divine rivals

By Rebecca Ross

The war of the Gods might just be the start of a great love story

The Ugly Truth:

Divine Rivals started off SO strong. I was immediately obsessed with the world-building, trying to piece together the history of the realm while also delving deeper into the lives of the main characters. As a reader and want-to-be writer, I was giddy that the role of a journalist was actually considered a “high-status” position and was coveted by many. Additionally, it was easy to see how passionate our leads were through the letters they wrote to one another and their POVs provided the perfect amount of detail without revealing too much. 

That being said, by page 200, I was… out on it? I obviously kept reading because I am cursed to do so but found it was way harder to get into. The characters who once seemed like a colorful blast waiting to happen fell stagnant and remained, quite frankly, two-dimensional. Our heroine Iris Winnow was on her way to becoming one of my favorite fantasy females for her bravery and love of her family, but had her personality washed away as soon as the first inklings of feelings arose in her heart. Roman Kitt was the perfect mysterious rich boy who lost all sense of cockiness and confidence when he actually found himself in the middle of a war, and it kind of ruined the macho look. To be quite honest, (and not a spoiler because we ALL saw this coming) while I am so happy they found love with one another, they were much, MUCH better as enemies.

At the start of the book, Rebecca Ross had such an imaginative narrative controlling the flow of the novel and I felt that she really dulled it down in the second half. Her dialogue became stilted and predictable by the end, and the plot line followed such a clear path that I was placing bets on what was going to happen and winning almost every single time. Ross introduced side characters who were supposed to be important and life-altering to our leads, but I never felt a true connection amongst any of the characters. There was no found-family trope or real passion with one another.

I am happy the book ended on a cliffhanger because it means Ross has the opportunity to do something big in the next one. I am really hoping we see her expand more on the Gods themselves and give Iris a greater purpose and interesting history that connects her more to the war. Additionally, while I love them together, lets see some real conflict for the two lovebirds.