"Romantasy" feels like a publishing buzzword in the age of BookTok and Bookstagram, encompassing a seemingly endless stream of tropes and debut novels that, although enjoyable, don't always live up to the hype. That's not the case with The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by beloved fan fiction author Brigette Knightley, who arrives on the traditional publishing scene like a cool breeze on a humid day.
The novel's enemies-to-lovers plot line delivers on the trope. Aurienne Fairhrim and Osric Mordaunt belong to diametrically opposed magical orders. She's an altruistic healer and researcher fighting a deadly disease that's ravaging impoverished children, and he's a droll assassin whose magic (known as seith) is deteriorating. Aurienne is Osric's only hope for aid, but the desperately needed cure he seeks involves "the Old Ways," an interest Aurienne wrote off as more folktale than science. Osric bribes Aurienne into helping him by way of a large donation to her order's inoculation efforts. As they verbally spar across the countryside in search of the right combination of moon stages and ley lines, they're caught in an unspooling web of nefarious influence and shadowy plots that put them--and their hearts--at risk.
Knightley boasts a spectacular vocabulary and succeeds at inhabiting a distinct style without crossing into overwriting. Brimming with humor and simmering with tension as Aurienne and Osric realize that "hate could feel strangely like something else," this slow-burning first installment in a planned duology is poised to make a pivotal mark on romantasy. --Kristen Coates, editor and freelance reviewer