Book Review: “Divine Rivals” By Rebecca Ross

This was my Book Clubs November Read, cohosted by my bestie @IrelandsLibrary. I honestly had no intentions on reading this book until Ireland had suggested it as a book club read and of course it was a hit! I should have known she had great taste after her last suggest “Emily Wildes Encyclopedia of Faeries” which also had a very positive review from our book club members. I am starting to think she should pick all of our books from here on out!

“I never told you that I love you. And I regret that, most of all.”

Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

About The Book

Author: Rebecca Ross

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Published Date: April 4th, 2023

Page Count: 357 Pages

Main Genres: Fantasy, Romance, YA

GoodReads Rating: 4.26

Format: Physical Book

“But I think there is a magical link between you and me. A bond that not even distance can break.”

Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

Synopsis

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.

Synopsis From GoodReads

“I love the words I write until I soon realize how much I hate them, as if I am destined to always be at war within myself.”

Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

Rating

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Review

I have said this many times before, I am NOT a fantasy reader! So the fact I read three fantasy books in a row blows my mind. It also sacred me because I read this book Immediately after finishing Iron Flame so I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to focus on the world building, but honestly this book was pretty easy to follow.

I absolutely love books with mixed media so the fact that they were sending letters to each other really grabbed my attention, I just wish their were more letters honestly. I heard someone say that because both of these characters are supposed to be exceptionally great writers the letters were perfect but the writing of the book its self was subpar because it had to make the letters stand out, Honestly I can see where they are coming from but that doesn’t change my mind that this book was phenomenal.

With that said, I still think that somethings could have changed in this book to make me like it even more but if these particular things changed I don’t see how she could have wrote a second book so for the plot line Rebecca was going for I couldn’t have seen this book being written any other way. And the cliff hanger we are dangling off of as we wait not so patiently for the second book to be released was something I did not see coming at all! Why did you have to do this to us?!

I am not usually one who likes an insta love story but this book really worked for me. Spoiler Alert, but they got married so fast! However my heart was rooting for them so hard! I think the reason for this is because Roman fell first and I am learning that I am a sucker for the guy falls first trope. I can’t wait to see where their relationship goes from here but I am not sure my heart can take it!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who might be on the fence, just go ahead and pick it up, you won’t be disappointed!

“It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are. Sometimes I feel the same as you: I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, “You will miss so much by being so guarded.”

Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

QOTD: What Romance Trope is your Favorite?

“I don’t think you realize how strong you are, because sometimes strenght isn’t swords and steel and fire, as we are so often made to believe. Someimes it’s found in quiet, gentle places.”

Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

Book Club Announcement

Did you know that I have a Book Club? No? Well, that is probably because we are just getting started! We almost have one month under our belt and now that we have worked out some of the kinks we are hoping to grow by adding even more members!

For all updates please follow Bais.Reading.Corner on Instagram and also our Discord Server

About Us

  • Looking for anyone who enjoys reading (We are an All-inclusive Book Club)
  • A Mix of Genres
  • One Book a Month
  • Giveaways
  • Co-Hosts
  • Live Reading Sprints
  • Live Book Discussions
  • Discord
  • New Releases (Released in the past Two Years)
  • Some Back List reads (Books Released before 2020)

For the Month of April we have been Reading “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin. This is an Award winning book for both Book Of The Month Club and The GoodReads Choice Awards for 2022 so we thought it would be the perfect book to kick off the start of this book club.

I will also post the list of all the upcoming picks and Co-hosts down below. July’s Pick will be announced during our first Live Book Discussion all I can tell you for now is that it is a sapphic romance! Also if you have any interest in Co-Hosted a monthly book please reach out Via Instagram and we can discuss details!


We also have a Giveaway going on right now to help us grow! Please see this Instagram Post to learn how to enter!

Also we will be doing a giveaway during our live discussion for the book for anyone who attends! More Details to come.


We would love to see you in our reading sprints that we host typically once a week and we absolutely can’t wait to discuss these books and more with you! See you there!