Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy

Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley

35 reviews

kaygray's review

5.0

adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

HP fan fiction blah blah blah... You'd never know. You wouldn't. The world is fleshed out, lived in. There's a whole biology lesson on their magic! And the characters are so unique and truly themselves, and just all around lovely. This book is truly magic.

Content Warnings

saphronia81's review against another edition

3.25

challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

imbored_soillread's review

3.25

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Plot- .75
Aurienne is a healer, Oric is an assasin. Their professions contradict one another, but they are forced to work together when Oric might loose his magic without healing. Overall I didn’t have any complaints about the plot, the pacing did feel a little off, I’m all for a slow burn, but it felt like a complete 180 from hate to love instead of tension building over time. A few things bugged me regarding the plot though.

I’m not sure if this is going to be a series or just a standalone, but I was disappointed when the motive for them working together in the first place (Oric needing healing) wasn’t settled, it was just left unresolved.

I’m leaving this complaint out of the spoiler warning because I think people need to know going in (but skip this if you don’t want to know about individual spicy scenes) but there was a very uncomfortable instance in which Oric did things in the same room as a sleeping Aurienne, hoping she wouldn’t wake up. It felt very creepy and predatory.

Setting- .5
I have no idea how to describe this world. The magic system, creatures, and order system are all super fleshed out and interesting. However, I couldn’t tell if this was set in an alternate past of our universe, a whole new fantasy world, or even possibly the future.

Characters- .25
I felt the characters all fell very flat. Aurienne was very cocky, but not in an endearing way. Oric seemed laughably soft and weak willed for an assasin. I never really understood the chemistry between them.

Prose/Style- 1
The reason I kept reading was the writing style and humor. This book was really funny, I haven’t laughed out loud at a book in a long time. (I will say a lot of the humor is potty, or sexual related humor if that is a problem for some readers) I also loved the writing style and narration style being more casual almost? Like being in the narrators literal thoughts almost.

Enjoyment- .75
I enjoyed this almost all the way through, but I got bored towards the end. The humor kept me going and not much else.

Content Warnings

jorkreu's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Beautifully executed romantasy!

Content Warnings

dogoodwithbooks's review

2.5

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was such a disappointment for me. The plot itself wasn't terrible and the world-building was passable (though it did seem undecided on whether it wanted to be gaslamp or urban romantasy). However, the banter gets old pretty fast (they literally just argue over the same things) and Osric has absolutely no redeeming qualities about him that would make me want to care for him. Like, the only reason I cared about Osric in the slightest was so that he would leave Aurienne, an overworked but gifted healer dealing with a literal pandemic at her healing center, alone after she healed him. Plus, I felt that some of Knightley's turns of phrase was pretty weird, and I don't know if it's because of the British dialect she wrote the book in or she was attempting to make a joke, but I was not getting it at all.

Content Warnings

aray16's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

submerged_animatronic's review

4.75

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

sdudley2209's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

alicrawley's review

4.5

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

kaatzoetekouw's review

4.0

adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

You – Osric Mordaunt – are a handsome, bad-ass Fyren (an assassin). Mad skills, perfect hair, sharp cheekbones: the total package. You're also, unfortunately, very ill; your ONLY hope is help from a snooty, somewhat pretty (whatever) enemy healer. Now how to get this Haelan, Aurienne Fairhrim, to heal him...
Plan A. Seduce her. Problem solved.
Plan B. Incredulously (helloooo, is she blind???) failing plan A: bribe her with the funding her order needs to create a vaccin for a Pox virus killing innocent children.
Plan C. Stubbornly, this vexing... failing plan B: bloody kidnap her and be done w-
Plan D. Failing plan C (on account of the Haelan's unfazed superior waltzing in and ordering Fairhrim to go with Plan B because of the dying children): back to plan B! Always a winner.

Accepting his perfumed business card, Aurienne has no choice but to go along with this scheme. Upon scanning the seith (magic) lines throughout his body, she determines he's beyond help. But what of The Old Ways, he counters, apparently having done some research. Sigh. Why not... it'll probably only kill him faster.

Clearly from the title and the synopsis, The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is all about the Enemies-to-Lovers trope. I usually live for bits of angsty romance teased in with That Intense Yearning they're both trying to fight off. For the large part, Aurienne and Osric genuinely loathe each other: she casually wishes him dead nearly constantly, and he's... well... he needs her to live. Other than that, he's too sexy for this and has more important things to do. It's only when she determines she kinda actually really wishes to research The Old Ways and now has a willing guinea pig (do or don't, he'll die either way!) that they develop a working relationship of sorts and can come to an understanding. And as for him, he develops a true respect for her seith control. But love? They could NEVER. And they keep this up for a long, long time.

But Osric, here and there, can't help but find witchery in her eyes. He could even say Aurienne is pretty. Not as pretty as him, note. Aurienne objectively can't deny he's attractive and observes he's not quite as brutish as she expected. So the romantic tension is sprinkled in here in there, but the idea is always very repugnant. This persistent push and pull between them is really amusing and it's funny to see them both (in their own third person PoV's) experience a moral crisis over thinking the other has a few good-ish qualities.

I think this is the actual funniest book I've read since my 7 year long reading slump ended. The humor is very tongue-in-cheek, and reminiscent of when screen characters break the fourth wall. Osric's PoV especially had my shoulders shaking regularly. The humor isn't overwrought, and at times I found myself chucking exactly at how juvenile it was: I was laughing at my own laughter. There are moments of blatant gore and “I did not need to know that” obscenity when they visit a bath house – it's... I won't go there. But there is a bit of a Monty Python-esque vibe happening because this book doesn't take itself seriously at all. At this stage in my life, this level of silly is just necessary sometimes.

The one thing I did find lacking and confusing, was the world building, and I wish more time was spent fleshing that out. As much as I enjoyed the jokes, some of that space could have been utilized in favor of giving the story a wider context and backstory. A glossary up front was super helpful, and I also appreciated having a list explaining what the various orders (magical “subgroups” of sorts) are about. But not a lot was done with those orders. I also wish Knightley would have given more details about “the Old Ways”. Give me lore. Give me history. More. I couldn't really connect with the explanations Aurienne gave Osric. Every time they do another healing attempt – when there's a full moon – weeks go by off-page during which Aurienne determines their time/place meet-up. But how does she get to that? “Oh, I read it in a few accounts.” Cool cool. Now tell us. On-page.

Towards the end of the book, the plot regarding the Pox virus begins to take off, with intrigue involving a conspiracy, and the promise of teamwork based on a selfless common goal. A really nice set-up for the second part of this duology.

I give leeway to the first part of a multi-book story, but I absolutely do have expectations and a higher standard for part 2. I hope we get more world building, more interactions with the other orders (apart from just the Haelan and Fyren), and I also hope the romance does evolve into something more pull, less push henceforth. Osric, as a morally more-black-than-grey character, would have to redeem himself quite a bit more, I think, but I'm looking forward to having a gas while he trips over himself attempting it in the sequel.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group / Orbit for generously providing me with a copy of this audiobook; all opinions expressed are honest, voluntary and 100% my own.

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