I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley Series: Dearly Beloathed #1
Published by Ace Books on July 8 2025
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 384
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An entertaining, cheeky fantasy with outstanding humorous banter, The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a solid series starter by a very promising writer.
Some readers love this book and others don’t, and after reading it for myself I can appreciate both opinions. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is an example of “Dramione fan fiction” (Draco and Hermione from Harry Potter as love interests), something I hadn’t heard of before I read it. Indeed, the cover art could represent those characters, and I’m sure that was the intention. This is Brigitte Knightley’s debut novel, and in some ways it’s very obvious that it’s her first crack at writing one. On the other hand, she’s an extremely talented writer, and folks, I could not put the book down. For me, the positives ended up outweighing the negatives, so I settled on a four star rating.
The story takes place in an alternate England where those with magical abilities are divided up into various “orders.” Aurienne Fairhrim is a talented healer and is part of the Haelen order. She bears a mark on her right palm called a tācn through which she can channel her seith (magic) in order to heal people. Osric Mordaunt is part of the Fyren order and is a deadly assassin for hire. When his own magic begins to fail, he’s diagnosed with a fatal condition called seith rot, for which there is no cure. Osric knows that if his higher ups catch wind of his condition, they’ll most likely kill him (yes, they are pretty brutal). His physician suggests that Osric’s only chance might be Aurienne Fairhrim, a Haelen who is at the top of her field and might be able to cure the rot.
There’s a catch, though: Haelen and Fyren are sworn enemies, and Osric knows the only way to convince Aurienne to help him is to bribe her with a large monetary donation. Lucky for him, Aurienne and her order are desperately trying to stop an outbreak of a disease that is targeting children, and they need the money to research and develop a cure. She reluctantly agrees to help, but both Osric and Aurienne know they’ll have to keep their agreement secret, and both are about to find out if helping each other is worth the risk.
First the positives. I loved the world building, which is very well thought out. Knightley includes not only a map but several indexes that help the reader understand what’s going on. Each of the eight orders is highlighted at the end of the book, including what they do and their individual mottos and emblems. In this book we only get to know the Haelen and Fyren orders, but I’m assuming the rest will be integrated into future books. There’s also a handy glossary of unfamiliar words and how to pronounce them. I always appreciate this level of detail in fantasy stories, so I have to give the author props. That being said, there’s still a lot about this world that we don’t know, as the author only focuses on specific elements. So despite the work she’s put into creating her world, at times it felt a little shallow.
By far my favorite part of the story was the humor and Knightley’s excellent dialog. And you can’t talk about dialog without talking about the characters. Aurienne and Osric hate each other at first, and that hate translates into some very funny moments between the two. Both are smart and quick-witted, and because this is a romance, there’s an underlying sexual tension between them that propels the story forward. However, the two are very unlikable for the first half of the book. Both say horrible things to each other, and even though you know they’ll eventually come around, their interactions are almost painful and cringey in the beginning.
But the humor itself was extremely well done. This is a world where most of the characters appear to be pansexual or bi and they have absolutely no hang-ups about sex. So there’s quite a bit of bawdy humor, discussions of sexual body parts in crude ways, and that sort of thing, so do beware if that kind of talk doesn’t work for you. I thought it was hilarious and fit the tone of the story. I was surprised, though, that there is no sex at all in the story (aside from a couple of masturbation scenes that didn’t really work for me), so the characters are all talk and no action, which didn’t bother me in the least!
Other random elements I loved: each person with a tācn on their palm has a familiar called a deofol, a magical creature that can move from person to person and deliver messages (I never understood the mechanics of it, but I loved the idea). The deofols all have distinct personalities and I wanted more interactions with them! I also loved the waystones, which are portals that the characters use to travel from place to place. Each waystone is connected to a pub with suggestive names like The Randy Unicorn or The Moist Oyster (lol). And I loved that Osric, a brutal killer, has a soft spot for stray dogs, which he collects and brings home with him.
As for the story itself, here is where I had a few issues. The first half is really nothing more than Aurienne trying different ways to cure Osric, failing, and then later trying something else. This goes on for quite a long time, and I’ll admit it was a little boring at times. It isn’t until the halfway point that a few new side plots are introduced and things really become interesting. This is where the tension picks up too, as there are some thrilling scenes that put both Aurienne and Osric in danger. I also had problems with the ending, which doesn’t really answer any questions at all. As a reader, I want some kind of satisfaction at the end of the story, whether it be a major plot point being resolved or a relationship developing in a certain way, and neither one of those things happened, unfortunately.
Still, I can’t deny I had a blast reading The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy. I didn’t talk much about the romance, which is of the delicious, slow burn variety, but you can bet I’ll be reading the sequel to find out how Aurienne’s and Osric’s relationship unfolds.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I could have gotten a special edition of this but I panicked and skipped the box due to the mixed ratings. I want to say I’ll love this but I’m aware I could come away wanting more from the world so I figured I was better borrowing it from the library and buying it in the future if I want to. Im not sure how I’ll get on with the humor too (although I want to love it). I adore the sound of the deofols though (based on patronus I’m guesssing) and the stray dog element sounds sweet. This definitely has potential and it’ll be interesting to see if I fall on the love or hate side of the divide.
Her world is very cool, and I’m sure it will become more deep and developed in future books.
I think I’ll give this one a try! It might be a miss, but it sounds close enough to dynamics I like to potentially work out, too.
It was so much fun, even though I had a few issues. Give it a try!
It sounds like this book has a LOT going on, and I think an unresolved ending would bug me… but there’s plenty about it that sounds charming as well. The fanfic element doesn’t appeal to me, but overall it seems like a really cute/engaging read. This is one for my “maybe” list!
I have never read fan fic in my life, so it’s sort of a weird concept. But I think the author is so talented, she just needs to work on the overall construction and pacing.
Elements of this one do sound super fun. But I don’t know that it would be one I would end up loving, especially if things don’t get wrapped up well at the end. I’m with Lisa, this one is on my ‘maybe’ list, too. Great review!
Thanks Lark!
I am so glad that this worked out for you!! And I can’t really say anything against the humour because I appreciated it a lot even if all the rest didn’t really work so well for me!!
For me, the humor and banter were the best parts:-)
Thanks for your detailed review, I appreciate it, it really helps me to know whether this one would be for me or not. I was drawn in by the title, and I love humour in books, but your review has shown me that it isn’t the humor I would enjoy.
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
It’s definitely a specific type of humor and not for everyone. Thanks for visiting!
This sounds like fun but I do think I’d find the ending frustrating. Perhaps one for me to think about when the sequel is out so I could carry straight on reading.
I do wish I could read the sequel immediately:-)
“Dramione fan fiction.” Yup, that’s new to me, too. 🙂 Granted, I’m not all that familiar with Harry Potter so that could be part of it. Glad to see you had a lot of fun with this one.
Fan fiction makes me feel so old, lol. I feel like it’s one of those concepts I just don’t get.
Osric was so ridiculous and funny !
LOL he was! I loved his character, despite all the killing;-)
Oh, I’m so glad you reviewed this! I JUST got this from the library, and it sounded like my type of thing. Your review has convinced me I need to start reading it tomorrow. 😀 I can’t wait to meet Aurienne and Osric.
I’m SO curious to see what you think! I can’t wait for the next book in the series:-)
This sounds great – I could do with a bit of ‘outstanding humorous banter’ atm. Sorry I didn’t request this one.
Lynn 😀
You’ve sold me. I need some humor about now. Great review!
This title has made me curious every time I’ve seen it. And your review makes it sound like a book I would love!
This sounds like it was a heap of fun, despite the drawbacks, Tammy:). Thank you for your lovely review.
This is not typically my genre, but I got a review copy of this and I’m actually kind of looking forward to checking it out for the popcorny aspect. It just looks like so much fun.
I was already intrigued with this one and now I want to read it for sure! I also want to support the author because they’ve been getting put down for writing that HP fanfiction since people are not fans of JK Rowling these days. I don’t think it’s fair to put her issues onto new authors like that. I tried the Dramione story that everyone was gushing over, but got bored with it. I will definitely have to give this a try though. Great review!
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2025/07/28/the-dnf-report-43-july-2025/