I had been really looking forward to this one, the cover is beautiful and I love the art style. I just really struggled with the story. For me, it really could have done with some sort of glossary to list the meanings of the fictional words. There were times when fictional words were used and from the context of the sentence I couldn’t tell if it was an object, a place, a person etc so it kept pulling me out of the story and a lot of the words didn’t get explained. It stopped me from being able to get absorbed in the story because I didn’t understand some of what they were talking about.

Having read the original fic this book based around, I was beyond excited for this book. It definitely lived up to the hype! The humour and sarcasm was top tier banter. And the slow burn and yearning was everything! This is definitely its own stand alone story, so don’t expect an identical copy to the fic. However, I am very glad about this, as I absolutely adored reading this book and can’t wait for book 2!

This might just be the most British book I’ve ever read - truly the epitome of a British sitcom in novel form. The humour? Top tier. I haven’t had this much fun with a book in ages. the banter is immaculate, every interaction sharp and hilarious.
But let’s talk about the YEARNING. The last 35% had me absolutely feral- it had no business being that good. The emotional tension, the slow burn payoff and Osric’s inner monologue?? Painfully good😭😭🥵🥵
Also, the marketing was not lying- this is a true slow burn. But honestly? Totally worth it. The build-up is so satisfying and the chemistry is off the charts.
It you’re into clever rom-coms with unhinged yearning, impeccable banter and that delicious enemies to lovers tension- do yourself a favour and pick up this book.

There has been lots of hype about this book, and having read the original fic it was based on I was interested to see how it would hold up.
I've seen some not so favourable reviews and was pleasantly surprised to actually find it funny , even when the humour erred on the side of ridiculous.
The World building and factions could have been more developed and it was slow moving at times, but I enjoyed the exploration of the characters seeing each other differently , and some of the writing was beautiful. I hope book 2 expands more on the World, and the reasonings behind the Pox being spread.
Thank you to the author/publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!

My little dramoine heart is full!!

This is honestly going to be the new romantasy craze and I am so here for it. I absolutely loved the difference in characters but that made it so much better when the slow slow burn was introduced 🥵

My only downside was the world building and start of the book was a little difficult to follow at times, so I found myself having to go back forth to make sense of some of the language used. This is the only reason for the 4 stars!

The cover is absolutely stunning and needs a mention of its own. I cannot wait to add this to my physical collection because wow.

So grateful to have had a chance to read this before release and cannot wait for the second instalment!!

This book was such an entertaining read! The world-building was done well, and although there were a lot of different terms to keep track of the glossary at the beginning was helpful.

Osric and Aurienne were well drawn characters and I think the banter between them was really well written. The move from extreme dislike to tolerance to more was paced perfectly.

I’d read elsewhere that there was an abrupt ending, and this was in fact the case, although hope is given for the future. I would definitely be interested in reading the second book, I feel invested in how the story pans out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the arc!

🌟🌟/5

I'd never have picked up a book with *that* title (I really don't like the enemies to lovers trope) but there was a huge emphasis on how slow the slow burn was, which is why I picked this up. This can be a fun time if you don't take it seriously and that's probably why I'm not the right audience for this.

The good:
● The one thing I'll give this book credit for is that the slow burn is genuinely slow. The MCs don't start developing feelings for each other right until the end.

The bad:
● The protagonists felt like caricatures. We're TOLD that these are their personalities but they neve felt like they had any depth. Their pasts and motivations weren't fleshed out except for a half hearted sob story for Osric involving an abusive father.
● I was totally unconvinced by the 'enemies' part. Aurienne hates Osric with every fibre of her being based on what she's heard of his order. Again, we're TOLD that they hate each other but the hate felt quite unfounded.
● Since that author had to develop her own world and magic system when TIUTFFYE, inspired by a fanfic, was to be traditionally published, the book completely failed as a fantasy. There was no explanation about how exactly the eight orders worked. The lore about ley lines and fairies (???) wasn't explained either. Somehow, Norse gods were named..?? I gave up trying to make sense of it quite early on.
● The first chapter involved a lot of name dropping, which didn't allow me to settle comfortably in this world. This is set in a alternate London that doesn't really feel modern but the dialogue definitely does. That was weird.
● The plot is...nonexistent. I'd call this a 'no plot no vibes' book. Literally nothing happened except the protagonists going from place to place every full moon night in order to try to find a cure for Osric and ultimately failing. The rest of the book involved infodumping about the medical system in this world. I'd call this a 'no plot no vibes' book.
● What was up with the random capitalisations? There were several instances like ' Only One Man', 'Not Pliable', 'Very Bad', 'Worth Something' that made the reading experience even more aggravating.
● I'm someone who often laughs easily, no matter how immature or unoriginal jokes are, which is why I tried to warm up to the 'humorous' writing style. All I've got to say is that if more than half of the jokes weren't about genitalia, I'd have enjoyed them a lot more. It just gave me the ick. The book alternates between being pretentious and immature the whole way.
● No review of this book can be complete without mentioning THAT one problematic scene towards the end. (Iykyk)

I honestly regret reading this book (No one's surprised at this point). I'm sure it'll find an adoring audience like other romantasy novels. I'll not be continuing the series.

3.5 stars

The humour, sarcasm and and I want you but I don’t but I do was EVERYTHING

The chapter however are way too long., I’m sure I counted 30 pages for a single chapter. And honestly what’s more diabolical I counted 100+ words in a single sentence and this wasn’t a one off.

I will finish the duopoly because I’m excited to see where it leads

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy had me giggling, kicking my feet, and screaming into my pillow!! First of all, Osric is the definition of “grumpy assassin with a secret soft side,” and Aurienne is a ✨boss✨ who takes zero of his nonsense. Their banter? Top-tier. The way they go from wanting to stab each other to maybe wanting to kiss? I was eating it UP.

Also, the slow burn is PAINFUL in the best way—like, "if you don’t kiss in the next five pages, I will combust" levels of pain. Every stolen glance, every accidental touch, every “we shouldn’t but we might” moment?? Inject it into my veins.

Beyond the romance, the stakes were actually high. A deadly disease? Political sabotage? Secret betrayals? Yes, please! The plot had me hooked, and the twists actually surprised me.

I love me a Dramione-coded book!

-witty banter
-slow burn
-he falls first
-so funny
-STEM
-morally gray mmc

The irresistible urge to fall for your enemy, review by Gigi

Thank you netgalley and little brown for the early copy, this book was requested, read, and reviewed on my own accord. All thoughts are my own.

If you are the author of this book or in any way connected to them, know that reviewer spaces and especially my review is for readers only and I urge you to make the right decision to stay away and not read this review.

To address the elephant in the room, or review I suppose, yes this book is based on the popular harry potter ship dramione. Dramione is the ship between the characters Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger. The author herself has written a really popular fic called “Draco Malfoy and the mortifying ideal of falling in love” or DMATMOOFIL for short. Which mirrors the naming convention used for her novel “The irresistible urge to fall for your enemy” or TIUTFFYE”. Despite the author's insistence that her published novel is merely inspired by her fanfiction and therefore disconnected from it. However the marketing that both the author herself and the publisher is doing relies heavily on it being a former dramione fanfiction promoting it “for the dramione girlies”. The publisher even promoted the book with an infographic which answered the questions about the ship going as far as including statistics from dramione fanfiction as a whole from sites such as ao3, ffn.net and wattpad. going as far as to mentioning HP characters by name and marketing the book using HP IP, which i have to wonder if they had to get licenced/permission to use, which would directly profit JKR. The author also connects herself and her book to another published dramione fic who seemingly leaned more into her fanfiction roots since her fanfiction is deleted in anticipation of her books publication which Knightley did not do for her fanfiction and novel. The issue many have with this marketing (me included) is its inclusion of HP IP and thus directly mentioning that series and author (a known misogynist and terf), which keeps that IP and series in the minds of consumers by reminding them of its existence, thus giving it relevance and could lead to people supporting the original as it becomes normalised in the book community again. Of course supporting these dramione releases does not support the original author but as there hasn't been enough work to distance the novel from its fanfiction origin (as seen clearly by their choice of marketing) it's still a gateway for hard to be done to the trans community and thus the queer community as a whole. Educate fellow readers and read responsibly to minimize the damage to the trans community.

Irresistible urge takes place in an alternate version of our own, with this being a romantasy the world is a magical one with historical differences such as William the conqueror not succeeding which supposedly lead to the political structure we see in the canon Britain of the book. The island is divided up into “tiendoms” which resemble kingdoms. I don't know enough about English history or geography to comment but one of the tiendoms is called “Wessex” so I don't know if most of the tiendoms are named after existing reasons or how creative the geography is but I found it quite boring. Nevertheless there is a glossary at the beginning or end of the book depending on which edition of the book you get that does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to worldbuilding and explaining the magic system. Speaking of the magic, called “Seith” it is wielded by anyone but can be honed and mastered by order members by a handmarking called a “Tācn”. Each seith user also has their own deofol, a magic companion made of magic they have their own unique personalities and appearances that mirror their owners personalities usually. There's a total of eight orders that are supposedly apolitical with no allegiance to any specific tiendom but each order still have their own political agenda that benefits them. Collaboration between the orders isn't unusual as the wardens and the healers have a symbiotic relationship where one gets healing and one gets protection. Each order has their own unique tācn, our female lead who is a member of the healer order, one of “the bright paths” and has a design which features swans, a symbol for the healing goddess in this world. Our male lead is a part of the assassin order, one of “the dusken paths” and has a tācn featuring a dark skull design on it, which seems to be Knightley's stand in for the dark mark in this novel as he is often forced to hide it from the general population. The contrast with our protagonists being a part of one of the bright and dusken paths respectively seems to be the books version of the gryffindor/slytherin rivalry but while it makes sense that they would dislike each other's professions their interactions and behavior towards each other seemed extremely immature and childish for people in their early 30’s. The rivalry in the original fanfiction stems from their childhoods and the canon has years of rivalry built into it which was the loadbearing beam holding up this enemies to lovers situation and unfortunately we don’t have that kind of support in this novel so they both just seem like immature pieces of shit that should be fired from their jobs.

Many locations in the novel are connected to waystones, which are big rocks covered by runes that are created by the Leyfarer order and work by using leylines. This is the primary way people travel and our leads conveniently always have a waystone near the remote locations they’re traveling too. (A replacement for apparition obviously but it's not a bad workaround, just wish the leylines were explained more).

All of these concepts are explained in the glossary and none of this is explained in the actual novel, the reader is expected to be familiar with these concepts before reading the book itself. Which might be alright for some people but I would have enjoyed this book more if we had been shown these concepts throughout the book as worldbuilding rather than having it told to us in the beginning in a checklist like this. This I feel is an obvious sign that this book is a former fanfiction since a fanfiction does not have to explain canon concepts as the fic readers are expected to have read the original work beforehand. The world created to replace the one from the fanfiction IP was not developed enough to stand on its own. Which is a shame because the idea of orders and tiendoms have potential and I didn't dislike the idea itself.

The book has two important plotlines running throughout the book. The first is Osric’s performance issues, his magical performance issues obviously. He seems to have a block on his “Seith” and despite finding the best physicians that money can buy (we gotta love generational wealth) and they all come to the conclusion that if he has any chance of getting better its with the help of a member of the healers order that specialises in seith, the only healer that has those qualifications is our female lead Aurienne, who is currently residing in her order’s headquarters, a research hospital. So Osric decides to try and make a deal with her even if he has to kidnap and blackmail her. The reason for his desperation is the retirement tradition of his order, death. Which he will be forced to do if anyone discovers his illness as it jeopardizes his ability to do his job.

He gets his deal after promising an insane amount of research money and despite being told that his condition is terminal, pushes for less and less scientific methods, even making our female lead look for clues about healing magics in folk tales and legends. They eventually manage to freeze the progression of the illness but the book ends before this can get resolved properly and for his illness to get cured/reversed.

The second plotline is Aurienne and her fellow healers dealing with a pox that has broken out in the tiendoms, it mostly affects children of lower class and in a very realistic way, no one but the healers give a shit. They are unable to get funding for their vaccine research and are overrun by sick children kept alive by sheer spite. This is the sole reason that Aurienne accepts the deal with Osric as he promises her the full amount needed for the vaccine research. It is eventually discovered that the pox is manufactured by a courtier in one of the tiendoms. His motives aren’t fully explained but boils down to the pox killing a bajillion poor kids creating husks for members of the “Dreor Order” to presumably spawn into (its not really explained what they are besides body hoppers and how they are created besides the need for a corpse) thus creating chaos and war to create opportunities to presumably make money. It's kinda hard to give a shit since the courtier is introduced towards the end of the book and not developed before he is killed by Osric. This plot thread is also left unresolved as the courtier is revealed to be working for someone else (we don't know who) and while a healer is said to have created a vaccine, we don't see it used on anyone. Which is a missed opportunity since it would have at least given the reader (me) a sense of accomplishment.

Throughout the story our leads see attempted attacks on the research hospital both by unaffiliated parties and later by members of Osric’s own order. The attempts are stopped by wardens guarding the hospital and later by Osric himself as he kills his fellow assassin. It is revealed that the attacks were ordered by whomever was behind the courtier and the pox to try and stop the production of the vaccine and to discover the source of the donation to said cause (which they had worked hard to block funding for). Osric's boss, whose order is known to not fail its contracts grows suspicious by the order member going AWOL, and decides to take it into her own hands and gets ready to attack the healer order herself. Osric, after finding out about this, decides to go warn Aurienne and the healers so they can prepare. The book ends before we see this confrontation however, essentially blueballing the reader.

The book in general has a highbrow writing style with its sentence structure and vocabulary use. In the medical aspects of the book this makes sense as our female lead is an accomplished healer with a unique specialty and would be very knowledgeable and use such language. But there is no context as nearly every character speaks like this and the internal narrative of our point of view characters are equally irritating but in different fonts. Osric is childish and immature while Aurienne is petty and snobby. Neither of which are justified despite their different backstories. Then there's the vulgar humor, which just seems odd mixed with the author's writing style, and at times disruptive to whatever atmosphere the author was trying to build up. There are chapters where jokes about genitalia, pee and poop are present on nearly every page and it's incredibly offputting and seems to be humor a 12 year old would have. All of this is mostly toned down in the first 20% of the book and I was personally lulled into a false sense of security and the difference was honestly jarring.

This is probably a nod to the book’s roots in fanfiction as she includes other common writing tropes like Capitalising Words For Emphasis Like This and the choppy scenes that seem to be pieced together as they're being written (fanfiction chapters are usually written and released week to week). There’s a specific scene that was a really standout example for me as it's a common trope to use to build tension between love interests. The female lead, in this case Aurienne, is posing as a sex worker to gather information in a generally unsafe environment as the male lead watches from afar, seething with jealousy and eventually has to step in and rescue her as she's either physically hurt, molested, or both. The exacting revenge on the offending party (usually a sleazy older man). There is nothing in the triggerwarnings to prepare you for this, which I would class as assault. In fact the trigger warnings only include the mention of “brief sexual content” despite the characters visiting a brothel and being exposed to and visiting several kinks and graphic scenarios, including but not limited to intercourse with inanimate objects, enlarged sentient? genetalia, cumplay, breeding kink, bondage, and autofellation. There is nothing wrong with enjoying these kinks but not warning against them is harmful and could cause triggers in people wanting to avoid such content.

Our leads are Aurienne and Osric who are also the ship of this book. Neither character has a character arc throughout this book, I honestly think that both characters are the exact same person they were when the book started which is a shame since they're both unbearable. The biggest change the characters undergo is them admitting their attraction towards each other and Osric realising he has actual romantic feelings for Aurienne by the last page of the book. Now Osric might be a lost cause but I thought there was a potential character arc for Aurienne developing. She's a very proud character which is understandable as she's incredibly accomplished but she’s also very rigid and prejudiced so I thought there was potential for her to loosen up and gain a different perspective by going against norms in her research into Osric's illness and interacting with people with differing lifestyles than hers but we see none of that. Aurienne instead chooses to judge these people she's just met based on small facts she knows about them. Going back to Osric, he is for the lack of a better word, a manchild. He acts like a child cosplaying as a gangster on the streets ruining everyone's day. There's a scene in the book where Aurienne goes to examine him and he is incorrectly wearing his medical gown and exposing his genitals to her without her consent and when he's asked to cover himself up he refuses. Reminds me of that one scene with the dad from Euphoria, you know the one. He's also constantly thinking about how upset he is that Aurienne isn't swooning over him because he's been trying to seduce her apparently. Sir she's a medical professional trying to save your life.

The main gripe I have with the book is the lack of payoff and how unfulfilling this book feels after us having followed these characters for hundreds of pages. None of the plot threads are resolved and the book has no proper conclusion. It’s a book one that somehow has middle book syndrome and feels pointless.

This was an entertaining read, if one that suffers from the author's background in fanfic - and let me be clear, there is AMAZING writing in a lot of fanfic and I would never use it as an insult. This book is not exactly a reworking of the author's famous Dramione fanfic, but it is grown from the bones of it, and that shows in ways that make this book feel a little underbaked and gappy.

What I'm mostly talking about here is that there is a real lack of characterisation in the MCs of this book, and it's most likely because when one is writing fanfiction, they're drawing from a shared understanding with the reader of who these characters are and what they're like BEFORE you even begin to tell your story. If you're writing Dramione, the reader already knows the basics of the characters and fills in the blanks for themself. But if you're writing Dramione-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off, as the author is doing here, then it is not possible to rely on the pre-existing characterisation of canon or fanon, and yet, The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy does exactly that, so the blanks just hang around blankly. We don't learn enough about Aurienne or Osric to care for them as themselves, rather than as ciphers of Hermione and Draco. They aren't well-rounded. They're fun, for sure, but they don't feel like full people. The same is true of the world-building, but this I will say is at least dipped into more deeply than the character-building.

There is also a very "online" quality to the humour, for want of a better word - lots of Humorous Capitalisation and dick jokes - that works in context but may take some adjusting for readers expecting a slightly more serious way of writing.

Overall, this book won't be for everyone, and I think coming to it cold, I would have been really put off by it. Reading it with the understanding that it's a Dramione AU, it was entertaining enough, and I did enjoy the banter and the development of the relationship.

A massive thank you to @orbitbooks for the finished copy of The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley! ✨ This book was so funny and smart—I devoured it in one sitting. The banter? Sharp. The tension? Immaculate. The chemistry? Unavoidable.

Osric Mordaunt is an assassin from the Fyren Order who’s been struck down by a mysterious illness. His only chance at survival? Bribing his mortal enemy, Aurienne Fairhrim—a genius scientist and healer from the rival Haelan Order—to cure him. When the two are forced to work together to stop a deadly outbreak, they must put aside their hatred…and ignore the very inconvenient spark between them.

💥 Tropes/Vibes:
– Enemies-to-lovers
– Forced proximity
– Healer x assassin
– Banter for days
– Fantasy setting with modern rom-com energy

I couldn’t stop laughing or turning pages—this one is perfect for anyone who loves tension-filled romance with a fantasy twist!

This started off shaky for me, but I persevered as I enjoyed the banter. I did find it somewhat repetitive, but by the end of the book I was really enjoying the characters! I’m eager to see book 2

This is an ARC review. I received an early edition of this book through NetGalley, all thoughts and opinions are true and my own.

The premise of this book could have led to something interesting, two people from enemy camps forced to work together and ultimately fall for each other. The initial look into the magic system sounded so intriguing...

However, the whole concept fell flat due to the humour. I can't believe that this murderous evil man could possible be that bad when he partakes in consistent dick and balls jokes? There was a point where the term "spotty bums" was used like three times on two pages? I couldn't take this book seriously. The humour was so childish and just didn't fit the vibe at all, why would genuine enemies talk like this to each other?

Amongst the childish humour was randomly thrown in overly intellectual language? It wouldn't surprise me if the function of Microsoft Word was used where you ask it for suggestions for certain terms to sound smarter.

Unfortunately you can tell this author is used to writing fanfiction where all of the character and world building has been done for them before the story. I had no idea why there were all these different factions or why they hated each other so much. Why was an evil faction just allowed to exist? It didn't seem like anything was being done to keep them at bay? I don't know anything about the magic system past the brief description at the beginning of the book that was separate from the story. I think this author should put a bit more effort into fleshing out a story/world before publishing.

There were so many moments that reminded me of my childhood reading fanfiction, for the nostalgia aspect alone for me personally is why I've rated this two instead of one star. After the first two-three chapters I had to message others who got the ARC to double check I hadn't received a joke version.

Deeply disappointed, this honestly put me into a reading slump.

The irresistible urge to fall in love with your enemy is such a jewel of a debut, with its catchy title, world building and most lovable characters. I love this books so much. It makes me feel nostalgic of the 2010-2018 book era. Astonishing worldbuilding, magic system. and very well-written (sworn) enemies to lovers .The characters' banter had me giggling most of the time. The ending was satisfying in a way, but I'm still looking forward to a sequel. (EDIT: I just found the Publishers Marketplace highlight on the author's page and this is going to be a duology! Wohooo!)

I tried to get into this book for about a week and In the end I DNF'd at 45%. I had heard a lot of friends rave about the book, and I was so excited to dive in, but it just didn't grip me the way that I expected. The banter between the MC's was entertaining, but I didn't connect with the characters and the sarcastic commentary wasn't enough to keep me invested in the story, I might go back to it at a later date, but it's a pass for me just now.

4/5⭐️ Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with this ARC to review ☺️

Right, this book is not at all what I was expecting! I was expecting something along the lines of Assistant to the Villain but with magical battles between the MCs. What I got instead was a cute, 'acquaintances who dislike each other' to lovers story akin to a twisted, magical Pride & Prejudice. You get witty and clever dialogue between our FMC & MMC that also reminds you of school ground taunts between two teenagers who secretly fancy each other.

While I enjoyed reading this, I'm also writing this review a week after reading it. I'm finding that some of the plot is forgettable and the plot is second to the romance. There is an imaginative world of magic in this book but it is really not built upon as much as I would have liked. When the sequel eventually comes out, I will read it but I won't be rushing to put it at the top of my TBR pile.

Thank you to Little Brown and Netgalley for the e-arc of this title in exchange for an honest review!

3/5 ⭐️

I think this book is pretty solid overall. The writing to me was where I deducted stars as I just feel it is a tad too blunt and tries too pull too many middle school-funny genitalia jokes. There were some witty jokes I giggled at, but most of them definitely fell into the “too absurd to find funny” pit. At least sentences and actions make sense compared to other books I’ve read this year.

One thing I want to highlight is the world building. I think it’s done well! It goes in depth and is relatively easy to understand—except for the very start where the info-dump is a literal dump and gets a little repetitive to go through. I understand the characters backgrounds, it stays original despite the origins of this book; it is a completely rewritten story, and I definitely feel that (as well as appreciate it).

The plot very much compliments the world building and I find the plot interesting enough. The romance doesn’t happen quick either, which was unexpected for me as I assumed there would be more than the morsels we got. I am not complaining about it! I thought it was done well and it was a good development overall. There’s a bit towards the end where I feel like the book loses track, but it somehow picks back up to get to the main point. The stakes definitely feel raised towards the end too.

The characters are funny and so perfectly stubborn. The entire book feels to me as taking itself so deliciously unserious—which works perfect as a palate cleanser between other heavier-themed books.

Do I feel like it’ll live up to the hype it has been getting? Honestly, no. The writing feels difficult to get through, The plot and romance doesn’t develop too quickly (if you’re looking for that), so I think it’s going to be just an “ok” read for most as it was for me. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but I didn’t feel like I wasted my time with the book either.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley

Thank you to Brigitte Knightley, Little Brown Book Group UK and Net Galley for allowing me access to this Advanced Reader Copy (ARC). Unfortunately I didn’t manage to finish reading before the release date but here are my thoughts:

I went into this read semi blind, I knew the FMC was a healer and the MMC was an assassin, with a distinct dislike for each other but that was all.

Going in, I will admit I was quite intimidated by the large glossary at the start of the book, and normally something like that would put me off completely and I would DNF, however as this was an ARC, I powered through and I’m so glad I did. I will say I think it may have also been easier to refer back to the glossary more often with the physical book, it was incredibly irritating on the e-reader.

The dual POV is a big hit for me, I love getting both characters inner thoughts, especially in Romantasy books. Our two main characters did not disappoint in this respect, they are incredibly smart and highly witty, reading the banter back and forth as they go from hating each other completely, to tolerating each other’s company, to starting to feel things… is just so fun. I also loved the banter and relationships they have with their animal counterparts.

This was an incredibly slow burn and I will say the last 100 or so pages are what really got me going, I was worried a little at the start but I stuck with it and now I am very excited for the second part of this duo-logy! I will be keeping an eye out for any news on when we may see book 2!

From the moment Osric breaks into Aurienne’s office to bribe—or kidnap—her into healing him, I knew I was in for a ride.

Aurienne, all lawful good and rules-first, wants absolutely nothing to do with Osric’s morally grey chaos gremlin energy. And Osric? He doesn’t know the meaning of boundaries. The banter? Chef’s kiss. The tension? Knife’s edge.

This book hooked me from the dedication (pspspsps?? Iconic) and didn’t let go. Brigitte Knightley’s writing style is sharp, witty, and utterly addictive—this story had me giggling, gasping, and clutching my chest in emotional damage (the good kind).