This sneak peek of the Wild Reverence audiobook was a great taste of the story. The amount of gods mention was a bit overwhelming but I think it was just because it was the beginning and introductions are usually heavy in this part of a fantasy book. I can’t wait to finish!

Rebecca Ross can do no wrong!

I was so impressed with the storyline I forgot it was only a sneak peek!

Set in the same work as Divine Rivals, but can be read without knowledge of the previous series. A story of love, trust, fate, and self discovery.

Prepare to be swept away!

First, thank you so much for the opportunity to listen and review! Rebecca Ross is one of my favorite authors, this was a HUGE fan girl moment for me.

The narrators are sublime! I enjoyed hearing the story from their voices. The story is dreamy, lyrical and beautiful. The longing could be felt listening to each POV, I imagine it comes through on the pages as well.

I am a simp for miss rebecca Ross! Her stories are always so good! You feel like you're there when you read or listen or one of her books! This one was so lush and full of imagery. And it was so good to be back in this world again!

Loved the audiobook narrators! I think they captured Vincent and Matilda so beautifully! This is such a beautiful story expanding the world we see in The Letters of Enchantment duology. Rebecca’s writing is so lyric and poetic that it did take me a few chapters to get used to again but I think that just makes me savor the story all the more.

This book is a beautiful exploration of mortals and gods! I was hooked form the beginning and can’t wait to read the rest

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

Matilda, a young goddess with messenger magic, has spent her life surviving a ruthless world of power-hungry gods and dangerous secrets. But when she is sent to deliver a letter to Vincent, a mortal who once dreamed of her during the worst night of his life, their long-fated connection reignites. As their paths finally cross in the waking world, Matilda must choose between self-preservation and risking everything for love, even if it means changing the fate of the gods themselves.

Rebecca Ross reminds me why I love to read every time I finish one of her books. This story blew me away over and over again. I was captivated by the audiobook as well. I highly recommend it, one of the best audiobooks I've listened to (first 18 ch's) all year! It makes you want to sit with each sentence and pull it around you like a shawl of comfort. This was written so poetically but grounded in storytelling; everything feels purposeful and important. I kept reassuring myself that it would work out fine in the end, but I didn’t truly believe it. There isn’t a moment of rest in this story. When I tell you everything felt high stakes, it truly did. I fell in love with these characters — I was rooting for them and on the edge of my seat.

Bade, if you were real, I’d find a way to the Underling realm and be your best friend.

This is my favorite romantasy I’ve ever read. The sacrifice and love that Matilda and Vincent had knows no bounds. I can’t wait to read all three books and cry all over again. The epilogue (screamingggg… so freaking good).

Divine Rivals was imprinted on my soul the moment I read it, and Wild Reverence was no different. It’s achingly beautiful. Rebecca was born to write — her use of words is such a gift, and I’m eternally grateful to experience it.

So far so good!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this sneak peak!
I'm a huge fan of Rebecca Ross' writing and I was definitely hooked from the first line!
I can only speak of the first 18 chapters so far but I really like it!
Rebecca Ross definitely knows who to tug on your heartstrings, but damn I was not expecting the first 18 chapters to devastate me the way they did!
The writing is stellar as always and the narrators are doing an absolutely fantastic job! Matilda's narrator especially is really good ab out giving characters distinct voices.
I'll post my full review once I've finished the book!

Thank you MacMillan Audio for this audiobook sample.

Oh how I loved returning to the world of the “Letter of Enchantment” series! I have missed Rebecca Ross’s writing; so rich and beautiful.

I needed more than 18 chapters of this wonderful book! So far I am hooked!

First or all I'm not good at listening to audiobooks but the chosen narrator did such a good job at narrating the book. The book was beautifully written. I felt like I was a part of the story, a part of Matilda. It was both magical and emotional and it had all the tropes I love: Found family, slow burn romance and forbidden romance. (Will come back to write more).

Thank you Macmillan audio for this sneak peek of the Wild Reverence audiobook.

I have to admit that I read the arc before the alc. So the characters were drawn up pretty solid in my mind. I had voices for them, I had personalities all firm in place.

The alc came in and did PERFECT JUSTICE to all of it. Matilda and Vincent sounded just like I imagined they would.

The pacing of the audiobook, their accents is done beautifully. 10/10 no notes.

I can't wait to listen to the finished audiobook!

Rebecca Ross has once again woven a spellbinding tale with Wild Reverence, a lush and lyrical story that lingers like a half-remembered dream. From the first page, I was captivated by the mythic richness of the world she’s crafted, a realm steeped in ancient lore, envied power, forgotten gods and the lingering ache of fate.

Like many of her novels one of the most striking strengths is how deeply character-driven it is. The relationships at the heart of Wild Reverence, whether between allies, enemies or something heartbreakingly in between, are profound and emotionally charged. Ross doesn’t rush anything, she lets bonds develop with care and nuance, grounding even the most fantastical elements in human emotion. The pull of Matilda and Vincent drawls you in like a vortex and slowly devours you as you begin to plead for their happy ending. You feel the weight of loyalty, betrayal, sacrifice and that quiet, constant pull of yearning that never quite lets go.

The slow-burn romance is utterly exquisite, so much more than just chemistry or trope fulfillment. It's built on shared glances, aching silences and unspoken truths. You feel every inch of the distance between Matilda and Vincent when they are separated, making every tiny moment of closeness feel monumental. It’s the kind of love that creeps up like dawn: inevitable, gentle and full of light.

And then there’s the world itself to marvel at! Ancient, mysterious and layered with myth. Ross has a rare talent for making magic feel old and sacred, not just powerful. The magic of this world feels like a living character in its own right, with legends that echo through the land and touch every choice the characters make.

Wild Reverence delivers a yearning love that feels like poetry, a world that hums with forgotten power and characters whose hearts are as haunted yet hopeful. I will never skip a Rebecca Ross novel!

This story kept my interest at every turn and was never boring or predictable. Matilda is a character I won’t soon forget. She is humble, honorable, kind and thoughtful, none of which you might expect of a God. If you liked the Devine Rivals series pick up this book!

My Selling Pitch:
Paint dries faster than this plot moves. Genderbent Hermes/Charon marries the Lord of Riverrun in a Greek mythology fairytale mashup that’s conservatively 200 pages too long. You don't need to read Divine Rivals to read this. Skippable.

Pre-reading:
I LOVED Divine Rivals, and I pretend Ruthless Vows does not exist, so she's 50/50 for me. I have a bad feeling about this one because the part of Divine Rivals that worked so well for me was when it read like War Horse, and then I hated Ruthless Vows because she tried to add more magic to an already broken system, and it never made sense. So it’s like girl, you wanna add even more? I'm nervous, Rebecca.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
This woman is obsessed with the word lintel. (It’s in here 14 times too many.)

A godly paternity test

So she's a mailman lmao.

I’m an hour in, and I’m bored.

All this for a Spotify subscription?

Someone needs to ban Ross from using the word lintel.

So far this is just genderbent Hermes and a total snoozefest.

Holy instalove!

Camaraderie, I mean 🎶

Wish I was a DNFer because I’m at 12% and WOOF. She forgot how to show not tell.
Divine Rivals worked because he was like oh no, my work wife forgot her coat. I have to bring it to her. You know, because we're such enemies and rivals at our job, and if she gets a cold, it wouldn't be a fair fight. I'm just like really health-conscious and totally not in love with her. BRB have to go take a literal bomb for her.
And this book is like we played together in our dreams!
And the audience is like OK, what'd you do?
And the book is like we played together in our dreams!
And then he's like she's the bravest girl I've ever met!
And the audience is like bitch, where? You haven't even had dialogue together yet! How are you in love?

If you wanna keep her parentage a secret, but then you start saying his name and you gave us a list of people in the damn book. I’m gonna know who he is. Also, who else was he gonna be other than fake Zeus?

So a Hermes Charon hybrid and she can escort people back to the living and we’ll Orpheus and Eurydice this bitch? (Yup.)

Oh, come on, she’s his manic, pixie dream girl. This is annoying.

Wow, parents do not live in Ross books.

Why is she so afraid of being questioned though? Her mom’s dead. They can’t do anything else.

So they got Red Wedding-ed. Copy.

Paint dries faster than this book. I know it’s long, but we’re 25% in, and I’m still waiting for a point.

Why didn’t we just start the book here and flashback to their childhood with way less development because it was not important and it was boring?

Like is it ever gonna be relevant that she fucked Warin? I feel like no. I feel like I didn't need all this to explain where she got a god killing weapon from. I really hope we're not going the comically evil, toxic ex-boyfriend route because a girl, is tired. (SO TIRED.)

So what he’s gonna become the bridge keeper, and she’s gonna ferry them across the bridge? I’m already bored. (Negative.)

I am so tired of hearing about people‘s outfits.

Is she allergic to the word left? (16 times, I need a sinister EpiPen.)

You know, I did ask if Warin would ever be relevant again, and she’s like yeah yeah, bitch. Here you go. Unfortunately, I think I manifested this.

But she said gods can’t drown and you drown by not having air to breathe underwater, so why would she need the slippers to breathe underwater?

It has gotten better, but the pacing is still ridiculous.

Second chance, marriage of convenience for this is crazy. (And barely relevant.)

Are we sure he’s not a bastard? I’m always suspicious when they’re like oh, he just takes after his mom.

It got better, but now it’s just Hermes marries Rob Stark😂 like they’re basically at Riverrun.

Why is Grimald giving Scar and my favorite character? (Possibly some of the audiobook narrator’s influence, but I was grasping for anything redeemable about this book.)

Oh, is he a secret demigod too then? (We really just ignore his mom.)

He who shall not be named, OK Voldemort.

Hey Rebecca, what the fuck kind of line was that? How easy it would’ve been for him to rape me when we were kids in my dreams and he’s a good boy because he didn’t do that? Fuck off, that’s not even bare minimum! Oh, I HATE it here!

I feel like he’s gonna ask for the shoes to be returned after they fuck or after she tells him about the prayer or he discovers it on her and he’ll be like you betrayed me, you knew all along! But she won't get to explain and he’ll feel ghosted and abandoned all over again.

It is a fun mishmash of Greek myths like this is Apollo and Daphne.

I’m having a much better time.

Can’t wait for the get your hands off my wife.

Milky from a dude is a choice, Ross.

Why an editor didn’t tell her to scrub all of part one is beyond me.

This should be dual timeline flashbacks to them in childhood with what’s going on now, and it would be a much better book.

Part one should've been an email.

Oh never mind, not a godly bastard if they can't have kids.

They separated the couple and went back to this god shit, and I’m bored again.

I just wanna homestead with my trad wife! Ugh, it’s so hard living in feudal luxury doing fuckall!

The book: she's a kestrel
Sam: cough, carrier pigeon

You can’t just throw around the word yearning and be like yearning is so back. Don’t tell me they’re yearning. Show me it! I’m so cranky at this book.

It’s so repetitive! Stop telling us stuff we just read!

Through no fault of its own, I’ve been stuck picturing a precocious 12-year-old and an ex-boyfriend this entire time lol.

See, I’d be so down for this if it wasn’t happening so early with so much instalove. I love an I’m overwhelmed by magic, but my lover boy brings me back to myself moment, but not this. Everything feels so unearned. It’s like good tropes, but we haven’t earned them yet.

Imagine you’re in the middle of battle just watching these two idiots grope each other while a tower falls.

It’s very she’s everything, he’s Ken.

Why are we flashing back to part one? You already made me read it once. FFS!

It got much better, but holy fuck, part one should’ve been an email.

She makes me read so much shit in this book, and then she taunts me with what if they took a bath together and doesn’t give it to me? That’s so rude! I love a fantasy bath scene. I'm just a girl!

I feel like there’s gonna be a thing with the poison again where she’s immune to it, but the other god isn’t, and she’s able to lie and maybe he summons her to return the shoes while she’s like trying to save Vincent so then he gets stuck in the wastes? (Dead wrong lol.)

I feel like she’s trying to Song of Achilles this, and I’m just kind of bored, but I don’t like that book either, so. Maybe this book would work better for you if you actually like that one.

Why would you make it out of iron again if you know he can get through iron?

Can we not make obsidian hinges? I don’t know how it works. I go to Home Depot and look lost.

It’s not giving gay enemies to lovers. It’s giving gay master slave romance, and I want no part of that if that’s the direction she’s going.

They always fuck the nurse smh.

So Abraxos. I feel like every good part of this book is ripped from something else.

I hope that creature isn’t dead, but it’s not looking good.

But like if you had just put the cloak on, you’d be invisible, and they couldn’t find you. This is stupid.

Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

Are the missing people third-borns and tithed to Warin now? (Yup.)

Let it go is so tainted by Frozen.

God in bed trope lol

Am I the only one who’s either like write smut or fade to black?

Also, you want me to believe some random dude who can’t swim, slings it better than a god? Bitch, please.

I’m kind of so checked out. It was like redeeming itself for a little bit, and then we went back to the god shit, and I was like wow, I still don’t care!

It's all fun and games til that ED hits.

Dude, I told you. It happens every time! I’m so sick of all the we just slept together for the first time, time to abandon the other person now that happens in fantasy. It’s so stupid!

This book needs to keep up with me. I’ve already made it here. This isn’t a twist.

She’s like writing an intense battle scene, and I’m so checked out I’m literally online grocery shopping.

Let the bodies hit the floor🎶

Take a shot every time someone bites their lip in this book.

None of the villains really have motivation. They’re just dicks for being dicks.

He’s invisible. He still has footprints. You’re in snow. What are we doing?

Y’all have got to learn sticky notes and loopholes.

Does that mean he doesn’t have pants on? Did Homie really come out to fight without pants on?

But isn’t she fine because she’s gonna go to the wastes and then have to serve the lady? (Yup.)

Maybe you should warn people that they’re about to go through their greatest nightmare instead of just cryptically saying don’t let go.

Also, I know I’m a bitchy Capricorn, but I feel like the dream where you were being clawed apart by monsters and suffocating is way worse than unstable footing and some bitch telling you to leave when you’re literally trying to leave.

me: snarking all book
her: war daddy
me: OK fine, that’s a little cute. Like it’s Hallmarkian, but it’s good messaging, and I would’ve been upset if he hadn’t escaped so-

Oh shit, they’re not out yet. Rebecca, I swear to god-
Oh fuck, he’s gonna look back for her. Don’t turn Orpheus and Eurydice into familial love. Ouchie!
OK, I think it would’ve been devastating if he had looked back.
And like I do like him, so I don’t want him to die, but also-

I like how we’ve kind of gotten a mishmash of fairytales in this too. Like we have Little Red Riding Hood. We have Cinderella. We have Snow White. Sleeping Beauty.

Like I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad book. It’s just the pacing is ridiculous, and there’s nothing adult about this.

Vince buddy, you’ve got a kingdom to run. I guess his brother can do it. I keep forgetting that the brother is alive again lol.

Weirdly, you can also take a shot every time this book says trebuchet. Like I don’t think it’s out of place for the war part of this novel, but how many times can she say it?

He’s got him on a leash like a dog or like Spirit and Rain. I spat.

You know who wasn’t such a whiny bitch about it, Arin of Nizahl.

No, he didn’t turn a close enemy into a friend. He enslaved him. Let’s be clear. There’s some whack power dynamics going on there.

I’m so glad he can go live his homesteading dreams. What a hunk. The Capricorn is just like you've no money, and no prospects. You're a burden to your neighbors, and you're seven years closer to death. And if you're like Samantha, you love a cowboy romance, horses are expensive and they have indoor plumbing.

I think every meadow scene is tainted by Twilight for me.

So you’re just gonna steal someone’s cottage? Where’s that land deed, buddy? I know we’re in medieval times, but that shit‘s on Zillow.

What, she’s making her a fucking transcriptionist? Ye olde court stenographer? Can’t wait for the Kindle Unlimited girlies' judgment day with just excruciatingly detailed smut, and she’s like write that down, write that down! Like when Jesenia’s jotting down Violet’s chair escapades lmao. We gotta get this woman speech to text.

No, he’s gonna go back and murder her.
Or not. Boo.

Oh, we’re doing letters through the wardrobes again.

How the fuck do they have this much produce to spare for some random?

I love collies. I have one.

See, I knew they were going that direction. Oh, but it irritates me. I’m sure they like freed him from his slavery first, I’m just like oh my god, too close for comfort.

Me: I’ve gotta be almost done. They’re basically reunited.
My audiobook: over an hour remaining
Bruh, this book is too long.

She like almost convinces me to care about a character, and then she drags it out so long that I’m just annoyed.

I am so sick of fated romances eating soup. Like does Campbell’s have stock in the industry at this point?

Imagine you haven’t gotten laid in 7+ years and your first foray back is literal god tier pussy.

Don’t say kiss the dew. You licked his sweat, ya nasty.

What do you mean epilogue??? They've got a life expectancy of maybe twenty years. Happily ever after, he caught the plague.

Dear books, you will never convince me immortality bad.

Pressed down on the Iris and Roman keys, and then I don’t remember the other two characters lol. Oh lmao, I'm a dumbass. Matilda and Vincent.

Once again, the audiobook lied to me, and there was not an hour left. There was maybe 10 minutes. I’m so glad I put this off until this morning.

Post-reading:
With love and respect, Rebecca, put the word lintel down.

I don't think this is a bad book, but I also don't think it received a single round of edits. I think they saw the numbers Divine Rivals did and let her go. This should've been a tight 350 and they let her bloat it into 540. I'd love to see what got cut because they didn't trim an ounce of fat from this, and it ruins, and I do mean RUINS, the reading experience.

The entirety of part one should've been an email. This book is a slog. The pacing is all over the place. We blitz through the politicking and grind to a halt for the godly bits so we can wax poetic about how people smell. It is abusively repetitive.

The concept isn't horrible. It's a mishmash of Greek mythology and princessy fairytales, but it does feel like all the good bits were just cherry-picked from other stories. I think it desperately wants to be Song of Achilles. The villain felt like Scar. The wyvern scene is a Throne of Glass rerun. The castle and MMC’s backstory is Game of Thrones’ Riverrun.

The romance is forced and instalove. Divine Rivals captured yearning so well and despite this book asserting that it too yearns over and over again, it never felt like it. It was hard to feel anything for the characters. Call me a heartless Capricorn, but I was rooting for the villain because spectacularly failing a siege only to come back with more men than the most milquetoast, avoidant man was able to scrounge up from his op-ed kingdom is way more impressive than forgetting to send away the young and elderly until your manic pixie dream goddess reminds you to. What does homeboy do? Mope and eat her out? He's actually useless the entire book, and his big dream is absconding from his responsibilities to homestead where luckily he has the world’s friendliest and most affluent peasant neighbors to teach him how to till soil.

There's a lot of plot points and cited motivations that make absolutely no sense. Gods can't drown, but she needs magic shoes to breathe underwater. They lost the last battle because jet fuel can’t melt steel beams but gods can, so obviously they should replace those hinges with…more steel. Can you hear the eyeroll? Good. (And yes, I know it’s iron if we wanna get technical about it, but Fe doesn't snark as well.) Villains are evil for the sake of being evil. It’s supposed to be some grand, tragic love story, but it boils down to we hung out once as kids and have been miscommunicating ever since, but you're hot, so let’s get married. There's a problematic little dip in the story where I think she thought she was adding a compelling enemies to lovers gay romance, but it is way too close to master slave dynamics for me. Let’s all just plug our ears and pretend he’s freed from service before they makeout.

Nothing about this book felt adult besides some awkward sex scenes. Write me smut, or fade to black, you absolute coward. Otherwise, it just comes off cringey.

Unfortunately, I think this takes the weakest part of Divine Rivals- the nonsensical magic system and bastardization of the Greek pantheon- and makes it longer. I didn't care about it the first time around, and I definitely don't care about it on the third.

I liked the villainous uncle and neutering the god of war by marrying him off to peace. I liked the Hallmarkian bit where she saves her father figure, although I still think the book shouldn't have shied away from the absolute gut punch that would’ve been Orpheus and Eurydicing familial love. Hoo baby, that would've hit!

So who’s this book for? I think it utterly fails as a romance and functions better as a Greek myth retelling, but there's so many other books that actually bill themselves that way and do it better, that I don't think this should be what you reach for if you want another spin on Mount Olympus. I don't think this has anything to do with divine rivals other than a handful of cameos, so if you're looking for more romantic World War I vibes, you're going to be sorely disappointed. They function independently of each other. You do not need to read Divine Rivals to read this, and if you've somehow missed out on reading that YA juggernaut, it's so dissimilar from this book, you won't recognize it as the same series.

I think Ross is unfortunately a one hit wonder for me. Her two other books haven't captured the whimsy and painful, quiet romanticism of the prose in Divine Rivals. These other two have been wordy things, but they just feel punishing rather than worthwhile. There's a strong whiff of Christian fiction about them, and I don't think she pushes the envelope enough to earn genre crossover status, or to necessitate an adult fiction warning. If we're still shelving boys of to men as YA, and to be clear, I don't think we should, then we shouldn't be letting this escape the YA section when the literal god of war’s worst nightmare is unstable footing and getting rejected by a woman.

I'd give this a skip, but if you're a closure fiend like me, it will at least become tolerable after part one. It’ll never get good, but at least things start to happen once you leave the useless childhood backstory. I think it was a bad decision to tell this story chronologically, and I think a dual timeline would've injected some much needed tension. I probably won't be picking this author up again unless I hear rave reviews about a release.

Who should read this:
Greek Mythology fans

Ideal reading time:
Winter. There's a lot of snow.

Do I want to reread this:
No.

Would I buy this:
No, but I did get the Fairyloot so it would match Divine Rivals, and now I regret it.

Similar books:
* The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller-Wattpad Greek myth retelling, queer romance
* The Longest Autumn by Amy Avery-fantasy romance, queer, gods
* Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis-fairytale villain retelling, fantasy romance
* The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim-myth retelling, urban fantasy, mystery, fated romance
* Soulgazer by Maggie Rapier-fantasy romance, marriage of convenience
* The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig-fantasy romance, gods
* The Geographer’s Map to Romance by India Holton-campy, historical, fantasy romance, marriage of convenience
* The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers-fairytale retelling, magical realism, romance, family drama, gods
* Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou-greek myth retelling, YA dystopian, urban fantasy, romance, mystery, family drama, fated love
* Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon-greek myth retelling, lit fic, family drama, social commentary

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wish i had the whole audiobook so i could tandem read, but love the audiobook so much! Luckily i also received the arc of the book :)

Honestly, I should have never downloaded this sneak peek. Let me tell you why!! This audiobook was so flipping good that when I got to the end of my sneak peek, I screamed. You know that feeling when you're craving a nice crispy Sprite from McDees, and you take your first sip only to find out it's soda water... Well, imagine that, and now you know how I felt. I have never been so teased in my life. Honestly, everything about this audio was fantastic. The narrator knocked it out of the park. She took my hand and transported me into this magical world.

Based on this sneak peak it seems like an amazing read and a heartfelt story. The narrator is puts a lot of emotion into their reading and pronounces everything very well! Cannot wait to read the whole book!

Thank you netgalley for the sneak peak!

I already devoured this book so this is my complete review on it:

Rebecca Ross has completely stolen my heart again—Wild Reverence was breathtaking from start to finish. Her writing has this lyrical, soul-deep quality that makes every page feel like poetry, and this story in particular was one of those rare books that I wanted to both devour in a single sitting and savor slowly so it would never end.

The atmosphere was absolutely stunning. Ross paints worlds with such vivid, sensory detail that you feel like you’re living inside them. The landscapes, the magic, the cultural textures—they all leapt off the page in a way that made me ache with wonder. I could see every moment unfolding, like watching a dream while being wide awake.

But what makes this book unforgettable are the characters. The FMC was fierce and tender all at once—brave in her choices, vulnerable in her doubts, and beautifully layered in a way that made me connect with her instantly. I loved how her journey wasn’t just about external battles but also about learning who she is, what she values, and how to honor both her heart and her responsibilities. The MMC was equally compelling: flawed, magnetic, and carrying burdens that made every interaction with him heavy with meaning. Together, their dynamic was everything—angsty, tender, and shot through with a reverence (pun intended!) that made me feel their love story in my bones.

The romance was slow-burning perfection. Every glance, every brush of hands, every hard-won moment of trust had me absolutely swooning. Ross is so good at writing love stories that don’t just feel romantic, but epic. It’s not just about passion—it’s about connection, respect, and a deep sense of fate.

Beyond the romance, Wild Reverence is also a story about loyalty, sacrifice, and the ways we navigate power and tradition. The themes were woven in so naturally that they never felt heavy-handed—they just sank into you as you read, making you think while also breaking your heart.

And the ending… I won’t spoil it, but it left me with tears in my eyes and my heart absolutely full. It was poignant, bittersweet, and so satisfying. One of those endings that stays with you, echoing long after you’ve closed the book.

Rebecca Ross has once again proven why she’s one of my most liked authors. She blends fantasy, romance, and lyrical storytelling in a way that feels timeless. Wild Reverence is the kind of book that makes you fall in love with reading all over again. Five brilliant stars—I’ll be recommending this to everyone who loves stories that are both magical and deeply human.

I should start by saying I have not read the series this prequel is based on. I originally found it very slow, but by Chapter 18 I can definitely say I am hooked and will be reading the rest. The prose is lyrical and captivating, and the narrators have done a wonderful job.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this preview of the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Following completing the Letters of Enchantment Duology, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect with this prequel book but I was excited to dive in! This preview gave a taste of what was to come in the rest of the book and I was engaged through the telling of Matilda and Vincent’s story, I am very grateful to have received this preview of one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year and look forward to continuing this story!