Look, I’m a simple woman with simple needs. So when I see a book pitched as magician enemies-to-lovers brought together by a curse, I’m going to drop everything and read that book. Then I’m going to recommend it to absolutely everybody I know because it’s just that good.
Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy
Leovander Loveage and Sebastian Grimm aren’t exactly mortal enemies, but they’re about as close to it as you can get to it at their magical boarding school. Grimm is a fastidious, stuck-up rule follower who’s determined to join the highest rank of sorcerers. Leovander, born into the magical elite, is just biding his time writing songs and simple spells until he can graduate and get away from all the people expecting the worst of him.
The two, notoriously, are not allowed to work together. When they’re paired up in class, it comes as little surprise that their time together ends in disaster. In fact, the spell they accidentally cast could get them expelled or imprisoned for illegal magic. Even worse, it’s left Leo under Grimm’s control. Horrified to find himself not only willing but happy to obey Grimm’s every command, Leo insists they set off into the Unquiet Wood to find the one sorcerer who might be able to undo this curse.
Traversing a dangerous, magical forest would be easier if they could stop arguing for five seconds. But even with their lives on the line, that seems unlikely. In order to find the sorcerer and craft a counterspell, they’ll have to get to the bottom of why exactly they hate each other so much. At the root of their enmity lies an even more pressing question, though: do Leo and Grimm really hate each other at all?
Maiga Doocy wrote the enemies-to-lovers cozy fantasy of my dreams in this book. It’s wonderfully gay and the main characters hit every idiots-in-love trope you could ever want, including the fact that they have absolutely no idea they’re in love. Let’s just say if you were ever obsessed with a certain bad boy / Chosen One ship from the Fandom That Shall Not Be Named, you’re going to love this.
Sorcery and Small Magics is one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time. It’s just that good. But since I can’t read it again for the first time and the next book won’t come out until who-knows-when, I’ll just have to settle for convincing you, dear reader, to pick it up for yourself.
English (US) · 