Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 416 pages
Author: Brigitte Knightley
Publisher: Orbit Books
Release Date: July 8th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

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.

WORKED FOR ME.

I didn’t know what I would be getting when I picked this up but I was hopeful for a good enemies to lovers romantasy. I think that mostly delivered and I’ll read the second book because this did leave me curious about where that would go.

Some of the humor/innuendo/spice didn’t work for me and just wasn’t funny. That was my biggest gripe throughout that kept taking me out of the story.

On the other hand we have another case of a man falling first and falling head over heels so hard we doesn’t even realize it and GOSH I LOVED THAT. The banter is snappy and witty and it has a very unhinged level of antics that played off well for the plot. All of the wild things he’d do for her really worked for the characters.

Overall audience notes:

• Fantasy Romance
• Language: strong
• Romance: multiple open door
• Violence: high
• Content warnings: high violence, on page torture, loss of life, medical content

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