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spaghettii's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
5.0
Any words I can find to describe this book would be an understatement. To put it simply, this was a beautiful and emotional book that reminded me why I love historical fantasy. I found the plot endearing. It could be considered predictable, but I think the best written stories are where you know inevitably what will happen, but watch it play out anyways.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Murder, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Classism, Cursing, Gun violence, Medical content, Death, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Death of parent, War, Vomit, and Violence
kymboh78's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, War, Xenophobia, Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Death
hailstorm3812's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is a very enjoyable book. For someone who hates You've Got Mail, I feel like the author side stepped a good deal of the ickiness. I think it balanced drama and romcomedy very well. I really liked Addie and Marisol. The ending is kind of a kick in the teeth if you don't realize it is a series but I'm down for another one thought I'm not sure you can capture the charm and fun of this one with where we left off but I look forward to it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Death of parent
Moderate: Death, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Car accident
Minor: Sexism
mollywollydoodleallday's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, War, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
hobbithopeful's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Books that are very popular like this fall into one of two categories, overhyped and undeserving, or absolutely not hyped enough. Divine Rivals is absolutely deserving of its popularity, and I am still reeling with just how fantastic it is.
I absolutely adored every second of reading, Ross does an excellent job at conveying war, characters, and yearning. This is everything I want from a rivals to lovers book, and the mystery of the gods still has me open jawed from the ending twist.
Some books can definitely feel "more YA" then others. While some can be enjoyed by all ages, some employ writing and vocabulary that make it difficult to get through for older readers. Divine Rivals does not read like one would expect from a traditional YA book, it dealt with heavy topics, complex characters, and an engaging writing style that I was sucked into from page one.
I can't wait to read the sequel!
A must read!
I absolutely adored every second of reading, Ross does an excellent job at conveying war, characters, and yearning. This is everything I want from a rivals to lovers book, and the mystery of the gods still has me open jawed from the ending twist.
Some books can definitely feel "more YA" then others. While some can be enjoyed by all ages, some employ writing and vocabulary that make it difficult to get through for older readers. Divine Rivals does not read like one would expect from a traditional YA book, it dealt with heavy topics, complex characters, and an engaging writing style that I was sucked into from page one.
I can't wait to read the sequel!
A must read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Blood, Gun violence, War, Violence, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore
emilywemily6's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This book was beautiful and poetic. Time flew by while listening to it and I truly escaped into the story. The first 25% set up the world and the characters, but after they got to the war I was captivated. The letter melted me heart and I saw how the characters fell for each other as they shed small pieces of armor to grow closer to each other. I loved the magic system from the nebulous gods, and it felt like we got to hear about ordinary people living their lives in a world with a pantheon of gods and the subsequent magical overflow, rather than mortal characters being made important in a story about the gods (like a lot of Greek myths are). And I loved that perspective! The ending was tense and stressful and I’m in a mega book hangover and can’t wait to read the next book as soon as it comes out!! The writing was so lyrical and beautiful, with lots of descriptions on how things felt so I really felt immersed in the world. The blend of a pseudo WW1 world and the magical pantheon of gods was really interesting too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual content, Grief, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Medical content and Gun violence
Minor: Slavery
lizzye33's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, War, and Blood
Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Gun violence, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Genocide
Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Child death, Confinement, Abandonment, and Car accident
skillyillian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Okay first things first about this book, I want to address how a lot of people are saying the romance was too fast and unrealistic: yes and no. Yes because they did move fast, I absolutely can't argue that. No because I think it is realistic. The time period is based on the WWI/WWII era. They lived like that, even without magic love letters. People fell in love and got married literally because they didn't know what was going to happen to them next. So, keeping that in mind, I'm absolutely not surprised at how quickly the MCs fall in love. It fits the setting.
Speaking of setting, holy shit I am absolutely obsessed with the dark academia vibes. The rainy city, the typewriters, the research, the outfits, the time period, all of it. Perfect vibes. I want more books just like this IMMEDIATELY.
Moving on, I absolutely adore Ross's writing style. It's very prosy and flowy and beautiful. The love letters were absolutely wonderful, they will make you wish someone talked to you like that. I ended up highlighting so many quotes that were well-written.
Iris was great, I liked her character a lot. The way she holds determination close to her chest with everything she does is really admirable. Roman being an actual sweetheart looking for his autonomy made me smile. The two of them together made me laugh.
The reason this wasn't five stars for me was mostly the war and how some of the logic of the story worked. It's not a ton but it was enough to lose points? The worldbuilding didn't feel super built out, like we have Oath, and I basically pictured old-timey New York the whole time? And the place Iris ends up was fine, if not kinda vague. But point A to point B? Was totally blank. She travels 600 kilometers and there was almost nothing between the two, at least that was memorable? And she makes the whole trip by train. How was there a great, empty swathe of land with nothing but 600 kilometers of railroad?
Now, the war and other things:
The war didn't really...make sense? Or at least it wasn't explained very well. The myths that Roman sent to Iris added some context, but it was unclear how the gods were manifesting, like if they were just powers possessing people or if they were corporeal or what. It seems like with the ending that we'll get more of the gods' side of things in the second book, so I hope that makes up for this one's lack of context. The way the town got stormed and everything also felt really fast, like "Okay we've got our happy moment, now let's fuck it up real quick so we can have the cliffhanger for the next one" and like, I don't totally hate it or anything, but it was noticeable.
Next, another reviewer pointed out that Iris just got hired for the correspondent job without any real effort or a portfolio or anything. I'd say that Helena had read her work before, except that when Iris introduced herself, Helena didn't show any sign of recognizing her name.
The most important gripe besides the gods' side of things is Iris's brother, Forest. She spends the whole book touting him as this amazing guy and then we meet him and he fucking sucks. Changed by war, so understandable, bc that shit completely alters your brain. Trauma be like that. So the plot twist of us meeting her idol and only living relative and then he turns out to suck real bad makes sense. What bothered me was his whole "deserter" deal. If Dacre stopped Forest from dying and had him under his control, why didn't Forest say something? If they rushed the trenches, why not at least try to find a way to tell someone, anyone, what happened? That he's stealing people and turning them into his soldiers, thus making Enva's people fight their own? Unless Dacre made it so they can't say anything about it, but Forest could've explained that to Iris. Anyway it also bothered me that his idea was just to,,,, go home??? Like usually deserters in the WWI/WWII era had warrants out for their arrest or were straight up put to death, soooo??? Not a great idea to just leave and go home and pretend everything is normal when you're now considered a deserter on both sides of the war.
I feel like Iris should've fought harder to get Forest to tell her what the circle in the dirt meant. Like maybe it's just me but if my husband was gone and a circle was drawn in the dirt I'd be kicking and clawing and screaming until Forest told me what it meant.
Anyway all of that being said, this book is wonderful. I enjoyed the writing style, the love letters, the characters, the suspense of the war, the rivals-to-lovers workplace romance, and the dark academia vibes. I'm absolutely reading the second one as soon as I can after it comes out.
The last thing I'm adding is a content warning that has some spoilers, but here it is:
CW: alcoholism, parental alcoholism
Iris's mom is a severe alcoholic. Literally 20-something pages in, it's revealed that Iris is late to work when the book opens bc she found her mom in a pile of vomit on the floor.
Speaking of setting, holy shit I am absolutely obsessed with the dark academia vibes. The rainy city, the typewriters, the research, the outfits, the time period, all of it. Perfect vibes. I want more books just like this IMMEDIATELY.
Moving on, I absolutely adore Ross's writing style. It's very prosy and flowy and beautiful. The love letters were absolutely wonderful, they will make you wish someone talked to you like that. I ended up highlighting so many quotes that were well-written.
Iris was great, I liked her character a lot. The way she holds determination close to her chest with everything she does is really admirable. Roman being an actual sweetheart looking for his autonomy made me smile. The two of them together made me laugh.
The reason this wasn't five stars for me was mostly the war and how some of the logic of the story worked. It's not a ton but it was enough to lose points? The worldbuilding didn't feel super built out, like we have Oath, and I basically pictured old-timey New York the whole time? And the place Iris ends up was fine, if not kinda vague. But point A to point B? Was totally blank. She travels 600 kilometers and there was almost nothing between the two, at least that was memorable? And she makes the whole trip by train. How was there a great, empty swathe of land with nothing but 600 kilometers of railroad?
Now, the war and other things:
Next, another reviewer pointed out that Iris just got hired for the correspondent job without any real effort or a portfolio or anything. I'd say that Helena had read her work before, except that when Iris introduced herself, Helena didn't show any sign of recognizing her name.
The most important gripe besides the gods' side of things is Iris's brother, Forest. She spends the whole book touting him as this amazing guy and then we meet him and he fucking sucks. Changed by war, so understandable, bc that shit completely alters your brain. Trauma be like that. So the plot twist of us meeting her idol and only living relative and then he turns out to suck real bad makes sense. What bothered me was his whole "deserter" deal. If Dacre stopped Forest from dying and had him under his control, why didn't Forest say something? If they rushed the trenches, why not at least try to find a way to tell someone, anyone, what happened? That he's stealing people and turning them into his soldiers, thus making Enva's people fight their own? Unless Dacre made it so they can't say anything about it, but Forest could've explained that to Iris. Anyway it also bothered me that his idea was just to,,,, go home??? Like usually deserters in the WWI/WWII era had warrants out for their arrest or were straight up put to death, soooo??? Not a great idea to just leave and go home and pretend everything is normal when you're now considered a deserter on both sides of the war.
I feel like Iris should've fought harder to get Forest to tell her what the circle in the dirt meant. Like maybe it's just me but if my husband was gone and a circle was drawn in the dirt I'd be kicking and clawing and screaming until Forest told me what it meant.
Anyway all of that being said, this book is wonderful. I enjoyed the writing style, the love letters, the characters, the suspense of the war, the rivals-to-lovers workplace romance, and the dark academia vibes. I'm absolutely reading the second one as soon as I can after it comes out.
The last thing I'm adding is a content warning that has some spoilers, but here it is:
CW: alcoholism, parental alcoholism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Violence, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, War, Death, Blood, Gore, Murder, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
Moderate: Medical content, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gun violence
Minor: Vomit
ashleynp24's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book really rips open your heart and steps on it. It’s beautifully written and poetic, and captures how love can transcend through writing.
The inner emotions deal with loss and grief are very real, and this was a really emotional novel, having both its ups and downs.
I felt it did really speed up at the end, and it could have been drawn out a tad longer. It got really heavy into the war scenes towards the ends, and I felt their relationship got rushed because of it and ended really quickly into that cliffhanger. That’s why I didn’t give it a full 5 stars. I hope the sequel can delve a little deeper into the bits and bobs I felt were missing towards the end.
I feel it’s rare to find a book where the man is pining after a woman he loves, and it’s really fun to read about their blossoming relationship and how they find each other during war and hard times. The marriage felt a little out of place though and rushed.
The inner emotions deal with loss and grief are very real, and this was a really emotional novel, having both its ups and downs.
I felt it did really speed up at the end, and it could have been drawn out a tad longer. It got really heavy into the war scenes towards the ends, and I felt their relationship got rushed because of it and ended really quickly into that cliffhanger. That’s why I didn’t give it a full 5 stars. I hope the sequel can delve a little deeper into the bits and bobs I felt were missing towards the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Alcohol
Minor: Vomit
akirokis's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Grief and Gun violence
Minor: Alcohol, Blood, and Sexual content