Fantastic... I need book 2 now!

The enemies to lovers was hitting. They are genuinely enemies but that eventually turns into a sort of friendship/situationship.

Banter was hitting all the right spots! And made me giddy. I loved Osric and his banter.

I can't wait to read more from Brigitte

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

Out July 2025 ✨

My first five star read of the year!! This book was one of my most anticipated reads for this year and I literally screamed when I got the ARC.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a hilarious, suuuuper slow burn enemies-to-lovers that ticks every single one of my boxes.

Osric and Aurienne are true enemies (he’s an assassin, she’s a healer - it’s the stuff of fairytales). They’re forced to work together when Osric realises Aurienne is the only one who could save him from losing his magic and Aurienne realises her new patient with deadly hobbies might help her cure the pox that’s wreaking havoc in their lives.

Their banter is amazing, and so funny you almost forget that it’s a book about impending doom and death. As they work together, you can see wrestling with their emotions and their clashing ideals and desires and it’s so ✨angsty✨ but so entertaining and just fun at the same time. I like how the romance isn’t the main focus of the plot, but you see it slowly simmering under the surface, and you know it’s going to explode at some point!

Brigitte Knightley does a fantastic job with the world building as well. I loved the idea of different Orders of magic that specialise in various uses of it. The concept of deofols is also very interesting and the animals themselves are so sassy and loveable. They’re true extensions of their creators but also somehow their own personalities and I found that very, very cool.

This book made me scream and squeal and laugh out loud and I genuinely cannot wait for Book 2 to see what happens with Osric and Aurienne and the world that Brigitte Knightley has created! Read this, and I promise you will not be disappointed!

a true slowburn done so well you cannot escape being captivated.
an ending that hits so hard and deep you yearn for tge sequel to tell you what will happen to fix your feelings.
sharp-tongued, quick witted and heartfelt banter done just right.
i was intrigued to read this because it was based on one of my favorite Dramoine Fanfiction and it did not disappoint.

Thank you to NetGalley & Orbit books for this eARC. I haven’t read any fanfic before so went into this with fresh eyes and really enjoyed it! The snarky banter was hilarious, I’m not a highlighter but I couldn’t help myself with this and some of the one liners!. Definitely a slow burn and I love the way things are developing with Aurienne & Osric, I cannot wait to see where this goes with book two! I had a lot of fun reading this

OMG this was everything I wanted it to be and more. Thank you so much for approving me, NetGalley and Little Brown Books!

The banter, the plot, the tension, the humour. It was just brilliant. I loved every single word and can't wait to have a copy for my shelf. And for the next book obviously!

It took me a little while to get used to the magic system used here, which is completely unique. There's a really unique and distinctive tone to the voice of this book as well. which was very refreshing.

Aurienne was everything she should be - a strong, determined, clever woman who is at the top of her field. Osric bought a lot of the humour, the casual attitude to so much murder made me laugh!

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

the irresistible urge to fall for your enemy’s the perfect example of a book with real enemies to lovers set in a unique fantasy story very well portrayed!!

brigitte knightley thank u for bringing back real slow burn with an hot powerful couple 😙

when i started this book and understood the set up and the story background then it was the end for me because i ended up devouring it and if i have to be honest i would have probably ended it in a day if i didn’t have other things to do…

our two main characters were effortlessly funny and hot their bickering was everything to me and for me it was a surprise because i would never imagined myself to stop myself from reading sometimes just to reread some of their scenes but i did and here i am writing about it! 😁

the banter,the chemistry,the characters,the setting was 🔛 🔝 in the end and can we talk about the ending??? i know u know ;) and if u don’t just pick this book up and be ready to be catapulted in this magic realm with a lot of humor and love :”)

now i need book 2 seriously what was that ending just give me more because it’s a need… i’m serious…

least but last i would like to thanks a lot netgalley and little,brown book group uk for sending me the e-arc of this amazing book in exchange for my honest opinion!!

4.5/5 — I knew I would love this book with my entire heart, because I am utterly in love with Brigitte Knightley’s writing since I’ve had the immense pleasure of reading her perfect fanfiction, «Draco Malfoy and the mortifying ordeal of being in love».

The Irresistible Urge to fall for your enemy is an amazing debut novel. The writing is deliciously funny and distinctive, I found myself laughing out loud a LOT.

The characters are obviously Dramione coded and it was exquisite.
I may not be completely objective, but this book was everything I wanted to read : the enemies to lovers is well done, the main characters are funny and sarcastic, the side characters are hilarious (Xanthe my queen really), and overall, it was just on point.

However, I felt a little overwhelmed by the world-building ; I loved the vibes, the magic system and the overall dynamic, but I felt like I needed more background to better understand everything.
It didn’t make me like the book any less, and the intrigue was so good and so well done that it allowed me to immerse myself in the world.

I also need to pinpoint the fact that I was literally feral everytime there was a little implied reference to the fanfiction 🫠

Brigitte Knightley is extremely talented, and I am so glad she decided to grace us with this gem.

It is a surprise for like no one ; this story is a new favorite for sure 🤍 I cant’ wait for this book to be out in the world and received the love it deserved 💗

Thanks again to Netgalley for the ARC 🥰

I was overjoyed when I received that email informing me that I had been approved to read this book early! As a huge fan of Dramione and romance, this book was a highly anticipated release for me. I’m thrilled to share my early review with all of you. I hope you’ll consider purchasing this beautifully written book!

This is an absolutely incredible slow-burn romantic fantasy novel! It revolves around Aurienne, a magical healer, and Osric, a magical assassin. The story follows the duo as they strike a mutually beneficial deal. Aurienne agrees to fix (or try to!) Osric’s magic dying in exchange for him providing a substantial amount of money to her operation, to combat a deadly infection that is affecting children in the magical realm.

What unfolds is a fantastic tale of enemies to lovers! I loved this story so much, the magic realm, the characters, the banter. It was perfect. Everything you could ask for. The slow burn was slow burning. And the ending👀 I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL, I need more. Right.

This was such an interesting read! The writing was incredibly witty and personable, I laughed so many times whilst reading this as the humour was very silly which was right up my street. The magic system in this book was really different and loved getting to know the characters who I loved. This has enemies to lovers and the biggest slow burn ever - but I was living for it.

I can’t wait for book 2 already to see where this goes next and how the story / characters develop. Such a fun read, will be telling everyone to read it when it comes out in July!

This book was everything I could have imagined and more. The banter between these two characters, well really everyone was top tier. It was funny, smart and engaging. I am excited for book 2 to come out

To me, this book fits into the same category as Bride, by Ali Hazelwood. It's the silliest, most unserious piece of literature ever, but it's aware of that, and plays on it. And so, I had just the best time with those characters and their adventures. I did find the story very repetitive, she tries to heal him, she fails, they banter, rince, repeat, and it was sort of strange how that got pushed aside in the second half for the other side plot happening, I think it should've been more evenly distributed throughout the book, and it also ended up dragging a little because of that repetitiveness.
The world building could've been more elaborated upon in my opinion, I understand the more restrained focus on our two characters and their immediate environment, but I wished we'd gotten a bit more of a bigger picture on the geopolitical situation in Great Britain, and Europe as a whole: is magic a thing throughout the world? What are the relationships between the Tiendoms and Ireland, France, etc? I do hope we'll see more of that in book 2, as well as a bit more depth to the characters. I wouldn't call them flat or shallow necessarily, but I wished they'd had a bit more meat to themselves, and I guess this would've been achieved through more scenes of them alone, interacting with their environment, which we didn't get enough of in my eyes.
After all this, you may be wondering "but Emilie, why then did you give it 3.5 stars? It's still a pretty good rating!", that, Ashley, is because this was HILARIOUS. I make dick jokes all the time (maybe not ALL the time, but often) so yeah, I laughed at all the balls and penises and anuses in this book, because deep down, I'm still 13, snorting at the mere mention of sex. Sue me. So if sex jokes aren't your cup of tea, no, this won't be funny. I, on the other hand, had a field day with this because I like rowdy humor. And if you have me laughing out loud for several pages straight, you deserve at least 3 stars. Honestly, the humor was also this good because of the pompousness of the language used, too. The crudeness of what they were saying, next to the very high brow vocabulary made for a contrast that absolutely worked for me.
I'd say this isn't for everyone, if Bride was your cup of tea, this will be as well, but you need to have the right expectations for this book, and don't go into this story expecting something it isn't. 3.5 stars.

A renowned healer and a deadly assassin are drawn into a mutually beneficial deal that’s worth enduring even your worst enemy for. Aurienne agrees to heal Osric’s illness in exchange for resources to combat a deadly pox epidemic spreading across the land. As they collaborate to reverse his terminal diagnosis and investigate the mysterious pox, it comes clear sinister schemes are afoot. As they inch closer to the truth their attraction to each other intensifies, blurring the lines between love and hate…

This book wasn’t what I was expecting when I picked it up, but it was utterly brilliant and such an enjoyable read!

The writing is so crisp and witty, it had me laughing out loud! Aside from the humour, I was captivated by the magic system in TIUTFFYE, the different factions are really intriguing - I loved it. It immediately drew me in and I can’t wait for the next book to delve into it more.

The book finds a good balance between being cosy and lighthearted on the whole, with a few darker moments interspersed throughout. It’s a slow-burn romance and the spice is reserved which suits the plot well.

The pacing was a bit slow, but the brilliant writing made up for it. I didn’t mind that the plot moved at a more relaxed pace.

The ending is not quite a cliffhanger but well set up for the sequel. I already can’t wait to read the follow up!

Oh my gawddd this was blooming hilarious!!
The writing and humour was right up my street.

Reasons I loved this:
🩷 Genuinely funny. The sass. The scenes. The initial hatred
❤️ Oh the enemies to lovers trope was done so well. Original. Fresh
🩷 Pacy, fun. Honestly a ride of a time!
♥️ I loved both MCs - so different, clear goals.

Gimme more.

This book is excellent! The dialogue and banter and dry humour had me in stitches and I could not turn the pages fast enough. The slow burn was deliciously slow and expertly written. Bring on book two!

In short, I loved this book! It is such a good example of how enemies to lovers should be done. The relationship between the main characters felt believable and not rushed. They both felt like fully rounded people with flaws and understandable feelings and reactions. Their back and forth was so good. I also love that it didn’t shy away from making the MMC actually morally grey.

This writing style is funny, fast paced and refreshing. I didn’t read the previous version so I don’t really know how much has changed but it didn’t feel like fanfic to me - although I can see where the inspiration came from for the characters.

I really liked this world too. I was a bit worried when reading the glossary at the start as I usually prefer world building within the book. I did find it useful to flick back to as I kept confusing the different Orders.

I was lucky to read a digital copy ARC through NetGalley in return for this review. I really recommend and I will be spending my own money on a physical copy because I loved it so much!

Actual rating 3.5 ⭐️

This book seemed completely unfinished to me, until I found out that it's a series and there will be another book coming... but still, I very much did not love this story.

I was entertained, the banter was very good and there were a couple of times where I literally laughed out loud but the rest was kind of a mess for me.
The characters weren't developed much ( the only characters that had SOME substance were the two MC), the slowburn was there only in the last 20%, the magic system and worldbuilding were poorly explained and all over the place. There were so many moments where I didn't understand what was happening... AT ALL.

One thing that I really saw was that the author didn't develop the main characters at all. Oseric was definitely Draco and Aurienne was Hermione and it's like the author wanted to make that very clear. There wasn't any characterization other than making sure that the characters resemble Draco and Hermione and it made me so mad...

I can't say that I loved it and I also didn't hate it... so I will be reading the second book because the ending left me with questions.

I AM OBSESSED. From the very first page I was addicted to this. The writing is perfect. It's overflowing with humour and wit. It's so unique in it's tone and storytelling. I honestly cannot express enough how much I loved this. I honestly want to thrust this upon everyone I know. It's just such a pleasure to read. If this is not the BEST book of 2025 we are doing something wrong.

I am devastated that I've finished this book. I want to live in this world with these characters forever. It's going to be one of those books that I wish I could read again for the very first time.

You may think this is a rewrite of the authors dramione fanfic but it's not. This is its own story, although the author has said that it's dramione-coded. Personally though I forgot about that whilst reading it and to me, these characters stood on their own.

The old English language took me a minute to get in to as I'm not used to reading it. The dictionary function on my kindle really helped me out for the words I didn't know and I learned quite a few cool words.

This is a true enemies to lovers, slow burn in the purest form. 'Slaughter as a love language' - sign me up!! I am obsessed!

The bickering between the characters was absolutely hilarious and so was the way the author describes situations. The dry humour and sharp wit had me cackling. I haven't laughed out loud that much whilst reading a book in ages. The names they call each other when insulting each other was on a whole other level.

A detailed fantasy world becomes the backdrop of this romance, giving it an interesting edge. I really enjoyed being immersed in the magic of seiths and weystone travel. There is a well fleshed out plot giving the whole book more dimension. I was fully invested. Even the side characters weave their way in to your heart.

I fear the book hangover I now may have. I definitely look forward to further books from this author.

Thank you so much to Orbit, Little brown books and NetGalley for this ARC.

Reviews to be posted on my blog, social media and Amazon and links will be shared.

Now THIS is enemies to lovers… slow clap 👏🏻

First and foremost this is NOT a trad published version of the A03 fanfic. It’s a new story and the characters are not based on Hermionie or Draco. The author has made statements on this but from what I have seen online not everyone had gotten the memo. Although I appreciate and admit it’s amazing the fan fiction to published authors pipeline, I feel the author is being over associated with the fanfic that people think they know this book when they really don’t. Absolutely pick this book up this summer!

The story is set in a world where what if the uk wasn’t the united kingdom and instead just kingdoms and lots of petty kings and queens hating on each other (love that concept), plus we all have magic. That’s this world, specialists of their magic are sorted into one of 8 orders. Most important our MMC is in the assassin order and our FMC is in the healer order. And orders barely work together and these orders definitely don’t like each other!

So begins my favourite type of slow burn true enemies to lovers tale. The book is a little spicy and something that I loved is that again it is slow burn, don’t expect x rated in book one of a trilogy then there is no where for the characters to go. I personally don’t love an enemies to lovers where they meet, ‘hate each other’ then 10 minutes later are going at it.

This is absolutely romantasy not fantasy with romance. The low burn romance and the couple are the plot! Personally I would have loved to have seen this as a fantasy with a romance subplot but that would be a different book. So for people who criticises the lack of world building and focusing on the other plots, that’s why imo cause it’s heavy romantasy. I think the world will open more as the series goes on.

But yes the world building at the beginning I will say is a little weak and seems to opt for repeating the same information in lue of world building. The humour and narration is also an adjustment to get used too but both are better after the initial shock and once you get into the story. I found it similar to how Assistant to the villain was an adjustment to get used to that writing style, if you liked that book almost guarantee you will like this one

There is an odd quirk of this book though, some of the world choice is verging on baffling. I have never been so happy for the kindle’s dictionary feature before in my life. I always felt it was ridiculous the idea that people said you had to listen to Taylor Swift’s folklore with a dictionary because they honestly didn’t know what many of the words meant… I now know how they felt!
The word choice was mainly just very old english terms just not in common circulation anymore used to help date the story that although electricity is around so are horse drawn carriages. This isn’t set in any ‘modern’ times. However that left a different sort of confusion, first word that I had to look up was on page 1.. daguerreotype. Fair play to anyone who actually knew this word! It is the proper term for a type of old timely photograph. But why couldn’t we use the word picture? Yes historically accurate for a certain time period but on the other hand, this world also has electricity, well functioning plumbing including a bidet and people selling sex toys. So why was photograph so unusable? At least I can say I have definitely learnt something 😂

Can’t wait to get a special edition of the book in the future to have as an trophy and see how the rest of the story unfolds. Dearly Beloathed as a name for a series is also a brilliant name.

Huge thank you to netgalley and publishers for gifting me an arc I honestly thought I did not have a chance in hel of getting this and so glad I did thank you

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a weird one to review, because I really adored this author's dramione fanfics and really highly anticipated this - and I think I've been fairer to it because it has that nostalgic fic feel to it, whereas if I encountered some of the content in a different book I'd have rated it lower. So I'm letting you all know I am biased towards this because I have always been a dramione girlie 🤭

Now that disclaimer is out of the way, what did I love? The world building and magical system is unique and well thought out - i especially liked the idea of magic users having a Cost that manifests in different ways depending on the person; arthritis, hair loss, blindness etc, until they recover from overuse. The overall plot is fantastic and I loved the very slow burn between the main characters. It was fun and silly throughout, with plenty of banter and ridiculous situations. I enjoyed the side characters, especially the very cool deofols (animal messengers).

But what knocked off a star was some of the more crass and crude language, which is totally fine in books. And I promise I'm not a prude! But it felt a bit too much in this one, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot at this 😳 I also wish there was a little more shared history between the two characters to really ramp up the bitter dislike to potential lovers to a higher level.

If you were an AO3 lover, and you're hardcore into dramione as a pairing then you'll enjoy this, like I did. You'll be able to just imagine them as Hermione and Draco and fill in any gaps in chemistry.