Following two young rival journalist, Divine Rivals is by far more of an enemies to lovers romance story than anything else. While the plot dips into the historical fiction realm, and there is obviously the fantasy aspect with magic and gods etc, this is much more a love story. It is certainly a YA romance, with none of the spice you’d get in a S.J. Maas book, but every book I’ve read by Rebecca Ross has been a magical experience. I’ll just say that her writing makes you feel as if you’re in a song or dream.
The main reason I took a star away was for the lack of world building in terms of magic. I think this will be addressed in book two but while I could feel the magic in the writing, and there are things that could only happen with a bit of magic, the system isn’t flushed very well. Besides the myths we learn very little about how the magic of the gods work, and how the everyday magic works.
I also have a few qualms with pieces of the story that felt rather shallow. I’m a bit confused about the time-period and the fact that it’s classified as historical fiction. I felt as if it was supposed to be during World War II but wasn’t quite sure how it was supposed to fit into the greater scheme of the story. I also felt that while the ‘war’ plays a huge part in the storyline itself, I don’t feel as if I know the why of it all. I would have loved to get more information about the war itself, but like the world building, I’m sure we’ll see more of this in book 2.
This book was still highly enjoyable, and the audio narration is fabulous. I’m excited to read the second in the series when that comes out in December and will say this one does live up to the hype.
Divine Rivals is out now. Huge thank you to Wednesday Books and Macmillan audio my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.
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