Title: The Irresistible Urge To Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed #1)
Author: Brigitte Knightley
Pub. Date: July 8th 2025
Genre: Romantasy
Format: eARC
Publisher: Orbit Books
Pages: 416
GOODREADS | BARNES & NOBLE | LIBROFM | AMAZON
☆☆DRC PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW☆☆
Aurienne Fairhrim is a scientist working under the Haelan Order of healers during a time where the children in the land are being afflicted by the Platt’s Pox outbreak; deadly and without a present cure. She has her plate quite full when Osric Mordaunt, a member of the Fyren Order of Assassins, seeks her out in a desperate plea for help. Osric has what is known as seith degeneration aka seith rot, when the magic running through your veins begins to die out. Seen as incurable and a death sentence for those who operate under the Fyren Order, Osric is desperate to try anything before his Order finds out his magic is dying out and kills him first. He has it on good word that Aurienne has researched seith rot but hasn’t made much progress on testing her theories out and he’s down to be her first subject in hopes something will fix him. What he wasn’t expecting was to see beyond the snark and disdain Aurienne has for him and find himself attracted to her. He’s not willing to take her adamant refusals to work on him. One generous donation made to the Haelan Order of Healers secures Aurienne’s help even though the LAST thing she’d ever do is help keep a Fyren living, breathing, and killing others. This slow-burn/hate-to-love/He falls first relationship will have you wondering how this could lead to a romance when all these characters represent, stands in their way.
*•.¸♡ 𝙰𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚘𝚞𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚞𝚗𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚛—𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜, 𝚙𝚞𝚛𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚞𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜, 𝚎𝚏𝚏𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗—𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚕𝚘𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝙵𝚢𝚛𝚎𝚗. ♡¸.•*
Full disclosure, I haven’t read any fan fiction so I have nothing to compare this to except for perhaps some similarities in character traits. Aurienne’s snark was top tier, her confidence in her specific skill set and intellect are unmatched except by maybe Hermione herself. I enjoyed my time reading her and Osric’s verbal sparrings even as he began to soften his blows a bit when he started catching feelings. Oftentimes smirking and shaking my head, these are some memorable characters. Hate-to-love may not be my favorite trope but I’m beginning to think it’s because mostly it’s pitched that way yet it lacks the hate aspects of that trope. Not here. Aurienne had me wondering until the very end if this was going to be a case of unrequited love and she was going to leave my boy Osiric pining after her. My only gripe with this first installment in the Dearly Beloathed duet is the magic system…I just wanted it to be ironed out a bit more, who doesn’t love animal familiars?!?! They too had their own personalities but I felt as if we didn’t get much time in the development of the magic system. While I appreciate the author’s show-don’t tell approach, I wanted to see more of that side of their world. They did go through the trouble of providing us with an index of the Orders (back of the book) in this world with details as to what they oversee, however we don’t see very much of those Orders. There is however a mystery unfolding as Aurienne’s order uncovers darker forces at play in the political sphere, I suspect we’ll see more of that in the next book as we get answers to those questions we’re left with by the end. Pick this one up if you love bad a** women in STEM with a penchant for snark, hate-to-love with an emphasis on the Loatttthhhhe (haha!), and animal familiars who match their counterparts. I’m definitely grabbing a copy of The Exquisite Torment Of Loving Your Enemy slated for a July 2026 release.
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