Book Review :: The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigette Knightley

The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
ISBN: 0356524779
Series: Dearly Beloathed #2
Also in this series: The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy
Published by Little Brown Book Group
on 7 July 2026
Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Romantasy
Pages: 336
Goodreads

Osric is a member of the Fyren Order, a guild of assassins who gleefully murder for money. Aurienne is a Haelan, a scholar-healer whose Order’s motto is Harm to none. Clear-cut absolutes separate them: good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark . . .

Until they don’t.

When Osric first bribed Aurienne to heal him, he never imagined those lines would begin to blur. But every healing session draws them closer together. He finds himself developing unwanted feelings for Aurienne as her capable hands heal his body—and his heart.

Aurienne’s perfect life has been flung into chaos in the form of a devastatingly handsome assassin. She should be in her research lab, not illicitly healing a Fyren every full moon—nor wrestling an attraction to him that threatens to slip into something else.

Things go superbly sideways when Osric and Aurienne discover more about the deadly Pox deliberately unleashed through the Tīendoms. The plague may be the work of another Order—an Order far nastier than either of them can handle.

As the lines between Osric and Aurienne continue to blur, the balance between peace and war, and love and hate, trembles, shifts, and hinges on a heartbeat.

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What is The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigette Knightley about?

Osric’s job is murder, pretty much. And Aurienne’s job is to heal. So when Osric bribes Aurienne to heal him of his seith rot (a fatal, degenerative magical disease) in exchange for helping her and the other healers with a Pox outbreak, falling in love was not part of the plan.

Now spending every single month together to try and heal Osric, the two are not only breaking rules by being together and helping each other, but they’re also breaking each other.
And it’s very hard not to fall in love with your enemy when you’re spending this much time together.

The lines between Osric and Aurienne keep blurring (the good kind and the complicated kind), and suddenly morality’s a lot less black-and-white than either of them ever thought it’d be. All the while, they’re realising that the creators of the pox that is plaguing the Tiendoms might just be more dangerous than either of their Orders combined.

My thoughts on The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy

When I tell you that I loved this duology … I really really mean it. The way Knightley writes delights me. It’s fantastical, whimsical, quirky, and yet beautiful at the same time.

The first in the duology, The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy, absolutely hooked me. The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy was no different.

Aurienne and Osric are now past the Enemies bit and are moving closer to the Lovers bit every day, and their ‘oh no we shouldn’t, we can’t be together, we’re polar opposites … but I love you!’ back and forth was evident in nearly every chapter. But not in an overdone way. Yes, it was one of the driving forces of the book, but there was still just enough action, mystery, Order dynamics, and side characters with big opinions to keep it moving.

“If it wasn’t so impossible, I’d be at a real risk of falling in love with you.”

Putting their relationship to the side for a moment, while I’ve seen a few comments online about how there isn’t really a plot … I disagree. There’s the seith rot that Osric is experiencing and Aurienne trying to heal him of that (and their various antics to make it so), and then there’s the mystery and chaos of the Pox that has been sweeping through the Tiendoms. Oh and the Dreor Order is up to no good at all.

Yes, much of it is character-driven by this point, but when the Goodreads rating average is 4.47 … you know it’s good, regardless of ‘how much plot there is’.

I have to just mention the names of Osric’s dogs: High Treason, Arson, Outraging Public Decency, Perjury and Forgery, Rigor Mortis, Crème Brûlée, and Diverse Felonies. Absolutely brilliant. 

One thing, I think I would have liked to see a bit more of (and perhaps there are more books in this world to come?), is interactions or characters from the other Orders. We definitely got a few in this book, but I believe there are eight Orders, and I love to learn more about them and have interacted with them a bit more.

But overall, absolutely loved this book and I can see myself re-reading these, for sure.

Also just a shoutout to the publisher for a moment. Not only did this book (remember, second in the duology) have a key of images and the Orders with their descriptions laid out, and a pronunciation guide, but it also had a RECAP of the first book!! This was absolutely genius, and I think every single fantasy series needs this. Even if it’s just one page long. Give me a recap. Please.

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy was Knightley’s first book, and if this duology is anything to go by, then I cannot wait to see what she releases next. If you love fantasy, interesting magic systems, animal familiars, quick-witted and clear verbiage, enemies-to-lovers … you’ll love these books.

Have you read The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigette Knightley? What did you think? Good follow-up to the first book?