There is a specific romantic premise that works every single time if executed with sufficient skill: two people who are falling in love without knowing it, separated by the one form of distance that allows total honesty. Letters to a stranger. Divine Rivals uses this premise in a world where the gods are at war, and Rebecca Ross uses it beautifully.
The World at War
Iris Winnow is a junior journalist at the Oath Gazette, scraping for column inches and competing for a promotion against Roman Kitt, the staff writer who is better-connected, better-resourced, and insufferably competent. The world around them is one where gods have grown restless — where the god of death and the god of light are in open conflict, and the fighting is moving closer to the city. Iris has her own reasons for following the war: her brother has enlisted, and she hasn’t heard from him in weeks.
The magical conceit is elegant: a wardrobe in Iris’s room allows letters to slip through its floor and be delivered somewhere impossible. She begins writing to an anonymous recipient, saying things she would never say aloud. The letters she gets back are just as honest, just as yearning, and penned by someone who clearly understands her in ways that are inconvenient.
Iris and Roman
The enemies-to-lovers dynamic here is handled with real care. Ross doesn’t flatten Roman into a cardboard rival; he has his own damage, his own reasons for keeping distance, and his competence as a writer is genuine rather than the shallow confidence that fictional antagonists sometimes use as a stand-in for character. The way these two move around each other in the newsroom — wary, competitive, unwillingly drawn — is enormously satisfying to watch.
The warfront section of the book, where Iris follows the fighting as a correspondent, raises the emotional stakes in exactly the right way. The charm of the newsroom rivalry gives way to something heavier, and Ross navigates that tonal shift without losing the romance.
The Historical Fantasy Setting
The 1920s-adjacent setting — typewriters, press rooms, a world that feels between wars rather than ancient — distinguishes this from the typical YA secondary world fantasy and gives it a particular atmosphere. Ross has a gift for sensory detail, and the period details ground the divine-war mythology in something tactile.
Why YA Readers Will Love This
Divine Rivals delivers one of the most satisfying iterations of the anonymous-pen-pal romance that the genre has seen in years, and it does so with a heroine who is more interested in writing the truth than in being liked. Iris’s ambition — the particular, urgent need to be taken seriously at work — is rendered with real conviction, and it sits alongside the romance rather than being sacrificed to it.
This is exactly the kind of book that gets pressed into hands with the instruction to just trust me and read it. The sequel, Ruthless Vows, is even better, and knowing that is waiting will make it very hard to put this one down.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Divine Rivals about? Iris Winnow is a junior journalist at the Oath Gazette, competing for a promotion against Roman Kitt in a world where gods are at war. A magical wardrobe in Iris’s room allows letters to slip through to an anonymous recipient — and she begins writing things she would never say aloud. The review describes this as ‘a specific romantic premise that works every single time if executed with sufficient skill: two people falling in love without knowing it, separated by the one form of distance that allows total honesty.’
How does the enemies-to-lovers dynamic between Iris and Roman work? The review credits Ross with not flattening Roman into a cardboard rival: ‘he has his own damage, his own reasons for keeping distance, and his competence as a writer is genuine rather than the shallow confidence that fictional antagonists sometimes use as a stand-in for character.’ Their newsroom dynamic — ‘wary, competitive, unwillingly drawn’ — is described as ’enormously satisfying to watch,’ and the warfront section raises the stakes without losing the romance.
What does the historical fantasy setting of Divine Rivals contribute? The 1920s-adjacent setting — typewriters, press rooms, a world between wars rather than ancient — ‘distinguishes this from the typical YA secondary world fantasy and gives it a particular atmosphere.’ The divine-war mythology is grounded in tactile period detail. Ross’s ‘gift for sensory detail’ makes the setting feel inhabited, and the gods’ conflict gives the romance its urgency without overwhelming it.
What makes Iris Winnow a memorable heroine? The review emphasises Iris’s professional ambition: ’the particular, urgent need to be taken seriously at work is rendered with real conviction, and it sits alongside the romance rather than being sacrificed to it.’ Iris is described as ‘more interested in writing the truth than in being liked,’ which positions her as a distinctively driven heroine even within the emotional landscape of the anonymous-pen-pal romance.
Should readers start with Divine Rivals or its sequel Ruthless Vows? The review recommends beginning with Divine Rivals and notes that the sequel Ruthless Vows ‘is even better — knowing that is waiting will make it very hard to put this one down.’ Divine Rivals is explicitly positioned as ’the kind of book that gets pressed into hands with the instruction to just trust me and read it,’ and as ‘one of the most satisfying iterations of the anonymous-pen-pal romance the genre has seen in years.’
Further Reading from Authoritative Sources
- Rebecca Ross — Wikipedia’s Rebecca Ross article provides biographical and bibliographical context for the author, helping readers understand Divine Rivals within her broader writing career and the Letters of Enchantment duology.
- letters written across impossible distance — Wikipedia’s epistolary novel article contextualises the literary tradition Divine Rivals is drawing on, helping readers understand why the letter-writing conceit is such an effective vehicle for romantic revelation and dramatic irony.
