The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy

Dearly Beloathed, Book 1

By: Brigitte Knightley

Narrated by: 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

Critic reviews

"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

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.

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.

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!!!

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!

Brilliant performance.

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

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.

humorous unique magic system

such a great enemies to lovers with a unique mmc. he's not your broody type, but silly and lovable quickly

Witty banter and a wonderful start to a journey

As a lover of DMATMOOBIL this book has truly outdone itself. It has been to long since I cackled at a book the way I have with this. The banter is perfect, the story is compelling and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book. And to the voice actors who brought this to life you both did a wonderful job conveying the snarky wit and depth of trying not to fall for your enemy

Unique Magic System

Really enjoyed this world— such a unique magic system and I LIVED the witty banter. Narrators were top notch.

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.