I'm honestly not sure how to write this review of mine. I feel out of words. I just know how much I loved this story. How stunning the writing was. How very adorable those two main characters were. How amazing the romance was, once it got started. How brutal it was to read about the war that was happening. Just. I loved it all.
It's so difficult to decide what to share about the plot of this book. Well, where to start. It takes place in the past, I think. But not our world. It is a world that had gods. Two of them have woken after sleeping for centuries. One, a god of music. One, a god of death and war. I think. We learn a little about them, about all the myths. I liked reading about it. Because of these gods waking up again, there is a war. And that we learn a whole lot about in this book. It was both awful and awesome to read about. This is the story of eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow. It begins with her older brother going off fighting in the war. Iris staying at home with their mother. Supposed to stay in school. But five months pass and life is not the same. She has dropped out of school and now works at a paper, writing articles. Trying to feed herself and her mom.
This book begins a little slow. But I did not mind. I so liked getting to know Iris and her life. I did not like her mother. I suppose she was good, before she started drinking and throwing away all their money and things. She should have been taking care of Iris. Instead Iris is taking care of her. I so did not approve. Of course, this ends badly, and that was heartbreaking, to be honest. I so enjoyed reading about Iris working at this paper. Though her boss was not nice at all. Ugh. But I liked the other people that she worked with.
Especially Roman Kitt. Sigh. The most precious boy. Okay, Iris hated him. And he appeared to hate her too. Which was not actually the case and oh, how I loved reading from his point of view, to know all his secrets. Sigh. He was the very best. At first they are enemies. Working at the same place, both trying to win a promotion only one of them will get. Always competing. That slowly starts to change, as they start spending a little time together. And it was so good. Sigh. But then Iris leaves. Because her mom dies. Oh.
And so this story changes. Iris goes to the war, to be a correspondent. To try to get closer to her brother, who has not written her a single letter since he left five months before. But she wrote to him. And that is another plot of this book. The magical letters. She wrote him letters on her typewriter, and pushed them into their wardrobe. They disappeared. She hoped her brother was getting them, but he never responded. Until someone else does, a while before she leaves. That is Roman. Eee. She doesn't know it, but he do.
That was a plot twist that I both enjoyed and not, haha. The magical letters were written well and I loved that. I loved reading what they wrote to each other. Sigh. It was sweet and fun too. But it did hurt my heart that Roman knew it was Iris from the start, but she did not know it was him. Not for a while. He was falling for her both ways, in letters and in person. And she was slowly falling for two different people. Or so she thought. That hurt. But it was not written badly, not truly. It was not cruel. And so I did not mind that much.
We get to know so much about Roman Kitt. About his awful father and all he wants from him. About his very adorable nan, ha. About his dead little sister, which was way too heartbreaking to read about. I loved reading about this boy. He was the sweetest. I loved reading about his growing relationship with Iris. It did begin as hate. All they did was annoy each other while they worked at the same place. Until her mother died. And she decided to leave her home. And Roman was left behind. For a while, that is. Ha. I loved it.
There is much to know about Iris too. I loved how gentle and sweet she was. Yet fierce. Reading about her arriving at a new place was all kinds of great. She is grieving. But she is so strong too. And getting to know Attie and Marisol was great too, she needed those close friends. I loved reading about this war. It was evil but written so good. So much happens. Iris have to see a lot, though not that many brutal things. And then Roman arrives too. He followed her. He left his whole life behind for her. Oh, that hurt my heart.
Of course, Iris does not know that Roman is the boy she is writing letters with. That complicated things. Sigh. But it did not take too long before she figured it all out. And that hurt too. Gosh. But it was so good after it, eee. The romance finally happened. And it was the sweetest. Oh. How badly I wanted these two together. How amazing it was when they were together. How badly it hurt to read about Roman being hurt in the trenches, when they visited there. Shudders. Just. This book was too precious to me. I loved it so.
And now I have written way too much about this story. And have still not really said what it is about. But not going to write more either, ha. Just sharing my love for this book. And my love is big. But I now need every copy there is, and that will not be an easy thing to find. How rude. Divine Rivals was perfection to me. The writing was gorgeous and the characters were too precious. I am so happy that I read this book. Well. Mostly. That ending was all kinds of cruel. I must have the second book now. Hmph. Do read it too.
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