5 ⭐️

Review:

I do not think I could love an author more! Rebecca’s writing is just so beautiful. Her characters are so wonderfully developed, that you can’t help but feel something for them/with them. And this book is no different. It falls into the same world as divine rivals and I would definitely recommend reading it in between the first and second book of that duology. This one does focus more on a goddess, Matilda, and a human, Vincent. && the way that they yearn for each other, is EVERYTHING!

Summary:

Matilda was not supposed to be here. Born from parents of the underworld, and the sky world it was supposed to be forbidden. However, she is able to remain a secret for a while as she starts to discover who she is. Tasked with delivering messages to, and from the gods, with her abilities to enter both worlds. But there’s one anomaly besides her, that doesn’t fit. A human boy, Vincent, Has been dreaming about her. And after gaining the courage to meet him, her thoughts frequently are with him. But then she is sent to deliver a letter to him. He has been doomed to no longer live, but Matilda would risk her heart and immortality to save him.

Favorite Quote:

“Dear Matilda,
You have been gone for three days and I have never been more conscience of time before now. I count the hours, listening for the bells to mark them. I collect each moment that you’ve been away, And I feel them gather in my bones like winter.
I long for you.
I do not know when this happened, when the current rose, and I let it take me, willingly, but there came a moment when I looked at you and could not breathe. there was a moment when I watch you depart, and I wanted to fall to my knees.
I know that you and I come from different realms, and that you will be prone to wander, as your magic prompt you. And I am a man with fruit and a set number of days allotted to me. That I do not want to waste. My life feels brief as the due when I compare it to your ocean, but if you will have me, this is what I offer you.
My home is your home. My arms are a haven for you to rest. Mine last name is yours if you desire it. I will love you to my grave, and even beyond it, when the Miss welcomed me, when I am hopefully very old and gray and grouchy and have spent the season beside you when you are here and dreaming of you when you are gone.
I love you, dearly, red.
Come home to me. Return to me, when you can. I will be watching the skies in the river until then.
Yours
Vincent“

Tropes:
• gods/goddesses
• found family
• magical powers
• political intrigue?

*5 Stars*
Summary: Such a heartbreaking yet comforting return to this world.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was invested, emotionally enthralled, and stressed the heck out. I haven’t been this worried while reading a book in a while.

Things I Liked:

- The Writing: Just as lyrical and storyteller-esque as with the Letters of Enchantment duology. I both love and hate (because it makes me sad) reading books that shape the characters as legends soon forgotten by mortal kind, and this book nails that tone.

- Matilda: What a great protagonist to follow. She’s strong and brave and confident yet uncertain and passionate and multifaceted. I loved seeing the world of the gods through her eyes, and I loved her powers and how she used them. I could really feel how godlike she felt to those around her.

- Vincent: Another great character to follow. Same as Matilda, he’s such a strong character who both knows and doesn’t know what he wants, exploring what it means to be a man who has “everything” and wants none of it.

- Bade & Secondary Characters: I loved just how filled out the world felt, especially in regards to the side characters. They all felt like they were people in their own right (especially Bade, I loved his relationship with Matilda). Even those meant to just be plot points or solely moved a scene forward, I felt like I was getting a glimpse into a real person crossing paths with our main characters. Great antagonists as well!

- The Worldbuilding: In the LoE duology, the gods are all dead, and we know virtually nothing of their world. I am so so glad we learn about it here, both realms plus the wastelands. Such a richly explored divinity system.

Things I Didn’t Like:

- Really only two minor things. Pacing felt off at times, but only because of the type of story that was being told. We spent a lot of time with 12-year-old Matilda, but missed all her years growing after that until about 22/23? I wish we’d seen some of it rather than just hear about it, because it actually becomes relevant to the plot.

- The other minor thing: I just found it so weird that someone (minor SPOILER) gets married to their murderer. I saw it being set up but… so weird, especially since we never learn who that character is as a person.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I’m so satisfied with its ending, no matter how bittersweet it was!

I literally sobbed through the majority of this book. The writing was fantastic. I didn't want it to end.

A romantasy filled with drama, tension, romance, and fighting for what you believe in.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press / Saturday Books for providing an e-arc. All opinions are my own!

Short Synopsis:
Wild Reverence follows the story of Matilda, a young goddess and message carrier, who is navigating her place in the world amongst the under realm, the mortal realm the sky realm. When she’s sent to deliver a letter to Vincent, a lord in the mortal realm, it sets them on the path to become star crossed lovers amidst a battle to save Vincent’s home.

My Thoughts:
I really struggled to get into this story until closer to 50% of the way in. Had I not heard so many people raving about this one, it likely would have been a DNF. Once the story started to pick up, I absolutely loved it! The second half alone would have been five stars for me! I adored Matilda and Vincent’s romance and the ending had me near tears!

Read this one if you like:
✨ Romantasy
✨ Star crossed lovers
✨ Relationships between Gods and Mortals
✨ Slow burn

Once again Rebecca Ross has given us a story we didn’t know we needed. Wild Reverence was magical and romantic and filled with such beautiful words and world building it was hard to pull myself away once I passed the first quarter of the book. I will say that it did take me a little bit to be pulled into the story. The yearning and love between Matilda and Vincent was truly beautiful and getting to see those little Easter eggs from the other books we a fun little treat.

I definitely have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I love the way Ross crafts her sentences. However, the pacing of this book felt so off. It wasn't until 60% that the pacing started to pick up and the plot became a bit clearer to me. The last 40% of the book was amazing, but I can't get over my lack of enjoyment in the first 60%. I liked the tie-ins at the end to Divine Rivals; I thought that was well done. Not my favorite Rebecca Ross book, but I will definitely read what she writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

✨ Review: Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross ✨

Rebecca Ross delivers another lush and atmospheric romantasy with Wild Reverence. This standalone pulls readers into a world of gods, mortals, dreams, and divine politics, all wrapped in her signature lyrical prose.

Matilda’s journey—from living in fear to discovering her power—is emotional, layered, and deeply resonant. I loved the mythic atmosphere and the way Ross builds tension between Matilda and Vincent. Their star-crossed connection feels fated yet fragile, and the darker tone gives this story real weight.

That said, the pacing is slow at times, with a lot of setup before the plot really hits its stride. Some of the rules of the gods and their powers also get murky, which may frustrate readers who like more structured worldbuilding. And while the romance is tender and aching, it doesn’t always land as fully developed as I hoped.

Still, this book is enchanting and beautifully written—perfect for readers who crave immersive worlds, emotional stakes, and romance wrapped in myth and sacrifice.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Wild Reverence is the perfect follow up to the Letters of Enchantment series. Dare I say that I liked Wild Reverence better than Divine rivals? The latest Rebecca Ross book follows a goddess, Matilda. Upon her birth, Matilda is foretold to be a herald of the gods: unpowerful and therefore protected from the threat of being killed for her power. But Matilda is able to do what other gods can't. As a child of an underling goddess and skyward god, she is able to traverse all three realms. Before her travels begin, Matilda learns about the mortal realm through dreams. She reads dream scrolls, causing her to enter and meet Vincent. He is irreverent and mortal and any relationship between the two is doomed. However, their fates seem to twine time and time again, no matter the situation and the consequence.

Wild reverence is just so interesting. We're plunged into a world that we already know years prior to the original storyline. Furthermore, we're introduced to the realms and characters we haven't explored yet. We've never seen the skyward realm and we have not met nearly all of the gods. Ross has to build the world for us again because it's a different time period with new settings and there are different key players. Getting past that world-building took me a minute, but once more characters were introduced, I was completely immersed in the story. I loved Matilda's and Vincent's arcs as well as the Matilda's power is gentle yet great. This story is yet another new book that feels like it should be a classic fairytale. Rebecca Ross hit it out of the park.

Rebecca Ross does it again! I loved the tie ins to the Divine Rivals duology. It took me a bit to remember everyone’s name, but about a quarter of the way through I got really invested and couldn’t put this down. Roos has so much forethought and everything comes together so beautifully.

Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross takes place in the same world as Divine Rivals and I absolutely loved seeing more of this world 600 years before Iris and Roman. Matilda and Vincent‘s story is just epic and I absolutely loved it.
 
Matilda is born with a little bit of magic and her role is that of a messenger and she carries letters through the realms. This was so cool to see, and I loved seeing the different places and people in the realms. She is kind-hearted and humble but has dreams and secrets of her own and I just loved seeing how she pursues her own happiness and little more with each page.
 
Vincent is a mortal boy who dreams of Matilda and is begging for her help. I wanted to see even more of him because he only showed up in the middle of the book. The longing and yearning in this book were next level and I wish they’d spend more time actually being together. You only get to see glimpses of their romance and it could be so much more.
 
Matilda and Vincent‘s story is forbidden and destined by fate at the same time. I was rooting for them from the beginning and it’s the slowest of slow burn stories and some parts were definitely dragging on. This was mainly because there were a lot of time jumps and conflict after conflict and all of that wasn’t properly tied together. I really loved Matilda and Vincent and the idea of this book but sometimes it felt like the story lost its red thread.
 
This book was a lovely read and I loved returning to this world. 4 stars.
 
(Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an arc.)

Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross

Rating: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The *prequel* to Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows, gives background to the war the gods are fighting during those two books.

Matilda is the youngest goddess in the underworld and while others around her have great power, she is just a messenger. Not any threat to those around her.

Matilda meets Vincent as children, she was reading transcripts of his dreams, where he was dreaming of….her!

10 years later, Matilda and Vincent have lived their own lives with their own hardships and battles, but now they are brought together and Matilda feels compelled to help her old friend.

I liked this book and thought understanding the gods from Divine Rivals was fun but didn’t love it as much as I loved Divine Rivals.

Probably because Divine Rivals while fantasy, felt a bit more historical fiction (my jam) and this one was more typical fantasy (says the girl who doesn’t read fantasy)

Still enjoyed it and found myself rooting for Matilda and Vincent!

Thanks to #netgalley, the publisher and the author for this e-arc! It’s out now!

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. It pains me to say that even though I have loved Rebecca Ross's other books, this one missed the mark for me. The pacing of this book felt rushed and we never sat in a scene or moment long enough for me to feel attached to the characters before we were swiftly moving on to the next plot point. I had a difficult time picking this up after setting it down.
Rebecca Ross is still such a talented author and I will continue reading her books, I just wish this one felt similarly written to the other Letters of Enchantment books.

In a world where gods spill blood for power, can one goddess rewrite destiny with the help of a mortal who once dreamed of her?

First Line: Once, long ago, I believed the god of war was my father, but only because he was the first to hold me in his arms after I was born. (woman - but dramatic)

Reasons to Read:
Dream Bond ✨ — Matilda, a goddess messenger, and Vincent, a mortal lord, once connected only through dreams—until destiny brings her crashing through his window.


Godly Rivalries ⚔️ — In a realm where gods kill to steal power, Matilda must keep her secret hidden or risk becoming prey in their endless blood feud.


Fated Love 💜 — To change the violent ways of the gods, Matilda must confront her greatest fear: opening her heart to Vincent.




Would you dare to love someone fated to change the gods’ bloody game forever?


Rating: 💜💜💜💜+⚔️

Thoughts: I loved the Divine Rivals series, so I knew I had to read this book when it came out. However, the book was so slow to start that I almost stopped reading it. Thankfully, I was doing it as a buddy read and my friend Erin convinced me to keep going. I am so glad I did because this book was so beautifully written. The connection between Matilda and Vincent is very pure, especially in a world where the gods are so vicious to each other. I especially liked the connection to the Divine Rivals series that happens as well. I recommend reading those first before this one to fully get context, but this is not necessary.

Wild Reverence is lyrical, emotional, and beautifully imagined. I loved stepping into Matilda’s world and watching her connection with Vincent unfold. Their romance felt timeless, set against breathtaking mythology and vivid worldbuilding that expanded everything I loved about the Letters of Enchantment universe.

The middle section moved a little slowly, but the ending more than delivered. Rebecca Ross has created a story that feels both intimate and epic, and I know I will be thinking about these characters for a long time.

Wow! WOW!!! This book was so beautifully written.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I liked, but didn’t LOVE Divine Rivals, I didn’t really get the whole magic system and it seemed odd to me. I ended up skipping Ruthless Vows because of this. This book… THIS BOOK has changed my mind. I get it now, it all makes sense to me and I’ve already grabbed Ruthless Vows, especially after going back to DR and rereading the last bit again. This book was perfect. I couldn’t say one bad thing about it. The characters, their arcs, the world building. It was all so good. If there was anything that could be said that might seem negative, but I don’t think it is, is that the writing feels very flowery, goddess like (perfect for this book). Anyway. I loved it. I love how it can definitely be read as a standalone OR you can read it with the rest of the Letters of Enchantment series before or in the middle or after like so many will be doing.

Thank you Saturday Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Saturday books for an e-arc!

I adore Rebecca Ross, and I was so excited for this book! And it delivered on everything that I could have wanted. It was a beautiful, stunning romance on a backdrop of gods and goddesses and wars.

It brought tears to my eyes (no surprise here). She writes with some of the most evocative writing, and I am honestly in awe at it. I was suspended in just -- love for this story, for this characters. I really, really love how the world tied into Divine Rivals. It was subtle but it worked so well. I am so eager to go back and reread those two, because I feel like there is now so much more story behind it.

I'm truly at a loss for words. I just loved Vincent and Matilda. I loved her especially. I just, you know when you can't speak because you're overcome by emotion. That's how I feel about her. I just loved her entire character and character arc. I loved how Rebecca wove the story of her and Vincent together.

I just loved every moment, because it was emotional. I can still feel the hair standing up on my arms from this book. It left an amazing, overpowering feeling behind.

Ethereal, timeless and beautifully written, this book spoke to me on so many levels. 100% recommend to anyone looking for an amazing fantasy book with a strong romance subplot.

Sadly, not quite a hit for me! The first 100 pages had me feeling bored. The next 300ish pages flip-flopped, sometimes I was really engaged, and others I could not pick the book up again. The final 150 pages, though, are truly exceptional, they delivered that signature magic of Rebecca Ross that I admire. Her prose is nothing short of beautiful, her world magical, and her characters alive. While the ending was beautiful, it wasn’t quite enough to redeem the pacing and unevenness of the earlier parts.

Anyone who knows me knows that I was absolutely obsessed with Rebecca Ross' Letters of Enchantment duology that consists of Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows, so I was really excited to pick this one up and read more about the gods and the world they live in. This book acts as a sort of prequel, and focuses largely on Matilda, a messenger goddess, and her slow burn romance with Vincent, a mortal, as well as the intricate and complex relationships between the gods. I would say that the first 1/3 of this book is perfection. The worldbuilding is so beautifully written and lush - Rebecca Ross really knows how to write with a vividness that immerses you in the story. I really love the unique magic system in this, especially the concept of constellation magic, and how the gods can receive more stars and constellations if they kill other gods. I feel like I could definitely read more books that take place in this world and revolve around the dynamic of the gods.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as invested in the love story between Matilda and Vincent as I would have hoped. I was still really interested to see how their story unfolded, and they have that "I will always come back to you" dynamic that I usually LOVE (think Jamie and Claire from Outlander), but their storylines just didn't go where I necessarily expected them to. I'd definitely be interested in re-reading this in the future, and seeing if I get more out of the romance plotline.

Beautifully Wounded, Wildly Devastating. That’s the only way to describe Wild Reverence. This book felt like it was made for me—achingly gorgeous prose, raw emotion, anonymous letters full of longing, and a slow-burn romance that simmers until it scorches. It's the kind of YA fantasy that bruises you tenderly—ripping your heart out and somehow stitching it back together in the same breath. Matilda and Vincent live in my head now, whispering secrets and regrets, and I don’t think they’re leaving anytime soon.

From divine rivalries to grief-soaked love letters, this story is a fever dream of gods, war, and love that dares to defy fate. If Divine Rivals gave us ink-stained heartbreak, Wild Reverence takes it a step further—straight into a myth-woven world where shadows carry secrets and vulnerability is the bravest rebellion. I don’t know if I finished the book or if the book finished me—but either way, I’ll be recovering for a while. Easily one of my top reads of the year.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. I am giving my rating based on my own personal opinion and not that of any other party.