Detailed Summary (Spoilers)

Divine Rivals takes place in a fantasy world with WWI vibes, where gods war, buildings are enchanted, and magical typewriters form mysterious connections.

Iris Winnow is an eighteen-year-old reporter working to support herself and her mother.

Iris’s brother, Forest, followed the goddess Enva’s call to fight in the war, and he has not been heard from since he left. Iris’s mother, Aster, turned to drinking after his departure, eventually losing her job. It was for this reason Iris has to drop out of school and go to work, breaking her promise to her brother to stay in school.

At the Oath Gazette, Iris is competing for a columnist position against her wealthy coworker, nineteen-year-old Roman Kitt.

Kitt is at the newspaper because his father refused to send him to school to study literature as he wanted. In his father’s mind, making columnist will prove much more advantageous. Iris and Kitt fight for every story, pull pranks on each other, and generally tolerate the other’s existence while at work. Iris believes Kitt will eventually get the job because his father has money and power while she has no such connections. She also suspects that her boss, Zeb Autry, is being told not to report on certain things about the war.

Iris and Kit were both given a typewriter by their grandmothers. For weeks, Iris has been writing letters to her brother, and they disappear under the wardrobe until, finally, one day, someone writes back saying they are not her brother Forest. It’s Kitt, and he knows it’s Iris’s letters he is receiving, but she doesn’t know it’s him. He does not tell her. He gives her his middle name, Carver.

Over time, as the two compete at work, Iris begins to have a sort of love/hate relationship with Kitt while also developing feelings for her pen pal, Carver (also Kitt).

Kitt’s father has arranged a marriage for him to a woman named Elinore Little, the daughter of a wealthy chemist. Neither of them wants to be with the other, but she seems more resigned to it than he does. Iris learns about Kitt’s engagement, and things take a turn when Iris learns her mother, Aster, has tragically died. Iris abruptly leaves work, and Kitt, worried, brings her jacket to her house. She is mortified for him to see where she lives and doesn’t want his pity. She doesn’t tell him or anyone about her mother.

Zeb gives Kitt the columnist job. Numb, Iris immediately resigns. Kit tries to stop her and even tries to persuade their boss to give them both more time, revealing that he knows about Iris’s mom’s death. She refuses and takes a job at the Inkridden Tribune, where she becomes a war correspondent. Her hope is that she will find her brother.

Iris discovers that her typewriter was a set of three Alouette typewriters that were made and named after a sick girl, and two of them were given to her friends so they could communicate. One of the friends was Iris’s Nan, and Carver’s Nan was the other.

Iris is sent to Avalon Bluff, where she lives with a woman named Marisol at her bed and breakfast along with another war correspondent, Attie. She spends her days working with, interviewing, and writing letters for injured soldiers, as well as planting a garden with her new friends. She writes to her pen pal, who she still doesn’t know is Kitt, though she lets him know where she is. She learns about the war and Dacre’s monsters that terrorize the town.

One day, as the sirens are blaring, Kitt arrives, walking across the field. She rushes to him to make him lie down to hide from the bomb-dropping eithrals flying overhead, saving him. He has called off his engagement and quit his new columnist job. He is a newly appointed war correspondent, and Iris is irritated he is here, assuming he is only trying to show her up again.
Kit, however, only came to find her.

He continues writing to her as Carver, trying to get to know her while looking for the right opportunity to tell her the truth. He finally writes a letter admitting that he is Carver, but before she can read it, they are both sent to the front lines to report. While in the trenches, Kitt saves Iris from a grenade and takes shrapnel in his leg.

Shaken, they return to Avalon Bluff, where Iris learns the truth: Carver and Kitt are one and the same. He has confessed his love to her, but she is embarrassed and retreats. But eventually, she returns to him, and they make up and decide to get married.

Soon after this decision, the sirens blare, telling them that Dacre’s forces are closing in. Marisol’s wife Keegan arrives with her platoon to help defend the city and evacuate the citizens.
Iris receives a letter stating her brother’s whereabouts. He is likely to come through Avalon Bluff, so Iris decides to stay. Though injured, Kitt determines to stay as well. Kitt and Iris get married in the garden, having one night before Dacre’s forces arrive.

Divine Rivals Ending (Extreme Spoilers)

They wake to Dacre’s bombs shaking the city. When it eases, they go out to help the injured. While out, the eithrals arrive, dropping poisonous gas. Kit and Iris get separated until Kitt, wearing a gas mask, finds her and drags her away to the field. She quickly realizes it’s not Kitt, it’s her brother Forest. He forces her away, leaving Kitt to the gas. Later, they go back to look for Kitt, but he is gone.

Iris and Forest travel back to Oath. Iris learns that Forest was mortally injured in the war, but Dacre found him and healed him, forcing him afterward to fight for his army rather than Enva’s. Forest barely found the strength to get away after finding their mother’s locket in the trench where Iris lost it. His only goal was to get her to safety.

In the end, we learn that as Dacre walked the fields around Avalon Bluff after his troops secured the city, he stumbled upon Kitt who is minutes from dying but still fighting his way toward Iris. Dacre grants him life, saying his spirit is made of ice. He takes Kitt below to the underworld to become his first war correspondent.

This book ends on a cliffhanger for the next, and last, book in the series: Ruthless Vows.

My Thoughts

I actually really loved this book and, although it starts out a bit slow, it gets really interesting and pulls you in. I think that both Iris’s and Roman’s strength and diligence are really shown and incorporated perfectly. I also really believe that the writing in this book is incredible and the use of metaphors and emotion really draws you into the story as if you were living it.

Quotes

• “I never told you that I love you. And I regret that, most of all.”
• “Fear is the enemy that holds us back from reaching our true potential.”
• “I love the words I write until I soon realize how much I hate them, as if I am destined to always be at war within myself.”
• “I don’t think you realize how strong you are, because sometimes strength isn’t swords and steel and fire, as we are so often made to believe. Sometimes it’s found in quiet, gentle places.”‘
• “Iris,” said Roman, “you are worthy of love. You are worthy to feel joy right now, even in the darkness. And just in case you’re wondering…I’m not going anywhere, unless you tell me to leave, and even then, we might need to negotiate.”
• ’“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. Sometimes I feel the same as you: I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, “You will miss so much by being so guarded.”’