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Moderate: Death, Blood, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Addiction, Child death, Death of parent
Graphic: War
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
The ending had me SCREAMING, I should've known it would be a cliffhanger since there is a second book, but damn! The final few chapters surprised me as they unfolded, but I did draw the correct conclusion
This would be a great introductory read to fantasy, as it's definitely not high fantasy and more "believable" if you're new to the genre.
Graphic: Death of parent, War
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Sexual content, Violence, Vomit
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, War, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Colonisation
Minor: Child death, Racism, Sexual content, Vomit, Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Death of parent, War
Graphic: War, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Child death, Vomit
Author: Rebecca Ross
Series: Letters of Enchantment #1
Genre: Romantasy
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: April 4, 2023
T H R E E • W O R D S
Captivating • Layered • Magical
📖 S Y N O P S I S
When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.
After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.
To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Divine Rivals was one of my 2024 12 recommendations from 12 friends and probably the one I was most uncertain about. Although it was outside my comfort zone, I chose to go in completely blind in order to optimize my reading experience.
Rebecca Ross' writing is absolutely captivating and immersive. There were entire passages I needed to highlight and pause to reflect on. This is a book packed with action and adventure, historical detail (although no exact dates are given) and war, Greek mythology, a budding romance, and a touch of magic. And all of it comes together in such a comprehensive manner.
I absolutely loved the correspondence between Iris and Rowan. It's this magical element that kept my old soul turning the pages. To me, there is just something so intimate about the art of letter writing, and I have a deep fascination with old typewriters. While parts of this felt wholly modern, other parts fed my craving for elements of the past.
Divine Rivals isn't something I would typically pick up so I am thankful to several bookish friends for recommending it to me. I would have to say it was one of my most surprising reads of 2024. It reads very much like historical fiction and I would definitely say it is on the fantasy lite side. I cannot say I loved it as much as other readers have but I'm interested in continuing the duology to see where things so from here.
📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• rivals to lovers romance
• cliffhangers
• letter writing
⚠️ CW: war, death, death of parent, child death, grief, violence, gun violence, injury/injury detail, blood, gore, medical content, medical trauma, gore, alcohol, alcoholism, addiction, classism, abandonment, sexual content, vomit, panic attacks/disorders
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are. Sometimes I feel the same as you: I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, 'You will miss so much by being so guarded.'"
"I don't think you realize how strong you are, because sometimes strength isn't swords and steel and fire, as we are so often made to believe. Sometimes it's found in quiet, gentle places."
"It’s not a crime to feel joy, even when things seem hopeless."
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail