hapennybooks 's review for:

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley

4.25

funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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this could easily stand on its own two feet and not as fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. I recently read Rose in Chains and found it incredibly hard not to see the fanfic. This however felt fresh. I really liked the worldbuilding with the ancient kingdom names and the magic system was fun too. I’ve seen complaints the worldbuilding was too thin, I disagree. The first few pages explaining the orders etc did a lot of heavy lifting. 

The humour is more crass than my normal taste but that said I couldn’t stop giggling and reading sections aloud or sending sections to people. 

I 1000% respect Brigitte Knightley’s right to anonymity but I’m itching to know what she does for a living. I initially thought a medical scientist but the clinical sections of this book were really written as if she had clinical expertise. I’m putting money on her being a pathologist now. Humour about wet gangrene, stool softeners, bowel perforations… totally up my street but so so niche! 

I feel like this is Romantasy written by a person who liked Discworld and doesn’t take themselves too seriously. 

I suppose my only complaint is pacing, it could have been 50 pages shorter and it also sort of just… ends. I am once again begging the publishing industry to let standalones be standalones.