The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #2) by Brigitte Knightley 
Series: Dearly Beloathed #2
Published by Little Brown Book Group on July 7, 2026
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 336
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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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 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.
This is Book 2 of a duology but now I want more.
I started this duology excited about the fact that it was a duology and there wouldn’t be that middle story that dragged everything out. Now I am so sad there won’t be anymore since I really, really like these characters.
As we remember, physician Aurienne Fairhrim was forced by her supervisor to take the obscene amount of money offered by assassin Osric Mordaunt to heal his Seith rot, which was generally a death sentence. In a medical Hail Mary, Fairhrim and Osric have been following ancient texts which mean meeting under a full moon each month running along ley lines while Fairhrim uses her magic to heal him. And it’s actually working, much to both of their surprise. The money Osric gave to Fairhrim’s order allowed them to create a vaccine to the pox which is killing children or leaving them all but braindead. And someone isn’t happy that about this, and Fairhrim and Osric uncovered evidence that someone actually released this pox deliberately against the children of the various kingdoms. So between the bouts of healing, they are working tirelessly to figure out who is behind this conspiracy. All while the good doctor and the deadly assassin desperately try not to fall in love.
I hate letting go to such great characters. Fairhrim is a brilliant doctor with buckets of self-confidence while Osric beats that with an ocean’s worth of self-confidence and self-love. I just loved that Osric was so unrepentantly irreverent in his knowledge of his own awesomeness, even though his job was to kill people. He still thought–no, he still knew he was the smartest, most handsomest killer in the kingdom.
Osric was pissed when he realized at the end of the first book that he was falling for Fairhrim. He knew that would be a dangerous complication to him, since his own sect of assassins had a contact on Fairhrim and her fellow physicians. And also himself except no one know that Osric was the one who donated the money which allowed the doctors to create a vaccine to save the children.
I liked the world-building here. I liked that the magic used had consequences so that it wasn’t limitless, such as one of the physicians would lose her hair is she used too much magic or Osric would lose his vision if he overdid his magic. There should be a balance and a sacrifice to powerful magic.
I really liked Osric and Fairhrim and am so sorry their story is finished.
Favorite Scene:
Fairhrim rearranged her ruffled feathers. “Thank you. Very kind of you. I appreciate it.”
“I am burning with human charity.”
Fairhrim didn’t react to this absurd statement. She pulled out the diffractor and asked Osric to undress in the distant tones of someone absorbed in something else.
In previous times, she had always left the room as he undressed, but this time, she didn’t, and messed about with the Franklin diffractor instead.
Osric did not mind, he was, after all superbly virile, and magnificent to observe naked. He therefore said, “It’s quite all right if you want to look,” as he removed weaponry and clothing from his person.
Fairhrim was lost somewhere amid the diffractor’s tentacles, muttering about what absolute creature had put it away last time. “Hmm?”
“I was just saying,” said Osric, stripping off his shirt, “it’s all right if you want to watch me undress.”
A bit of Fairhrim’s usual flint made it way back into her abstracted gaze. “You cannot be accused of excessive modesty, anyway. There should be gowns in the cabinet.”
There was nothing in the cabinet but a pair of slippers. Osric put them on.
Fairhrim took no notice of his ongoing nudity. She conducted the usual rites: the hlutoform was sprayed, the diffractor’s sticky wires were attached to Osric, Osric’s seith system was beamed upon the wall. Fairhrim splayed things between the bright seith markers she had place in Osric’s system.
She consulted U. Ganglion’s patient chart, looked at the wall again, and said, “The node is, indeed, healed. Good.”
There should have, at the very least, been another smile, and possibly her throwing herself at him in an excess of joy. Instead, she popped the diffractor’s tentacles briskly off Osric’s bare chest.
“Good?” repeated Osric. “That’s it? Good?“
“Very good,” Fairhrim nodded. “Excellent. Scientifically impossible. Fascinating. Let’s see what the next moon brings. What? Do you want a gold star?”
“Yes.”
To Osric’s annoyance, Fairhrim produced a sheet of adhesive gold stars for well-behaved children, plucking one free, and putting it in the middle of his forehead. “Well done, you,” she said.
“Fairhrim.”
“Hmmm?”
“Fairhrim.”
“What?”
“I’m naked.”
“I know.”
“You healed seith rot. Healed it.”
“Yes.”
“What aren’t you reacting? What’s the matter with you?”
Fairhrim scribbled out notes upon his chart and stuffed them into her satchel. “Nothing’s the matter. A good thing happened last night. I’ve got to get back to Swanstone.”
“What happened?”
“I’m not meant to tell anyone.” Fairhrim pressed her hands together in uncharacteristic, restrained excitement. “But it’s good. And largely thanks to you.”
“Tell me.”
Now that they had touched upon the subject that so preoccupied her, Fairhrim became more attentive. “I really can’t. Why are you naked?”
Your review did cause me to want to read the book. Thanks.
Yay! I hope you enjoy as much as I did.