A review by bookcheshirecat
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

adventurous challenging medium-paced

3.75

“It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are. Sometimes I feel the same as you: I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, “You will miss so much by being so guarded.” 

➽ Divine Rivals is about Iris and Roman, who are competitors at the Oath Gazerre Newspaper. I liked the premise, as there is a war between two gods going on and some people - like Iris' brother - end up recruited for their cause. While cold, arrogant Roman has a wealthy family with lots of connections, Iris and her mother are struggling, especially since her brother left. Both of them are clashing at their workplace in order to get the best stories. Iris takes a chance and becomes a wartime correspondent. It's a dangerous job right at the front, but maybe she'll finally find out what happened to her brother, ever since they lost contact with him. I liked that there's also a magical typewriter involved, that Iris uses to communicate with someone - though she has no idea who it is!

➽ I debated giving this 4 stars, but the ending really put me off
1. this could have been a great slowburn romance, why did Iris and Roman have to marry in the end after being together so briefly?? Why not save that for the sequel? 2. what was up with Iris' brother suddenly appearing and him fighting for Dacre before his desertion being swept under the rug so completely? I was disappointed that Iris went along with him all the way back to Oath, especially as he was acting so possessive and she never called him out on fighting for the enemy? 3. the gods generally felt shallow and Dacre's POV didn't do itself any favors. Roman being saved by him would have been fine, but the sequel synopsis reveals that he's got a huge case of amnesia and cannot remember Iris. Why would you do that?? I just really, really hate the amnesia trope, so idk if I'll be reading the next book.
. In general, this had so much potential, but the worldbuilding felt shallow at times and the beginning felt pretty disconnected from the rest of the book, some plotlines were
such as Roman's arranged engagement
just dropped midway through the book.
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