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A review by readwkit
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
4.0
★★★★☆ || Spoiler-free review
"I am coming to love him, in two different ways. Face to face, and word to word"
Iris Winnow thought that she was writing letters to no one, but they seem to magically disappear beneath her cupboard. For months, she hoped that these letters were somehow being magically transported to the recipient of her words, her brother who has been fighting the War between the Gods miles away. She hasn't heard anything from him though, and as her family starts to break down, she is beginning to think she might never hear from him again.
Roman Kitt has been receiving heartfelt and vulnerable letters from a certain 'Little Flower' whom he knows to be his office rival, Iris. She has been vying for the position of columnist at the Gazette alongside him for three months now, and mutual distaste for one another is not missed by anyone in the Gazette. In the office, she rearranges his books to tick him off and appears a couple minutes early to snag the latest task from him, but at night, he reads about her woes and fears.
When Iris leaves to become a War correspondent, Roman is at crossroads. His heart wants to tell her its her former rival who has been receiving her letters, but a part of him has come to adore the person she is when she thinks she is writing to an anonymous friend. Amidst this push-and-pull, Iris is on a mission of her own. Her brother has been missing since months, and there has been no sign of him anywhere. Becoming a correspondent gave her the proximity she needed to find her brother between the rubble and the razed grounds. Little does she know that in a war fought by Gods, monsters and humans, she will not be spared.
Review: for anyone who is a rivals to lovers fan, this is literally the most perfect book under the trope. The rivalry was fleshed out quite well in my opinion, because it gave both characters enough time to shift from rivals to friends to more-than-friends. Most rivals-to-lovers books follow a very generic arc where the FL hates the ML but one moment changes everything, when she sees him for who he truly is. I find such arcs hard to follow since they seem so inauthentic, given the nature of the rivalry prior to this revelation. That's not the case with Divine Rivals, and I was so glad. Iris finds Roman attractive and incredibly talented, yes, but her grudge against him stems from his words of judgement that bruised her ego months ago. She uses this as a motivation to win over the position of the columnist through her merit alone, so that she can see Kitt eat dust when she walks all over him. Their professional banter and petty retorts are so fun to read, and I loved how Kitt's character engaged with her pettiness with witty one-liners of his own.
I found the first half the book fairly more engaging than the second half, probably because I was more invested with the lifestyle and their office relationship more than the war itself. In any other occassion, I would've loved to read more about the Gods and the world building itself, but it was evident that this book was not heavy on that aspect anyway. There is so much information that's left untold about the war itself in this book that it made no genuine impact upon me, aside from the usual sympathy for certain characters that Iris had come to cherish.
As for the Romance bit---I really liked Kitt's character throughout the book, as well as Iris'. Even the other side characters introduced, especially Marisol and Attie, were quite endearing and sweet, although I don't think I connected with them as much. Either way, the romance was built up very well, and I really liked how honest Kitt had been for the most part, given his big secret about being the anonymous recipient of Iris' letters. He made himself transparent and was truthful to her (mostly), and it was so fun to read about it. Those moments when he would be very obvious about his feelings for her publicly, and Iris still wouldn't get the hint, was a stunt that was right up my alley. He never missed a beat when it came to her, and he was taking his chances at every opportunity he got. If Iris is going, he's going too. No question about that. Loved that for him.
I'm just going to end it with this quote:
"They would be friends until they both finally acknowledged the truth. And they would have everything that other couples had—the arguments and the hand-holding in the market and the gradual exploration of their bodies and the birthday celebrations and the journeys to new cities and the living as one and sharing a bed and the gradual sense of melting into each other. Their names would be entwined—Roman and Iris or Winnow and Kitt because could you truly have one without the other?"
"I am coming to love him, in two different ways. Face to face, and word to word"
Iris Winnow thought that she was writing letters to no one, but they seem to magically disappear beneath her cupboard. For months, she hoped that these letters were somehow being magically transported to the recipient of her words, her brother who has been fighting the War between the Gods miles away. She hasn't heard anything from him though, and as her family starts to break down, she is beginning to think she might never hear from him again.
Roman Kitt has been receiving heartfelt and vulnerable letters from a certain 'Little Flower' whom he knows to be his office rival, Iris. She has been vying for the position of columnist at the Gazette alongside him for three months now, and mutual distaste for one another is not missed by anyone in the Gazette. In the office, she rearranges his books to tick him off and appears a couple minutes early to snag the latest task from him, but at night, he reads about her woes and fears.
When Iris leaves to become a War correspondent, Roman is at crossroads. His heart wants to tell her its her former rival who has been receiving her letters, but a part of him has come to adore the person she is when she thinks she is writing to an anonymous friend. Amidst this push-and-pull, Iris is on a mission of her own. Her brother has been missing since months, and there has been no sign of him anywhere. Becoming a correspondent gave her the proximity she needed to find her brother between the rubble and the razed grounds. Little does she know that in a war fought by Gods, monsters and humans, she will not be spared.
Review: for anyone who is a rivals to lovers fan, this is literally the most perfect book under the trope. The rivalry was fleshed out quite well in my opinion, because it gave both characters enough time to shift from rivals to friends to more-than-friends. Most rivals-to-lovers books follow a very generic arc where the FL hates the ML but one moment changes everything, when she sees him for who he truly is. I find such arcs hard to follow since they seem so inauthentic, given the nature of the rivalry prior to this revelation. That's not the case with Divine Rivals, and I was so glad. Iris finds Roman attractive and incredibly talented, yes, but her grudge against him stems from his words of judgement that bruised her ego months ago. She uses this as a motivation to win over the position of the columnist through her merit alone, so that she can see Kitt eat dust when she walks all over him. Their professional banter and petty retorts are so fun to read, and I loved how Kitt's character engaged with her pettiness with witty one-liners of his own.
I found the first half the book fairly more engaging than the second half, probably because I was more invested with the lifestyle and their office relationship more than the war itself. In any other occassion, I would've loved to read more about the Gods and the world building itself, but it was evident that this book was not heavy on that aspect anyway. There is so much information that's left untold about the war itself in this book that it made no genuine impact upon me, aside from the usual sympathy for certain characters that Iris had come to cherish.
As for the Romance bit---I really liked Kitt's character throughout the book, as well as Iris'. Even the other side characters introduced, especially Marisol and Attie, were quite endearing and sweet, although I don't think I connected with them as much. Either way, the romance was built up very well, and I really liked how honest Kitt had been for the most part, given his big secret about being the anonymous recipient of Iris' letters. He made himself transparent and was truthful to her (mostly), and it was so fun to read about it. Those moments when he would be very obvious about his feelings for her publicly, and Iris still wouldn't get the hint, was a stunt that was right up my alley. He never missed a beat when it came to her, and he was taking his chances at every opportunity he got. If Iris is going, he's going too. No question about that. Loved that for him.
I'm just going to end it with this quote:
"They would be friends until they both finally acknowledged the truth. And they would have everything that other couples had—the arguments and the hand-holding in the market and the gradual exploration of their bodies and the birthday celebrations and the journeys to new cities and the living as one and sharing a bed and the gradual sense of melting into each other. Their names would be entwined—Roman and Iris or Winnow and Kitt because could you truly have one without the other?"