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.

Interesting but confusing

We are thrown into a world without very little understanding of their magic systems and what certain items are. I would imagine that physically reading this would be a bit easier but I tend to enjoy audiobooks instead. I feel like there was a lot of nothing happening as well. I was under the impression that this was a standalone as marketing implied but come to the conclusion that it is a duology. TBD If I’ll read the second book.

Hilarious.

I love the humor so much and the narrators did an amazing job with encapsulating it.

Enemies to lovers

Loved this book! Perfect first book! I’m really impressed with it , I can’t wait until the next one comes out!

Give it a try!

I loved this book. The way they bicker and contradict each other. I couldn’t put it down. As a physician, I particularly enjoyed the medical references and jabs they exchanged; well, mainly the ones that Aurienne threw at Osric. They hate everything the other represents even they do not want to admit they find the other attractive. But they do, eventually. They keep working together to try to heal him and investigate the illness that is affecting children. It was funny and entertaining. Definitely looking forward to reading book number 2!

Love the witty banter

I adore this authors voice (Loved her FanFic too) and her unique word choice makes this read so enjoyable! My only complaints are not about the story at all because that was fantastic. My complaints are 1st. Why is there a glossary at the beginning and ending? I was plotting along with my audiobook thinking I had another half hour of story left when out of the blue it starts rattling off definitions. 2nd, out of all the reviews I read before starting this book the main complaint was not the fact that it just suddenly ends, Not even in a cliff hanger sort of way. It just ended like the way a road would end if a sinkhole had formed in the middle of it. Seriously I checked my phone to make sure it didn’t skip a chapter. In all seriousness this was a great read the banter is top tier and the humor had me laughing out loud multiple time. I found this book to be immersive and original, which is somthing hard for fantasy books to do today, so I tip my hat to the author. And just a note for next time to whoever is in charge of formatting, don’t play with my emotions with two glossaries, put them together. Now I have to go and decide if I want this in a hard copy too, I think I might.

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.