The Stray Reader

Author:	Rebecca Ross
Genre(s):	➡️ Romance ➡️ Enemies to Lovers ➡️ Young Adult
Series? Series Title: Series Order:	✅ Yes Letters of Enchantment Book 1
Goodreads Rating:	⭐ 4.16 (648k+ ratings; 106k+ reviews)
Personal Rating:	⭐ 4 / 5 Overall

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🛑 Spoiler Warning 🛑

I might be recounting events, characters, and themes so THIS MIGHT BE FULL OF SPOILERS.

If you’d like to read a review with the spoilers hidden, kindly scroll to the bottom to read my spoiler-free summary in the ‘Final Thoughts’ section or head to my Goodreads post for a more detailed version with spoilers removed. You don’t need an account to read it.😊

🗒️ BLURB 🗒️

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.

Source: Goodreads

🌟Review (4/5) 🌟

Perhaps it’s the book lover in me that eats up a story where love letters play a major role in the development of the romance. Whatever it is, it made me stick around to finish Divine Rivals because I was fully invested where Iris and Roman’s paths are going. Because narration-wise, there were a lot of moments where I feel like I was going to fall asleep. I thought some of the moments need not drag on for so long. However, the plot had enough intricacies to keep me going and the book just kept getting better and better as the witty dialogues, interesting characters, and the war action kept the momentum.

Plot and Setting

The main story begins from our fiery writer protagonist Iris Winnow’s perspective. Her life drastically changed when her brother, Forrest, received the call of the goddess Enva to fight against the god Darce who is practically decimating everything that falls in his path to get to his wife – Enva herself. Their war with each other is practically the backdrop of this whole story.

But Iris’s war is with the struggles of her family life as they fall into poverty when her mom started to drink herself to exhaustion since Forrest’s departure, and it’s also with Roman – the privileged guy in the company who’s going up against her to get the columnist job.

The first 50% of the book mostly revolves around the foundation of Iris and Romann’s animosity yet shared admiration for each other’s work. They are, unbeknownst to Iris at that time, also connected through their magical typewriters that send the letters to each other when the letters are typed through the machines and sent through the portals under wardrobes. This is how their emotional connection began.

I was pleasantly surprised as the plot kicks up a notch around the last half of the book where Iris becomes a war correspondent to find her brother and we see the devastation that the war is causing to the people. I squealed when Roman realized that he needed to follow her, dropping every privilege he’s ever known. They go through this assignment together experiencing near-death encounters where they eventually strengthened their attachment.

Their love story is the best part of this book. However, the backdrop of the war made it really shine. I really didn’t care for the war plot itself. It did, though, weave together nicely with all of the characters’ development.

Characters

I loved Roman and Iris’s characterization here. They have depth, individuality, and their enemies-to-lovers arc unfolded really well. The majority of the other characters were okay but felt a little surface-level. However, mashed together they feel like a warm, complete family. And honestly that’s enough for a lovely novel.

Final Thoughts

‘Divine Rivals’ made my heart warm with love letters, and I love a well-executed letter-based romance. It has a good side plot that served even better as an extremely well backdrop for the characters.

I’d recommend this to readers who like war-based YA that has a little bit of magic in it but not central to the characters’ development and romance. If you’re in the mood for a light, grounded, and love letter-based romance, check Divine Rivals from Amazon here. The duology is finished and I am off to read the sequel!

Favorite Quotes

“Do you ever feel as if you wear armor, day after day? That when people look at you, they see only the shine of steel that you’ve so carefully encased yourself in?”

— Roman C. Kitt

“I’m not afraid to be alone, but I’m tired of being the one left behind.”

— Iris E. Winnow

“I don’t know who I would be without you, but you have me in all ways better than I ever was or could have ever hoped to be.”

— Roman C. Kitt