The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy

New out July 7, 2026

The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy

Brigitte Knightley

First published 2026

8.08.0 / 10
Score out of 1046 ratingsEarly score · confidence 24%
  • NYT bestseller · 1 week on the list, peaked at #8

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Our view

“The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy” is a warm, witty enemies-to-lovers romantasy about an assassin and a healer. Osric bribes Aurienne, sworn to do no harm, to patch him up in secret, and each full-moon session pulls them closer than either would like. Some readers find it hard to put down and like the ending, though they feel the road there falls a touch short.

The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.

About the book

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. 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.

Description: publisher’s blurb via Hardcover

Where the score comes from

The sources average 8.2 across 46 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 24% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 7.8. That is how 8.0 comes out.

SourceAverageRatingsWeight
Hardcover8.246 100%

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