OH THIS WAS SO GOOD???!?! I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this so much!

“Divine Rivals” takes place in a “light” fantasy world and during a war, but it is mainly a romance, so keep that in mind when picking this up. The world building is extremely simple and everything is very easy to understand. The pacing is great and the writing flows very well.

The conversations about grief, regret, opening yourself up to someone, letting yourself be loved, the anguish brought by war, and the power of words were absolutely exquisite! I literally can’t remember the last time I underlined these many beautiful quotes. The writing made me feel SO MUCH!


And the ROMANCE??????? OMGGGGGGGGGGG!!! I LOVED IRIS AND ROMAN SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🤧🤧🤧 They started anonymously sending letters to each other, BUT Roman knew it was Iris from the very beginning, and lowkey already liked her. On paper, this could’ve been a problem for me, because I usually prefer to see characters fall in love, and Roman already had feelings for Iris, and Iris was kind of obsessed with Roman, too (despite not liking him yet).

HOWEVER!!!!!!!! The author really managed to make this dynamic work! Seeing Roman and Iris’s relationship grow, and them opening up and confiding in each other, and them missing each other, and the YEARNING!!!!!!! OH IT WAS DELICIOUS! 😩👌


Listen: m/f romances only work when 1) the guy falls first and 2) he’s absolutely obsessed with the girl. That’s exactly what this book gave me, and for that I am thankful 🙏🏻.

Roman making sure Iris was okay when her mum died, him begging their boss to give her one more chance, him following her when she became a war correspondent, him insisting on going to the front lines with her????? And all this before he even admitted to her that he loved her!!!

Oh he was down BAD, and I ATE IT UP!!!!!!!! 😩😩😩


And when they finally got together they were SO SWEET????!?!?! 🥺 They were so soft and cared so much about each other and I just - - - @GOD WHEN’S IT MY TURN??!?!?! I want to be loved like this!!!!!!!!!!!! 😭


The side characters were also really sweet, and I hope to see more of them in the future. I’m also super interested in seeing where this war is going!

Forest coming back and rescuing Iris, and Dacre taking Roman to who knows where???? I’M SCARED! 😰

I need book 2 RIGHT NOW!!!