The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed)

Huh, I'm not really sure about this book. I really liked the world and its system of magic, the different orders and the mythology it nodded to. The plot, where it actually happened, which wasn't much of the time, was also good and made sense, even though it's not even close to being solved in this book. I didn't much like the characters and found the writing style very annoying. It was all so flippant and supposed to be funny I guess, but it was over the top for my taste. Even though I usually like some good banter there was waaay too much for it here. I was also disappointed that the story didn't get resolved in this book. I was kinda expecting this to be a standalone but it's not. I think the banter and them finding each other annoying could have been cut a lot then there would have been time for a proper resolution in the end, not some abrupt ending that left me unsatisfied. And that at a point where I was finally getting invested in the story. Anyway, for fans of true enemies to possibly lovers and sloooow burn, this might be a hit, I wasn't wholly convinced and am not sure I will continue this series, even though I wanna know how it all turns out 🙄 Thanks to Little Brown and Netgalley for the e-arc!!

Schön witzig.

Das Buch überzeugt mit viel Witz, absurden Momenten und einem ulkigen Ton, der das Lesen leicht und unterhaltsam macht. Besonders der Humor hat mir gefallen und sorgt dafür, dass man trotz einiger Längen dranbleibt. Persönlich fand ich die Kapitel teils zu lang, und der Slow Burn hat sich für meinen Geschmack etwas zu sehr gezogen – stellenweise wurde es dadurch etwas zäh. Dafür entschädigen die letzten rund 100 Seiten, die wirklich stark geschrieben sind und mich begeistert haben – ohne hier zu spoilern. Soweit ich das hier deuten kann, muss es sogar einen zweiten Band geben, da ich dachte es sei ein Einzelband, bin ich jetzt recht irritiert. Mal abwarten, wann es Informationen geben wird.

I’m not quite sure what to think of this book and feel kinda torn. The first 20% and the last 10% were great! Everything in between is a bigger “?” for me than I would like to admit. I loved the humour and the banter! It was a quick and witty back & forth, more on the dry side and hit that sweet spot for me. There was a level of repetitiveness in the actions of the characters and the writing itself, which I guess is to be expected when the characters do the same thing several times over the course of roughly 400 pages. The plot started off good and actually was a great way of introducing the characters and the world. At some point, the plot shifted and the subplot became the main plot which I think turned out to be more interesting to follow along. There is a glossary in the beginning (or end, depending on the finished copy) and I would recommend reading it, or at the very least take a look at it, before diving into this book. Otherwise you will end up like me, a tad lost and a tad confused. Even now I can’t say I completely understood the world or anything about it. The characters themselves were fine. Aurienne is a healer with a black or white view on things, while Oscric is the sort of character with barely any morals, unless it’s about animals. I can’t say I grew some sort of fondness towards both main characters, but I did end up kinda liking them, especially Osric, and I do think it’s because their personality benefited a lot from the writing & humour. Now, the slow burn..maybe my definition of a slow burn romance is different from everyone else’s, but to me it was more of a *very* slow motion development. Like listening to an audiobook at 0.5x speed. (I’m more of a 1.8x - 2x kinda girl) Their relationship can be described as a mutual agreement on disliking each other until they suddenly decided that they, in fact, do kinda like each other. So the burn was rather a spark that really came to light somewhere in the last 20%. And it’s not like I minded their non-existent romantic relationship, I actually enjoyed it. But the change from no romance to full on throwing the word “love” around was too sudden and felt rushed. (I was also on a personal mission to find out why the people received a fork with their physical arcs and now that I know why, I approve.) I can see this book getting all sorts of reactions and I can totally understand why people would like it and why they wouldn’t. Will I be reading the sequel? Yep. Thank you Orbit for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I am not a Romantasy fan in the slightest, but I immensely enjoyed the author's writing style (someone highly recommended her Ao3 fic in some youtube comment), so I gave this book a go. And what can I say? I loved it. It's as if Brigitte looked into the depths of my feral goblin brain and conjured everything I find funny and could possibly want in an enemy-to-lovers & he-fell-first-and-he-fell-harder story. (So much that I am *almost* tempted to give the whole Romantasy genre another go, but I have seen what's out there, and I wish I could un-read some things.) To be fair, both characters would probably be insufferable if I had to encounter them in real life, but I loved their banter, I loved both POVs, I especially loved that Aurienne, the female lead, is not a teeny tiny, oh so beautiful and sexy damsel in distress that needed constant saving. The dick jokes were a bit much at times, but such is the plight of the Romantasy reader I guess. I am also a very big fan of magic systems that come with a cost, and the author delivered. Not just some fatigue, but physical evidence. I liked the idea of having to apprentice to be able to use it, and receiving a mark that opens up one's magic to the world. I gladly recommend this book and I am looking forward to Part Two!