Book Review: The Irresistable Urge to Fall for your Enemy

For those who have ever delved into the world of A03, this work will be somewhat familiar to you. This book was originally a Dramione fanfic (yes, I’ve read it and yes, I would read it again it is excellent), so the characters are based on ones from the Harry Potter universe, specifically Draco and Hermione. That is not to say that the leads of Adrienne and Osric are carbon copies of the two, but there are echoes of them. The world is different; there is magic, myth and folklore; a brilliant mind and a heavy-handed one; excellent chemistry between the two leads and the most brilliantly written banter I’ve ever come across. This was my ‘fun’ read and finally! It came through for me.

So the essentials of the plot: Set in the backdrop of a pox outbreak that is infecting the countries children. Osric is in trouble. He is part of an order of trained, deadly assassins; his magical core, known as seiths, has been badly damaged from a terrible injury and botched surgery to the point where ‘seith rot’ has started to settle in. It is a death sentence. There is no cure, and if his order found out… well then he’ll be dead anyway. Enter Aurienne, who is a member of an order of healers; she is a smart, brilliant healer and theorist who does not take anyone's crap. Essentially the antithesis of Osric, who blackmails her and her order so she would try and find a cure for him. Naturally, they greatly dislike each other… or so it would seem.

There is a lot to unpack in this book. Firstly, there is the world-building, which has been well done in only 2-300 pages. There is an excellent index and reference sections of words, which have probably saved a lot of time in the world-building. I also liked that in this particular world, light and darkness live alongside each other easily. Yes, there are ‘light' and ‘dark’ paths, but they are harmonious. The same can be said of where magic lives in society. It is a part of everyday life. The plot shifts between the viewpoints of Osric and Aurienne, so you see how well suited their personalities are. They are both rather uptight in their loyalties to their order, but they are unyielding on their standpoints on morals; Aurienne is firm with hers, Osric is rather loose with his. They’re adorable.

I also really like the writing; oftentimes, with romantasy works and works that have been born from fan fiction are viewed as sitting at the bottom of the literary ladder  (I blame Fifty Shades of Grey for this). But great writers always start somewhere, and someone else’s works have often inspired them. So what if it’s fan fiction? Most of the time, fan fiction is written for the writer only, m but in this case the work blew up. On A03, the work from which this book is born has over 4 million hits. So publishers knew it was good and knew that this writer could write.

There is a sequel that I’m excited to read and was tempted to dive right into, but I’ve held off for now because I have a whole other book list I need to finish first. But I do know that the fanfic had a happy ending. Enemies-to-lovers usually does, and I look forward to jumping back into the journey.