“As if Osric would dream of touching the most irritating, meddlesome little Haelan who had ever walked the earth. Other than to murder her, obviously. Also: Fairhrim had no business having Thighs of Interest.”
If you see the title of The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy and think: “fuck me, that sounds dreadfully delightful”, then I’d say you are absolutely right. I mean, cue all the cheeky dark humour, witty banter, and razor-sharp snark and sarcasm, this is just an irresistibly addictive enemies to lovers fantasy romcom done to absolute perfection.
In a nutshell, the entire plot of The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy can be summed up as: an absolute menace of a shadow-walking assassin with a degenerative seith disease (magic rot) bribes The Best and Most Perfect healer, who is desperate for funding to aid the sick, to heal him. Their Orders are mortal enemies, they absolutely despise each other (and whine about that every chance they get), but as they work together to heal his illness and get unexpectedly pulled into the investigation of a mysterious resurgence of a deadly pox, these two highly competent idiots turn out to make quite the dream team. Not that they are ever going to admit that to each other or themselves though, because the Horror!!
Now, as soon as I saw the title of Chapter 1: “Irresistible Bastard Meets Immovable Bitch” (seriously, bonus points for the incredibly funny and punny chapter titles), I knew this was going to be the book for me. However, as much as I was vibing from the start, it took me quite a while to really get grounded in this world and invested in this story. See, it’s not just the romantic aspect in The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy that is exceedingly (but deliciously) slow-burn, but the overall plot takes its sweet time to get going as well, with lots of slightly boring medical talk and very little actual action (of any kind) in the first half of the story.
That said, Aurienne and Osric honestly immediately captured my heart the moment I met them, despite (or maybe exactly because of?) the fact that they are both quite flawed, haughty, frustrating, morally deficient (looking at you, Osric), and overall just not the most easily loveable characters, and I had an absolute ball just following them as they yelled at each other and the sky about their frustrations with the unfairness of the universe. Red flags were truly waving all around, but I guess it’s a good thing I love the colour red then.
And when I say I love slow-burn enemies to lovers romance, THIS is what I mean!! Do we really get a good personal backstory for why they are such mortal enemies aside from the fact their Orders hate each other and are diametrically opposed? No, but I sure was highly amused by how committed they were to expressing their mutual hostility. I am talking, their love language is (verbal) evisceration because ‘why bang when you can bicker?’; I am talking, (verbal) evisceration as a love language because ‘why kiss when you can bicker?’; I am talking, if lying to yourself about your feelings was an Olympic sport, they’d both get the golden medal (and hate each other for it because obviously they can’t BOTH be the best?!); I am talking, it takes until the last 5% of the book for the tiniest bit of romantic feelings and actions to occur… AND I WAS LIVING FOR IT! Like, the tension, the banter, the irresistible attraction, the secret mutual respect (because how can you truly hate someone if you don’t respect/love them on some level?), I spooned (or forked, iykyk) it all up!
Now, I am sure people are going to bounce off the tongue-in-cheek tone, the slightly pretentious aesthetic, and the crude and at times juvenile humour in The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy, but I think it helps that the entire vibe of this story is so self-aware, and I was honestly cackling and shaking my head in sheer delight the entire way through. Sure, I could’ve done with a bit less sex and dick jokes, but overall I loved the balance between the silliness and wittiness, and think there’s simply no denying that Knightley is an incredibly clever and effortlessly funny author.
Lastly, I feel like I’d be remiss to not address the elephant in the room: is The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy just a slightly reworked Dramione fanfic with some trad pub pizzazz sprinkled over it? No, but I do think it shows that Knightley’s roots lie in fanfic, for better or worse. See, the history and political landscape of the Tiendoms (which is really just an alternate history gaslamp fantasy version of the British Isles if William the Conqueror had never overthrown the Anglo-Saxons), the intricacies of the seith magic and the eight different magic Orders, and the general character development all leave quite a bit to be desired, with most of it being presented as if the reader should already have been familiar with everything/everyone like is normally the case in fanfic writing (thank fuck for a glossary, I guess).
Yet at the same time, I think it’s rather impressive how Knightley took the bones of her original fic and created something so wholly original and refreshing out of it. I mean, I personally have not (yet) read the author’s Dramione fanfic (Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Falling in Love), but I honestly don’t think it’d even be worth comparing the two, because The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy is completely its own unique thing. Also, I personally didn’t come here for exceptionally rich world building or intricate plotting; I wanted a good enemies to lovers romcom with that dangerously addictive ‘just one more chapter’ quality that only the best fanfic writing has, and this more than satisfied my cravings for that.
Ultimately, The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy was somehow both everything I was hoping it would be, while also being full of unexpected surprises that sent both me and the characters spiralling, and I love it all the more for it. And thank all that is holy that this is the start of the Dearly Beloathed duology, because I am DESPERATE for more, especially after the wild revelations and delicious teases in the final chapters. If you like your fantasy romance with a good dollop of humour, (butt?)cheek, snark, banter, mystery, and dangerously high levels of tension, then you just have to pick this up. How terribly fun!
Thank you to NetGalley and Ace Pub Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy is scheduled for release on 8 July, 2025.
