Divine Rivals - Rebecca Ross

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish―into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love. (link)

Review: 5/5

You might be startled by my 5 star review of this book, and trust me, I was too! I had low expectations because I hadn’t heard of this book from anyone but my friend (shoutout Lauren) but whew… I’m going to have to start listening to her more. A 5 star review is extremely rare for me to give out; I think I only gave 3 or 4 out for the entirety of 2023. So starting the year off strong with this book might set me up for failure, or it might set me up for a great year. I suppose we’ll have to see!

Let’s start with my (obviously) favorite part: he’s tall, dark, handsome, wears a suit, AND he falls for her first ~and~ harder. Oh god… if you’ve read ANY of my other reviews, you know this is the epitome of my type. My personal favorite trope, if you wanted to know. If I had access to a Roman Kitt, I wouldn’t be seen without him. I’m invited to a wedding? Plus one. I’m going grocery shopping? Clear out the passenger seat. Family vacation? We’re even on the rollercoasters and no one has to sit by a stranger! #momdoesn’tridecoasters Roman Kitt is a dream. My dream.

I loved Iris too, and I don’t feel that I say that enough for female lead characters. That’s not because I’m anti-feminist; I’m far from it. There were definitely some times where I was thinking “girl, get your head out of your ass” but it was minimal. I hate to say it, but the moments where I thought that, it was kind of relatable. Grrrr…. Being a teenage girl in a twenty-one year old woman’s body is exhausting. But for real, she wasn’t too victim-y, and she changed her situation when she hated it. I can’t express how happy it made me that when she realized she was unhappy, she left. UGH I feel like I never see that when reading, and I strongly thumbs-up it!

And because I feel a strong connection to my loyal readers and I want to keep you well updated, there is little smut in this book. You might be thinking “Kylee, no way! You read a book without smut??” And to that, I say, yes. I have been in a smut hole (lol) for a little while now, but I’m slowly climbing out. Until you read my Wildfire review next week. After that, little to no smut. In spite of the very little smut in Divine Rivals, I was FED! I was FULL! I was hungry for the next book (duh) but besides that, I didn’t feel that I needed it. Now THAT is how you know the book is good.

The fact he volunteers to go to the front lines to keep her safe destroyed me. The way they got married while everything was going to shit also destroyed me. I loved the whole thing where they knew they deserved to be happy at the last moment before disaster. It kind of paralleled the end of Hunger Games where they have kids because she realized things might workout. That kind of moment is a strong feel-good for me; where people still want to be happy despite being surrounded by awful times. UGH yeah I loved this book.

Long story short: read this book as soon as humanly possible. I can’t wait to read the next; I am patiently checking my Libby every day to see if I am higher in line for Ruthless Vows.

This book was conflicting for me in a musical way. It has very lovey-dovey-war vibes but in that, I also felt there could have been an allegiance to sad folk girl music. I felt this was accurate for the first half, where Iris is stuck where she is and constantly suffering losses. However, in the second half, I feel a turn in mood to a happier, americana vibe; happiness within a hard time. So, this playlist harps on magical folk girl so we can empathize with Iris, and also celebrate a time of love and finding joy in small moments. Lot's of gods and goddesses and magic in this playlist. Like, I could imagine Iris and Roman dancing to this music after their wedding.

Spotify: LINK