THE ENTANGLEMENT OF RIVAL WIZARDS by Sara Raasch – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
Series: Magic and Romance #1
Published by Bramble on August 26 2025
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 336
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

The nitty-gritty: Academic rivalry, romance and past trauma come together in Sara Raasch’s new series opener.

I’m a big fan of Sara Raasch’s Royals and Romance series, so I was excited to see she’s started yet another series called Magic and Romance. These are all MM romances (at least so far), and her latest book combines enemies to lovers in an academic setting and focuses on the technical aspects of magic. Many readers are using the word STEM in their reviews, and I can see why. However, despite the cute, cartoony cover, The Entanglement of Rival Wizards is actually quite serious and dark, and to be honest, I did not like it as much as the Royals and Romance books. Still, there something about Raasch’s writing that draws me in, and I couldn’t help but become invested in the characters and story.

Sebastian Walsh is a grad student in the Evocation department at Lesiara University. He’s desperate to secure a good job after graduation, and he hopes to be awarded a grant to develop a personal project that will ensure his future success. Unfortunately, one of Sebastian’s biggest rivals, the very rich and entitled Elethior Tourael, is also up for the grant. Elethior is a Conjuration student, and Seb has very little respect for him and his magic. But when the department chairs decide that both boys’ projects have merit, they decide to jointly award them the grant. The catch? They have to work together to come up with a project that melds both their studies into one idea.

Seb and Thio are assigned an office on campus, and they’re expected to meet with their advisor weekly to prove they’re making progress. But right away, the sparks begin to fly. At first, it’s just animosity between the two, but little by little, Seb realizes the anger he feels towards Thio has morphed into attraction. But Seb is hiding a terrible secret—a dark event in his past involving Thio’s family could ruin everything, including the success of their grant project. Seb and Thio are going to have to learn to trust each other in order to move forward, and that’s much harder than either one expects.

This is a very character focused story, with the plot being almost secondary, which was fine with me. Raasch does a great job of creating tension between her characters, and the sexual tension between Seb and Thio was very well done (although a bit over-the-top intense at times). Both boys (I’m struggling with the label here, lol. They aren’t quite “men” but “boys” almost seems too young for them) have trauma in their past, and as these horrifying events are slowly revealed, it brings the two together in some very emotional ways. 

There are quite a few spicy scenes too, which isn’t surprising for the author. Seb and Thio seem to jump from “hate” to “lust” fairly quickly, but I liked the way they talk things out and set rules for each other before anything happens, which I don’t see much in fiction. Thio starts out as the “bad guy,” since his powerful family is using magic to make weapons, but of course Thio is misunderstood and he turns out to be a cinnamon roll character, even more so than Seb (Seb is the blond on the cover, and Thio is the shaved head, tattooed “bad boy”).

I also loved Seb’s best friend Orok, a half-giant who excels at a sport called rawball and struggles against his parents expectations of him joining the Church of Urzoth after graduation. Orok and Seb bonded as teens over a traumatic event at summer camp, and so their relationship goes deeper than friendship. It’s become necessary for survival and felt a bit codependent, but as the story progresses, we see them both looking ahead to graduation and all the changes on the horizon, knowing they have to face living apart at some point. Although at times their relationship felt very odd to me—they hug each other a lot and even hold hands at times—I thought it was mostly a sweet relationship. Orok’s parents are simply horrible people—the church is their whole life—and they blame Seb for pushing Orok over to the dark side.

The magic system was interesting but confusing. I wanted to understand the differences between Evocation and Conjuration, but no matter how many times the characters explained what they were doing, it still didn’t make much sense. Also, the wider world of magic is never really explained. What are these people using magic for, exactly? Seb’s project involved creating a safety net for magicians, but a safety net against what? The story takes place in the real world, Philadelphia to be exact, but I didn’t get a sense of how wizards fit into the rest of society.

As for the darker parts I mentioned earlier, I was surprised by the terrible secret from his past that Seb eventually reveals to Thio. When you add in other serious themes, like Thio’s and Orok’s controlling families and how the two feel trapped by obligation, the story takes on a much more somber tone that I expected. There are some lighthearted moments, like Seb’s familiar Nick, who is an invisible fox (I wanted more of Nick!). I also liked the scenes when the gang is just hanging out. It’s during these moments we really get to know the characters. But don’t expect any cozy vibes from this book. Some scenes are very intense!

Luckily the ending is an upbeat one, with most of the characters’ challenges resolved. The second book in the series has already been announced and will focus on Orok and lean more towards sports fiction. It’s also going to expand on the Urzoth church and the god they worship, so it could be interesting. Despite a few complaints, I’m definitely on board for the next book!

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.