The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley Review

A slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world.
 

Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, finds himself in dire need of an expert healer. As fate would have it, that very healer is Aurienne Fairhrim, a member of his enemy Order, the Haelen.
 

Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick, so desperate that when Osric breaks into her office to offer her a bribe for her healing services, she must accept. Even if she loathes him.
 

A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders - much to Aurienne's disgust. Despite being enemies thrown together, as Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness, but the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly Pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction which seems to only fuel the heat between them.

Is there such a genre as romcomantasy? Despite being a mouthful fitting for this book’s very long title, Brigitte Knightley’s traditionally published debut novel is a light-hearted, nonserious romantasy that’s a lot of fun. Marketed as enemies to lovers, slow-burn romance, the Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is exactly that in addition to incorporating the recent romcom trend of women in STEM within a romantasy wrapping. True to its synopsis and blurb, this book is full of amusing banter by lovable idiots, though much of its advertised romance is purposely left off for its planned sequel novel. While the pacing occasionally drags and its narrative material outside of the banter is inconsistent in quality, the Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a pleasantly comedic read for those looking for something less serious, passionate, or steamy than the romantasy genre norm.

Before I get into my review for this book, there’s an important note to highlight about this book and author. While Brigitte Knightley is well-known for her fanfiction writing, specifically the Harry Potter fanfiction Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love, I’ve seen a lot of confusion and booktok readers criticizing that this book is a Dramione fanfiction reworked to be IP-free for its traditional publication. While perhaps having the tone, look, aesthetic, and inspiration of her earlier fanfic, this book is by and large an original story. Apart from Osiric having a likely intentional look similar to Draco Malfoy, this book has its own separate story, lore, and original, albeit very limited, world-building. I’ve seen a lot of reviews negatively criticizing this book for being a derivative Dramione fanfic or its affiliation to J.K. Rowling which frankly this novel isn’t at all.

With that out of the way, the Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is the kind of romance novel that will likely have its devoted fans as well as those that can’t get into it at all. In my intro for this review, I really try to emphasize how comedic the story is as well as how slow the romance progresses, which are the two biggest factors that will often determine if one enjoys or drops this book. From the very first chapter, the story opens up with a hilarious conversation between Osiric and his estate caretaker Mrs. Parson regarding the logistics and feasibility of kidnapping, negotiating, or threatening at knifepoint the FMC Aurienne for her expertise, one of the most powerful and intellectual researchers/medic of her healing Order (spoiler, there is no kidnapping or threatening that will work on her). While not immediately obvious based on the premise, this novel is definitively a romcom, the witty humor being the book’s biggest selling point. The story has some underlying mysteries and serious matters weaved into the narrative, namely Osiric’s dire future should Aurienne be unable to heal him, but the book is mostly a silly and fun read. Pairing a skilled assassin offing targets on the daily with a STEM researcher/healer surrounded by medical trauma and potential death, the comedic material revolving around dead bodies and stabbing people (both with or without the person’s will) are endless. Often dry and macabre in nature, the jokes won’t work for everyone but are a riot for those that enjoy a little bit of dark humor. One notable joke that had me rolling was a character stuffing a random man’s head into a tub of starving leeches as Osiric comments how doing so supports animal rights and their well-being. In addition to poking fun around death, the novel is very heavily British in its slang, mannerisms, and sarcasm which for me, is an absolute delight.

Besides the humor, the book’s other biggest selling point is its two main characters and their constant verbal sparring. When I picked up this book to read, I had expected a lot of arguments, bickering, and conflict given its enemies to lovers and opposites attract trope. What I didn’t expect was how refreshingly goofy and cheeky their banter would be, one of the most recognizable elements this book shares with its fanfic inspirations. The enemies-to-lovers element is primarily that of circumstance, Aurienne being of the Order of scientific study in benevolent healing vs Osiric of the Order of Assassins and other nefarious jobs for hire. One has rigid principles and virtues while the other seemingly enjoys doing a tap dance on them. The setup isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the execution of their discussions makes all the difference. Rather than straight up arguing, most of their banter consists of witty jokes and back-handed compliments; not outright hate (despite what the characters may think), instead more of moral and temperate distaste. Most of the novel consists of characters talking rather than the usual romantasy political movements, drama, or betrayals, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when the banter banters so well. Fortunately, the amusing comedy also extends to the book’s side characters, notably Mrs. Parson being an absolute delight, mirroring Osiric’s questionable ideas as well as both main character’s magical animal familiars that serve as snarky messengers to each other (as much as I would love to say Osiric is myself in book form, I’m honestly very much his familiar instead).

Advertised as a slow-burn romance, the romantic progression is indeed very slow by design. Rather than a love at first sight approach, the story takes a “they’re okay-looking but detestable in every other way” which necessitates slow development in order to feel natural and earned. The book has a lot of overt, sometimes cringy sexual references that are nonetheless funny, but there’s relatively little romance until the last 100 pages or so of the book. Though slow to develop and delayed, the romance is fitting and feels appropriate to the story, continuing its theme of “this is just the means to an end and in our best interests…”. By the time you get to the romance, it will either be rewarding and fitting for the story, or less patient readers will have already given up or tossed the book. The first entry of a new series regardless of whether it is long-running or a duology, much of the expected romantic content is purposely left for its sequel instead. For those that care about it, there’s likewise very little spice to the story and only two scenes are remotely steamy that are more of the fantasizing variety rather than overt smut.

Outside of the romance and comedic hijinks, the novel has an interesting story revolving around the source, mitigation, and political ramifications of a pox epidemic that only affects children. Other storylines include the intent behind a brazen assault on Aurienne’s medical research facility, said facility’s inability to attract donors to fund a cure for the pox, unknown clients hiring Osiric’s dark order for odd jobs, and the main pair attempting less than scholarly experiments to heal Osiric. Outside of their forays into random folklore-inspired healing attempts, the book shifts between extensive STEM content mixing bits of scientific material with fantasy touches and bits of ragtag murdering or spying, the violence being fairly minimal and the most severe occurring off page.

While the book’s humor and character banter do a remarkable job at carrying the book regardless of what is happening in the story, the biggest drawback to this novel is its slow pacing and uneven quality of narrative material. Taking place in an alternate universe, Gaslamp era of Britain complete with humorous takes on locales, the story has some lore and world-building but it’s very limited, poorly developed, and ill-utilized. That alone isn’t really a deal-breaker given the book’s focus on romcom moments, but it’s quite noticeable due to the book’s very slow and meandering pacing. Aurienne and Osiric travel to a variety of different locations during full moons following local folklore, but these events kind of feel like the book is making things up as it goes, rather than adhering to some sort of theme or concept (theirs is an explanation but it’s vague). As the inter-kingdom political espionage plot develops, the weak world-building becomes increasingly distracting. The complete lack of information and omission of the other magical Orders outside of Aurienne and Osiric’s Orders is also a missed opportunity (possibly to be covered in a sequel?).

More problematic outside of the healing narrative and absent lore is Aurienne’s excessive STEM work at the research center/fortress and discussions about the pox epidemic. A good portion of Aurienne’s content when apart from Osiric is full of technical content many romantasy readers may see as irrelevant or off-putting scientific mambo jumbo that’s boring; there’s a lot of real STEM content per the premise, not just the setting for mere aesthetic flavor. Unlike the average fantasy reader, I have a background in environmental and biological science and could appreciate Knightley’s reference to terms based on real science. However, despite getting their purpose and charm, I still found the content quite slow and underwhelming. Additionally, while Aurienne’s mentor and coworker Xanthe is funny in an off-beat manner, the rest of the side characters around Aurienne are generic and forgettable. Fortunately, Osiric’s solo adventures in the Fyren Order are more interesting courtesy of the dark humor while dismembering targets, having more colorfully sus characters, and none of the STEM technical jargon, but the book is still considerably less interesting when its main characters are separated. The opening chapter and last 100 pages of the book were a solid 4.5 stars for me, but the rest of its first two thirds sat around a middling 2.5-3 stars or so. This novel is also the start the start of a new series and there are multiple occasions where the plot and romance feels like it’s purposely sluggish in order to stretch the narrative content for more than one book, not to mention it also ending on a prominent “to be continued” note that leaves both its romance and core story left up in the air.

Fun and hilarious, yet often dragged down by its pacing and STEM content, the Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a bit of a mixed bag whose enjoyment will largely depend on the reader’s interests. Those looking for a spicy enemies-to-lovers romance or smut-filled romp are likely to be disappointed, as well as those looking for a casual and easy read who may find the scientific jargon and heavily British style off-putting. The book’s fondness for dark humor may also not sit well for sensitive readers, while its tendency to make cock and balls jokes can come off as juvenile (though the jokes are quite good in my opinion). However, for those that are looking for a fantasy-flavored romcom full of witty and sarcastically dry banter, or just get a kick out of watching two idiotic yet professionally competent personalities mucking around at each other’s expense, this a great pick. While I wasn’t originally interested in this book and only picked it to see what the hype was about, I will certainly be continuing the series.

Note: Unrelated to the book itself, the Illumicrate edition I read is beautiful and the customized redesign is excellent. The clear acetate dusk jacket with the character art and typography printed on top is such a great design choice, hiding the character’s seith lines printed on the hardcover beneath the jacket as well as being featured on the printed edges. Out of all the different editions and cover designs I’ve seen, it’s also the only edition to feature the magical tacn symbols on the characters’ hands which is a great reference to the story.