“I think we all wear armor. I think those who don’t are fools, risking the pain of being wounded by the sharp edges of the world, over and over again. But if I’ve learned anything from those fools, it is that to be vulnerable is a strength most of us fear. It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are.”

Divine Rivals, by Rebecca Ross

Summary

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again…

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands – that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper – an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

My Thoughts

I really loved this duology, to be honest. It was a lot of fun and felt like a love letter from the author to the power of the written word (and to the power of love letters). Let’s start with the whole enemies to lovers bit: I’m picky about this. Rivals to lovers is not the same as enemies to lovers, as far as I’m concerned, so I thought it might just be a bit of marketing, but it actually isn’t. Roman Kitt’s family is very much on the opposite side of the war as Iris, and he has to reckon with that. Without spoilers, I will say that the second book has a much stronger sense of enemies to lovers than the first novel, which leans more into rivals to lovers.

The book’s prose is gorgeous. Iris and Roman do not know who they are writing letters to via their magical typewriters, and fall in love just from their words, from hearing each others stories. They truly get to know each other that way. Iris and Roman are both very guarded people; Roman, in a family where he doesn’t fit in, and Iris, her brother off to war and her mother drunk and just not there for her. It is about two lonely people falling in love and letting go of their armor, but it’s also about bravery and standing up for what you believe in. Neither of the two know a lot about the war at the beginning due to the restrictions on reporting, and you learn more throughout the book, acting as a mystery of sorts. The romance is absolutely gorgeous and relatively well-paced between the two, though I wish I could have seen a bit more development for them. This is marketed as romantasy, and I actually think it does an excellent job of striking a balance between the two, and ensuring that the plot drives the romance, but their romance also drives the plot. The two motivate each other, drive each other, help each other be better.

I think that the ending of Ruthless Vows was a bit rushed, unfortunately, and I wasn’t fully satisfied with how it ended, but that more has to do with wanting some more from the author out of the final fighting and epilogue. The actual fighting/action scenes weren’t really her strong suite compared to the world-building, intrigue, and character dynamics. The worldbuilding was also a lot of fun—gods, magic, music, and a vaguely historic steampunk vibe to it all. The theme of love and choice underpin the entire thing, with Roman and Iris’s forbidden romance having its own forbidden parallel in the gods that went very differently, and ultimately fueling the war. As far as popular duologies go, this one was excellent and a lot of fun, and I’d definitely tell you to read it!

Review: ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ ⚫

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