“It was a sultry spring day, the sun at her zenith in the sky. Clouds were building, rumbling in the distance to the south, and I gave myself a moment to gain my bearings, my sight adjusting to the fierce light. I was surrounded by moorlands knee-deep in yellow gorse, and it almost felt as if I were the only one in the world, save for the sparrows that chirped from the bracken.”

The beautiful and detailed descriptions are one of the first things I noticed when I started reading this book.

Matilda: has spent her entire life in the Under realm with her mother. As the youngest goddess of her clan, she has been blessed with humble messenger magic. She lives in a realm where the gods kill each other to gain power, and everyone is ruthless.

When she meets a human boy through his dreams of her, she doesn’t understand why she feels such a connection to him, but she is drawn back to him over and over again.

Then she gets the chance to go on a mission to the Skyward realm and it’s like her life has finally begun.

Vincent: He writes to Matilda one night in a moment of desperation, asking for her help, but she is already gone. She never got his letter. Ten years pass, and much has changed. Vincent has hardened his heart, and become the lord of the river. But he never quite forgot the beautiful goddess from his dreams, and one day she falls right through his bedroom window with a message for him.

Matilda must learn how to sacrifice and become vulnerable, even though it may cost her everything.

There’s so much to this story, and I could go on and on, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll just leave it at that.


CW: some language, mention of couples making love in the past (vague, no details), one open door scene, two fade-to-black, someone is drowned, violence, war

•••

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC I received in exchange for my honest opinion of this book.

What a beautiful addition to Letters of Enchantment! Rebecca Ross weaved such an important backstory with amazing world building. Following Matilda, a young Goddess of both the Underling and Skyward realms we see her grow in both these, the mortal realm, and beyond.

While it took a little while to read it was worth it. The writing just amazes me it was so beautiful. The fantasy, the characters, the setting. It was all just perfect.

“I would wait a thousand years for you,” Vincent said. “If you asked me, I would wait for you until only my bones remained upon an altar. But if you must leave again, then let me follow you, Red.”

The queen of tender romantasy is Rebecca Ross. This book? Absolutely divine. a story full of magic, secrets, and star crossed longing that had me screaming “just kiss already” more than once. Matilda and Vincent’s connection? Soulmate-level. The vibes? Immaculate. The angst? Delicious. you WILL devour this.

✨THINGS AND STUFF✨
-dual pov
-realms & magic
-secret father
-gods & goddesses
-dreams & letters
-incandescent longing
-his nickname for her ❤️
-the ruse of a marriage
-“who did this to you”
-#IsThisAKissingBook open door

TY Saturday books for an advanced copy!

Rebecca Ross has once again written a story that will live in my heart for a long, long time .Personally, the relationship between Matilda and Bade was the absolute highlight of this book. Their scenes throughout the book were my favorites

Rebecca Ross’s writing never fails to enchant me. Wild Reverence felt like stepping into a dream. After falling in love with Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows, I knew her next story would be special, but this one, set centuries before those beloved pages, took my breath away.

This is the story of Matilda and Vincent, two souls drawn together in a world shaped by gods, war, and whispered legends. Ross has spun a mythological system that is wholly her own, rich, lyrical, and effortlessly immersive. I never once felt overwhelmed by the lore. Instead, I felt guided, as if the story itself were gently taking my hand and leading me deeper into the magic.

The world she’s created is vast and luminous. If I could offer one gentle critique, it’s that the pacing slows a little in the middle as the characters are given space to reflect and the world grows more intricate. But even those quieter moments felt intentional, like drawing a deep breath before the plunge.

Matilda and Vincent are extraordinary, tender, brave, and beautifully complicated. Their love story is the kind that lingers. I sighed, I swooned, I highlighted passages just to keep them close. And the gods, fierce, haunting, and divine, were everything I wanted and more. Their brutal power games, their desperate alliances, their quiet hungers, I was completely captivated.

The contrast between the Underworld and the Sky world was stunning. Though so different in design, both realms mirrored each other in ambition and cruelty. Watching their forces clash felt like watching storms meet in the sky, inevitable, breathtaking, and impossible to look away from.

While a few plot points were predictable, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t reading for the twists. I was reading for the beauty, the ache, the quiet revelations. And there were surprises too, moments that made me gasp or ache in the best way.

Wild Reverence is a love letter to myth and devotion, to power and sacrifice, to two people who find each other in the middle of it all. Rebecca Ross has once again written a story that will live in my heart for a long, long time.

I loved Divine Rivals and I think I like this one even more. This book has more insight into the gods mentioned in Divine Rivals and you get more of a view of their world. I loved this story so much and I loved all the characters. Such a good book that I will recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the gifted arc!! I absolutely loved being back on the world of Divine Rivals, and I’ll forever be obsessed with Rebecca Ross’ writing. Although this takes place about 600 years before the letters of enchantment duology, there’s so many Easter eggs! While this story is a standalone and you don’t NEED to have read divine rivals, I think having that duology as background enhanced the reading experience.
This book had such an interesting take on gods and goddesses. I loved learning the divine lore in this world. I also like how gods and goddesses weren’t all-powerful and had limitations and weaknesses with their power. I loved the concept of constellations and how power moves between the divine.
I do wish the romance had been stronger in this. Because of their circumstances, they had met once in person as children and then in dreams that Matilda read after the fact. As adults, they barely got to spend any time together due to Matilda being pulled way for divine business. So I think I would’ve just liked more interactions between Matilda and Vincent in order to make me really FEEL their love.
Personally, the relationship between Matilda and Bade was the absolute highlight of this book. Their scenes throughout the book were my favorites

Thank you to Rebecca Ross, the publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC!

I haven't read the Divine Rivals duology yet (I know I know, but I missed that part where this was the same world.) But this book was BEAUTIFUL. I wasn't sure if Rebecca Ross was overhyped but after Wild Reverence, I can tell you, she is worth ALL THE HYPE.

Oh, how I love this book.
This is a prequel (hundreds of years before) to the Divine Rivals/Ruthless Vows duology. Matlida is a goddess born unlike any they have seen before. She shows up in the dreams of a mortal, Vincent, and they become friends as children. This also shows us the beginnings of Drace and Enva.
Ross has beautiful, lyrical writing. Her worlds and characters are beautiful, flawed, and perfect. It was a slower start, but eventually I could not put this down. If you have loved Ross' stories she's written so far, this continues to be a must read. AND THAT EPILOGUE! LOVE!
Thank you Thank you Thank you to Rebecca Ross, the publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

An enchanting, unique prequel to divine rivals & ruthless vows! ✨
If you want to know more about the Gods and Godess that wreak havoc on Iris’ world, this book is for you!

⭐️“We had been waiting for that divine to make their presence known to us, to claim those stars.”⭐️

Matilda is a strong, beautiful, one of a kind herald godess, who brings together the underling, mortal and skyward worlds! 🔥
Vincent is our unexpected and uniquely handsome knight in shining armour, who is thrust into a role he did not want and has a dreamlike friend, who turns into a stars written lover 💗

“ I pray that my days will be long at your side. Let me fill and satisfy every longing in your soul. May your hand be in mine, by sun and by night. Let our breaths twine and our blood become one, until our bones return to dust. Even then, may I find your soul still sworn to mine”. 🥵

Matilda and Vincent’s lives unexpectedly cross over the span of 20 plus years in this unique world where the gods and goddesses fight for stars and power.

The weaving of the threads of their lives kept me on my toes, wanting to find out what was in store for the gods world and the mortal world.
Each relationship during this war, was real and one of a kind, full of love, heartbreak and betrayal.

“War only makes love flame brighter, defiant. It seems to bloom from the bloodshed you leave behind, unfurling from the most unlikely of places. From the broken seams of the world. From the graves and the anguish and the fear you inspire.”

The connection to divine rivals in the epilogue was everything we wanted 🥰

I’m curious to see if we will get a story of Dacre and Enva, so much to explore now that this world has been opened!

Thank you to NetGalley, St.Martins Press and Saturday Books for the eARC 💕

Rebecca’s writing is absolutely stunning. The way she strings together words so brilliantly you become fully immersed in the world and story. I will read absolutely anything Rebecca writes.

I loved Divine Rivals, but I found Ruthless Vows disappointing.

Let me just say, Wild Reverance had me in a choke hold. I was so enthralled with the first 2 acts of the book. I LOVED learning more about the Skywards and the Underlings. I think it is because I've always been interested in a pantheon. The world building really fleshed out the godly realms and characters, and I was hear for it.

Going into Act 3/second half of the story, I found that the story started to lose me. I wasn't interested in delving into human squabbles. This could have been because of the mood I was in - I'm a very big mood reader.

Overall though, I feel like the beginning really carried my vibes thru this one so 4/5.

I have never felt so conflicted to write a book review. I’m most likely going to get some crap for this but..OH WELL.

First I want to mention I went into this book completely blind. Started reading it and realized OMG this is a prequel to Divine Rivals. Now when I say prequel I mean Wild Reverence literally takes place years before The Divine Rivals duology even begins. As someone who is a huge fan of Divine Rivals I say this with a 100% certainty you should read that duology first before tackling Wild Reverence. Without spoilers just do it, you will thank me later.

Anyway, back to my initial conflict with this review. Wild Reverence was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025. I mean come on have you seen the Fairyloot special edition just stunning. Plus even the first round printed edition is beautiful. So because of this I had huge expectations. After finishing the book I have to say I was expecting so much more. Now I’m not saying I hated it. But it did leave me feeling disappointed. Especially in terms of the romance. Like Rebecca, I love you, you write such beautiful love stories. I mean come on you gave us Iris & Roman. Forever top tiered romance couple of all time. And trust me I was swooning for Matilda and Vincent. But their journey just left me wanting more. And I feel like they never reached the relationship pinnacle I had idealized in my head. Again that’s not to say I didn’t love them, believe me I did. I just wanted more.

My other big problem in this book is the same problem I had with Divine Rivals. The first 40% of Wild Reverence is extremely slow and very HEAVY on the world building. If you’ve followed me for a while I mentioned I DNF’d Divine Rivals 3 times before I finally powered through. That same thing happened for me here, but I knew I just had to push through, trust Rebecca’s process because it will be worth it. And I was correct even though the beginning is extremely overwhelming and at times boring. It was worth it all to see the ending come to fruition.

Speaking of the ending. Those last few chapters made everything worth it. If it hadn’t have been for that I may have shocked everyone by giving this a 2 star rating. But that last 20% brought it home for me. Vincent & Matilda finale gave me so much joy and my face hurt from smiling so much. And then that epilogue?!?!!!!! I was screaming. Seeing the connections come to fruition in the last few chapters made everything worth it. Overall, even though I had my ups and downs with this book. I would still highly recommend it. And I can’t wait to see everyone reading and reacting to this once it releases on September 2! Lastly big thank you to NetGalley, Rebecca Ross, and Saturday books for providing me an arc to read and review.

I was very excited to read this book after absolutely loving Divine Rivals. You don’t have to read that duology to read Wild Reverence, but there are Easter eggs that are more fun if you’ve read it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book but I did have mixed feelings along the way. This book has a lot of world building that filled up a lot of the story, in my opinion. Yet, I still am left with a lot of questions. I hope there are more books set in this world so I can learn more. Also, this book is definitely a slow burn. On top of there being a lot of world building, there’s a lot of telling stories instead of showing them. This happens because the timeline of this book spans over decades. But I’m someone who enjoys dialogue between characters so this took some getting used to.

The book starts with Matilda, the female main character, being born and you go through her childhood and that’s when you learn a chunk of world building. Very little of the first 20% of the book is dialogue due to this. After she’s an adult and the true plot starts, there is more dialogue and current scenes happening but there are still spans of just telling us what’s been happening over the span of days, weeks, or even years. This being said, this author writes very beautifully and I do truly enjoy her writing.

While I think very few couples can top Iris and Roman in Divine Rivals, I really enjoyed the romance of this book. It had some tropes that I find enjoyable. The tropes aren’t too in your face and fit the plot, so don’t let that deter you. This book was slow burn for most of it but did get a bit suspenseful near the end as in I just didn’t know what would happen next and had to keep flipping pages to find out.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the epilogue had me gasping. I will continue reading books by this author.

Thaaank you for this being Read Now! One of my most anticipated reads

The vibes were incredible! For all of the books in this world I struggle to clearly visualize the world but for some reason it works anyway. Ross’ writing is so magical, atmospheric and beautiful I was swept away with the story sort of like a dream.

I loved reading about the creation, gods and how they live. This was all so interesting and Bade- how I love him. I got so attached to Vincent, Matilda and really everyone in the world. I loved it.

This book is all about the vibes and dreamy quality. For me, it gives a similar vibe as Laini Taylor’s books.

Thanks to NetGalley and Saturday Books for the ARC

This book CHANGED my life. It’s even better than Divine Rivals?!

Ugh her way with words 🥹

I absolutely adored the Letters of Enchantment series and was so excited to see this was set in the same world but this time focusing more on the gods. The writing was the same beautiful and eloquent writing that Rebecca Ross is known for but for some reason I had a harder time immersing myself into this story. I think the book was too long to read on kindle and I started to get fatigue after a while. The middle of the book did slow down a good bit and made it feel sluggish trying to get through it. I really did enjoy the beginning and ending, it just felt like maybe there was too much happening but also nothing really happening in the middle. The ending and how everything tied up was so delightful though! It was heart breaking at times and lovely at others. I really enjoyed Vincent and Matilda and my heart broke for them and the tragedies that surrounds them. I think if the pacing had been slightly faster and I would have read the physical or had an audio as well, I would have given this all the stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Saturday Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I haven't read Divine Rivals, but I figured I would give Wild Reverence a try. I felt it was very slow and you were missing so much going on due to Matilda being all over the place. The book was very long for not a lot of action. The world building was very dense. The chemistry between the main characters was also lacking. Overall, I felt the story line was good, just needed a better execution.

spice: 1/5 (ch 67 84)

➸ 5 stars

“For anyone who has ever had to let go of someone they love”

𓈀 🪻 𓄹𓂃 thank you to netgalley and st. martin’s press for the advanced readers copy!

“And I wondered how it was possible for my heart to miss something that I had never experienced.”

this book. THIS. BOOK. i loved everything about it. rebecca’s writing is so utterly beautiful and magical. i was so immersed in this book and this story. being back in the world of divine rivals felt like coming home but it also made me look at that series with an entirely different perspective! i highly recommend going into this book blind!!

“Love amongst immortals is a weakness.”

we learn more about the entirety of the gods; powers, motivations, lifestyle, etc!! it was so intriguing to me and like nothing i’ve ever read before! we got to see some of the gods that were introduced in divine rivals and knowing more about them in depth added to much that was missing in the duology!

“He held me like a mortal father embraces his daughter, like nothing could tear me from him.”

i will have to say my favorite god is bade, he wasnt the main focus but his story was SO interesting!!! the letter, adria, everything after that!! his relationship to matilda brought tears to my eyes.

“I could have fallen to my knees to know I had been dreaming of her all this time.”

in this story, we have the goddess x mortal trope which was EVERYTHING.

it all starts with a dream. a boy with nightmares and a goddess who answers. a bond that formed to protect from the fears that haunt. their first meeting was EVERYTHING TO ME. it was so pure.

i loved how we got a lot of backstory before getting into the main plot, it added so much depth!!

full, in-depth review is available on my goodreads!

Set centuries before the time of Divine Rivals, Wild Reverence follows Matilda and Vincent as their fates and tragedies intertwine.

As always from Rebecca Ross, this was so beautifully written. I'm obsessed with her brand of lyricism and this didn't disappoint! There's something so poignant about it that brings the world and the feelings of the characters to life, making it so easy to fall into Matilda and Vincent's story and to get attached also to the people they love. I really enjoyed how Matilda and Vincent's relationship was built, and of course there was the yearning that Ross knows how to do so well!

Matilda is a descendant of both Skyward and Underling gods, so it was a treat to explore those aspects that felt like mostly just a backdrop in Iris and Roman's story. Vincent's mortal life was also fleshed out well with nice little name drops to Oath. I felt like there was a good balance of keeping this prequel very much its own story while dropping in Easter egg connections to the world's future!