Hello! Welcome everyone to my first blog installment of Cat’s Cozy Corner book reviews. Within this blog the main focus will be on my reviews of young adult books across varying genres, though dystopian, fantasy, and romance are definitely my preferences of choice. I’m all for finding that comfort read or the one book that will make you cry your heart out. Which is why, for this very first review, I’ve chosen Rebecca Ross’ Divine Rivals, the book that checks all the boxes. This blog post will contain spoilers from Divine Rivals.
I always get skeptical when it comes to books that seem too good to be true and this was definitely that book for me. Everyone I knew was raving about it and for someone who’s a sucker for a good rivals to lovers trope, I thought I would give it a shot and I’m so glad that I did. The story is set in a fantasy world ruled over by different gods who are currently at war with one another. It took a bit of time to fully understand the complexity of the world, but I wouldn’t say it took away from the storyline. However, things really kicked off when we got the good old banter of rivals competing for the same position at the city’s newspaper. Iris Winnow and Roman Kitt are the two main characters of Divine Rivals with their characters being polar opposites. Iris Winnow lives in a small apartment trying to provide for her alcoholic mother who fell apart with the disappearance of Iris’ brother, Forest, when he was called to the war front in the west. This position working as a newspaper columnist for the Oath Gazette is everything to her and getting that position means being able to afford supporting her mother. On the other hand, Roman Kitt comes from one of the wealthiest families in the city of Oath and his father believes he deserves the position because of their family name and that alone. This leaves Roman with the responsibility to meet his father’s expectations and get the job before Iris does all the while dealing with the immense pressure of living up to his family’s wants for him.
For me this was the type of book that you just couldn’t put down. Whether you fell in love with the rivalry banter between Roman and Iris, or felt the curiosity of needing to know everything about the magical letters sent from the wardrobes of Iris and C as they corresponded their secrets to each other unknowingly. I always needed to know what was going to happen next and the thing I love about Rebecca Ross’ writing is that you never know what will truly happen. She writes in the way that once you find comfort in the characters’ situations, there are always drastic changes that tug at your heartstrings or make you want to scream because the characters won’t do what you want them to do. This mainly was the case for me when Roman knew that Iris was the one writing letters that magically ended up under the door to his wardrobe, and even still chose to keep his identity hidden when he wrote back.
It was a rollercoaster of emotions that this book put me through. I found myself falling in love with Iris and Roman’s story and how despite literally an entire war being against them, they still found comfort in each other. That’s one of the main reasons why I would describe this as a comfort read. I wouldn’t say this book was predictable by any means, but there was comfort in knowing what the trope was from the start and that Rebecca Ross would follow it to some extent. Though thinking there is a happy ending within the first book of a series is never the case. It was torturous in the best way possible to the point that once I finished it, I immediately needed to keep reading into the sequel. Divine Rivals is the perfect combination of rivalry, love, friendship, grief, and a little bit of magic.
It seems crazy to praise a book so highly, but I definitely feel that this one deserves it. It’s the type of book for when you’re stuck in a reading slump and nothing seems good. It’s a quick read given how much it engages your attention and emotions, leaving you needing more. I know that five stars isn’t something to give lightly, but in my opinion Divine Rivals deserves nothing less. It took a different take on a trope that usually focused on academic rivalry and instead gave us the emotional and tragic love story of two people bound together by magic and fighting to stay with each other despite the interference of war and gods getting in the way. Due to this, Divine Rivals easily falls into one of my favorite books that I’ve read in a while, though its sequel, Ruthless Vows, definitely gives it a run for its money. That’s for another time though. All in all, this book is a great read and I definitely recommend it to those who are a sucker like me for a good romance story mixed with a little influence from elements of magic and divinity. Till next time with the next book review.
– Catherine Fatigato, Assistant Prose Editor and Blogger
Catherine Fatigato – Asst. Prose Editor & Blogger: Catherine is a Junior at Lewis University majoring in English with a concentration in writing. She aspires to have a career within the publishing field once she completes her Bachelors degree. When she’s not in class she can be found reading one of the many books on her to-be-read list; with some of her favorite authors including, Gayle Forman, Rebecca Ross, and Jeneva Rose.