Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

31 reviews

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

5⭐️ 2.75🌶️

New adult
Mid Fantasy
Rivals to lovers
Slow burn
He falls first
Found family
🏳️‍🌈 side characters
War/WW2 vibes
Grief
Parental death
Magical beasts
Love letters
Anonymous pen palls
Secret identity


I barely came up for air as I read, it was that good.

The juxtaposition of a familiar historical setting like World War Two in Great Britton and the mid fantasy with magic, folklore and mythology guiding and reshaping was really compelling! Nothing is more visceral than knowing about how GB bombings happened, being familiar with the uniforms, sirens, military involvement and seeing it on the page with vengeful gods and mythical beasts. I’m excited to see it dive deeper into the classically fantasy side of this plot!!!

I loved Iris and Roman and how they interacted and grew. Going through their grief, battling emotions and setbacks. Their tension was well written. Their love is so sweet!!! I was giggling at them and my heart melted when things finally took off! 

I can’t wait until the next book comes out and we can see how this story moves forward. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

rdmoreland0801's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I think this may be my #1 book of the year.  I experienced an entire range of emotions.  I caught myself - on multiple occasions - giggling like a little girl.  At other times, I was shedding tears - happy and sad alike.

I am going to have to read it again just to highlight every snarky nickname Iris came up for Roman C. Kitt.

Watching the bond form between the two, and Roman’s unwavering need to protect Iris, was so beautiful.  Theirs is a relationship to withstand time and distance.

I will definitely be rereading when the sequel comes out.  I wish I could experience for the first time again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and War

paracosim's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I did. I went into it expecting a pretty standard YA novel and left it feeling spellbound and desperate for a sequel. My friend borrowed it immediately after I finished, thinking she would dislike it, but she finished the entire book in a single sitting and we’ve been theorizing ever since. I have so many ideas on where the story might go next. Specifically, I have theories about

Forest. I don’t think he’s escaped Dakar at all, and is actually a sleeper agent sent into the city to find vulnerabilities. It makes too much sense, I think; if Dakar is as powerful as he’s made out to be, how would Forest manage to break away from him so easily? Not unless Dakar has other plans for him that allow him to get away supposedly freely.

Whether my predictions come true remains to be seen, but either way it was a wild ride and I’ll be thinking about this book for months to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Kidnapping

amy_sutt's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War

Minor: Kidnapping and Death of parent

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

gingerbooknerd3's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death and Fire/Fire injury

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

The center of this quietly fraught and achingly earnest story is a love affair in letters, sent between magical typewriters by two ambitious rivals for the same newspaper position. I’ve heard it described as You’ve Got Mail meets Dramione, and while I definitely enjoyed both aspects, Iris and Roman truly have a love of their own, and I was rather dreamily swept away by this magical realist tale, the first in a duology set amidst a WWI-reminiscent war between two gods. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism and Sexual content

soniajoy98's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Classism

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Medical content

plainromance's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

bringmybooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you to Edelweiss, Wednesday Books, & Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

If you combine the trilogy Daughter of Smoke & Bone, add in a dash of the email communication from You've Got Mail (but make it ENCHANTED TYPEWRITERS), throw in a 1920s vibe, and take the absolute best parts of an enemies to lovers trope, then you've got Divine Rivals. And you're gonna love it.

Having found my interest in this novel coming from her adult fantasy Elements of Cadence duology (A River Enchanted & A Fire Endless), I was a bit nervous to read this, not sure if the parts I loved so much about Cadence would translate to a YA book about dueling newspaper columnists during a war of the Gods - but I really could not have been more wrong!

I loved the characters, I loved the development of the plot, I loved the romance, I loved the atmosphere, I loved the plot, and I cannot WAIT to read the next one in 2024! 

(As cliffhangers go, it's pretty brutal ... BUT in a way I'm excited, because having read this as an eBook, I'll get to do an audio reread of it before the sequel comes out and I've heard the audio is ... dare I say it? Divine.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content