Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

WHAT IS DIVINE RIVALS ABOUT?

"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." - Good Reads.

MY THOUGHTS

I loved this book but it did have its WTF are you doing moments. Without giving away too much, I just felt like the romance in the second half of the book was very rushed even in those circumstances despite being quite slow during the letters sent to each other. It's giving Anna and Hans from Frozen and it had me questioning if we were missing some letters. 

The first half of this book was wonderful, it pulled on my heartstrings and I really loved how we are told the lore of the gods throughout the letters. I was qute intrigued by the typewriters that also have a lttle back story. The side characters are such a delight. I loved Marisol, who helps war correspondents seek shelter and have a warm meal and Attie, another war correspondant who becomes friends with Iris. There is a little bit of found family theme going through this book as well as the main theme of romance and feeling of being abandoned.

It is an enemies to lovers trope but honestly this trope can just be ignored. When I think of enemies to lovers, I think of Klaus and Caroline from The Vampire Diaries or Spike and Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not two reporters who are competing for a promotion. Is there spice in this book? No, I give this a chilli seed with how much spice is in this book. There is a scene near the end of the book but I've experienced more in a PG film than this chapter. BUT apparently Ruthless Vows (Book 2) has a little bit of spice. I have not read this yet so don't come for me if I'm wrong but I will be picking up the conclusion of this duology soon.

I gave this a five star on goodreads and storygraph. Despite some wtf moments, I had a really good time reading this and when I put it down, all I wanted to do was pick up and read. I also really love the cover to this book. Out of all the special editons and standard editions, this one is my favourite.

I'm very excited to read the next book after that ending.

💭 Have you read Divine Rivals? What do you think of the enemies to lovers trope?