I incorrectly assumed this was going to be a reskin of Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being In love. Is this Dramione? No. And also...kinda yes.

This is a completely different story and world. Osric is an assassin dying of a magical disease and Aurienne is an incredibly talented healer who might be his only hope—and the book shows her attempts at using old magic rituals to heal him.

The two are antagonistic from the jump but they share the same amazing banter and cutting jibes that we loved in Mortifying Ordeal. This author constantly serves hilarious and charming encounters between the two.

But while the plot, scenarios and fresh jokes are great, I can’t help but feel like this is a spiritual sibling to Mortifying Ordeal. Osric is cocky, dark and preening. Aurienne is intelligent, righteous and compassionate. Their characterizations scream Dramione—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I don’t even think that makes this unoriginal.

This is entirely original, in fact. It takes what worked in Mortifying Ordeal and introduces a genuinely cool fantasy England. No it’s not the Wizarding World, but it doesn’t need to be. The spirit of the adventure rom com with witty banter is here. There are more sex jokes than you could throw a dildo at, and Osric and Auerienne are as deliciously enjoyable whether you love Dramione or not.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy was one of those books I instantly knew would be one of my top reads of the year, and after finishing it in under 24 hours, I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. I can’t remember the last time I laughed this hard while reading—not just chuckling, but genuinely bursting into laughter. This book is hilarious. It’s also one of my favourite enemies-to-lovers stories, packed with back-and-forth banter that lasts for pages and still leaves you wanting more.

From the very first chapter, the personalities of the main characters are clear and compelling. And don’t even get me started on the chapter titles—each one had me eagerly anticipating what the next one would be. The humour in this book is contagious, and I loved every moment of it.

One of the toughest challenges fanfiction authors face is reimagining the world they’ve created, and Bridget Knightley does this effortlessly. She crafted a stunning magic system centred around different guilds, which I couldn’t get enough of. The fact that the glossary was at the start of the book, instead of the end, was a thoughtful touch. I loved how the two main characters (Osiric and Aurienne) belong to opposing guilds that can’t stand each other—true enemies-to-lovers material with a perfect slow-burn romance. You’ll be desperate for more after each chapter, filled with witty banter and subtle yearning. This slow-burn is something fanfiction authors excel at, and Knightley nails it.

The characters are fantastic. They have so much in common, but their core beliefs about right and wrong create tension between them. Aurienne is desperate to avoid violence as a healer, while our Assassian, Osiric, struggles to resist his darker instincts in her presence. I loved how they genuinely disliked each other at the start, but the change in their dynamic was so subtle that you could almost miss it. By the halfway point, their antagonism begins to shift into mutual admiration, and the transformation is beautifully done. There were even moments where Osiric imagined future arguments with the healer, and I was completely hooked.

The plot is expertly woven together. There are multiple storylines that come together in a stunning and satisfying way. I couldn’t get enough of it.

This is one of the few books I've ever read that gets the 6 star perfect rating from me!!! I cannot wait for more.

I wanted to like this book more than I do. I was so excited to read this; the title and cover are magnificent, so the hype is real. Everything about this book is slow -- the pacing, the romance, the thrill of it all. Sure, the banter is great, but does that compensate for the complicated magic and what feels like a detached world? It was fine, but it could have been so much more. I won't be reading it again, but it was worth the read once.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I loved this The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy so much. I thoroughly enjoyed all the snipping and banter. The world was fun, the storyline intriguing, and it was the perfect amount of ridiculous. Not too serious and perfectly snarky. I cannot wait for the second book!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Okay, I genuinely don’t know how I’m supposed to read anything else after this. It was that good. This one’s 100% going on my reread shelf.

The writing? Absolutely phenomenal. There’s this perfect balance of wit, tension, and chaos, and I ate up every page. The banter between Osric and Aurienne was next-level—flirting by constantly throwing insults at each other. Every interaction crackled with chemistry and sarcasm, and I was living for it. Seriously, almost every page had a line that made me laugh out loud or grin like an idiot. It was all sharp comebacks, exasperated glares, and “I hate you but also maybe want to kiss you” vibes. It’s exactly the kind of humor I love!

Even the chapter titles were iconic—“Osric Gets on Fairhrim’s Last Nerve”? I’d read a whole book just titled that.

The dynamic? Perfection. She’s a fierce, hyper-competent “harm no one” healer. He’s a cocky disaster assassin with charm and zero self-preservation, and he absolutely needs her help. The enemies-to-lovers energy was flawless—a slow burn packed with tension, sass, and emotional payoff.

The world-building and magic system were magically done, and I adored the familiars (they were very sassy too). Everything just clicked.

I already need book two. Like, yesterday.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!
5 stars!

If you live for a true enemies-to-lovers romance—one with banter that bites, slow burn that keeps you turning pages late into the night, and real emotional stakes—The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy delivers in spades.

Aurienne and Osric hate each other. Not the “we’re going to kiss by chapter three” kind of hate, but genuine, complex, earned animosity. Watching that ice melt (grudgingly, painfully, deliciously) is what makes this book sing. Their dialogue is razor-sharp and had me highlighting quotes constantly, and the chemistry? Absolutely electric.

Knightley doesn’t stop at just the romance either—she builds a fantasy world that’s lush, detailed, and packed with intrigue. There’s adventure, mystery, and just enough danger to keep your heart racing, all without stealing the spotlight from the romance. It’s all so well-balanced.

The ending hit hard—the kind that leaves you staring at the last page in stunned silence, already reaching for the next book, which I need like I need air to breathe.

Perfect for fans of romantasy with emotional depth, well-earned (truly fought sleep for) romantic tension, and immersive world-building. It’s not just an irresistible urge—it’s a need.

As someone who feels that romantasy has started to blur together lately, full of the same tropes and predictable beats, I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy. Brigitte Knightley takes a well-loved formula and manages to inject enough heart, wit, and originality into it to make it feel exciting again.

The slow-burn tension between Aurienne and Osric was just the right kind of addictive, and the world-building, while subtle, gave the story a rich backdrop without overwhelming the romance. I found myself smiling a lot while reading and completely caught up in the push and pull between the characters.

While it nods to familiar genre staples, this book never feels like it's simply following a checklist. It was fun, engaging, and exactly the kind of story that reminds me why I still love dipping into fantasy romance when it’s done right.

Having read some of the fanfiction that this book is based on I was really excited to be able to read this book. I was impressed by Knightley's ability to create a new magic world with systems and rules that made sense and didn't feel too similar to the books that originated the fanfiction. I had thought that this book would be a standalone and because of that the pacing felt off to me. Now that I know that this will be a series, I can understand the pacing more. However, there were moments, particularly in the middle when Arienne and Osric were trying to figure out how to fix Osric's Seith block, that felt redundant and dragged out. The slow burn was glacial in pace. Overall, I thought this was a fun read and I definitely think fans of the fanfic will be excited to read this but it might have been better, for me, as a standalone.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with the digital ARC.

THE BANTER OF IT ALL!!!

as a dramione girl i really liked this! the banter was so good and i can’t wait for their relationship to develop further in the series!!!!

i was finding it hard to care about the secondary plot but was more intrigued by the end.

will definitely continue reading the series as it is released!

this was just an okay book for me! i enjoyed some parts of it (the writing and world) but the romance didn’t really work for me. i’m also not really a dramione person lol, but i think this book will work for a lot of people!

As much as I wanted to be all-in in for this reimagined Dramione telling, I did have a hard time connecting with the story. The magical system was interesting and there were bits of humorous dialogue throughout this slow burn, but it was an effort to finish. The need for a glossary seemed to highlight the issue that the language used seemed complex simply for the sake of being "scholarly" - rather than because the language furthered the story.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for this read.

You need to add this book to your TBR if you’re a fan of characters like Hermione and Draco from Harry Potter (more importantly, the shipping of those two characters), AND also love romcom and sitcom vibes AND witty, sarcastic, dry bantering AND enemies to lovers tropes.

This book is like nothing I have ever read before! It took me a second to get into the groove of the book, but once I settled in I couldn’t put it down and was looking forward to each new chapter. The dialogue and inner monologues were actually laugh-out-loud funny at times. Just a straight up good time!

I had no idea how the story was going to unfold, and it kept getting more intriguing as it went! I know this hasn’t been officially released yet, but I need book two ASAP hehe

It comes out in July, so plan your TBR ahead of time and add this to the list! Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing an e-ARC of this book 💕

“The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy” is author Brigitte Knightley’s debut, slow burn enemies to almost lovers, romantasy and my very first physical ARC! Thank you to Brigitte and Berkeley for sending this book my way.

The book follows Aurienne Fairhrim and Osric Mordaunt, two people who could not be more different if they tried. Aurienne is a scientist, a brilliant scholar and a Healer. Osric is a rogue, a gentleman assassin, and a Fyren. But when the pair end up needing one another – Osric for healing only Aurienne can provide, Aurienne for funding only Osric is offering – they set off on unlikely quests that pull them together more often than either would like. At least… that’s what they tell themselves.

What I loved most about this book was the world building. World building absolutely blows my mind. Coming up with magic systems, alliances, governments, creatures and species – it is incredible to see all that an author can dream up and put together on the page. For this book in particular, I liked learning about the different orders: how each of them existed in the world, what they specialized in, how they were different from one another and ultimately, which orders were part of the larger, lurking evil.

I also love a good slow burn and the tension in this book, oh my!! The romance, the enemies to lovers – it was very slow but deliciously so. I think slow burns or slow pacing gets a bad rap, but when it’s done well, I think it adds to a book. In this case, it kept me wanting to know more, and because the ending happened the way it did, I didn’t even have time to think about pacing – I just wanted the next book!

All in all, if you are already a lover of romantasy and are on the hunt for your next series, consider picking up “The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy.” And don’t say I didn’t warn you with that ending – you will want the next book in this duology immediately.

"The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy" by Brigitte Knightly is the funny, cozy romantasy we've all been waiting for. Aurienne Fairhrim is one of the best healers in her order, she is strict, plays by the rules and does whatever necessary for those in need. Even when "those in need" is the stoic, assassin Osric Mordaunt. There orders don't exactly see eye to eye; she heals, he's a dealer of death. However, when he makes her an offer she can't refuse she must put her bias aside to help him... and to not get kidnapped (which he threatened to do).

Knightley knows how to write a slooowww burnnnn, but since the story is chalked full of banter and TENSION it easily grabs readers and doesn't let them go. These character's are wonderfully stubborn in all aspects of their lives (especially their feelings). However, it's so easy to see their passion for what they do and who they love. Such a fun, cozy read!

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy has an interesting plotline with political intrigue, but a lot of going on. The world is vast and full of new magic, but the reader is easily taken out of the fantasy world with references to real locations. The ending feels abrupt, with no real resolution to any of the story's conflicts. The quips and the banter are humorous, and humor is often strewn into more serious moments to make them more lighthearted. Some moments are unnecessarily crass, and I could have done with fewer dick jokes. I'm left wanting more.

DNF.

Interesting premise and obsessed with the fanfiction foundation. However, struggled with everything else. 3rd person writing felt extremely detached in this one. Banter between the characters was fun but ultimately did not feel connected to them. Nor did I really connect with the romantic aspect. The world building was almost non-existent as I feel like we were kind of plopped into the world without any further context. Also weird pacing with some fairly long feeling chapters. Overall just did not work for me.

The book title, the cover, the chapter titles, the characters, the story (the list could go on) it’s all gloriously perfection.

I needed this book in my life. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy packs all the best of tropes: the slowest burn, he falls first (and hard), enemies-to-friends-to-soonish-lovers (probably in the second book), she’s his only hope, and a fairytale romance you will LOVE. And the banter!!!

Plus you will be belly laughing from start to finish. This book has everything. Character driven with a feisty MC and a feistier + grumpy love interest. It’ll be hard NOT to want Osric and Aurienne to fall madly in love and have a dazzling happy ending because they are melt-your-heart AMAZING characters.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a race across the map of Victorian London, as Osric and Aurienne try to find a cure for Osric’s depleting magic, while trying not to kill each other along the way. It’s pure magic to watch these two walk across the pages with a swanky and confident ease that will captivate non-romantasy readers. My fantasy romance loving heart was overjoyed to read The Irresistible Urge to Fall for the Enemy and I CANNOT wait for next book.

If you love The Assistant to the Villain series you will NOT want to miss this one.

Go add this one to your book cart friends STAT as it’s a book you should have in your life this summer.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy completely delivered on everything I want in an enemies-to-lovers romance. This book had me hooked from the first tense interaction to the final, aching pag, and now I’m in emotional chaos waiting for the second part of the duology.

It’s got all the tropes I live for:

Enemies to lovers (like, actual enemies)

High-interaction, slow-burn perfection

Hypercompetent idiots who could take over or heal the world if they stopped bickering for two seconds

He falls first and harder (always superior)

Evisceration as a love language (10/10, no notes)

The slow burn is painfully good in the best way. Every glance, every argument, every soft moment beneath all the prickly edges is charged with tension. And then there’s that moment where she takes care of him, while not hating herself for doing so? I’m unwell.

The plot is angsty, layered with real stakes and sharp emotional beats, and the political element adds a whole extra level of intrigue and urgency. It’s not just about whether they’ll fall in love, it’s about how much they’ll have to lose when they do.

Now let’s talk about the humor. It’s sharp and a bit crude at times, and definitely not going to be for everyone… but for me? It was hilarious. I laughed out loud more times than I can count. The banter is elite, the snark is next-level, and the comedic timing somehow lands even during the angst. That’s talent. The critique crickets and their "familiars" so funny.

Honestly, I adored this book. If you love slow burns with serious tension, enemies-to-lovers that go all in, and characters who could cut each other down or save the world together (depending on the day), you need to pick this up. And then scream with me about how badly we need book two.

One thing I do want to point out is that this is not a revised version of DMATMOOFIL.

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing, and ACE Publishing for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had a lot of fun reading this! The writing was so funny and the dryness of both characters' humor was fun in the way they played off each other. The world-building was immersive. I am both furious and excited by the ending; the emotional moment! But also, the suspense is unresolved! I will, of course, be reading the rest of the series, as soon s possible!!!

Aurienne is a healer with the desperate need for medical funding to curb the spread of a deadly pox disease, and Osric is a wealthy assassin in need of healing for rapid deterioration of his magic system. They both need each other as a means to an end despite their orders being at odds with each other.

I love the representation of queer relationships between side characters (and mentions of past relationships for the main characters) in this book. This book is definitely a slow burn, as promised, with the romance portion finally sparking around the 60-70% mark.

It did fall flat in a few ways. First, the wording was very flowery with lots of French terms that I had to look up. On one hand it encouraged me to widen my vocabulary but on the other, I was having to use the look up feature on my kindle constantly. I can see this being frustrating for readers who have the physical copy. Second, the plot was slow moving at first but it did get better. The book ends on a delicious cliff hanger. I look forward to seeing more of the other orders in the next book.

The world building was well rounded in my opinion. I appreciate the glossary of terms in the back and the attention to detail. If you love the game Hogwarts Mystery then you will find humor in the different waystones, their pubs, and funnily named hamlets scattered throughout the book.

Overall, I will continue this series. Thank you to Berkeley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.