The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards (Magic and Romance, #1)

Ali Hazelwood meets Dungeons & Dragons in this enemies-to-lovers fantasy academia romcom where rival grad student wizards are forced to work together without killing―or falling for―each other.

Will they conjure love, or evoke chaos? Two rival wizards are about to find out.

Sebastian Walsh: twenty-four. Grad student at Lesiara University in the Mageus of Evocation program. Human. The first of his family to go to college rather than the military (and it goes over at family get-togethers about as well as you’d think).
Elethior Tourael: also twenty-four. Also a grad student, but in the far more inferior Mageus of Conjuration program. Half-elf. The latest in a long line of Touraels to grace the hallowed halls of Lesiara U (what would the world do if the Touraels ran out of rich douches to lead their magical weapons manufacturing empire?).

―and the other finalist for the Mageus Research Grant.

Sebastian needs that grant to fund the last few months of research for his degree, after which he’ll get a job that actually helps people. He isn’t about to let anyone snatch this from him, least of all a snob who doesn’t even need the money because his family is loaded thanks to war profiteering.

But there’s something worse than having a conceited academic nemesis steal grant money from you: you could be forced to work with him. Thio is secretive, broody, and his stunning biceps take up far too much shared lab space―but even as volatile as their partnership is, Sebastian just might find himself falling for his rival―and it could blow up his whole future.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Mildly spicy M/M enemies-to-lovers romance.
• Lots of snarky and banter.
• Fantasy scientists doing their beautifully nerdy thing
• Bringing sexy back . . . to STEM! (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)
• Healthy cinnamon roll men supporting each other and being vulnerable.
• Lots of healing from trauma.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished copy and may differ from the final product.

Overall

I have absolutely loved Sara Raasch’s Royals and Romance series, so when I saw they had a new enemies-to-lovers romantasy that was gloriously nerdy, I knew I had to read it, right off the bat. Before I even fully read the synopsis. The cover looks cheery and cute, and everything about it sounded like the sort of book I really needed in my life. But let’s be honest . . . even if it didn’t sound like my thing, I was absolutely going to give it a chance!

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards is an enemies-to-lovers romcom that brings the nerdy academia scientist into romance, with lots of snark and banter, healing from trauma, a lovable squad, and cinnamon roll men supporting each other.

The banter and snark was everything I hoped it would be and then some! I immediately fell in love with these characters, and I enjoyed the whole journey. While I wish the world was fleshed out more, I appreciated the glimpses of worldbuilding that we get. The romance is pretty straightforward and cuddly, and the friendships between the characters are heartwarming and refreshing.

I will be entirely honest: I only briefly skimmed over the sex scenes, because they’re really not my thing, so while there is some spice in this book, I won’t comment on how that’s done. I’ve been told by a colleague that the sex scenes can totally change their rating for a book, so just a warning that your mileage may vary in that regard.

My Thoughts

Right out of the gate, Raasch is out here proving nerds can be sexy, too, with this queer, enemies-to-lovers, academia romcom where the whole point of the main plot is research.

Magical research, but still, it’s research. Enemies-to-lovers is my favorite trope, because I am a huge fan of banter and snark, and boy does Raasch deliver on that. Sebastian—a.k.a. Seb—is counting on a research grant to fund his graduate research and land his coveted job at a nonprofit following graduation. What he’s not expecting is to be a co-finalist with his archnemesis, Elethior Tourael, who stands for everything he hates.

Magical STEM in fantasy books isn’t something I realized I wanted more of until I read this, but if you thought research couldn’t be sexy, think again! Forced proximity isn’t a trope I’ve ever particularly given much thought to, but there’s something so satisfying in forcing two brilliant brains to work together, despite their reservations. Especially when they get in a flow and start actually playing off each other’s ideas!

The romance comes on pretty quickly, but it does still feel earned all the same. It’s not lust at first sight, mostly because they absolutely hate each other and have a well-known rivalry. However, the one thing forced proximity has going for it is that the characters are very quickly forced to face an uncomfortable truth: they maybe have more in common than they originally assumed. Which is, of course, a very dangerous thought when you’re trying to hate someone else’s guts (and all the other bits of them, too).

One of my favorite things about this book is the sweet, emotional relationship between Seb and his best friend, Orok. While it may have been forced in trauma (and slightly codependent), it’s so refreshing seeing two men being vulnerable and emotional while supporting each other!

These boys are absolutely the definition of cinnamon rolls. They’ve been together through thick and thin for many years, but they’ve slowly been working on helping each other heal. The trauma the boys are running from is revealed little by little in the story, so I don’t want to delve too deep into that. Needless to say, they’ve seen some things, and learning how to move on from them is anything but easy.

Both boys still suffer from PTSD, with occasional self-destructive tendencies and panic attacks, but they’re always there to pull the other through it. Is their co-dependence probably unhealthy? Sure, and that’s something they’ll eventually have to work through, as well. But it’s so refreshing seeing men in fiction being emotionally vulnerable and supportive with each other! We should all be so lucky to find a friendship like Seb and Orok have (though, hopefully, we don’t have to suffer through the same things to make it so!).

While the general tone of this book is light and humorous, these characters are all coming of age, under a ridiculous amount of pressure, and are still developing into the people they ultimately hope to become.

I enjoyed the fact that this book is actually set during graduate school, so the characters are a little bit older, but they still haven’t quite figured out who they want to be. There are a lot of the normal college antics happening: sports, parties, dances, stress over classes, anxiety over graduating. But these characters are under even more pressure.

Seb is on the outs with his parents, due to some trauma in the past. While he still interacts with his mother—albeit mostly unwillingly on his part, and as little as possible—he hasn’t had a real relationship with his father in years. Which is fine, because that’s how he prefers it.

Orok has an extremely religious mother, who is pressuring him to follow in things the family deems “acceptable”. Namely, anything involving exhibiting strength or honoring their religion. It would be blasphemy to consider doing anything else.

I enjoyed getting to see the characters come to grips with who they wanted to become and mature, even as things weren’t going the way they imagined it would. Growing up is hard, especially when your childhood wasn’t a great one to start with. This book is filled with traumatized characters who all deserve the happily ever after they’re so desperately trying to eke out for themselves.

Though Seb is delightfully snarky, that’s really more of a defense mechanism to cover all the trauma and PTSD that he’s still trying to work through over the course of this book.

There’s a lot of mental health rep in this book, as Seb battles with panic attacks and PTSD and healing from a childhood worth of trauma. And he’s not the only one. There are some pretty heavy moments in this book as the characters get to know each other and start working towards unpacking some of the baggage they’ve been carrying. Everyone’s baggage is different.

The things these characters are working through is messy, and the healing is obviously going to be anything but pretty. But I did enjoy seeing them try. Sure, mistakes are made, but that’s true of all of us. They felt relatable, just out here doing their best.

The little glimpses that we get of the wider fantasy world is fascinating, and I’d love to be able to explore it more!

As I’ve said, I really wanted it to be more fleshed out. Obviously, this is a fantasy world with magic. Things are kind of name dropped like the reader should know and understand them. While it’s easy to keep up with and understand from context clues, I wanted more, because it was utterly fascinating!

This includes the academic world of the college, too, where there are normal rivalries and competitions between the departments. Some chapters have little snippets of the campus alert system, which is hilarious and obviously dangerous. I would absolutely love to visit this world, even though I’m convinced the trip would be fatal. Still . . . worth it!

About Sara Raasch

Sara Raasch has known she was destined for bookish things since the age of five, when her friends had a lemonade stand and she tagged along to sell her hand-drawn picture books too. Not much has changed since then — her friends still cock concerned eyebrows when she attempts to draw things and her enthusiasm for the written word still drives her to extreme measures. Her debut YA fantasy, SNOW LIKE ASHES, the first in a trilogy, came out October 14, 2014 from Balzer + Bray. It does not feature her hand-drawn pictures.

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