Patricia Elzie-Tuttle is a writer, podcaster, librarian, and information fanatic who appreciates potatoes in every single one of their beautiful iterations. Patricia earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and Musical Theatre from the University of Southern California and an MLIS from San Jose State University. Her weekly newsletter, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice offers self-improvement and mental health advice, essays, and resources that pull from her experience as a queer, Black, & Filipina person existing in the world. She is also doing the same on the Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Podcast. More of her written work can also be found in Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy edited by Kelly Jensen, and, if you’re feeling spicy, in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Patricia has been a Book Riot contributor since 2016 and is currently co-host of the All the Books! podcast and one of the weekly writers of the Read This Book newsletter. She lives in Oakland, CA on unceded Ohlone land with her wife and a positively alarming amount of books. Find her on her Instagram, Bluesky, and LinkTree.
Today’s book recommendation is a newer romantasy release that offers full belly laughs and steamy romance in equal parts. Calling all grumpy/sunshine lovers and enemies to lovers readers: this one is for you! If you’re tired of the “oh no, there’s only one bed” trope, can I interest you in a hilarious “oh no! There’s only one grant! And there’s only one lab space!” situation? They’re also wizards, by the way—wizards in graduate school.
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
This story is set at a university in a magical Philadelphia where academia meets something akin to Dungeons and Dragons. Magical beasts abound and adventuring parties are regularly featured on the news. Our two main characters are wizarding graduate students in their final year of their program. The tale unfolds from the point of view of Sebastian Walsh, Seb for short. He is a grad student in the Evocation department and he is up for a grant he desperately needs to finish his graduate school program.
Seb’s best friend and roommate is Orok. Seb and Orok have been friends since they were kids. Their relationship is deeply co-dependent, stemming from significant trauma-bonding that has happened. (Content warnings for flashbacks of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse of children/teenagers, as well as a sick parent.)
Seb’s department, the Evocation department, has a rival: the Conjuration department. If you ask outsiders, it looks like they do the same thing; however, for folks who practice either evocation or conjuration, they are very distinct and each thinks they’re better than the other. The jewel of the Conjuration department is Elethior Tourael. The Tourael family is very, very wealthy and they make their money through the military and weapons industry. Seb absolutely hates the Tourael family and especially Elethior, who is also up for the same grant for his graduate work.
Seb, while human, is an absolute agent for chaos and Elethior is a half-elf who is cool, calm, and collected. Will they manage to get through their last year of grad school without destroying each other or worse, falling for each other? Yes, there is absolutely explicit activity on the page, and this book is as sexy as it is hilarious.
Read This Book
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That’s it for now, book-lovers!
Patricia
Find me on Book Riot, the All the Books podcast, Bluesky, and Instagram.
English (US) · 