Enemies to lovers, he falls first, and an overall beautiful love story!!! This book was everything I could have asked for and more!!! No one gets mor magical and enchanting as Rebecca Ross and her brilliant writing!!!!

Imagine if World War I had been a conflict between Hades and Persephone, and two rival journalists head to the front lines to report on the war. That’s what you’re getting with this book. It’s not truly a Hades and Persephone retelling, but there are similarities and it gives off that vibe. Since it is set in a fantasy world, it’s not exactly historical fiction, but it features all of the same elements you’d find in one. Add in a little bit of magic (typewriters that act as antiquated email) and a cute 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗹 style romance, and you have 𝘿𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙨.

It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but oh it does. The setting and atmosphere are so vivid that it’s easy to put yourself in this world, and the characters are all likeable, clever, brave, and witty. I also really enjoy Ross’s writing because it feels deliberate. By that I mean she knows the story she wants to tell and I can trust her to tell it without any pointless or unnecessary meandering.

Overall, it’s a charming book that’s unlike anything I’ve read recently, and I am already dying for the sequel.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Amazing, emotional story. I absolutely love the characters and their development in this book. It is a very character driven book and is does have moments of dual pov. The interaction between the main character and her rival is quite innocent in a way and their relationship development had me hooked. I loved their interaction with each other although some would classify it as juvenile banter it fit with the world and characters personality. It was easy to be sucked into the story and the many things that were happening to the FMC. Ross creates a new interesting world full of magic and angry gods and how it effects this family and families around her in many ways. I cannot wait for the next book.

The back-cover copy of a book is supposed to give a reader an idea of what's in store. To set a few expectations early on. To whet the appetite. In the case of Rebecca Ross's latest novel, Divine Rivals, the blurb on the cover does nothing to set expectations. If anything, it obscures just how magical the journey ahead will be.

The tension between Iris and Roman at work is thick enough to cut with a knife, but the barbs they fling back and forth are probably sharp enough to do the job, too. Meanwhile, the vulnerability Iris feels with her magical penpal is a heartening change of pace, and lets us see enough facets of her character to really fall in love with her, and her blooming love story.

I have not always been kind about romance subplots in books, especially in YA fantasy, but Ross makes it work. The fact that she treads so heavily on ground already plowed by classics like You've Got Mail doesn't diminish how effective it is to watch the ice between Iris and Roman melt away. They are equals, butting heads. They are rivals, not yet at the top of their game, but getting there, even if they have to step on each other along the way. And those sparks make their eventual romance feel sweet and real and exciting. Enemies to lovers is a popular trope for a reason, and Ross does it well here. I found myself rooting for them just as much as I ever rooted for Kathleen and Joe.

Setting is hardly even hinted at in the aforementioned back-cover copy, which is tragic because the world they inhabit is a fascinating one. Ross takes a backdrop of magic and gods and legends and gives it a(n early) twentieth-century update, without giving into the temptation to make it steampunk. Wrathful, recently awakened gods are just as ordinary here as getting a sandwich, and the ravages of war are heightened by both advancing technology and mythical creatures. And happily, gender equality and modern acceptance of many sexualities are present here, giving readers nostalgia without the pesky bigotry of the past. (I don't remember a mention of racial equality in the Oath, but we'll give it the benefit of the doubt.)

Divine Rivals was a fun and engaging story about war and family, with a hefty dose of romance running beneath it all. One thing to note, however, is that Divine Rivals is the first book in its series. If you're looking for a happy ending, stop reading early. But if you want to whet your appetite for the sequel, carry on to the bitter end, and pray to every god in the Oath that Ross is typing faster than even Iris or Roman ever could.

(A longer version of this review will appear on RingReads.com on 4 April 2023 at 3:10 p.m. MDT at the following link: https://ringreads.com/2023/04/04/banter-in-rivals-brings-sparks-and-magic/)

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this book and how much i enjoyed it. I went into knowing nothing and only requested because of the high ( 5 star) average on netgalley, and let’s just say it is a worthy rating. Right away I was taken up with the writing style. I love the authors writing it feels so cozy, it felt like I was wrapped up in a soft warm blanket on a cold day.

A book with two rivals, pen pals, a secret identity, falling in love through letters with a touch of magic! I mean what more could you ask for ??? The romance was soo good. Iris & Roman. My beloveds. I love them individual and together so much. I can’t wait for the sequel because WOW that ending. And while I’m waiting I will be reading her other books.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC.

My heart is in pieces. Ross's writing is so beautiful. I can always picture the scenes she describes with such stunning clarity. She knows how to bring emotion to life on the page and I am always ready and willing to read whatever she writes.
Iris and Roman are rivals competing for the coveted position of columnist at a newspaper. When a war of the gods comes closer to home, they will each make choices that completely change the course of their lives.
The snappy banter, quick wit, and tension between Iris and Roman is delicious. With found family, epistolary elements, and magic, I found that I could not put this down. Divine Rivals has consumed my thoughts and will be a book I look forward to rereading many times.

Thank you to Netgalley for my complimentary e-arc of this book. All opinions here are my own.

this was a really good! I liked the characters, and they were super well-developed. the plot was super cool and fun to read, and the writing was also smooth and easy to understand
highly recommend

Wow just wow! This book was amazing. Two writers pitted against each other for the one spot as a columnist at the local newspaper. One who is put together and well off and another who is fighting for enough money to eat each week but both with dark secrets. With a war against gods being fought 6,000 kilometers away the urge to help others and face what they don’t want to admit to themselves will force these two “Divine Rivals” on an adventure neither expected.

This book was so good! Readers should know that while this is considered a fantasy the fantasy aspects are very very light and it more feels like a historical fiction book, at least book 1 does. That doesn’t stop this from being great and while im usually not a fan of historical
Fiction there was enough sprinkle of romance (enemies to lovers trope), found family, and fantasy to keep me from being able to set this one down. Now im just counting down the year or so for book #2 to be released.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author, and the Publisher for this ARC for my honest opinion of the book!

THIS BOOK! It was so good. It was unique and refreshing. The world building and slow burn relationship had me hanging on every word to see what what would happen next. Some points were done more quickly than I wanted simply because I wanted to spend more time in the places and with the characters. I’m already anticipating the next one…at least there better be another!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the ARC. This is my unbiased review.

Thank you Wednesday Books for the gifted eARC!

3 words I would use to describe this book: Emotional. Banter. Romantic

Divine Rivals is the first book in the Iris at the Front duology. DR is a YA/NA novel set against the backdrop of a WWI-ish inspired fantasy world where gods are waring and the citizens are choosing sides. Iris Winnow is from the wrong side of town and works as a journalist at a prominent newspaper alongside her rival, wealthy and arrogant Roman Kitt.

This novel is partially epistolary, emotionally charged, and full of some of the best banter. I could easily have read it in a single sitting if I had the time and no other responsibilities! It’s being billed as You’ve Got Mail meets The Lovely War and that feels very spot on, however this story also feels fresh and unique. I loved Iris and Roman and appreciated that they really did feel like true rivals. This book fully and completely pulled on my heartstrings and left me dying for the sequel! I cannot wait to be back in this world with the sequel, but I know I will be rereading this book again before that comes out, because it’s one I have a feeling will be even better on a second reading!

TW: alcoholic parent. Death of a parent. death of a sibling. Grief. War/descriptions of war/injuries/death.

18-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to keep her family together. But the gods are at war again and her beloved brother is fighting at the frontlines, leaving behind Iris and their mother, who suffers from addiction. Iris feels the only thing to do is win the columnist position at the local newspaper, the Oath Gazette. But there she is rivaled by snarky and handsome Roman Kitt who is competing for the same position. By night, Iris grieves the absence of her brother by writing him letters with her beloved typewriter, slipping them beneath her wardrobe, only to find that they vanish—and little does she know where they are vanishing—into the hands of rival journalist Roman Kitt. Keeping his identity hidden, he returns her letters and they write back and forth, forging a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the frontlines of the Gods’ battle. Will two rival journalists’ love, found through a magical connection, survive in a war among Gods?

I was enamored by Divine Rivals from start to finish. Rebecca Ross effortlessly interweaves themes of war, grief, traces of magic, and guilt, especially in the form of Iris Winnow’s strong, selfless, and unrelenting character. Everything begins when she meets handsome, stubborn, and witty Roman Kitt, and the unique path they take together throughout the book surpassed my expectations and subverted my expectation of the usual events of an enemies-to-lovers trope, making for a heart-wrenching cliffhanger and intense need for closure that will only come with the book’s sequel. The thing I cherished most about this book was its atmosphere and love story (if that’s what you want to call it). It is not a love story in the way you may think, in part because of the multi-faceted qualities and multiple layers to Iris and Roman both as individuals and as love interests. Beyond these two characters that I came to adore, at its heart, Divine Rivals is a deeply moving love letter to the craft of writing and the magic of words.

What an excellent story. Rebecca Ross has created such a wonderful world that was easy to immerse myself in. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next and now I'm anxious for the sequel to complete the story.

The feelings of pure happiness I felt while listening to this book! This is a deeply emotional and heartfelt read about two rivals brought together by magic and circumstance.

Iris and her rival Roman are both vying for the same spot as a credited writer on the paper they work for. The two couldn’t be more different. He is a wealthy and pampered young man and she is dealing with an alcoholic mother and missing her brother who has gone to fight in the war.

Iris, writing magical letters and leaving them in her closet only for them to disappear when she opens the door, longs for word of her brother… but he isn’t the one getting her letters. Instead, it’s another young man and the two begin a beautiful correspondence. Roman is the receiver of these letters, though he refuses to tell her the truth.

Set against the backdrop of war and devastation, this is the beautiful story of love and desperation in a terrible time. I cannot wait for more in this series! Roman and Iris kept me falling in love with their story from beginning to end!

Once again, Rebecca Ross’s exquisite prose has taken my breath away. I had tears threatening to spill over from page one and there were times I was so immersed in this story, I found myself holding my breath. I could not put this book down and it will take some time for my heart to recover because this story wrecked me in the best way.

I enjoyed the mythology and found it well balanced with the present day storyline and twists. I didn’t mind there wasn’t more world building and rather enjoyed that Ross focused more on character development.

I am firmly convinced Rebecca Ross has stardust and magic coursing through her veins and will happily write any and everything she writes. Her writing is unbelievably special and there is an insanely gorgeous, romantic feel to her fantasy and the deeply emotional stories she weaves. Iris and Roman have my whole heart and I will be counting down the days until we are reunited in book two!

Firstly, Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC of this read!

I had my eye on this ARC for awhile. The premise of journalists competing with each other to win a prized columnist position, a little rivalry and a little competition, turning into more, sounded amazing. I also loved the magical element of angry Gods and magical items.This book sounded wonderful and promised a lot. Unfortunately, there were some key elements that I think really needed to be addressed in the summary, if not at least in the Trigger Warnings for all potential readers to be aware of. But I will start with things I enjoyed first.

Rebecca Ross is an excellent writer, her prose is beautiful but not simple. When she writes about places, you’re truly there. The writing is elevated without making it complicated and I appreciated that immensely. I think the world building in this was decent, as in descriptions of places, people and jobs. I loved the MC’s time at the newspaper office, and the dynamic there. I would’ve definitely liked more exploration when it came to magical places/houses. It was such an intriguing idea but barely got mentioned more than one time, and seeing as how this is supposed to have magical elements as part of the plot, I feel like there should’ve been more emphasis placed on this. It’s also what ties our two MC’s together. I did like that the romance finally developed into something. It took a LOT of time, and when the FMC found out about the identity of the MMC, the reaction was a little off to me, but I was just happy to see them together.

Now what I didn’t love…. MORE EXPLICIT TRIGGER WARNINGS PLEASE! As someone who gets extremely distressed by WWI/WWII type era wars/settings, trench warfare, bombs, guns, dying soldiers, heavy casualties, stepping over bodies, people so heavily injured that there’s nothing anyone is able to do, like this entire atmosphere was violent and upsetting. I was going to DNF, but I didn’t expect that this writer, for the other books she’s written, would go into as much upset and detail as she did. I also REALLY dislike the fact that the war is such a major plot point and it’s barely even addressed in the summary. The time period/era of this piece is barely addressed, so you go in trying to figure out what style era you’re even in to try and figure out the technology around the characters and what this world even looks like. The book felt extremely slow, and I felt there were so many bits that could have been left out. I remember notating that I felt the book actually started at 25% into it. I felt like the different plots (the romance, the war, finding her brother, being a journalist) were just too mixed together and felt like everything was just very bland and watered down. Like potentially the book was being prolonged to try and get all the different pieces of the plot in to come to a decent stopping point, but it made those plots just feel a bit unnatural—a bit stiff. It also felt like this should have turned into a standalone, up until about 85% in, I was sure that it would be.

Overall, I was very uncomfortable with the book, but setting aside my personal discomfort with the subject matter, I’m giving it a 3 stars and I truly hope the publisher and author with change the summary and the trigger warnings so other readers like me are knowledgeable about the content and subject matter before going into this novel.

Content Warning: violence, death, alcoholism, war, wounds, grief

I requested this book because it said Rebecca Ross wrote it and I was not disappointed. Here is what I thought:

+ I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this story and I was so surprised at what I got. This is a historical fantasy, set in a time similar to the 1950’s – the main characters are reporters who use typewriters to write their article for the newspaper. The fascinating thing in this story is the war wasn’t started by humans that we know of, but gods. And the gods have used humans to fight their war. We get a bit of the lore between the gods Dacre and Enva and why they started fighting. There is even magic in this world, magic typewriters, enchanted houses, which I thought was really fun.

+ Because this is basically a war drama – there is sweeping rivals to lovers romance, there is loved ones missing on the front lines, the horrors of war, the strength of love and character and I experienced so many emotions in this one book alone. I think I teared up three times. And I wasn’t expecting this book to do that to me.

+ The romance is a big part of this story and I love it. It’s the type of romance I would expect in a war drama actually and fits so beautifully. I’m a sucker for written letters (I am old enough to have done this back in my day lol), two people who love the written word – falling for one another because of the words they are writing to one another. It grabbed the romantic in me by the heart and I was rooting for their love from beginning to end!

+ There is more to the story especially when it comes to Iris trying to find her brother. My heart felt for both Iris and Roman. Mostly Iris because she was so all alone in the world. But what a tough young lady to keep on going even when it seems she has nothing left. She’s determined to find her brother and know if he was dead or alive. And Roman for overcoming an accident in his past that has ruined his family forever. I commend both of them for trying to love again even when they’ve both been so hurt.

~ There is a cliffhanger at the end and this book is a series. The ending broke my heart for Iris and her crew at the end of this book.

~ I do want more back story about the Gods because other Gods are mentioned besides Dacre and Enva, but I’m hoping that information comes in book two.

Tropes: magical correspondence, rival journalists

Why you should read it:
*fan of Rebecca Ross
*it’s got a little bit of everything: war, drama, gods, romance
*I love Iris and Roman

Why you might not want to read it:
*some readers might the story lacking in world-building especially in the mythology department but I’m hoping there is more of it in book two – the Dacre/Enva story kind of reminds me of Hades and Persephone but different

My Thoughts:

Where does Rebecca Ross come up with these stories? She is becoming my new must-read author only because she tries different things, different time periods, different settings and I always enjoy what she creates. I went with 5 stars for this book because the way this story took me for a ride, an emotional one at that, it even though it made me cry. I was caught up in the heartbreak for Iris, the horrors of war and the sweeping love story between Iris and Roman. I am so excited for book two, I’m just sad I have to wait awhile for it.

WOW I had such a good time with this one–Rebecca Ross really has an individual style that gets stronger with each book. My only complaint is that I assumed this was a standalone novel for some reason and now I'm sad I'll have to wait for the sequel. Even though this is a wartime book, it still somehow feels nostalgic, cozy, and deeply romantic. Rivals to lovers, hidden identities, forced proximity, secret pen pals, hurt x comfort, and mythology tropes combined with Rebecca Ross' signature whimsy and gorgeous prose??? Incredible.

A beautifully written, heart-wrenching story about a war between two gods that has strong WWI elements.

While we have the trenches and entire towns of young people signing up to fight in the war, the magical elements make this story fascinating even for someone who has read their share of WWI fiction in the last year.

The story centers around rival reporters whose typewriters have a magical connection. Wherever they are, letters pass between then through the typewriters, which were originally owned by their grandmothers. The female lead, Iris, doesn’t know she’s writing to her rival and instead hopes her letters are getting to her brother on the front.

When Iris losing a promotion to the male lead, Roman, she decides to take a job as a war correspondent. He follows. The rest of the story is from the front lines as they grow closer and face peril.

The writing here is beautiful. The pace is fast. Secondary characters aren’t developed all that much, but this is wartime and there’s another book on the way. Even though there are moments that had me in tears, there is joy and happiness as well.

My one regret is that the ending didn’t really serve as a good pause point, nor is it really a strong cliffhanger. I’ll be looking for the sequel, though!

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I just want to say that going in I had no idea that this was going to be romance heavy. Which is not my cup of tea at all. Honestly I don't mind a little romance. But when it takes over the plot then you have lost me. I wish there had been more development and focus on the gods and her brothers story. But there was more focus on the main characters relationship and fixing said drama. I really also wish that the world building hadn't been so superficial and there had been a clear focus. I lost interest in this one fast and ended up skim reading it just to finish. I'm not sure if the next installment will be better but I think I won't be reading it.

I read this book in a day. And I'm a super busy working mom. So yeah, I loved it.

It was different for me than A RIVER ENCHANTED and A FIRE ENDLESS. Those were like works of literary art. I had to read them slowly, to savor the world building and the mastery of the words.

With DIVINE RIVALS, it was a cozier, closer read. The chemistry of Iris and Roman is what really drew me in. It was palpable, and I so wanted them to be together and just couldn't put it down. This is a love story to its core. The world and the lore felt like more distant backdrops to the romance and the chemistry of these characters at the center. So it was a different experience than Rebecca's prior books, but I loved this one in its own way. It is the sort of book you want to drop everything and wrap yourself in a blanket and finish with a cup of tea at your side.