A review by downtown_kb
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

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

3.5

Iris is an aspiring newspaper journalist with a very unique typewriter and a maddening rival at the newspaper where she wants to land a permanent job. 

3.5 stars rounded up.

While I did enjoy this I just kind of felt like something was missing the whole time, or that I wanted a little bit more substance to it? There was a lot of potential for world building here that just wasn't delivered on. It all seemed like the reader was dropped in the middle of a fantasy world but never really allowed to get beyond the surface. I wanted deeper world-building and the overarching point of the story just didn't seem to exist. Lots of day to day happenings and then the ending slams quite a bit of plot into the final pages but not in a way that leaves me dying to know more. 

I enjoyed the development of Kit and Iris' story and I love anything that involves letter writing. I honestly would have liked this part of the story to be drawn out more. I enjoyed this take on the story of "you've got mail"/"shop around the corner"/the play "Parfumerie by Miklós László" where enemies are pen pals but with added dramatic irony. However, I became very frustrated with Iris towards the end.

I did spoiler myself a bit with some of the plot of book 2 and so I won't be continuing this duology.
It sounds like we go back and repeat plot due to amnesia and just, no thanks.


On audio this is decent but not outstanding.  
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