DNF'ing this book, purely due to the writing style. I don't understand why there was random capitalisation? When I read- "He hit her with a grin (devilish) and a wink (suggestive)", I could feel myself slightly die inside. Whilst I can understand why she has done this, it did not land with me. I would also say I'm far from a prude, but even the jokes did not land. The majority of them were about genitalia, and reminded me of teenage boy humour.

The world-building was non-existent, other than it being set in London with random places and some French thrown in. The magic system was poorly explained, even with the extensive glossary, I feel that it should only be a reference and not to be relied on. The characters were very one-dimensional and you learn nothing about them. One being an assassin and the other a healer, and that they are from opposing orders, had opposite childhoods, that is it. As they were not fleshed out in any way, shape or form, this also meant any chemistry fell flat.

I think coming from fan fiction and using an existing universe and characters, this is already done for authors. I think, if more time was spent curating their world, magic systems and building their characters, this could have been so much better. Unfortunately, this was overlooked and made it so hard to be immersed in the story.

I can see why some people will enjoy this, but I personally did not and would not be on my list of recommendations.

This was so much fun to read!!! I had seen so much hype for this book and was unsure but I liked the writing style (i found it very accessible!) And i thought the romance was delicious!!

I thought it could have had a tad more world building but apart from that it was a great read! I am also in love with my Illumicrate edition!!!!

Unfortunately this was not for me.
What I really liked was the character interactions. I had quite some fun with them.
However, I struggled with the pacing and the worldbuilding was a bit lacking.

Unfortunately I was unaware this is dramione fanfiction, and is using that as a marketing tactic. As a transmasc person I don’t feel comfortable reading or reviewing this book with its strong ties to the original IP.

4 stars because the overall plot was actually very good! I loved the reveals towards the end of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed the world building as it felt complicated yet really easy? You kind of pick up on what things mean along the way especially with the magic system it took me a while to understand it but it didn’t hinder from the experience.

I LOVE British banter in any book and the banter in this book is brilliant! Lots of swearing in the best funniest way, and loadsssss of hilarious British sayings! I found myself laughing quite a lot especially cause I was listening to the audio, osric in audio was just perfect!

The romance is veryyyy minimal! They literally are enemies to not even lovers and there is 0 spice! But the overall plot and story is strong and the small bits of ‘no I should feel this way’ and the yearning are great! I hope we get a lot more in book 2!

I’d love to know more lore about this world, Bridget did a brilliant job of creating this magic system that just felt so real and immersive!

Thank you netgalley for the arc! I used Spotify to listen to the audio as I found reading the ebook a little difficult as it wasn’t formatted the way I usually like so the audio was much easier and I also now own the gorgeous illumicrate SE😍

I do love a cosy vibes slow burn (and this was the slowest of slow burns) romantasy. Especially enemies to lovers so I was really keen to read this.

And it did not disappoint.

The scornful banter between these two was so fun to read and as the author very slowly built the romantic / sexual tension I really wanted to see where this was going. They constantly snipe at each other, while slowly developing secret lustfull thoughts for each other.

Osric an assassin for hire, is all but on his last legs and needs Aurienne to heal him. Together they embark on a journey to access the magic of the old ways to do so. Which she doesn't believe will work but is ordered to do anyway.

This had an interesting magic system, different fractions each with a given talent and a magical symbol to enable them to use it which was really enjoyable to read about. The world building was great, well explained, interesting but not too complex. It was easy to focus on the characters and plot of this and get swept up into the story

We had a plague epidemic, assassins, healers and a mystery person trying to find out who donated money to the epidemic immunisation fund.

I was intrigued throughout reading this. Lots of twists and turns, two great (if opposing) characters to love and a slow burn romance in the pipeline.

Keen to read book two.

There is no world building whatsoever, the made up words used and the magic system are explained in the glossary but that's it.
The author took inspiration from a well known fictional world but that should not keep her from explaining how things work in this book.
There are random caps on words and it doesn't make sense. There are also random French words and the use of complicated words instead of common ones.
It was kind of funny sometimes but in a weird way. There are a lot of jokes on intimate parts and the humour is redundant.
Osric is insufferable for most part of the book. I guess it's done on purpose and I couldn't stand him.
Adrienne and Osric don't have any chemistry between them and it's supposed to be an enemies to lovers...

Spoiler
There is a weird s*x scene where he touches himself while watching her sleep in the same room... It's creepy and there's no consent on her part.

I was waiting for a conclusion for the plot (Osric's healing and the children's pox) but got none.
It's a duology so I guess it's going to be in the next book.
I'm disappointed with the slow burn romance, nothing much happens and the male main character is perverse.

2.5 stars <3
unfortunately, i did not enjoy this book as much as i thought i would, though it was still very entertaining and funny. full review on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7720381872

I am so sorry to say this - but this book was not for me. I couldn't give more stars because I had to quit reading after only a few chapters. I just couldn't connect to those overly sarcastic characters and the whole writing style just didn't give me any joy.

And maybe it's because my first language isn't English but I already had to stop at page one after reading this paragraph: " Osric dropped the daguerreotype. It landed on his disk, from which vantage the woman's penetrating gaze found a new victim and perforated the ceiling. Also ornamenting Osric's desk unpleasantly were Aurienne Fairhrim's curriculum vitae and a list of publications verging on the infinite."
I read so many English books and I'm familiar with fantasy books and all the new words you learn when entering a new fantasy world but this paragraph was overly complicated in my opinion.

I had high hopes but unfortunately this just wasn't for me.