Book Review: Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Book title: Divine Rivals
Author: Rebecca Ross
Genre: YA fantasy
Published: April 4, 2023
368 pages
My rating: 4.5/5

“I think we all wear armor. I think those who don’t are fools, risking the pain of being wounded by the sharp edges of the world, over and over again. But if I’ve learned anything from those fools, it is that to be vulnerable is a strength most of us fear. It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are.”

Eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow dreams of becoming a writer, but right now she needs to hold her crumbling family together. With her brother fighting on behalf of gods on the frontline and her mother turning to liquor, Iris strives to win a promotion as the columnist at the Oath Gazette. At night, she writes letters to her brother and slides them under a wardrobe door, where they vanish. But instead of finding her brother, the letters end up in the hands of Iris’s rival at the newspaper, handsome and cold Roman Kitt. When he anonymously writes back, a magical connection ties their lives together.

Divine Rivals is the first book in Rebecca Ross’s duology Letters of Enchantment. This was a great, fast-paced young adult fantasy. The book is set in a fantasy world where gods have awakened from their long sleep and are again waging a war against each other, using people and magical creatures as their soldiers. After a devastating incident, Iris gets a job as a war correspondent and exposes the truth to her hometown's residents, who have thus far been unconcerned about the war raging outside of their borough. She continues writing letters to her mysterious pen pal, slowly falling for him, until Roman arrives at the war zone, and Iris’s feelings become conflicted: who does she like more, the unknown letter writer or her fiercest rival?

The setting reminded me of World War I with its trench warfare and aerial bombings – except the bombs are not dropped by planes but by dragons. Even though I loved the worldbuilding, I would have wanted more of it. We learn something about the gods and their ancient rivalry, but otherwise the worldbuilding felt a little shallow. I’m hoping the second book will delve more deeply into the world and its history.

My only problem with this book was how fast it changed from slow burn romance to (moderately) spicy. The slow burn was amazing, but then all of a sudden the characters not only confess their feelings for each other but talk about getting married. It makes sense in the context of warfare and their experiences in the front, but it was still very rushed. Iris even talks about how she didn’t tell Roman she loved him before they got married! There was also a non-explicit sex scene, which felt out of place considering that this book is marketed as young adult, and considering that the main characters had barely kissed at that point.

But if you love deliciously slow burn rivals-to-lovers romantasy in a fantasy war setting, you'll probably enjoy this book. I gave it four and a half stars.