Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

50 reviews

miblette's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I don't know what I expected going into this, but I absolutely adore this story. The letter writing, the magic, the love, the heartbreak. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child death

thepoieszedlife's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident

lexie_edmunds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Addiction, Death of parent, and War

kiala's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction

saraverboom's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

Yet another beautifully written story by Rebecca Ross.

Here’s a few quick thoughts on the book (will update this review later for more details):
- characters are authentic and diverse. It’s easy to relate to Iris’ thoughts and emotions.
- the world is interesting but still quite vague. Not entirely sure what the role of the magic in this world is
- the mythology is also interesting but again: vague. I need to know more about the war, the gods, the monsters, etc.
- I thought the WW1 setting was original for a fantasy novel; so far I’ve mostly read fantasy novels set in medieval times.
- the romance is cute
- the writing is beautiful. It sucks you in and before you know it, you’ve read half of the book in one sitting.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

 
- I was afraid it would be a whole thing when Iris learned Roman was Carver but fortunately it wasn’t

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Grief, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Vomit and Blood

tarnaflake's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Child death, Alcohol, Violence, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Medical content, Addiction, War, and Injury/Injury detail

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

My gosh! I'm honestly so happy I ended really loving this book. I was seeing it all over bookstagram and booktube and it was just always in my face that I figured I'd give in and see what people were talking about. And again, I'm so happy that I did. I loved almost everything about this book. The writing was exquisite and the love story between Iris and Kitt (Roman) is literally chef's kiss and the fact that the author was also able to showcase their individual personalities and how they contrast yet complement each other was executed very well. And THE LETTERS! Dare, I say more. They were phenomenal, I love every single one! Honestly, this book would've been 5 stars for me, but I'm not sure if it was just me but I found some of the plotics of their world to be confusing. Because of that, I found myself caring way more about the love story rather than the plot (which is still interesting, but I wish the author was more clear on how the world worked). Also, I'm confused about what time period this story is set in because there are times when it reads as an urban fantasy where everyone has jobs, electricity, there's baseball, etc, but then other times it seems like it's set in a much older time period. Like there was one time where it states that Forest was born in 1892, and I'm like, what?! So, that part was unclear to me, but other than that I loved this book! Can't wait for book two!

Spoiler

Oh also I feel like we should've gotten a scene where Kitt defies his father and breaks off the engagement because it seemed like such a major plot point but then gets explained away in a few sentences. I hope the author dives into the consequences of Kitt's actions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, and Drug use

Minor: Sexual content

oracleplatypus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It’s a little overhyped in my opinion. It is a good story but it’s not really super romantic, and the last quarter of the story really ruined it for me personally. I may return to read the sequel eventually but I don’t know. I just felt like nothing ever happened, it wasn’t as compelling as I was expecting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Addiction and Grief

vj_thompson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was just beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Child death, and Medical content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Misogyny, Cursing, Bullying, Kidnapping, Vomit, and Classism

knlipke's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

WWI but between ancient gods. 

This is probably my top 3 book of 2023. Amazing. It’s so poetic. Iris and Roman are enemies to fated lovers. 
I can’t wait for the 2nd book. I need it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Death, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, and Child death

Minor: Sexual content