The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy: Book 1 of the Dearly Beloathed Duology

Coco

I await the final installment with bated breath.

"I pre-ordered this book when it first came available and read it within a day. I am a huge fan of the author's A03 work, so I was very excited to see this come up. This was so fun. The banter is exceptional, the loosening of Aurienne's morals and Osric's strengthening attachments to anyone and anything other than himself had me laughing and giggling the entire time. There are so many moments where I laughed out loud. A few funny lines (no spoiling) that come up in my brain on a regular basis: Genealogical Möbius strip. I can reschedule the murder. His scars cicatriced sexily Death isn't divisible And thus, mortally offended them both. There are just so many great one-liners in here. That list doesn't even scratch the surface. If you're up for a real treat, the Audio book is EXCELLENTLY done. I really can't say enough nice things about it. Between the audio book and a kindle re-read, I have consumed this book well over 20 times. With every listen or read, I pick up something new that I missed on previous reads and it's a DELIGHT. Per the complaints of other commenters: World Building: Yes, the world building could use some work. But all in all, as a regular fantasy reader and a professional editor... this was not bad (or even disappointing). I got the gist given the space constraints. Do I understand why Osric is basically an assassin but can't get his mind around how he would murder without shadows when it would seem he can simply... murder in daylight? He's a skilled combatant... So. No, I don't get that. Seems to me he'd be pretty good at murdering regardless of shadows, but ok. I wish the chapters describing the orders was at the front instead of the end of the book. We only truly get descriptions and interactions with 2 (maybe you could say 3) orders in the book, so I hope book 2 includes more info on the other orders. Timeframe complaints: Who cares. It's Industrial Revolution adjacent kind of. Does this truly matter? No. This is a fantasy. We should be mostly concerned with full moons, so this takes place over the course of roughly 4 months. Word use: I personally LOVED the insane number of words I had to look up. I am always impressed when an author teaches me new words. My use of the dictionary function on my kindle is rare. HOWEVER, this book tested me at least 5 times. And that's my favorite. Lastly: It ends abruptly. Yes, it does. As a duology, I would expect it to be moving very quickly through the plot in the second book. There was a lot to cover in this first book to give you what background we've covered. I personally love when a book is essentially released in two parts. Do I wish it was one? SELFISHLY, YES. Anyway, I loved this. Glad I finally got around to writing a review. I can't wait to see what they get into in the next book. (which you can pre-order now ;) ) This is a slow burn. Barely a kiss until the last 5% of this book, and I am SO excited for the next installment. ["

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January 13, 2026 Verified Purchase

Lyndsay Juhl

love the banter

"I thought this book was really funny. I definitely laughed out loud more than once. Their banter, and talking crap to each other was hilarious. I also loved their animal familiars, especially Auriennes, he was mean and funny just like her. I know this book started out as fanfic, I could see little glimpses of it but it didn’t distract from the story I thought the plot was interesting, her trying to save him in exchange for him donating money to cure the pox that is affecting children. I liked that the deeper we get into the story the more we learn that someone deliberately started the pox. We also learn that Aurienne is very doubtful about healing Oscric because it’s an incurable disease. But once she starts up some old research and started testing it out on him it starts to work. The book ended with no conclusion to either question, but makes me excited for book 2. I thought this was a good lighthearted true enemies to loves(not yet there) story, while also being hilarious. I’m excited to see where the story takes us. ["

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September 18, 2025 Verified Purchase

Grace

Not quite what I was expecting

"Im a big fan of the fic this was based on so I had very high expectations going in but found I was left with fairly mixed feelings about this book. The things I enjoyed: The tone is cheeky and fun and I've seen other people complain about it but I kinda like the over the top vocabulary use. (I was definitely the kind of kid who would read the dictionary and then try to work all my fancy new words into conversations.) There's a lot of funny and irreverent jokes especially if you are appreciative of some medically based vulgarity. I found myself cracking up several times over the names of different establishments. There's a bit of Terry Pratchett in her writing, the dialogue is witty and engaging. I like the background characters she's populated the world with, several of them are hilarious. There's an overall quirky vibe I very much enjoyed. Things I struggled with: There's the start of some interesting world building but it never quite pulls itself together in an intuitive and cohesive way for me as a reader. Even for a fantasy novel, the setting is confusingly anachronistic. Is it supposed a Faerun faux medieval world? Is it a modern day alternative time like like in His Dark Materials? Or is it a retro futuristic world? There's so little to anchor it that I honestly have no idea. Electricity is mentioned as being used but people are living in castles and carrying swords. The magic system is also pretty vague considering it was a big part of the main plot. I guess some people have the ability to use the seith but some dont? Are these abilities set from birth or can you learn any of them if you have "magic"? But all that I could hand wave away if I was sucked into the chemistry between the main characters, and unfortunately, I was not. I found it hard to connect with the characters or see the respect and attraction slowly growing between them. They both seemed like huge a-holes just one is a Morally Good and Righteous A-hole and the other is a Morally Bankrupt But Funny About It A-hole. Up until the last couple of chapters they genuinely seem to hate each other and it's not a short book. The pacing was... Odd. It felt like very little was actually progressing for a long time and then suddenly a lot was happening and then it abruptly ended. Like so abruptly ended that I spent several minutes confused thinking I must have missed something. I realize it's going to be a series but it was still off putting. This definitely wasn't a bad book and over all I liked it. I did finish it and I will DNF a book with a quickness. But I think it suffers in comparison to its fanfic source material. Maybe if I hadn't read that first I would have had more realistic expectations and wouldn't have felt a little disappointed. I realize it's not easy to have to build a new world from scratch but this one could have used a bit more time in the oven. All that being said, I am going to be optimistic and have high hopes for the series and that it will find it's groove as it continues. ["

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August 14, 2025 Verified Purchase

carlylloyd

Irresistibly Clever

"I loved this. I laughed. A lot. This book has sat for ages on my shelf, I picked it up because it was trending. And then I thought I’d hate it. So I left it there. What a crime. Now I wish I had picked it up immediately after buying. It was one of the best books I’ve read in ages. One of the few that deserves to be trendy on booktok. And booktok fools me a lot. This time they knew what they were talking about. This book is witty. Funny. Never takes itself seriously or pretends to be what it’s not. I love the writing style. The enemies to lovers is exactly that. Refreshing. I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did, because I heard it was based on fan fiction. But if you don’t know that.. you’d not be able to tell. Brigette has created her own world and her own characters. And they are incredible. I’ll read anything she writes. The amount of times I laughed(cackled) and grinned(like a lunatic).. this was a story I needed in my life. I loved everything about it. The banter itself deserves 6 stars. I can be guilty of getting bored and skimming pages.. there was no skimming here. That says a lot about how much I loved this story. I cannot wait til July 7th for the sequel. I’m so relieved I grabbed Fairyloot’s copy on a whim. What a gorgeous shelf trophy that’s ACTUALLY worth recommending to EVERYONE! ["

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May 15, 2026 Verified Purchase