Review by kaatzoetekouw - The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy

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kaatzoetekouw 's review for:

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley

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.

Content Warnings