Dramione fanfiction! The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley.

Synopsis

The first in a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy duology featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world, perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

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.

Romance tropes
Enemies to lovers
High interaction slow burn
Hypercompetent idiots
He falls first and harder
Evisceration as a love language

Review

Thank you Orbit books for my advanced reading copy! I had a blast!

All in all 4 solid stars

My very first notes about that story was: “OMG I am snorting like a pig and I am on the train! Ostric inner dialogue is priceless :-)

« It’s got to be our little secret. He hit her with a grin (devilish) and a wink (suggestive). » » I am quoted from an uncorrected proof so maybe that dialogue will change in the finished version but you have to admit that it’s satirical and so funny!

It had begun splendidly and headed towards a 5 stars but I must be honest: the story lost some momentum in the middle and the novelty of Osric and Aurienne’s interaction faded somehow. The lack of progress in the healing path didn’t help and it felt a bit repetitive.

Luckily the story got a second wind ( a very good one) in the last quarter of the book and … left us on a cliffhanger!

So of course now I need the sequel!

But let’s backtrack and talk about « what is it about? »

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for your Enemy is  said to be a Dramione (read Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger) fanfiction. I am no specialist of these fanfiction and I read it more like an enemies to maybe lovers story as the parallel between Draco and Hermione are very lose.

Ok, Osric has nearly white hair, is the bad guy as he is of the Fyren Order and they are assassins. He also is extremely enamored with himself and quite arrogant. You could say that peacocks have nothing on him! And he entertained me so much!

But as every villain story, there is more to him, especially when you learn about his origin story way back in the book.

And Aurienne was a perfectionist, know it all, extremely efficient under pressure and admired by her peers like Hermione was. 

That being said, the main plot was that Aurienne was forced to try healing Osric through very whimsical means, trusting fairy tales and so, in completely opposition to her usual rationale course of action.

Put one healer (harm no one) with an assassin and you have two opposites. 

Force them to collaborate and you get lots of dry (ridiculously funny)banter.

Add a mysterious pox decimating poor homeless children and villains (other villains) with nefarious agenda and these two enemies will become allies and…maybe more.

Reading it was entertaining, funny and interesting as the magical system and the various orders were a novelty for me. This is perfect for fans of fantasy who wants a story with lots of sarcasm and a potential love story in the making.

Thanks for reading.

Sophie