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A review by lyssachelle
Divine River by Marina Vivancos
5.0
****ALL THE STARS. More than 5, this deserves all the stars that I didn’t give to the other books I’ve read this year too…****
Lordy, I love Marina Vivancos. She does third-person limited POV like nobody’s business. She gives her characters a depth and a soul that doesn’t seem possible in so few pages. She also seamlessly has POC main characters in her books that are not stereotypes or there for the sake of diversity. She’s not perfect but is just so so good and an instant buy.
Divine River is no exception. It’s the story of MIke, a grumpy woodworker who is slowly won over by the friendship of Jason, his new neighbor. This novella could have been a typical grumpy/sunshine romance, Vivancos lets her characters ease into a friendship that becomes something more, something that allows Mike to be honest with himself about who he is and what he wants. It’s not high angst, but there’s a depth of feeling to these characters that is so much more than you’d expect in a novella. I literally put my hand to my chest multiple times while reading; not in a shocked way, but in a “oh, my heart…” kind of way because the whole book is just so damn TENDER.
Mike was a quiet kid who grew into an even quieter man. Right away, we know who MIke is when Vivancos writes:
(See?? 3% in, and I already want to wrap Mike up in a blanket and feed him cookies.)
Jason comes into Mike’s life and there’s a strong connection between the two, though they are opposites. It takes a little longer for them to develop feelings, and even longer for them to act on them. And then, even longer still until Mike can reveal to Jason who he truly is inside and what he wants. Yes, it’s grumpy/sunshine, but it’s just so much more than that. It’s like Jason’s light just slowly melts away the coating of toxic masculinity that Mike is covered in until his authentic self is revealed-not only to Jason, but to Mike himself.
For all of its tenderness, the steam level is pretty damn high. But even in the sex scenes, there’s a loveliness and a joy that just bleeds off the paper.
I can’t gush enough about this book, it just hits me in all the right spots and I love it so. 5 stars, just 5 enthusiastic stars.
***I recieved this as an ARC and this has been my honest reivew. Seriously, I liked this one so damn much I bought a copy so I could support the author.***
Lordy, I love Marina Vivancos. She does third-person limited POV like nobody’s business. She gives her characters a depth and a soul that doesn’t seem possible in so few pages. She also seamlessly has POC main characters in her books that are not stereotypes or there for the sake of diversity. She’s not perfect but is just so so good and an instant buy.
Divine River is no exception. It’s the story of MIke, a grumpy woodworker who is slowly won over by the friendship of Jason, his new neighbor. This novella could have been a typical grumpy/sunshine romance, Vivancos lets her characters ease into a friendship that becomes something more, something that allows Mike to be honest with himself about who he is and what he wants. It’s not high angst, but there’s a depth of feeling to these characters that is so much more than you’d expect in a novella. I literally put my hand to my chest multiple times while reading; not in a shocked way, but in a “oh, my heart…” kind of way because the whole book is just so damn TENDER.
Mike was a quiet kid who grew into an even quieter man. Right away, we know who MIke is when Vivancos writes:
He’d known exactly how to fit in. It wasn’t so hard, really. You just had to sand down everything that made you stand out until your edges were blunt and round and smooth and pleasing to the eye.
(See?? 3% in, and I already want to wrap Mike up in a blanket and feed him cookies.)
Jason comes into Mike’s life and there’s a strong connection between the two, though they are opposites. It takes a little longer for them to develop feelings, and even longer for them to act on them. And then, even longer still until Mike can reveal to Jason who he truly is inside and what he wants. Yes, it’s grumpy/sunshine, but it’s just so much more than that. It’s like Jason’s light just slowly melts away the coating of toxic masculinity that Mike is covered in until his authentic self is revealed-not only to Jason, but to Mike himself.
For all of its tenderness, the steam level is pretty damn high. But even in the sex scenes, there’s a loveliness and a joy that just bleeds off the paper.
I can’t gush enough about this book, it just hits me in all the right spots and I love it so. 5 stars, just 5 enthusiastic stars.
***I recieved this as an ARC and this has been my honest reivew. Seriously, I liked this one so damn much I bought a copy so I could support the author.***