I also loved the idea of this book but not the execution. I am starting to think both Ross and romantasy as a whole are unfulfilled potential.

This was a beautifully written book. I have loved reading everything by this author, and this was no different!

i'm really disappointed that i didn't like this more.

i didn't believe the romantic love - they barely knew each other.
the setting felt too small for how big the world was.
the ending left awkward loose ends.
and the twist at the end! ugh!

however, i am open to someone explaining to me how i'm wrong and it was actually a great book. because i want to love it like they do. help me get swept away in the romance and the tragedy! alas, i did not.

Divine Rivals by Rebeca Ross is such a beautiful book. I really enjoyed this one. Going in to it, I was trying to keep an open mind going into this book because I feel like Ross is a hit or miss for me and this case it was a definite hit. I adored everything about this book. Iris Winnow and Roman Kitt work for the same newspaper and have become rivals. They are both trying to receive an offer for the same job to be a permanent columnist for the newspaper. We have Iris who dropped out of school to take care of her mother and Roman who went to the best school and has had everything just handed to hi. Roman already seems to have the upper hand in this situation because of who is father is. Then these both end up going on a journey together and end up in the middle of the war zone. Go check out this book. It is such a great read. I loved the characters and the world building. Rebecca Ross did such a great job with this novel. I am really looking forward to book two.

I’m so glad I gave this book a second chance—it turned out to be pure bookish magic. I don’t usually follow the hype (I like to blaze my own reading trail), but this one lived up to the buzz and then some. It struck that perfect balance between fantasy and reality, like stepping through a wardrobe and finding exactly the story I didn’t know I needed. Sometimes, the bookish stars align just right.

The whole book community seems to love this one, which I think might be the reason I waited so long to even attempt to review it...

I feel very conflicted when I think back on reading this book. I LOVED the book's potential. The academia setting and the pure yearning of the first half absolutely had me in a chokehold. And the idea of the second half is appealing as well. I love a star-crossed romance.

But for me, something just didn't sit right during the second half. I don't know if it's because both halves of the book felt like two entirely different books with entirely different characters, or if I had too high expectations, or if the confessions of undying love happened way too suddenly for me to buy into. I guess it was a combination of all three. But unfortunately, as much as I WANT to love this one, I can't sway myself in that direction.

My fantasy catnip is historical fantasy and I am all in if that historical fantasy focuses more on the characters and less on the world building. I have been in a slump and this pulled me right out of that slump. It wasn’t perfect which is why I knocked off a star but for feels and vibes it was 5 stars for me. I loved the cozy friendship with Attie and Marisol, and the found family aspect. I enjoyed that there was room for Attie to have her own relationship develop and it is clear who it would be with. I enjoyed the war scenes and borrowing from WW1 and that made up for me the significant lack of world building. I always love epistolary novels so this grabbed me from the start. This book needed about 100 more pages to flesh out the Gods, her relationship with Forest (maybe some flashbacks), and some more scenes from Roman’s perspective and this would be close to perfect. I am jumping straight into the sequel and am glad I had it ready.

Read this is you like The Hating Game, You’ve Got Mail, and The Spellshop.

There are so many ways to start this review, and I’m not exactly sure how I want to.

First, let me say that I am Ross’ biggest fan. I am obsessed with Dreams Lie Beneath and Sisters of Sword and Song. Incredible books with unmatched voice and lyrical prose.

I went into this book with the knowledge of the insane hype around the series. You know it’s going to be amazing when Fairyloot editions are hard to come by, because no one wants to part with their edition. So I expected the book to be better than her previous, which just didn’t seem to be the case.

I’m happy she got the recognition she deserves, but I think the recognition should’ve come for her older works rather than this one. She was overdue, and I think if we revisited her older books, we would hype them up more than this duology.

That being said, it did some things super well. As always, Ross is a master of language and used that to elevate the plot with beautiful descriptions.
The idea of pairing gods with WWI was very lovely war-esque, and I felt that the mythology behind it was very well developed (although it was lacking in the story, in my opinion — dive into the mythology more for us!) However, I just don’t buy the whole enemies to lovers arc (they were barely enemies and then immediately got married???), and I hate the memory loss trope. It just feels like it undoes everything that the writer accomplished in the few hundred pages prior. The romance was very beautiful when it touched upon grief and comforting those who have been through trauma and loss.

So overall, I needed more tension (or us not to call it enemies to lovers), more mythology, and more tender moments between the heroine and her love interest.

This was such a beautifully written book, and Iris and Roman will definitely go down as one of my favorite literary couples ever. I loved reading the letters between them, and there was the perfect amount of yearning.

This would be a good book for anyone looking to dip their toe into fantasy. There's no complicated world-building, as it's basically an alternative World War I with gods. I'd also say that it's in the upper end of YA, so it never felt juvenile in any way. Overall, an excellent read that I think could appeal to many types of readers.

Excellent first book in a new series that both YA readers and older readers will enjoy. While I do wish the romance in the story was not so predictable, I was able to look past that to just enjoy the story.

I almost cried just from the prologue of this book, so it was a bold start. In Divine Rivals, Iris Winnow sees her older brother, Forest, off at the train station. He's enlisted in a war between two gods that she fears he won't return from. Forest made her promise two things, but to keep one, she must break the other. An avid student, Iris drops out of school in her final year to take care of their mother, who's drowning her grief and worry in alcohol and cigarettes. She's relieved when her entry in an essay competition gets her noticed by The Oath Gazette. A job there allows her to barely get by, but the electricity is still off at home, she skips meals to stretch her money, and her mom is selling things out from under her to maintain her addictions. Iris finds herself in intense competition with the other newest hire for a single columnist job. Roman Kitt is all she despises-- wealthy, arrogant, and talented. He's also receiving Iris' mail.

Let's back up. Iris has been writing letters to her brother, and her apparently magic wardrobe has been whisking them away... just not to Forest. They arrive in a second wardrobe across the city-- the one belonging to one Roman C. Kitt. He recognizes that they must be coming from Iris from the details she shares but at first declines to announce himself and then, when he does, doesn't reveal his identity. It begins a pen pal friendship, a place where both can spill their feelings without fear of repercussion and heal their wounds by feeling heard and less alone.

As Iris digs into what's happening on the war front, something the politicians in Oath claim is distant and unimportant, she wonders if the Oath Gazette is complicit in hiding what's going on in the West. Her brother was called by a goddess to fight, but who is the enemy? And what power does he have to bring to bear?

I love the old-timeyness of everything as people clack away on typewriters, take the tram, and curl their hair with rollers. It fits the newsie vibe. The reporters call each other by their last name, which makes it all the more striking when Roman switches to calling her Iris in intense moments. It also makes it a great joke when Iris insists on using unflattering adjectives to take the place of the "C." on Roman's byline.

Ok, but what about the romance? I believe it's the book's main draw, but it's a bit... rushed. I was promised rivals-to-lovers, and it lasted about 30 seconds along with the typewritten correspondence. The banter is definitely there. It's just a bit instalove for me even though they eventually have real things to connect them. Other relationships stand out, particularly Iris' familial bonds, stressed though they are. Roman's are more uniformly toxic. In terms of found family and friendship plots, those are just as rushed as the romance.

In terms of the war message... I'm not sure yet what the intention is. I think it would take reading the complete duology to know what, if anything, the author wants to say about violence, war effort, and the history of world wars that served as her inspiration. And maybe the answer is nothing-- it could be as simple as providing a high-intensity backdrop.

I loved the author's adult fantasy duology. I just think this dive into ya left behind a lot of the nuance and flavor I loved in that context. YA romance readers may find this more enjoyable since it hits a lot of genre notes. I can see why this is a popular book. It's just not ~quite~ my cup of tea. Thanks to Wednesday for my copy to read and review!

I am not immune to the hype, it seems. Rebecca Ross' writing in this is beautiful, and I loved the mix of World War I style world with the fantasy of a gods' war and a magical typewriter. Iris and Roman's dynamic - both the rivals aspect and the secret confidant aspect - were so well fleshed out, and beautifully done. The narrative did drag just a bit in the middle leading to the high stakes ending that brought it down from a five to a four in my personal enjoyment, but I'll definitely be picking up the sequel and anything that Ross writes in the future (plus, her backlist as well).

What a beautiful, historical fantasy story! I enjoyed the elements of the magical typewriters and rivals-to-lovers romance. I am very excited to see more of the war between the gods and the lovely atmospheric writing.

A great book, I loved the concept. It felt very "You've Got Mail" meets a magical WWII. I love a good enemies to lovers, and I love a good he falls first, so this was all around a good time for me!

I read this a while ago, and I can't actually remember what happened. I have no interest in reading the second book. I think the plot just took too long to develop.

I'll be honest, this starts ridiculously slow. And a little weird. I was caught off guard by the time and place and the bits about enchantments and warring gods and music and what not.

But then, as one does, I acclimated. I got to know the setting and the characters. And it all fell into place.

Iris and Roman now have such a dear place in my heart. I was initially sooooo annoyed that Iris didn't share her struggles with anyone, but with his perceptive nature, and the tidbit of them writing letters to each other, he was there to be a support and provide comfort as best he could.

The slow progression of their feelings? The way he FOLLOWED HER TO THE FRONTLINES TO ENSURE HER SAFETY. MADE SURE TO BUILD HER STAMINA THROUGH EXERCISE? THE WAY THIS MAN WAS OBSESSED WITH HER. THAT ENDING SCENE IN THE FIELD? OH MY GOD. Rip my heart out and stomp on it, would you? That would hurt less.

I don't think this would be for everyone. It's a little funky, heavy on war politics, and out of pocket, but still a thoroughly enjoyable story for me.

I enjoyed this one. I loved the characters especially the main female character. I think the storyline was also very intriguing.

I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would! I ended up listening to it, and you CANNOT go wrong with this format - the accents are gorgeous, the reading is crisp at times, dreamy at others, and everything in between! Hugely recommend.

5/5 stars! I'm not breaking new ground here- everyone loves this book, and for good reason. Rebecca Ross writes romantic chemistry with such ease, she'll have you falling in love yourself. The underpinnings of hope and yearning in this one made it compulsively readable!

There isn't a couple more perfect than Roman and Iris. What a fun and unique enemies to lovers story, filled with tender words and the perfect amount of romance. I loved watching (reading?) them come together to conquer the evil god.