The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy

Dearly Beloathed, Book 1

De: Brigitte Knightley

Narrado por: Heather Long, Thomas Judd

Loyalties are tested in this slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy following an assassin and a healer forced to work together to cure a fatal disease, all while resisting the urge to kill each other—or, worse, fall in love.

When Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, falls ill, he realizes he needs the expertise of a very specific healer. As fate would have it, that healer belongs to an enemy faction, the Haelan Order.

Aurienne Fairhrim and her fellow Haelan are inundated by sick children suffering from an outbreak of a long-forgotten Pox. Unable to get the funding needed to launch an immunization program, the Haelan Order is desperate for money–so desperate that when Osric breaks into their headquarters to bribe Aurienne to heal him, she is forced to accept.

As Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness but the mysterious reoccurrence of the Pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction which only fuels the tension between them.

©2025 Brigitte Knightley (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Knightly’s debut is an absolute joy, full of well-written banter and entertaining vignettes. Readers will be captivated by an exceptionally clever magical system, several concurrent mysteries, and the slowest of slow burn romances between two people who absolutely hate each other...This is a superlative read deserving of very real praise."—Booklist, starred review

"The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy sets a very high bar for fantasy romance debuts. The stakes are high and often deadly, but its charm lies in how it never seems to take itself too seriously. It’s pure fun, punctuated by wry humor and scorching chemistry—a truly lethal combination."—BookPage, starred review

"A wickedly humorous, slow-burn love story between two protagonists who epitomize the opposites-attract trope. It’s sure to delight readers of debut novelist Knightley’s popular fanfic and garner her a new audience."—Library Journal

Laugh out loud funny

This book was hilarious and entertaining. I enjoyed learning about the magic systems, and seeing how the tension between the Most Perfect Healer and the Most Irreverent Assassin developed throughout the course of the book. Dripping with sarcasm and blood, this book is a dark and comedic romp. I'm looking forward to book 2!!!

Best book I've read this year!!

While romantasy is my usual, romantasy with a comedic aspect is not, so I wasn't going into this expecting this to become a new OVERALL favorite book. Immediately, I was in love with Osric and his sarcastic mouth, even more so thanks to the narrators. Both narrators absolutely NAILED the reading and personalities of each character, and I found myself laughing out loud way too often. Both MCs quickly became my favorite characters, with dialogue I know I will definitely want to revisit in the future. I cannot wait for book 2 of this masterpiece.

A Unique Standout

Can't wait for next book and continuation of the MCs story. The slowest burn and awakening for these two. Not normally a fantasy lover but character development and world building is gradual. They and their worlds depend on each other.

Brilliant performance.

The narrators truly bring this book to life. I enjoyed the story and the brilliant hilariousness.

LOVED THIS BOOK.

This book is very slow burn. it really took me a little bit to get a hang of the magical world it's set in. But once I did, I really enjoyed it. I would say this is less like a Dramione fanfiction and more like if Butcher and Blackbird was a fantasy RomCom. It's funny. MMC is morally grey. There are some trigger warnings that should be said. It's not as fluffy as DMATMOOBIL. I really really enjoyed this book. I can't wait for the next one!

Loved that they hate that they like each other

Yes this is a romantasy with magical elements.
Yes this has a brilliant no nonsense STEM FMC healer
Yes this has an egotistic assassin anti-hero MMC, with a soft spot for things like dogs and kitties, who finds the
FMC is his only hope of getting well.

Forced proximity. Check.

And yes, they despise each other.

Did I revel in gleeful amusement watching each resist falling for the other?
Hell yes!

As expected, book 1 ends in a startling revelation and open ended hope for the end of their story in next book for this duo-logy.

Very much enjoyed this

Very much enjoyed this book! The voice actors were perfect. I must say I was confused by the ending because I didn’t realize it had ended… so now we wait.

I hardly ever leave reviews but this book was incredible and so was the performance!

The book starts off with dictionary definitions and I immediately thought, NOPE, not going to be my kind of book but I loved the fanfic this book is inspired by and so I pushed forward. I WAS WRONG! This book feels like it was written for me specifically. The voice actors are incredible, at times you can even hear the exact situation going on in the moment just from their tone shift or the sound they make in their throat 11/10 performance. The writing is ABSOLUTELY incredible! The way the author describes unspoken feelings, inside thoughts, atmosphere, and situations is so damn good it's almost poetic...at some points it could be a damn poem. I felt like I was watching a movie with how wonderfully descriptive everything was. This book is absolutely a standalone work of art and draws very small inspiration from the fanfic. I think that this story and setting are even better. I cannot wait for book 2! I will absolutely be rereading this one as I wait.

The slow burn and witty banter

I really enjoyed the slow burn of this book. The witty banter was very enjoyable. Im ready for the next.

True enemies to lovers

Loved that they really hated each other. Was a bit caught off guard by their growing feelings (aka whatever that was at the lighthouse), kinda felt out of the blue as opposed to an organic, slow realization of attraction and I wished that there was a bit more action as far as him and her being kind of forced to work together towards his healing. But I did love the banter and hope that the next book is available soon because I feel like we got zero payoff in this one (minus the “fake” kiss). All in all I loved it, just felt this could have been a stand alone and wish we would have been given the enemies to lovers + pox plot + order assassin plot in one fell swoop.