Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross: My Review of the Popular Fantasy Romance

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross is one of the popular young adult fantasy romance books of the year.

The Verdict: I picked up Divine Rivals because of the similarities to the best-seller Fourth Wing and it did not disappoint. From the fantastical events of gods battling to enchanted typewriters and a slow burn romance between two academic rivals, this book was divine!

Check out my full book review of Divine Rivals below.

*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Divine Rivals Summary:

After centuries of sleep, the gods are battling 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.

Divine Rivals: My Book Review

I love it when you keep hearing about a book, so decide to give it a go even though you’ve never read the author before and it totally delivers!

I admit that I was eager to read Divine Rivals because I saw so many parallels with Fourth Wing (dragons being the big exception!).

This is a wonderful young adult fantasy romance that isn’t really heavy on the fantasy but brings in just enough to give it that something extra to make it unique.

The idea that you could have enchanted typewriters was so much fun and added to the slow burn romance between Winnow and Kitt who were such rivals and enemies at the Gazette where they both worked.

Both were determined to get the correspondent position for reasons of their own, but then life had a way of making even that position obsolete in the grand scheme.

Ross did such a great job of building up the connection between Winnow and Kitt while competing for stories that I could easily believe that something more was brewing under the surface and just needed a kickstart for it to bloom.

Cue their grandmothers’ enchanted typewriters.

I absolutely loved the setting and time period that Ross evoked in this romance. I felt like I was maybe in the 1940s war era and yet the added element of gods battling each other was so unique.

I love how it was words that enabled these two to let down their armor and to feel safe with someone when that had been lacking in both of their lives.

Divine Rivals is a two-book duet so be prepared for it to end on quite the cliffhanger and be ready to read Ruthless Vows next which sounds SO good!

Divine Rivals is another young adult fantasy romance that is taking the romance book world by storm and fans of Fourth Wing are finding it just as captivating!

It too draws on the enemies to lovers trope where two rivals at the paper compete for a position and yet slowly fall for one another.

You’ll love this book like Fourth Wing even if you’re not normally a fantasy reader but love historical fiction, mythology, and young love!

Related Book Lists:

• Divine Rivals Series: The Complete Guide
• Books Like Fourth Wing to Devour
• Best Fantasy Romance Books
• Best Young Adult Fantasy Romance Books
• Best Academic Rivals to Lovers

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