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A review by laurenbrennan
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-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
3.75
I almost wanted to give this 4 stars because of how badly I WANTED to love it. To be honest, this is my first time trying to write actual reviews for books or even rate them at all (new year, new me!), so I’m pretty unsure of this. However, my reasons for the lost points were as follows.
- I consider myself very easy to “wow,” honestly. I’d say I absolutely fall in LOVE with at LEAST 30-40% of books I read, finding so many things about it to be just absolutely awestruck by, and I just didn’t get that feeling so much with this one. So that was part of the reason I gave 3 instead of 4 stars, because again, I even WANTED to love it.
- I thought a VERY significant part of the beginning was pretty painfully slow. (Like maybe even the first 3rd of the book.) I think not explaining why the war was being fought for so long may have detracted from my ability to emotionally invest in it, and as a result, several other plot points that were important to the storyline.
- I think some of the most beautiful parts of the storyline were some of the most underdeveloped. The story behind the typewriters? That spoke to me, (and I’m assuming a lot of people who’ve experienced beautiful friendship) and I feel like it was just built up like it would be a larger part of the storyline than it was, explained briefly, and then left alone. I think even more of a reaction/discussion about it from Iris and Roman would’ve been enough for me to feel like it was addressed thoroughly enough.
- Ending was lackluster compared to the emotional buildup before. I THINK this had to do with what PART of the ending it cut off at? I feel like the ending could’ve been great had it ended on an actual cliffhanger. I think we could’ve found out what happened to both Iris and Roman in the second book (we would’ve lived, anti-cliffhanger people), but the decision to have these crazy things happen and then immediately explain it all away made the whole ending seem very rushed and undercooked to me.
- I feel like Iris and Roman did not act EVEN CLOSE to their ages. My jaw actually dropped when the book talked about how young they were. The emotional maturity of their thoughts, the eloquence of their words, and all of that juxtaposed with the idea that they were both shy of 20 just made it feel almost unbelievable to me. Maybe you could argue that it was a sign of the times, or a sign of the way young people were molded during wartime, but for me it just simply felt unbelievable at times. I feel like if you literally had the exact same book, but Iris was 23 and Roman 27, it would’ve felt spot-on.
Things I loved:
- The writing. I loved Iris and Roman’s conversations, I saved several of the quotes from Iris and Roman’s letters because they DID have a beautiful and mature love.
- The commentary and conversations on human emotion, pretty much all of them. I felt like the discussions of grief, finding happiness during dark times, and the way people can, should, and do move through time after events that change their lives were downright poignant.
- The relationships between the group that was together at Avalon Bluff. Those felt very authentic and well-developed to me, and it did make me feel very invested in every single person there.
- I consider myself very easy to “wow,” honestly. I’d say I absolutely fall in LOVE with at LEAST 30-40% of books I read, finding so many things about it to be just absolutely awestruck by, and I just didn’t get that feeling so much with this one. So that was part of the reason I gave 3 instead of 4 stars, because again, I even WANTED to love it.
- I thought a VERY significant part of the beginning was pretty painfully slow. (Like maybe even the first 3rd of the book.) I think not explaining why the war was being fought for so long may have detracted from my ability to emotionally invest in it, and as a result, several other plot points that were important to the storyline.
- I think some of the most beautiful parts of the storyline were some of the most underdeveloped. The story behind the typewriters? That spoke to me, (and I’m assuming a lot of people who’ve experienced beautiful friendship) and I feel like it was just built up like it would be a larger part of the storyline than it was, explained briefly, and then left alone. I think even more of a reaction/discussion about it from Iris and Roman would’ve been enough for me to feel like it was addressed thoroughly enough.
- Ending was lackluster compared to the emotional buildup before. I THINK this had to do with what PART of the ending it cut off at? I feel like the ending could’ve been great had it ended on an actual cliffhanger. I think we could’ve found out what happened to both Iris and Roman in the second book (we would’ve lived, anti-cliffhanger people), but the decision to have these crazy things happen and then immediately explain it all away made the whole ending seem very rushed and undercooked to me.
- I feel like Iris and Roman did not act EVEN CLOSE to their ages. My jaw actually dropped when the book talked about how young they were. The emotional maturity of their thoughts, the eloquence of their words, and all of that juxtaposed with the idea that they were both shy of 20 just made it feel almost unbelievable to me. Maybe you could argue that it was a sign of the times, or a sign of the way young people were molded during wartime, but for me it just simply felt unbelievable at times. I feel like if you literally had the exact same book, but Iris was 23 and Roman 27, it would’ve felt spot-on.
Things I loved:
- The writing. I loved Iris and Roman’s conversations, I saved several of the quotes from Iris and Roman’s letters because they DID have a beautiful and mature love.
- The commentary and conversations on human emotion, pretty much all of them. I felt like the discussions of grief, finding happiness during dark times, and the way people can, should, and do move through time after events that change their lives were downright poignant.
- The relationships between the group that was together at Avalon Bluff. Those felt very authentic and well-developed to me, and it did make me feel very invested in every single person there.