The gods Dacre and Enva are at war, and Iris Winnow's brother, Forest, has gone off to fight. In their town, however, they are largely untouched by the war and the newspaper where Iris works doesn't like to cover it. She misses her brother and her mother lost her job drinking, so getting the columnist job that she and Roman Kitt are rivals for is of paramount importance. Meanwhile, she writes letters to her brother on her Nan's old typewriter, sticking them into the wardrobe where they disappear. And then one day, Iris gets a letter back - and the letter writer isn't Forest.

An enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance that's been getting a lot of hype. It was fun to see Roman and Iris's friendship develop over their correspondence (we're told pretty early on who the other letter writer is), though it is a little You've Got Mail where one party knows and the other doesn't. As Iris continues her reporting, we get more details of the war throughout as well, and stories of the gods. I did think that for a slow burn there were still some decisions that felt abrupt, and while I expected a cliffhanger from a first book of a duology, I was a little annoyed by the ending. ( )

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Military violence and war themes, explosions, blood, grief and loss depiction, death of a sister in the past in a body of water and a mother, physical injury, conscription, hospitalisation, panic attack
Score: Six out of ten.
I own this book. Find this review on The StoryGraph.

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross was overhyped. So overhyped. I wanted to read this one ever since it won an award for the Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction book in 2023. No library had it at the time so I had to buy it. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing, but when I closed the final page, I thought it was only okay.

It starts with Iris Winnow and Roman Kitt, living their separate lives amid a war between two all powerful beings, with Iris sending letters to her missing brother while working as a reporter at a news company. Unexpectedly, Roman, intercepts those letters, which is eventually the start of a relationship between the two, even though he was Iris' rival. The story promised an enemies-to-lovers romance set in a historical urban fantasy setting akin to World War One, but it felt more like a typical romance. Divine Rivals tried to do too much, detracting its plot with so many subplots I didn't know what it was about. Focusing on one storyline would've improved the reading experience.

Roman wasn't a rival nor an enemy, nor did he have any grudges with Iris, making the blurb slightly misleading. The characters are okay, but lack depth, and I didn't feel like Roman and Iris had any chemistry and the relationship felt shoehorned, not genuine. If Ross wrote more depth into them, she'd convince me that the two central characters have chemistry. I prefer to read fantasies with little to no romance and not a romantasy, which may explain why the worldbuilding felt like a wasted opportunity. The fantastical aspects were barely there, and how could Roman and Iris live like the war doesn't exist? Plot armour? Perhaps. Expanding the world would've made me enjoy Divine Rivals more. The conclusion is abrupt, leaving me hoping the next and final instalment, Ruthless Vows, will be better. ( )

February 2024 Reread:
I enjoyed this one even more now that I knew what the focus of the book would be. On to book #2 now!

Quotes
I don't want to wake up when I'm seventy-four only to realize that I haven't lived.

I am coming to love him, in two different ways. Face to face, and word to word.

She had seen the fragility of life. How one could wake up to a sunrise and die by sunset. She had run through the smoke and the fire and the agony with Roman, his hand in hers. They had both tasted Death, brushed shoulders with it. They had scars on their skin and on their souls from that fractured moment, and now Iris saw more than she had seen before. She saw the light, but she also saw the shadows.
Time was precious here.



October 2023:
I know that 1,000s of others have said it, but that ending…wow. I will be reading the next book for sure.
I really liked all the letters that were exchanged. They were well-written and really added to the story.
It was difficult to get into this book until the 50% mark. I think it is because it was a lot more romance-focused than I was expecting. If that is what you’re going into this expecting, you will love this one.

4 Stars

Content: a non-descriptive *scene* between a married couple, war violence (think WWI) ( )

This book was interesting, but it wasn't something I would have read outside of this class. I thought the writing was great and the plot was interesting. ( )

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Letters of Enchantment series #1. YA / NA science fiction fantasy. Mythology. Cliffhanger.
After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. Eighteen-year old Irish Winnow is focused on her family and survival. Her brother left to fight in the war and she hasn’t heard from him. In her worry, she writes a letter to him, knowing she can’t mail it but wanting to express her sadness with gone and the problems with their mother. She slips the letter in the closet and finds it disappears the next day. Even more surprising she gets a letter from someone in return though she doesn’t know who.
Meanwhile Iris works as a competitive journalist, trying to win a permanent position at the newspaper. There she meets and competes with Roman Kitt. She might be interested in him but she needs the job more than a boyfriend. And for now, she can dream and find solace with her mysterious letter companion.

Mythology elements of war in a historical setting. Iris must wear shoes that are too small because there are no other options. A bit depressing as her brother is missing, there is very little money and her mother is depressed and needs help. Roman is a bright beam in the dark story as they progress towards the front. The magical typewriter is obviously important but we don’t know the full story yet.
The war brings danger and death and a cliffhanger.
I had to start this four times before it made itself interesting and I wasn’t aware of the cliffhanger areas of time. I will eventually read the second book but it may be next year before I get to it. I enjoyed The Queens Rising series more. ( )