I fell in love with Rebecca Ross's writing early in 2022 when I read A River Enchanted. It became my first five start year of that year, and I've made it my duty to get through her older books and newer as this year moves forward. Well, I read Divine Rivals in less than twenty four hours, and I can honestly say it was worth the marathon. It's not that I didn't think Rebecca would wrench my soul in half, but I am still surprised with how much this book affected me. Moreover, I was lucky enough to listen to the ARC audiobook for the majority of my reading experience, and it was fantastic. I'm still a newbie with audiobooks, but I loved the sound of the drums and music at the start. At the end when it returned, I felt audibly thrown into the world due to the chaos unfolding. I'll highly recommend it to any reader who loves audiobooks!

For starters, Divine Rivals is a historical fantasy that's reminiscent of World War I. The gods of this world are warring, and the mortals are stuck in the crosshairs. Eighteen year old Iris Winnow dropped out of high school to start working at her local newspaper office, and now she's competing for the columnist promotion against her rival Roman Kitt. But at home Iris is relentlessly worrying about her alcoholic mother, and her brother Forest who ran off to war without any explanation and has not sent her a single letter like he promised to. Although, Iris continues to write him on her grandmother's typewriter, and those those letters mysteriously vanish—hopefully to her brother.

Well, the letters don't arrive to Forest and, instead, appear in the hands of Roman—said rival at her work.

Divine Rivals continues to unravel the story of Iris and Roman along with their mysteriously linked/ magical typewriters. Books about writing always snag my attention, but this one felt specifically raw and bittersweet. The love of not only the leads but their loved ones is a punch to the gut, and I saw my own family and friends reflected in the words Rebecca wrote. The yearning between Iris and Roman in particular was torturously beautiful, and I loved every minute of it. The ending for them both has left a hole in my heart, and Rebecca, it better get sewn up in the sequel. I don't think I can handle much more!

The most surprising part of this book actually lies with the setting. I read a lot of fantasy, but it is very rare to find a modern version of it that is not set within our own world. Divine Rivals specifically takes tons of inspiration from WWI, in my opinion, from the typewriting communication to trench/ gas warfare. The history buff within me was transferred back to my college days where I listened to lectures on the war, and I vividly saw all of the war scenes Iris experienced. There's something especially terrifying about WWI because of the gas and trench weaponry. When Rebecca describes the rolling gas coming towards us, my own throat felt pinched like a straw, mouth as dry as the Sahara. I'm both dreading and excited for Rebecca to show us more of this war in the sequel.

Now I saw Rebecca described this book as her first YA focusing on romance, even called it romantasy, and she excelled. I'm not a big romantasy fan, but if more of them are like this, then, I need to batten down the hatches and devour them ASAP. Divine Rivals was just a reminder that I'm a sucker for Rebecca's writing in any genres, any form. I'm really hoping the wait for this sequel will not be too terribly long because that ending, like I said before, HURT.

My only gripe with this book was the sprinkling of crumbs when it came to knowledge about the gods. Now I know based off of the end that Rebecca was withholding that information for a reason, but I was curious throughout the entire book leading up to that moment what the gods themselves had to do with this story. I'm VERY excited for the sequel just because the gods will finally be unveiled to us. It's gonna be great!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this early! All thoughts and opinions are my own.