I have seen so many good things about Brigitte Knightley’s The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy on Bookstagram, and more than a few readers have put it as one of their favourites of 2025, so I finally picked it up and gave it a good perusal. Fair warning: there is a lot of mature and crude language in this fantasy world, but it makes it so funny, so I can’t say it is out of place.

Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally – such is the grim comedy of fate – the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order. Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick – so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for. A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne’s disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them.

I can confirm that this enemies-to-lovers is not just a single-interaction enemies who quickly become something else. No, these two hate each other. For the first half dozen interactions, they are almost at each other’s throats, and then in the many interactions after that, they begrudgingly deal with each other until slowly but steadily an affinity arises. I eat this kind of slow-burning romance up, and the prolonged enemies-to-lovers addition makes it all the more juicy. I must say that the dialogue is so good! The wit and banter are exceptional, making their conversations and arguments so entertaining. The added crudeness of detail, actions, and language brings laughter to the mature themes of this book.

One thing I will note, though, is that I did feel the plot was a little slow going. While Aurielle and Osric are funny and brilliantly fleshed out characters, there are only so many extra exchanges between them that I can accept before things start to feel slow in the action and excitement department. This is an amazing romantasy with an academic tone, with a fantastic magic system and social groups that have intriguing backgrounds and conflicts complicating matters. I wish I had seen a little more of the Orders going at each other, maybe one or two other Orders interacting with these main characters, to show how other groups are received by these Orders and characters. Something which adds a little difficulty to the average interactions would have made this such an enjoyable read.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is such a fun read, and you romantasy and fantasy lovers out there will definitely find something about this book to kick your feet over. I can see how so many people have it on their favourites lists, and with The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy coming out in the middle of this year, I feel there will be a fair few more readers eagerly awaiting the release of the next book.