The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy
I was intrigued by this quirky and snarky, enemies to lovers, slow burn, fantasy. It has an assassin versus a healer and I lost myself in their world of intrigue and magic. Some of the world building in the beginning took some time for me to understand, but once I figured out what was going on, the story was addicting and I couldn’t put the book down.
Ostric, from the Fyren Order of Assassins, has a problem. He needs help from Aurienne, a healer, who is a member of his enemy’s order, the Haelens. He has a seith (magic) degenerative disease and his magic abilities are weakening. He secretly goes to see Aurienne and begs for her help. His timing is good. Aurienne desperately needs funding for research to find a cure for a terrible pox that is making their children very sick. Ostric agrees to fund her research if she will help cure him of his disease.
In the beginning of the book, we see Ostric’s life as an assassin and it is pretty morbid. He has expertise in espionage and intelligence gathering. When he hears there could be an enemy behind the Haelens’ Pox he and Aurienne investigate the rumors and threats together and as they begin to learn more about each other – they like what they see!
I especially admired Aurienne. She had strength and intelligence and is dedicated to her work as a healer. She wants Ostric to be, well, kinder and gentler. She even asks Ostric to consider trying negotiation before turning to violence when he is dealing with informants! Ostric can be sarcastic and snarky which adds humor to the story. When Aurienne goes to his home for a meeting with him, she sees the dogs he has rescued and she begins to see him in a new light. When Ostric is injured fighting an enemy headed for Aurienne’s stronghold, she takes him to her parent’s home to recover. Her parents don’t know his real identity but they think he is interested in her romantically and it’s cute. He is smitten with her and I loved the scene when they dance together and share a passionate kiss.
The hardest part for me was the world building in the beginning. But I hung in there and gradually began to understand it better. (The author gives us some definitions and a map in the beginning which helped). I ended up enjoying these characters and their world, though now, I have to wait until the second book in the duology to find out how it all works out.
Brigitte Knightly has a unique voice and I think we will be seeing good things from her in the future. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy was an addictive and truly irresistible story!
Recent Comments
I love the prose and banter. But the book just ended. Too abruptly to even quality as a cliff hanger. An odd stop that had me checking if my copy wasn’t missing pages.
The book stops abruptly because it’s the first half of a duopoly. Not sure when the second part will be published.
The second comes out in July.
I haven’t read this book but I too dislike books that just end. Even if there’s another coming out, I think books should be able to be enjoyed just on their own.
I get that it’s 1 of 2, but even books that are part of a sequel don’t end so abruptly. The story just stops. It feels like it ends mid-paragraph.
The other quibble I had is the Unnecessary Use of Uppercase at random points in the dialogue and narration. I guess the author was doing it for Emphasis, But Overuse Quickly Gets Annoying (as you can see).
I liked the story enough that I will definitely be reading the next one.
I liked that at the end of this book, Ostric and Aurienne realized that they cared for each other, “He and she sat in the moonlight as lover and beloved”, and they were able to talk without bickering and plan their next steps to fight the enemy and save their people.
I just started the second book, The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy and after a year of waiting, I’m trying to remember who all of the characters are and the meaning of the words used in the stories. I’m enjoying it so far. It does have more steamy scenes.
Rereading the last few pages, I see your point regarding the attempt at some closure for the romance. For me, the romantic turning point was at the dance, so the caring for each other, etc at the end was not new information — it was actually kind of repetitive as they had similar discussions in the past and they don’t tell each other how they are feeling beyond saying that she trusts him.
At this point, I was more vested in the plot — which introduced some important new threads and just let those hang like a hang nail. But anyway, these are just my opinions and impressions. I will definitely pick up the sequel as I’m interested in the resolution of the political intrigue, etc.
“introduced some important new threads and just let those hang like a hang nail.” So funny (and I agree)
Both the plot and the title made me think of DRACO MALFOY AND THE MORTIFYING ORDEAL OF BEING IN LOVE. I read it online last summer and very much enjoyed it. Hermione is her super competent self, a healer in both the magic and Muggle worlds, and Draco can’t help but fall in love with her. Lots of drama, lots of magic, and a fair amount of humor.
May I ask about the sensuality rating? “Subtle” implies it’s not explicit and is a little above “kissing” and below “warm,” but other sites give it a rating closer to 4, indicating it’s more explicit. Was the book rated by the reviewer’s overall sentiment or the level of explicitness of the scenes?
I say this because I tend to view sexiness/sensual indicators as signs of whether a book is open-door or not and how explicit it is, but I’ve come across sites before that rate based on “how the reviewer felt” or “how many scenes there were,” meaning that a book that’s very explicit but not considered sexy by the reviewer ends up with a low sensual/spice, rating, or one with just one long, steamy scene ends up with a rating equivalent to “subtle,” which confuses me when choosing.
I use the AAR Sensuality Rating located in About AAR (at the top menu). I initially chose Subtle because there were no open or closed door sex scenes between them, only the dance with enough steam that I chose subtle. However, Ostric has a sensual dream scene (he blames the medicine) and after a reread of that, I changed the sensuality rating to Warm. I appreciate your question and you sharing your thoughts.
Is it another Dramione fanfic?
I remember reading it was inspired by Dramione fanfic but I can’t find where I saw that. I don’t know enough about Draco or Hermoine to comment about similarities except for Draco’s white blonde hair color.
From what I understand, the author wrote a popular Dramione fanfic. But this book is not a revision of the fanfic. (Unlike *Alchemised* and *Rose in Chains*.) But the publisher is promoting it as Dramione, connecting it to those other two books.
I’ve begun to wonder if authors aren’t jumping on the fanfiction train with an already existing manuscript in the hopes of latching on to the fandom of popular ships. Rose in Chains had a much stronger Beauty and the Beast vibe than HP Dramione. And most of the so-called Twilight fanfic missed the boat, too.
On the one hand – there are fanfic writers out there who are extremely good and, I’ve often thought, are more deserving of being traditionally published than some authors who are! The downside is that I’m seeing a lot of those started-out-as-fanfic books being called out for not having been properly edited – developmentally as opposed to copy/line edits – because they’re retaining the episodic structure of the original or because they’re too obvoiusly rooted in fanfic. YMMV on that – I suppose it depends on what your favourite fandom is – but I like to feel I’m reading a novel that has, if not been originally conceived as one, then at least, written as one, if that makes sense.
I don’t have anything against fanfic (I used to write it myself!) but I do think this sudden influx of fanfic-inspired-romances (is the Adam Driver phase over yet?) is another manifestation of the mess traditional publishing is in as they desperately try to find “the next XYZ” book.
this sudden influx of fanfic-inspired-romances (is the Adam Driver phase over yet?) is another manifestation of the mess traditional publishing is in as they desperately try to find “the next XYZ” book.
A concern for sure.
The publisher blatantly did a press release where they sold this on the premise of being a Dramione fic with the serial numbers filed off. They were selling it next to A Rose in Chains, if I remember right.
I can’t speak to this one (on my TBR but haven’t read it yet) but I can say that Rose in Chains (reviewed today) bears no resemblance to the initial characters except that a young Tom Felton inspired the hero’s look, and the heroine kinda resembles Emma Watson. But as to the characters themselves, they aren’t anything like Draco and Hermione. I’ve read the HP series a half a dozen times, seen the films fairly often, so I speak from experience.
Good to hear that! I need to dig up the digital flier the publisher had out there, it was incredibly blatant about it being Just Like the Draco and Hermione Fic You Know And Love.
I was both glad and sad. On the one hand, I wanted to see how any author could make that pairing work. On the other hand, I would probably have had a fit over how uncanonical it was.
Makes sense to me
ETA: Found the ads:
https://www.threads.com/@spoonie.reads/post/DJUjBZzJjuB/literally-look-at-how-theyre-advertising-these-books-on-edelweiss-which-is-publi
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJW5QeZNXJk/
Thanks for sharing these. Like I said in my review, Rose in Chains didn’t feel like Draco/Hermione, but Beauty and the Beast to me.
You’re welcome! I figured I’d follow up since it was driving me nuts and I knew it had been floating out there for a bit.