A review by manola
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

This book is definitely enjoyable to read; it's fast-paced, the plot is compelling enough and the romance is pretty cute. However, I've come to realize this book would've benefited from keeping more distance from the fantasy genre. I feel like narrowing it down to some sort of magical realism would've made this a much more solid read for me. The narrative weaved some fantasy aspects that clashed with the story so much that it took me out of it. I enjoyed the subtler aspects; letters that travel magically to their correspondent, houses that leave you coffee at midnight in the kitchen, etc. They were fun magical quirks that matched the tone of the story, but suddenly there were magical bird-dragons flying in the air and giant hounds that came out at night, and I suddenly felt the story disjointed. 
The romance had its sweet moments and it made the book easy to read. The characters were alright; I would probably have more to say about them if I'd written this closer to finishing the book, but overall, all of the aspects of the story managed to keep it afloat. It didn't become a favorite or reach the expectations other reviews had placed for me, but it was fun to go through and did feel like a pretty good comfort read.