This book might be my favorite book this year. It’s lyrical and entertaining and the magic system is uniquely fleshed out and works for the overall world. It touches a little on the things I loved about divine rivals and ruthless vows while also being a story all its own. The love story is an epic one and full of ups and downs and tragedy. I cried so much but I loved the book with equal fervor. Don’t hesitate on reading this one. It’s so wonderful.

I can’t ever put into words how good this book was! I read divine rivals and I loved it so much and I was so happy to hear that this book is in the same world. I highly recommend this book!

4.25
Rebecca Ross is truly a master at her craft. Her prose is immaculate and the way she writes romance is breathtaking. This also really helps flesh out the magic and world of "Divine Rivals."

Matilda is a lesser god who befriends Vincent as a child. This is the story of how they are thrown both together and apart by fate, war, betrayal, and the chaos caused by the divide between mortality and immortality, life and death.

A goddess and a mortal fall in love. This is the beautiful love story of Matilda and Vincent who met at first in their dreams. I loved the elements of fantasy and the worlds of the gods and goddesses. I found the book to start a little slow but it was well worth sticking with it. It is a prequel to the author’s Letters of Enchantment series (Divine Rivals), which I also loved.
Thank you to Netgalley and St.Martin’s press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m so grateful for the NetGalley ARC of this book, which was a sweet and poignant read. Matilda was a fantastic main character to root for, a great blend of fierce and vulnerable. And Vincent! I wanted to tuck him under a blanket and feed him soup. I loved the slow unfurling of their relationship over years, and how beautifully it paid off in the end.

Full of enchanting language and storytelling (I expect nothing less from Rebecca Ross) this book plunges you back into the world of Divine Rivals, but hundreds of years in the past. It was extremely slow-paced and full of intricate world and character building. Matilda & Vincent’s story especially unraveled towards the end, and you really grow to love them and other characters such as Bade and Enva. The plot was a little more loose than I typically like, but I ended up enjoying it nonetheless.

Rating: 5/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion

This was a book I didn’t know I needed—but one I will hold dear to my heart. Wild Reverence is magical, emotional, and beautifully written. Rebecca Ross has such a lyrical, whimsical style that immediately draws you in. Her words are vivid and descriptive, making you feel as though you’re walking alongside the characters. The world-building was layered and enchanting, and the medium pacing felt perfect—it gave me the time to sink into the plot and truly understand its intricate, multi-layered design.

At the heart of this story are Matilda and Vincent—two people who might never have met if not for fate. Their journey is full of hardship, longing, and growth, and I loved watching their relationship unfold.

Matilda especially stood out for me. She had already faced immense challenges by the time we met her but watching her grow into the person she was meant to become was powerful. She embodies resilience—falling down but always finding a way to rise again. Her role as a divine brings betrayal, grief, and impossible choices, yet she faces them all with courage. I adored how her romance with Vincent wasn’t instant love, but a slow burn built on longing glances, unspoken truths, and dreams that felt too risky to voice.

And Vincent… I loved his devotion to Matilda. His love felt obsessive in the best way—rooted in years of dreaming of her but deepened by Ross’s ability to balance passion with tenderness. Their love story blooms beautifully against the backdrop of divine politics, human choices, and sacrifices.

What makes this book so special is the balance of themes—it’s not just about romance, but also friendship, courage, forgiveness, grief, resilience, and hope. Ross captures both the beauty and the ugliness of love, choices, and faith, and blends them into a story that lingers long after the last page.

This book was truly a gift, and it made me want to dive into Rebecca Ross’s entire backlist immediately.

I want to thank NetGalley and SMP for the opportunity to review this book.

I have been struggling through this book. It is not keeping my attention. I am not becoming invested in the characters. There are so many characters being thrown at you at once without a full description of them and how they relate to the story. I will continue you reading but I may DNF. Some may enjoy this chaotic style.

I just finished Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross and here are my thoughts.



Matilda is a young goddess and one more powerful than most. She can walk between realms but she also has a secret she must hide to protect herself.

Vincent is a mortal who dreams of her often and they are friends in the dream world. When Vincent has a need of her help in the real world… His request goes ignored and he hardens himself and moves on. That is until the day she falls through his window with a letter for him in her hands.

Fate had moved these pieces in hopes of rewriting the bloody ways of the gods…. Can she sacrifice her vulnerability for love?

This is a prequel to Divine Rivals and I was chomping at the bit to read this book as soon as I heard it was in the works. It took a while to get into. The story is obviously set long before the time of the original duology and when you already love a book, it's hard to read a book when you don’t know the characters yet. Or at least it is for me but once I fully emerge myself into the story I was totally swept up into Matilda's story and the path she was forging.

I definitely loved the backstory of the gods. It helped to understand the setting in Divine Rivals more and tied up some questions that I had. I loved Vincent. He was so sweet and his story was so tragic but he loved his people and he had such a big heart I couldn’t help being charmed by him.

I loved all the magic and the lore, this is really and truly where the book shines in my opinion. The author does an amazing job of world building and it really does add value to the series. I did find the first part of the audiobook to be rather slow and not much really happened but it does pick up and the narration is fabbo!!

I definitely enjoyed this book and I do hope we get more books in this series.

4 stars

Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book! The writing is elegant and poetic. While lyrical writing isn’t always my personal favorite, I still found myself appreciating the care and craft Ross puts into every sentence.
The plot itself had a lot of promise. The story was compelling and the world building was one of the book’s strongest elements. Rich , immersive, and well thought-out. Ross has a gift for creating settings that feel tangible and alive, and that really helped carry the story forward.
That said, I struggled at times to fully connect with the characters. Their emotions didn’t always land for me, and I found myself wishing for a deeper emotional connection. I wanted to feel more invested in their journeys, their relationships, and their internal struggles. Because of that, certain parts of the story felt like they dragged a bit, especially when the emotional stakes didn’t quite match the lyrical weight of the writing.
Overall, it’s a book I’m glad I read.

FIVE STARS ALL AROUND. One of my favorite reads of 2025. The emotions this story evoked in me!!! Matilda is an amazingly written FMC, and Vincent is a great MMC. I will not stop thinking about this book for years, and I know I will re-read it often. LOVE WILD REVERENCE!!

“Wild Reverence” is an excellent expansion of the world of gods and goddesses readers first glimpsed in “Divine Rivals.” Rebecca Ross’s beautiful writing style makes fantasy feel approachable to someone like me, who easily gets confused by too many names and places.

The story follows Matilda, a young goddess in a land where gods can kill to steal powers and are quick to break allegiance, and her journey of coming into her own powers. In a complicated twist, Matilda and a mortal boy find themselves drawn together by dreams and fate. What follows is a story of learning who to trust, how to love, and how to change the course of the gods’ future.


“Wild Reverence” at its core is a beautiful love story of a woman coming into her own power and making her own way. I thoroughly enjoyed this prequel to the original duology. 



Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for providing me an advanced reader copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, but it required immense perseverance to make it through. Normally I can read a book in 3-4 days, but in contrast Wild Reverence took me 4 weeks and an extra dose of commitment to make it to the end. Once I completed the book, I did enjoy the story Ross created, adding more depth to the world of Divine Rivals by specifically focusing on The Gods and the magic system of this world.

The first 40% of this book was incredible dense, with each sentence packed with so many descriptors, that I found myself feeling stuck in the writing versus being transported into Matilda and Vincent's story. Once the book did pick up, I found that the love they developed for each other was sweet, filled with innocence, and so many hardships, that it became difficult to see how they would ever overcome them.

Overall, I am glad I persevered, but I likely won't recommend this one widely, unless I knew someone loved Divine Rivals, or had a strong appreciation for prose.

This book was absolutely gorgeous 🥰 not my usual read but the writing was beautiful and the story was unique.

A truly captivating, wonderous story of magic, secrets, bonds, ichor, and love.

Rebecca Ross's writing is nothing short of perfect, in my opinion, to convey this story and all of its enchanting details. Events unfold and fates are woven in both honeyed and bitter developments, and every moment is captured beautifully. The emotion, the impact, the depth of these characters cannot be understated, in my opinion.

The games of gods are brutal, and Wild Reverence captures the brutality and beauty in exciting, heart-aching balance.

Truly, I dreamt of Vincent and Matilda while reading. I feel this story will stick with me for years to come.

*Thank you to Saturday Books and Rebecca Ross for a copy of Wild Reverence and the opportunity to leave my honest, voluntary review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Wild Reverence promised a return to the enchanting world of Divine Rivals, but it fell far short of the mark for me. Having adored the gripping romance, and characters of Ross’s earlier work, I was eager for more of the same magic. Unfortunately, this standalone novel never made it to first base. I struggled to stay engaged, and even skipping ahead a few chapters didn’t help spark my interest.

Set in the same universe as Divine Rivals, Wild Reverence is a prequel, following Matilda, a young goddess with messenger magic, who navigates a treacherous world where gods kill for power. Tasked by Death to deliver a letter to a doomed childhood friend from dreams—she chooses to defy fate to save him.

Sadly, the story failed to engage me. The characters, particularly Matilda and Vincent, felt flat and vanilla, lacking the depth and emotional pull I loved in Iris and Roman from Divine Rivals. Their interactions didn’t resonate, and the slow-burn romance felt more tedious than tantalizing. The mythic worldbuilding, while ambitious, couldn’t compensate for the lackluster characters or the sluggish pace that left me disconnected. I wanted to love this book, but after giving it a fair shot, I had to DNF. It just didn’t live up to the spellbinding standard Ross set before. One star DNF.

I received a DRC from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. This review is my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

This book is tough for me to rate. This was definitely written in Ross's typical lyrical whimsical writing. However, I almost DNF'd at the 20% mark because there was so much world building and it was a bit boring and tough to read through. Once you get to the 30% mark the book becomes really good! The love did feel a bit insta-lust for my liking. There wasn't enough tension and slow burn for me. Overall, I did not love it as much as I did Divine Rivals, a River Enchanted, or her other books. This is a 3.5 star rating for me, but I rounded up for this review.

“I waited for her return like the stars wait for the sun to set.”

Rebecca Ross has done it again! Climbing to the top of my favorites of 2025, Wild Reverence was a beautifully written story of star crossed love in an intricate magical world of gods and mortals.

I loved going back into the world of Divine Rivals and getting such a deeper understanding of the gods and magic of the stars. It’s technically a prequel to the Letters of Enchantment duo and while I think it enriched my experience having read those books first, it could also be read as a standalone. I came for the romance, but ended up also really enjoying the additional storylines that explored other types of love in the characters’ journeys with friendship, family, mentors, and allies that were woven together really well.

While I was lucky enough to get this as an eArc (thank you to St. Martin's Press & Saturday Books), I loved it so much I needed it in all the formats and also bought the hardcover and listened to some of it on audio from Libby. The hardcover book is beautiful and I adored the cover art! The audio was great and had a dual/multi narration.

My audio copy also had a bonus interview with the author that I found really fascinating! She read a chapter from her first draft which really showed how some of the changes she made along the way (like switching from 3rd to 1st person and adding in characters/storylines like Bade!) made such a huge difference in the emotional impact of the story. Definitely recommend checking that out!

I did find the story started a little slow for me and in the end I wanted more from the characters rather than just the glimpse we got. But that’s just me being picky because I found it nearly perfect otherwise! The main characters were easy to love and root for, and their stories made me think deeply about fate, power, strength, vulnerability, sacrifice, trust, and so much more.

Plus, she had magic Mary Poppins style pockets- what a dream!

TLDR: Read if you like a slower paced but beautifully written emotional story with a friends-to-lovers, against all odds, I’ll fight the world for you, slow burn, lots of yearning, type of love.

I am always so blown away by Rebecca Ross's work. She is by far one of the most talented authors out there and definitely on my auto-buy list.
I could not be more obsessed with these characters and this book. I will be recommending this book to no end to my audience.

Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross follows the young goddess, Matilda, and her star-crossed romance with mortal Vincent. This book was so sweet and well thought out, following the winding road that was Matilda’s early life and how her fate intertwined with Vincents.
While a standalone, this book is a great complement to the divine rivals books, and I would highly recommend all readers of that series pick this one up too.