I devoured The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy in a day, drawn equally to the smart writing style, the well drawn world, and two main characters who kept me enthralled. The book has that unique quality that makes reading it a breeze, and I found myself wanting nothing more than to advance the story. The world is both modern and antiquated, the societal structure is just complicated enough to add heft to the story, and the interactions between these two opposites are perfectly done. To say I can’t wait for the sequel is an understatement.

The Best Bits

A Few of My Favorite Things

A Complex World

The world was both complex and easily understandable, at least where fantasy novels are concerned. The magic system was more personal than some, tied into your body like a nervous system that can degrade and harm you if overtaxed. There were no spells or incantations or magic wands. Magic essentially enhances typical actions dependent on the strength of the caster. Beyond the basics, there were some intriguing pieces like a communication system based on sending ethereal forms back and forth that communicate on behalf of the sender. Magical travel is done through a series of stones all connected to pubs – the why wasn’t important and it felt very matter of fact in the world. Their society centers around orders and while we see a lot of the healer’s order in the book, there are a lot of others that we’ve yet to dive into. It was all enough to make me excited to learn more in future entries.

Enemies to Almost Lovers

I couldn’t get over how perfectly written the interactions were between Osric, the debonair and deadly assassin, and Aurienne, the incredibly intellectual and practical healer. From their first interaction, they are constantly biting back and forth at each other, and it’s clear each has met their match. They vex each other but continue to draw in closer and closer until the lines between reluctant allies to potential lovers are muddled. They’re as different as could be, along very firm lines, yet they somehow work well together. I found myself constantly laughing at the comebacks and bickering. The romance is on the light side, more of an intro to what could be instead of a full fledged romance, which fit the book well. 

The Dialogue

Dialogue is front and center in this novel and it is done masterfully. It can be difficult to make dialogue work and I couldn’t get over how well it was done here. Each of the main characters has a well-defined personality that comes through in everything they say. Retorts are biting and brilliantly sarcastic, they hate each other in epic ways while also caring for each other in subtle ways. It all plays out in their often hilarious interactions that made this a delightful read.