isunshower | questionably philadelphian

a tumblr mutual of mine awhile ago made some post about "if i had a nickel for enemies to lovers romances set in philadelphia", etc etc, so naturally i had to track down both of the books she was referring to. the entanglement of rival wizards, by sarah raasch, was one of them. the book. uh. disappointed me somewhat. first of all theres nothing that makes the sport set in philadelphia besides a couple mentions of the South St Bridge. no other references to the surrounding area or landmarks or anything, just, "yeah we're in philly". okay, whatever, not actually a crime. i think i'm not a huge fan of the romance novel conventions at play in the book, though. the tragic backstories on both parts and the "everyone works out just fine!" with the lawsuit and sebastian's parents and his friend coming back to the east coast. i think this is good, if overly smutty, fanfiction of someone's modern with magic dnd campaign, but it does not make a great book on its own. sebastian is INCREDIBLY unlikable (i'd love to read this book from Thio's perspective actually!) and i'm not invested in the world At All.