The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #1) by Brigitte Knightley Series: Dearly Beloathed #1
on July 8, 2025
Pages: 383
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Loyalties are tested in this enemies-to-lovers romantasy set in an alternate England 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 realises 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 immunisation programme, 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 an attraction which only fuels the tension between them.
In my advanced age, I’ve come to prefer friends-to-lovers over enemies-to-lovers. I’ve found the latter to be a trope that’s nearly impossible to execute well, often rushing past the trust and transformation that make these romances truly satisfying. But every now and then, a truly—shall we say—irresistible premise comes along, and I wade back into the genre. The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy, with its slow-burn romance between a healer and an assassin from opposing orders, simply sounded too charming to resist.
The healer and assassin in question are Aurienne Fairhrim and Osric Mordaunt, members of opposing magical orders with very different ideas about duty, morality, and the value of a human life. There’s not just animosity, but disgust. And how could there not be? Aurienne has devoted her life and magic to saving the lives of others as part of the Haelen, the order of healing, while Osric, as part of the Fyren, the order of assassination, has spent his life murdering for money. When Osric finds himself with an ailment that only Aurienne can heal, his first thought is to kidnap her and to force her into doing it. But from their very first meeting, Aurienne proves way more than he could bargain for—if anything she is irritated at him wasting her time, not intimidated—and the man ends up dropping almost the entirety of his fortune, anonymously donating it to fund a cure for a Pox plaguing young orphan children.
“But if she was the Best—as brilliant as she was beautiful, a researcher unparalleled, a friend cherished, a daughter beloved, a lover sometimes (Did anyone truly deserve her? Frankly, no)—why, pray, had she just been asked to care for the Worst? Tasked to heal a Fyren, of all the foul things in the world?”
With this donation secured, Aurienne agrees to try and use questionable methods in an attempt to save Osric’s life. Along the search for the cure, which conveniently involves spending time with her touching him under full moons (forced proximity anyone?), the two come to appreciate each other’s unique strengths and even form a reluctant, but mutual respect for one another. Is there a whole lot of depth to each character outside of their relationship? Not really. I feel like the novel could have benefited from longer periods of time from Aurienne and Osric’s perspectives before they met one another, to really establish their characters, and their places in the world. Alternatively, I was glad that The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy got right into their meeting. After all, their relationship is kind of the whole point of the book.
Because I’m familiar with the original work this novel was adapted from, it’s easy to feel like I already “know” these characters without the book needing to spend much time establishing them. The original work was a fanfiction for Harry Potter, with Aurienne originally being Hermione and Osric being Draco. Even though this pairing wasn’t something I actually shipped, it’s hard for readers familiar with Hermione and Draco not to bring some of that history with them, naturally filling in some of the character groundwork. However, Aurienne and Osric stand well on their own.
I find the fanfiction to traditional publishing pipeline really fascinating and have read both plenty of fanfictions myself over the years and many novels that were former fanfictions, as a Reylo (Rey and Kylo Ren from Star Wars) fan. In books that keep the more fantastical element from the original source material, I am always excited to see how the author reworks the world and its elements into something of their own. I think The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy does a good enough job setting up its magic system (referred to as seith) and establishing different orders and their belief systems. This is where we can see remnants of what was probably originally Gryffindor versus Slytherin sentiments.
Readers looking for super intricate magical systems and political tensions between the orders will be disappointed. This is a fluffy and fun romantasy that is rather scant on the details. One of my favorite things about the magic system are creatures called deofols, which are animal “summons” that can be used to contact another person. I am assuming in the original works that these were probably patronuses. But I got such a kick out of the deofols’ sassiness.
As far as other world-building goes, I cannot tell you how exactly the orders were founded or what exactly happened that resulted in the Peace Accords between them. But I can tell you that prejudices still exist between them today and that some of them are actively scheming to get a stronger foothold of power. There is enough intrigue to keep things interesting, but the main source of rising stakes is the relationship between Osric and Aurienne.
Now if you’ll recall, I’m a slow-burn appreciator in romance books. I like for these things to take their time to develop and I could read an entire series where the two leads don’t get together until the very last page of the very last book in the series. I want the initial antagonism or misunderstanding, slowly uncomfortable realizations that are pushed aside, the building trust, a setback, and the yearning—all before any actual romance happens. This is important to me even in books that don’t feature enemies-to-lovers, but I think it’s even more essential for those that do. Enemies-to-lovers absolutely requires some form of these steps in order for the trope to be successful. If the characters fall in love too quickly? Well, I guess the enemy wasn’t so villainous after all or the obstacles weren’t nearly so insurmountable. Any lack of balance at any point completely lowers the stakes of what makes the trope such a guilty pleasure.
Sure, there can be instant attraction on some level, but there absolutely has to be conflict, contempt, and a slowly transformative appreciation and trust, before it goes into romance. In my mind it has to be enemies to reluctant allies to trusted allies before the “to lovers” part can even be a thought. This is something that The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy does with aplomb. And I very much enjoyed being along for the ride.
I saw other reviewers complain that the romance doesn’t really happen until the last 5% of the novel. I disagree. Author Brigette Knightley does a fantastic job portraying all of the little minutes of realized trust building up between Aurienne and Osric. I think trust and love is often forged in the small moments, not in the grand gestures, and this belief is reflected in the book. There’s a moment where Osric realizes he trusts Aurienne to be the one at his neck and another where she realizes that she is relieved he is there to help her. These moments are small, but incredibly satisfying, and increase in number as the novel progresses.
“‘They’re idiots—utterly lacking in judgement. We must give them a chance.’
‘You’ve already given them a chance,’ said Mordaunt. ‘Besides, they threatened to kidnap you.’
‘And? You threatened to kidnap me.’
‘Exactly: only I can do that. You can’t tell me this lot will be a huge loss to the world.’
‘You don’t get to decide that.’
‘Death is a normal part of life,’ said Mordaunt.
‘You can’t play god and accelerate it,’ said Aurienne.
‘Tss. You play god and slow it down; how’s that different?’
‘Because it’s for Good.’
‘They aren’t Good.’”
And these moments are monumental to not only the character development, but also the romantic one. Because these breadcrumbs of respect and affection took so long to happen, scattered in between the banter and the arguments, it makes the larger instances have even more impact. It’s also delightful to watch these realizations transform their banter into something less like animosity and more like hostile flirtation. Honestly, I can’t wait for the next book to see what is the final straw that pushes the relationship between Aurienne and Osric to the next level.
One of my favorite parts about their relationship was their banter. Knightley has a knack for writing believable dialogue and almost never falls back into telling over showing. Readers are truly along for the ride and find out things about both Aurienne and Osric through their own developing bond. This makes it incredibly easy to get invested in the importance of their relationship, as we are constantly discovering things along with the characters and seeing them through the other’s eyes.
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is one of the strongest fanfiction-to-traditional-publishing novels I’ve read, successfully reworking its source material into a charming, banter-filled romantasy of its own. Readers who enjoy slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romances will find plenty irresistible here—and I already have the urge to continue the series.
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