The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley – Review

Published: July 7, 2026

Publisher: Ace

Series: Dearly Beloathed #2

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 408 (Kindle)

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
The stakes are high, the love is forbidden, and the slow burn turns steamy in this swoony, witty, and heart-stoppingly romantic sequel to instant New York Times bestseller The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy.

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 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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Somehow The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy was even more delightful than the first book in the duology and I loved it SO much! I unfortunately took way too long to actually write this review so the finer details have left my brain, but the overwhelming feeling of happiness that I had while reading it has not. 

Despite Aurienne and Osric’s nearly romantic encounter at the end of the previous book, they are both still heavily in denial about their growing feelings for one another. Osric because he’s far too good-looking and bad to ever fall for anyone, especially that goofy two shoes Haelan. And Aurienne because not only is Osric an evil Fyren, but she’s also been scarred deeply by a previous love. Fortunately for us readers the denial doesn’t last forever and slow burn does eventually turn into BURN. And burn it does! There are some fabulously spicy scenes (the opera!) that were so satisfying after the relationship build up. Rest assured, there are loads of scenes that had my emotions in all sorts of shapes and plenty of humor to boot.

As for the actual plot… Aurienne is still trying to heal Osric and shockingly, it seems to be working. But will she be able to reverse his seith-rot completely? That remains to be seen until they complete the twelve full moon rituals. All the while this side project is going on, Aurienne is still working alongside the Haelan order to stem the tide of the pox and find the source of the disease. Osric feeds her tidbits of information that he comes across in his line of work and the two eventually make a tremendous breakthrough and go on a dangerous mission that finally uncovers the true source and reason behind the pox because of course evil people are doing this on purpose! At one point the Fyren order is threatening the Haelans (and therefore Aurienne) and Osric is NOT having it and he’s forced to begin confronting his true feelings and the lengths he would go to for that woman.

Brigitte Knightley has me heart and soul after so successfully executing this series. It’s probably one of my favorite romantasy series out there and I’m actually dying to re-read it already. She kept the plot moving and gave it enough complexity to really keep curious, but the stars here are Osric and Aurienne themselves. Their banter is second to none, their passion for their work and eventually one another is fiery, and damn, they just made a great team. I also loved the secondary characters and all the critters (deofols, dogs, and cats alike). Acts of Warranted Brutality is an absurd yet fitting name for a cat after all. The ending of this book was wonderfully climactic, with a proper battle, and the displays of Haelan and other magics was memorable. The whole thing was just fucking awesome and it brought total joy to me!