Divine Rivals Review

“It’s odd, how quickly life can change, isn’t it? How one little thing like typing a letter can open a door you never saw.”

Oh My. God. This book! Divine Rivals is one of my favorite books and reading it was amazing! I wish I could go back and read it again for the first time and get blown away by this book (in the best way) all over again.

Divine Rivals is about Iris Winnow and her rival Roman Kitt. Iris is an aspiring journalist, and both she and Roman are fighting for the lead columnist spot at the Oath Gazette. Unbeknownst to them (or at least to Iris) they are connected through magic.

This book takes place during the time of a war of the gods. The two main gods, Dacre and Enva are recruiting soldiers to join their respective efforts. When Iris gets the opportunity, she jumps at the chance to leave her narrow-minded town and journey closer to the front lines. She wants to find out more about the war and what is really going on, and hopefully even find her missing brother; and she wants to use her writing to bring awareness to people (especially in her hometown).

I am so glad I read this book because I absolutely fell in love with it!

The author has a way of writing the story in such a moving, emotional, and almost poetic way, especially her writing from Iris’s perspective…and maybe Roman’s too 😊. There’s also so much layering and so many different stories. The author somehow managed to pull off writing the storyline behind the book (including the stories of Enva and Dacre from long ago), writing the articles published by our two main characters, writing from both the character’s perspective, and writing their letters to each other, and they all turned out so well! I really liked how the author included stories about the past of the gods and their war, so not only could I learn what was going on in the current world, but also the past.

This book was so engaging, I could hardly put it down! And there was so much descriptive writing, imagery, and figurative language that it made the book even better!

I also really enjoyed the dual POV. In my mind, Iris is for sure the main character, but I loved seeing Roman’s POV and commentary. Jumping from Iris to Roman was also very enlightening, like seeing Roman’s real thoughts, past the image Iris had built up of him in the beginning of the novel (that continued through most of the novel, although getting more and more conflicted as the book got closer to the ending). And the two make the best couple! I loved watching them go from enemies to lovers…from Iris thinking he was a stuck-up snob, to her conflicted feelings about him, to Iris’s realization that Roman is her letter writer, who she’s falling in love with through the letters he writes her and in real life. Also, Roman’s protectiveness and love towards Iris was very sweet!

“Iris,” said Roman, “you are worthy of love. You are worthy to feel joy right now, even in the darkness.”

“Even when the world seems to stop, threatening to crumble, and the hour feels dark as the siren rings…it isn’t a crime to feel joy.”

Gah, the ending! As much as I love this book, how could the author do this to me??? A little forewarning, there is a big twist near the ending, and can you guess how the book ends? That’s right…a cliffhanger! But the ending was still very good, and suspenseful, especially regarding what's in store for our characters in the next book.

Overall, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross is an amazing book and a wonderful read. It’s emotional and engaging, and I cannot say enough about it!

My Review of Divine Rivals

Review Updated: 6/3/2024

Rating: 5/5

Book Information

Book Title: Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance

Published: 2023

Kindle Unlimited: yes!

Series: yes, duology

Rereadability Scale

I love to read books where I can go back and reread them or reread certain parts again and again. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being even reading it once was too much to 10 being I've obsessed over this book a crazy amount of time), Divine Rivals is a....

I loved going back and rereading Divine Rivals (which I've done cover to cover twice I think....) I also love to go back and reread certain parts, or skim over the book and then reread all my favorite scenes. When I was going back to find some of the quotes I really liked, originally I only meant to go to those exact quotes, but then I ended up reading some of the book again and spending way more time than I'd originally intended on it :) So, this book definitely deserves an 8 on my rereadability scale!