Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Divine Rivals

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.

Content Warnings

soniajoy98's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

aplain's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Content Warnings

bringmybooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.)

Content Warnings

patricktreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

Divine Rivals is a Romeo and Juliet with a bit of a period historical war and bit of fantasy mixed into it. It was a bit of a slow start, but I expected a little of that with this being this first in a multi book series. There was a lot of world building, and revealing of the magical systems.

Normally period pieces don't work well for me, but Ross wrote in a way that just had that hook. It could have been the magically in the time piece or possibly the journalism and writer aspect of things. Etiher way it just worked and I absolutely can't wait until the next one.

Content Warnings

More...