Review: The Entanglement of Rival Wizards

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards was another book I had picked up in the Romance section of Barnes & Noble while hunting for PRH Mentorship material. It is a Romantasy and Gay Fiction novel with its own take on the currently popular trope of rivals-turned-lovers. Sebastian and Elethior, the novel’s two male leads, are wizards in the competitive departments of Evocation and Conjuration at Lesiara University. Though they begin as frought enemies, an unexpected turn of events forces them to work together on a grant project. Sebastian and Elethior’s time in the lab soon has them tearing at each other’s clothes and old wounds.

I typically would never wander into the Romance section. The immediate image that comes to mind for the genre is always a shirtless drawing of Fabio, either posing by himself or with a scantily clad woman. And if I lost you at the mention of the name Fabio, then I’ve made my point: my perception of Romance was as equally outdated as the covers I was imagining. Nevertheless, it was the encouragement of a friend to look into Romantasy that lead me to finding this book.

I hate to admit it, I really do, but: I totally judge a book by its cover. Judge me for it, but a cover is the first gateway into the book’s world. Bad cover and you’ve already lost my interest. I have definitely been deceived by a great cover once or twice in my time, but it at least got me to buy the book. That was the case here. I loved the art. It’s fun and playful and immediately says, “Queer Romance.” While I’m thankful that queer novels have found themselves on the shelves with all the other titles in their genre, I want to easily be able to identify the subject matter by it’s cover—which is how Rival Wizards grabbed my attention.

When I finally sat down to read it, I’m not sure what I was expecting. Preconceived notions, again, may have been at play here. But I found Raasch’s characterization of Sebastian to be so playful and vibrant right from the very beginning. The first-person narrative had a distinct, angsty voice. Angsty, but with the right amount of fire. Although a fantasy—albeit based in the real-world locale of Philadelphia—the characters always felt real to me. Raasch lovingly writes each one of them, and you can tell she has put in the work to fully develop their individual personalities and backstories.

I found myself thoroughly enjoying this novel. I tagged a bunch of scenes as fun moments that might be worth narrating. (I did record one, which you can find below.) But I soon forgot the overall task and fell into the story itself. The first third of the book had me quickly turning each page, hungrily awaiting the moment Sebastian and Elethior would finally kiss (very nicely written, by the way). I also wondered what would come of Orok, Sebastian’s rawball-playing, half-giant roommate, and whether his involvement might shake up the romance between the two leads.

Oh, and the spicy scenes were also nice. There was a point where I would force myself to stay up later than I should just to get to the next one. Hint: it was worth it.

While I had a lot of fun reading Rival Wizards, my reason for giving it four stars is because I felt like Sebastian’s trauma got to be a bit too much. There were moments where I felt it cut right through a scene, and the tone completely shifted. While I don’t expect Romance novels to be all fluff—and I love that there is something real and relatable about each character—the weight of Sebastian’s past, in particular, made me feel heavy as a reader. I didn’t know what to do with it. The trauma also seemed to spill into moments of physical intimacy, which had me questioning if Sebastian and Elethior were truly in love with one another or if they were just using the other’s body as a balm for their own pain. This is a grey area for me as it toes the line of another trope I’m not so fond of: the antiquated portrayal of pain in queer relationships. Perhaps a second read would change my mind.

That said, I am looking forward to the companion novel, The Fake Divination Offense.

TLDR: If you like spunky characters and hunky half-elves, this M/M romance is for you!

Also, if you’re keen to listen, here is my narration of an excerpt from Sara Raasch’s The Entanglement of Rival Wizards.