War, love, journalism and the emotional impact of written words.

In a magical world with two gods at war, 18-year-old Iris Winnow has to navigate her life after her brother was drafted into the war. With the dream of writing texts that will eventually have an impact, Iris secures a job for the Oath Gazette, a local magazine, to compete for a columnist position against the wealthy, seemingly arrogant but attractive Roman Kitt. When Iris decides to go to the front as a war correspondent and to write a truthful story about the frontlines and the war of the Gods, a new story seems to unfold.

Divine Rivals is the first book in a duology called Letters of Enchantment, its counterpart Ruthless Vows was published the same year. Because of this, the storyline of the first book ends in a cliffhanger and several themes are continued in the second novel.

Themes possible for classroom discussions are the importance of written words and war. The novel is a fantasy take on World War 1 through which drawing comparisons between a fantasy world and the real world and the real historical events would be interesting.

Novel · United States · 2023