Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

131 reviews

saskiahill's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Car accident, Gore, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, War, Death, Gun violence, and Medical content

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Holy shit..... Well Rebecca Ross it's on sight girl! Iris is a reporter competing for a columnist spot against fellow reporter, Roman. As Iris writes letter to her brother who's away at war, she tucks them away inside her closet. These letter end up in the hands of her rival, Roman, who begins to write her back. As war tears across the country and propaganda and misinformation reigns supreme, Iris and Roman create a magical friendship through letters. I adore this story! It's just magical enough to be not realistic but not too crazy as to be hard to understand and follow. Iris is a strong and yet logical and likable character. She makes normal choices and thinks through her issues before jumping into action. Roman is adorable and this conclusion makes me mad af. Like gotta go read Ruthless Vows brb. My only issue with this book is that the start is slow and the world building isn't explained very well until later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Body horror, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Alcoholism, Classism, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Addiction, Vomit, War, Alcohol, Violence, Gore, and Sexual content

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, War, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, and Classism

iaminlovewithmichaelcera's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Child death, Blood, War, Death of parent, Abandonment, Grief, and Violence

wordsofclover's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Iris and Roman are each other's competition as they both compete to become a columnist at their local paper. But with war looming beyond the city between gods Enva and Dacre, Iris finds herself alone when her brother goes to fight and begins to write letters to him - that mysteriously disappear. When someone begins to write back, Iris forges a deep connection with this mysterious stranger and this follows her as she leaves home - and Roman - behind to become a war correspondent.

This was a really enjoyable, and romantic read. We follow two people who are the outside are very different but their souls are the same as they both face family struggles, loss, grief and the terrifying realities of war and what this means. I thought the world was great being so similar to ours but just that bit different with the inclusion of gods and a war between them that drags in innocent humans on either side. I did wonder how this works out for the humans who are actually doing the fighting. How can you win against a God? It did feel all a little bit hopeless at times.

I loved the relationship between Roman and Iris and how it developed, as well as that between Iris and Carver. There was a soft romance on the verge of great between them, and you can't help but completely fall for it. I do think they moved from 'oh I like you' to love and marriage very, very quickly but at the same time I do kind of get it as they are literally only a town away from war and enemy forces. I think I would have liked a bit more time with them as they got to know each other in different ways before everything went to hell.

I think the mystery between Enva and Dacre is a really big intriguing part of this story and it's just lightly touched on and will hopefully be explored more in the next novel. I'm looking forward to reading it very soon! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and Alcoholism

kermittuesday's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

Used the word raiment far too much. Just say clothes every once in a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Medical content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Alcoholism, and Vomit

Despite the amount of triggers I listed, this is not a horror book but it does involve war so it has this stuff. The sexual content is very minimal but because it’s a YA book, you might want to know it’s there.

starrfishandcoffee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

OMGGGG what took me so long to read this??? Idk but I LOVED IT.

Roman and Iris… SWOON. The tender, simple but sweeping love between them. Ughhhhh.

This was so engaging, romantic, adventurous, thrilling… the perfect romantasy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Alcoholism

amy_q13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Classism, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Vomit

amy_in_the_city's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.75

I loved the epistolary elements of this book, and the writing was absolutely beautiful! The love story felt very Pride & Prejudice-inspired. I liked the setting, but I thought there could have been a bit more worldbuilding. The fantasy elements (other than the magic typewriters and Kitt's magic house) felt too abstract. I don't feel like I got a good sense of the gods and the monsters, but I'm assuming that will be explored more in the sequel. Still, for most of the book, I felt like I was just reading a WWI historical novel instead of a different fantasy world inspired by WWI. I didn't understand the main characters' decision to

stay and defend the town even though they were not soldiers and had no fighting training or equipment. They didn't accomplish anything at all by staying, so the decision felt contrived for plot reasons.

. Another thing that seemed contrived for plot reasons is

Forest not revealing himself sooner and instead deciding that waiting to kidnap Iris during battle was the best course of action.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Car accident, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, and Medical content

Minor: Sexual content and Stalking

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Sexual content, Child death, War, Vomit, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Alcohol, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail