Escapism: A Guest Post by Sara Raasch
Charming, funny and chaotic, this enemies-to-lovers tale brims with wizardly magic. A slow-burn academic love story inspired by Dungeons & Dragons — what more can we ask for. Read on for an exclusive essay from Sara Raasch on writing The Entanglement of Rival Wizards.
Paperback
$14.99
$19.99
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards
By Sara Raasch
In Stock Online
Paperback
$14.99
$19.99
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.
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.
Right around the time that the world fell apart (no, the other time; no, the other other time; no, the—wow, we could do this all day), I started watching Critical Role: Campaign Two. Thanks to the heaviness of, just, life, I didn’t have it in me to handle the big, sweeping fantasy stories I had been living with for so much of my career. But someone recommended Critical Role, and I gave it a shot, not knowing quite how desperate I was for a life raft until I found myself a hundred plus episodes in, pacing my living room and happy-sobbing as SPOILER finally confronted SPOILER and SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER.
Fantasy had begun to feel so heavy before then. Everything had begun to feel so heavy before then. But watching Critical Role reminded me of what originally drew me to fantasy and what I had been missing in my own existence: escapism. Fun escapism. Is everything sunshine and happiness in Critical Role? Certainly not (Nott!). But it is, at its root, all the most enticing elements of getting a mental break where you let yourself live out incandescently magical adventures alongside characters who reflect the best (and worst) parts of you.
That was what I had been missing in my own work. So when I was spit balling ideas with my editor over my next project, and she suggested that I do a fantasy STEM romcom, my brain went from fantasy STEM to wizards to Critical Role’s Caleb and Essek to YES THAT I’LL DO THAT.
Suddenly I was getting to write what I affectionately describe as self-indulgent #shadowgast fanfiction. Wizards! Magic as science! Is this a war crime or flirting? And since I was already firmly lodged in self-indulgence, I piled in all my favorite tropes:
-a kick of academia
-a dash of billionaire romance
-a smoothie-blend of “only one bed” meets “forced proximity” in the form of “only one grant,” but that’s not enough, let’s do “only one lab” too
-a healthy splash of “who did this to you”
-a pinch . . . maybe a smidge . . . maybe oops the whole bottle of enemies (rivals!) to lovers
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards is my ode to not just Critical Role, but to escapism and enjoyment and everything about fantasy that’s fun. Joy is a reoccurring theme in my adult romances, and if this book brings you even a fraction of the joy that Critical Role brought me, I’ll consider it a success.
