Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment #1)

Goodreads Choice Award

Winner for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2023)

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Shadow and Bone meets Lore in Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals, an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

Genres

Fantasy Romance

Young Adult

357 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2023

Literary Awards

She Reads Best of Awardfor Young Adult(2023),

Barnes & Noble Book of the Year AwardNominee(2023)

Average Rating

Goodreads - 4.27

Amazon - 4.4

Content Warnings

War

Death

Alcoholism

My Verdict

The first thing I loved about this book was the characters and I think I loved the two main characters equally, which is unusual for me. There wasn’t any room to question who they were. Roman was perfectly pitted as the rival writer while leaving room for his own story. Actually, I would say that Roman had his hand in vying to be the main character of this story. Too bad Iris had that seat firmly locked down. 

For a fantasy novel, there isn't much world building. I'm left with a lot of questions. Why are the shelves in a grocery store enchanted, but, say, the newspaper offices can’t get a magically-refilling teapot? Or, why can’t Iris and her mom have candles that light but never actually melt? There are gods and goddesses out and about, setting off massive wars, but not everyone believes they exist? In the end, I don't really care, though, because I loved the premise of the magically delivered letters and the authors unique take on the enemies to lovers trope kept me captivated. The weak world building fades into the background due to the strength of the character building. I give this book a strong 4.5 stars and I can't wait to read the sequel Ruthless Vows.