A review by gwendolyn_kensinger
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

4.0

I’ve been intrigued by this book since its release. It’s a true mash up of different genres, is targeted towards the young adult audience yet it feels adult, and has many, many tropes and themes woven throughout the pages. It’s marked as historical but the time period is unclear. The fantastical part comes in because the characters live in a world where their gods are warring one another, and it is affecting the human world so we have to fight alongside them. There’s magical realism in the typewriters Iris and Rowan have because it allows them to slip letters to one another by sliding them under their wardrobe doors. And there’s romance because well there has to be. Iris and Rowan seemed fated to be together, but they start as rivals at the local paper where they are competing for the job of columnist. Iris’s brother has gone off to war and eventually Iris sets off to find him. All the while she is typing letters to her brother hoping they somehow make it to him, but the letters are going to Rowan and eventually he tells Iris the letters are not going to Forest, but he keeps his identity a mystery. Through the letters we learn of their hopes and dreams, but also their fears and you can see them leaning into one another through their letters. I love the fierceness in Iris and the devotion in Rowan. Since I don’t often read fantasy I didn’t particularly enjoy those bits and found them disorienting, but as the story continues things are explained more and I became more grounded in the story. I’m not a fan of how the story took shape at the very end but that makes me excited to continue into the next book and find out how Iris and Rowan’s story ends.