The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy

Series: Dearly Beloathed (#1)

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

Published: July 8, 2025 by Orbit Books

Fantasy/library

First I thought ok this is good, but...it dragged, and I changed my mind.

I would not have cared if the main characters would have died. I think I also felt very disconnected from them because this was from both´s POVS. But they each thought of each other by their last names, so it just made them feel further away.

The world could have been interesting, but was never really explained. The UK are a bunch of kingdoms, then there are these groups, healers, assassins, witches, druids etc. They can travel through portals. There is a plague going on. But yes it felt like we only dipped our toes.

An assassin is dying and needs help so he bribes a healer. They hate each other. But I never felt the hate or growing attraction. The chemistry was zero. I guess people say this is romantasy, but there is no romance. I guess it comes later, but these two do not belong together.

I read something about Dramione fanfic as the author has written just that...I see that now. Like a changed version.

It was ok I guess, but I cant rec it

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.