Spoiler-Free Review

If you’re a fan of any one of the following things, you’ll enjoy The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy: fanfiction, Dramione (specifically the DMATMOOBIL variety), cozy-ish fantasy romance, and slooooow burns.

What’s The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy about?

An assassin dying of magical rot bribes a healer for help, despite 1) being of enemy orders, 2) his condition being incurable, and 3) her being disgustingly Moral and Good.

I read this super fast by my standards.

“If we haven’t aggravated each other to the verge of flying at one another’s throats, the day is wasted.”

First, some background. If you’re wondering about the aforementioned “Dramione” and “DMATMOOBIL” and are wondering if I had a stroke while typing, let me explain what those things are. “Dramione” is shorthand for “Draco x Hermione” which is a reference to fanfiction in which these two Harry Potter characters fall in love (I explain fanfiction here). “DMATMOOBIL” is shorthand for one of the most popular Dramione fanfictions, titled, “Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love.”

I read DMATMOOBIL last year, and not only was it far and away one of my favorite reads, I was once again surprised, astounded, flabbergasted by just how fun and well-written fanfiction can be. (Saying this as someone with only a passing amount of fanfiction knowledge, who’s read some cornerstone Dramione in recent years but that’s about it). It was charming, addicting, and both giggle- and swoon-worthy.

Well, anyway. Now you know. Why is that relevant? Well, my friend, The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy is in fact the published version of DMATMOOBIL.

It’s true! And while the bones of the original fic are here, this is clearly it’s own story and world this go around.

The flow of this story moved in a very episodic fashion, taking the main characters on a variety of side quests and mini adventures as our healer, Aurienne, attempts to unearth some arcane magic to maybe potentially heal assassin Osric’s incurable magical rot. Which gave them plenty of time to banter, bicker, and throw around some truly creative insults.

But the real winner of this book was the prose. It was fun and funny. The writing style was very playful, with so much dry humor that I found myself actually laughing at some lines and reading them aloud to my husband. Then, in the midst of it all, we’d be smacked with a really beautiful line. Knightley has an undeniable charm with her narration, and this kept me coming back for more.

I appreciated that this story trusted me to keep up with the magic and worldbuilding, and didn’t pause to give me unnecessary info dumps. While at times it felt like a lot of new magical vocabulary to digest, the fantasy elements didn’t try to supersede the romance that I was here for.

I feel perhaps I enjoyed the source material more (the fic is iconic). But this was still a really fun read that I gobbled up in just a few days.

Should you read The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy?

Beware all ye who enter here: this is a slow burn. Slow. Crawling. And that’s exactly how I prefer to be tormented, thank you.

If you want steamy love professions (that take place in bed), you won’t get that here just yet. Though, it still manages to hint at spice without necessarily being spicy; these characters are mortal and hot-blooded, after all.

I recommend this to all who enjoy banter and slow burns and magic. It’s also for those who greatly enjoy witty writing styles and dry humor or sarcasm. I’d say if you liked Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies, you’ll probably enjoy this one, too.

This is book 1 in a duology. The sequel, The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy, is currently slated to release in July of 2026, and I’m very excited to read it.