Divine Rivals Summary, Characters and Themes
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross is a romantic fantasy set in a world where gods once ruled and now battle for dominance, pulling humanity into their divine conflict. The story follows Iris Winnow, a young journalist struggling to keep her life together while seeking to find her missing brother amidst a brewing war between gods Dacre and Enva.
Through the magic of an enchanted typewriter, Iris unknowingly begins exchanging letters with Roman Kitt, her work rival, leading to a connection that grows as they both face the realities of war, loss, and finding courage to shape their destinies in a world overshadowed by divine rivalries.
Summary
Centuries ago, a war between a hundred Underling and Skyward gods reduced their numbers to five, who were subdued and hidden by humans. Recently, Dacre and Enva, two of these gods, awakened and reignited the war, forcing humans into a new conflict.
Eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow has dropped out of high school and works at the Oath Gazette to support herself and her mother, Aster, who struggles with alcohol addiction. Her brother, Forest, has left to fight for Enva in the war, leaving Iris determined to win a columnist position over her rival, Roman Kitt.
However, censorship prevents Iris from reporting honestly about the war, creating frustration in her role as a journalist.
Nineteen-year-old Roman Kitt, coming from a privileged background, has abandoned his dreams of studying literature to follow his father’s wishes, working at the Gazette and entering an engagement with Elinor Little. Despite their rivalry, Roman is intrigued by Iris’s writing and determination.
Iris writes letters to her missing brother using her late grandmother’s typewriter, slipping them under her wardrobe door where they mysteriously disappear. One day, she receives a reply from a mysterious correspondent who later introduces himself as Carver.
Iris does not realize Carver is Roman, who has known her identity from the start, having read her letters as they magically appeared under his wardrobe.
After Iris’s mother dies, Iris loses her drive to continue competing with Roman and leaves the Gazette. She joins the Inkridden Tribune as a war correspondent, determined to find her brother.
At the front in Avalon Bluff, she befriends Attie and Marisol while facing the daily threats of attacks from Dacre’s forces, which include monstrous eithrals that bomb during the day and hounds that hunt at night. Iris writes impactful articles for the Tribune and letters for soldiers, building a reputation while unknowingly developing feelings for Carver, her pen pal.
Roman, developing genuine feelings for Iris, ends his engagement, leaves the Gazette, and travels to Avalon Bluff to be with her. Though Iris initially greets him with coldness, they gradually bond while continuing their correspondence.
Roman eventually confesses in a letter that he is Carver, but before Iris can read it, they are both sent to the trenches, where Roman is injured, and Iris loses her mother’s locket. Once back in Avalon Bluff, Iris reads the letter and feels betrayed by Roman’s deception, despite the honesty in his words.
When she confronts him, he kisses her, but she flees, needing time to process the truth.
Iris later forgives Roman, realizing her feelings for him and Carver are the same. Roman proposes, and she accepts, but their moment is interrupted by warnings of Dacre’s forces approaching Avalon Bluff.
They decide to stay rather than evacuate, believing Forest will find his way back to her if he is alive. With help from Attie, Marisol, and Keegan, they have a small wedding, spending one night together before dawn arrives with Dacre’s forces bombing the town.
As the attack intensifies, tear gas bombs separate Iris from Roman. Forest, who had arrived in Avalon Bluff in secret, drags Iris away to safety, despite her desperate attempts to reach Roman, who, due to his injuries, cannot follow her quickly.
Back in Oath, Iris and Forest settle into their old apartment, but she senses Forest has changed. She learns that after being injured, Forest was healed by Dacre and forced to serve him, but seeing Iris’s locket in the trenches helped him break free to save her.
Iris struggles with the changes in her brother while grieving Roman’s absence.
Unbeknownst to Iris, Roman survives the attack but is found by Dacre, who takes him to the underworld to serve as his first war correspondent. Roman, now in Dacre’s grasp, becomes a pawn in the god’s ongoing war while Iris remains determined to find him, ready to continue fighting for love and truth in a world scarred by divine conflict.
Characters
Iris Winnow
Iris Winnow, the eighteen-year-old protagonist of Divine Rivals, is a determined yet tender soul who shoulders burdens heavier than her age demands. Having dropped out of high school to support her alcoholic mother after her brother Forest’s departure for war, Iris’s sense of responsibility intertwines with her ambition to become a respected journalist at the Oath Gazette.
Her fierce rivalry with Roman C. Kitt stems from a place of survival, pride, and the desire to prove her worth in a world that sees her as lesser due to her education and class.
Iris’s letters to her brother, written on her grandmother’s enchanted typewriter, showcase her vulnerability, longing, and the need for connection in a world ravaged by divine conflict. Throughout the story, Iris evolves from someone consumed by competition and survival to a compassionate war correspondent who understands the depth of loss and the fragile beauty of love, particularly in her complex relationship with Roman.
Her courage is quiet yet resolute, evident when she chooses to stay in Avalon Bluff to reunite with her brother and in her eventual decision to marry Roman amidst impending disaster, showing her yearning to find joy even in a world on fire.
Roman C.
Roman C. Kitt, nineteen and seemingly privileged, carries the invisible shackles of a life chosen for him by his wealthy family, stifling his own dreams of literature in favor of a stable journalistic career and an arranged engagement with Elinor Little.
Despite his cold exterior at the Gazette, Roman’s internal world is warm and conflicted, a duality evident in his secret identity as Carver, the mysterious correspondent who receives Iris’s letters. Roman’s character is layered with guilt over his sister’s death and the exhaustion of performing societal expectations, which he gradually sheds as his feelings for Iris deepen.
His transformation from a competitor seeking advantage to a man who sacrifices security, career, and familial expectations to be with Iris illustrates his quiet bravery. Roman’s journey is also defined by his longing for authenticity, symbolized by his willingness to break off his engagement, leave his position, and follow Iris to Avalon Bluff.
His love for Iris is steady, earnest, and tinged with hope, culminating in his heartfelt proposal and the courage to stay by her side despite the advancing threat of Dacre, even as his path ultimately leads him into Dacre’s hands in the underworld.
Forest Winnow
Forest Winnow, though absent for much of Divine Rivals, is a shadow that shapes Iris’s motivations and emotional landscape. Initially seen as a loving older brother who leaves to fight in Enva’s war, Forest’s absence fuels Iris’s relentless drive to find him, even as she fears him dead or lost to the horrors of the front.
Forest’s character becomes more complex when it is revealed that he was captured, healed, and enslaved by Dacre, forced to fight against his will. His return to Iris is marked by conflict, for the man who comes back is changed, bearing the scars of betrayal, survival, and the moral ambiguity of having fought for the enemy.
His act of rescuing Iris from Avalon Bluff while wearing Roman’s jumpsuit speaks to his enduring love for his sister but also positions him as a symbol of the war’s corruption of innocence. Forest’s internal battle with the remnants of Dacre’s control, alongside his decision to bring Iris back to Oath, suggests a man desperate to protect what little he can, even as his actions fracture his relationship with his sister, leaving Iris to question who her brother has become.
Aster Winnow
Aster Winnow, Iris’s mother, represents the quiet tragedy of loss and addiction amidst the backdrop of war. Her alcoholism is a coping mechanism for the grief of a family splintered by conflict and personal failures, leaving Iris to navigate the adult world alone.
Despite her struggles, Aster’s love for her children is evident in small gestures, such as moments of clarity when she tries to care for Iris or reassures her of Forest’s safety. Her death, sudden and devastating, acts as a catalyst for Iris’s departure from the Oath Gazette and her journey to the war front, marking a significant turning point in the narrative.
Aster’s ashes, carried by Iris and later spread before her wedding, symbolize the weight of familial love and loss that Iris carries throughout her journey, reminding her of the promises made and the need to find her own path amidst grief.
Attie (Thea Attwood)
Attie, Iris’s fellow war correspondent and friend at Avalon Bluff, is a vibrant, steadfast presence who embodies resilience and the power of truth-telling during wartime. She is motivated by a desire to prove wrong the professor who doubted her conviction, and her choice to report on the realities of war shows her bravery and commitment to justice.
Her character is layered with her love for music, particularly her hidden violin, which symbolizes a past life stolen by war yet remains a thread of her identity. Attie’s bond with Iris is warm and supportive, serving as a source of strength and companionship during the darkest moments at the front.
Her understanding of the necessity of their work, coupled with her decision to stay and fight when the evacuation sirens sound, highlights her quiet heroism and her unwavering dedication to ensuring the truth reaches the people.
Marisol Torres
Marisol, the compassionate owner of the Avalon Bluff bed-and-breakfast, becomes a maternal figure and anchor for Iris and Attie in the chaos of war. Her character is defined by warmth, hope, and quiet strength, seen in the way she nurtures her garden while waiting for her wife, Keegan, to return from the front lines.
Marisol’s garden becomes a symbol of hope and beauty amidst destruction, reflecting her belief in life beyond war. Her decision to host and support war correspondents, cook for them, and provide them with a semblance of home highlights her nurturing spirit.
Her participation in organizing Iris and Roman’s wedding and her quiet acceptance of staying to defend Avalon Bluff when Dacre’s forces close in underscore her bravery and commitment to the people she loves.
Dacre
Dacre, the Underling god, embodies the dark, looming threat that underpins the entire narrative of Divine Rivals. His motivations are driven by vengeance, chaos, and the pursuit of Enva, with his monstrous hounds and eithrals sowing terror wherever they appear.
Dacre’s character represents the corruption and horror of unchecked power, as seen in his enslavement of Forest and eventual capture of Roman. His influence extends beyond the physical realm into the psychological, twisting those he touches and leaving them irrevocably changed.
Dacre’s presence is felt even in his absence, a constant reminder of the stakes in the war and the consequences of divine rivalries on mortal lives. His acquisition of Roman as his first war correspondent at the end of the book positions him as a puppeteer, pulling the strings of mortals for his own ends while threatening to unravel the fragile threads of hope that Iris and Roman have fought to maintain.
Themes
War and Its Transformations
In Divine Rivals, war is not simply a background event but a shaping force that redefines identity, relationships, and moral clarity. The war between Dacre and Enva is framed as a divine conflict, yet its consequences are deeply human, drawing ordinary people like Iris and Roman into its orbit and compelling them to participate in violence, truth-seeking, and survival.
The distance between the safe cities like Oath and the bomb-stricken Avalon Bluff shows the blindness many have toward conflict until it arrives at their doorstep, and the shifting perceptions of war from something far away to an immediate, suffocating reality. Through Iris’s transition from obituary writer to frontline correspondent, the narrative shows how war transforms fear into courage, and ideals into lived consequences.
It forces Iris to grow from survival-driven ambition into a role where she sees truth as her only weapon against public ignorance. Similarly, Roman’s journey from complacent engagement to risking everything to be with Iris reveals how war pressures individuals to reclaim autonomy over their own lives.
The harshness of the trenches, the constant presence of Dacre’s monstrous forces, and the brutal methods of battle strip away illusions of heroism while still preserving the necessity of courage and conviction. War becomes a relentless teacher, forcing both Iris and Roman to confront not only external enemies but also the fear within themselves.
In this process, war forges unbreakable bonds and confronts characters with moral challenges, demonstrating how it leaves none untouched, remaking the fabric of society, family, and self in the process.
Family, Loss, and the Burden of Survival
Family is an aching current throughout Divine Rivals, manifesting as both comfort and burden in Iris’s life. Her mother’s alcoholism, her father’s absence, and Forest’s departure to war leave Iris carrying the weight of holding their broken home together.
Aster’s death transforms Iris’s relationship with memory and grief, reminding her of the fragile lines between anger and forgiveness that shape love within families. Forest’s later reappearance, marked by his trauma and the secrets of his forced servitude under Dacre, challenges Iris’s hope and trust, revealing how war warps the identities of loved ones, making them almost unrecognizable.
Family becomes a double-edged presence: a tether to hope and humanity, but also a cause of profound sorrow. Iris’s longing for connection with Forest is mirrored by her hope that he is alive, a hope that drives her to the front lines despite the risks.
Her letters, typed on her grandmother’s enchanted typewriter, embody the silent prayers of a sister desperate for assurance while the world crumbles around her. Roman, too, carries the weight of family expectations and unresolved grief over his sister Del’s death, which influences his choices and guilt.
The interplay of grief, loyalty, and the hope for reconnection underscores how family binds individuals, even when it is fractured by war and betrayal. This theme shows how loss does not only take people away but transforms the survivors, shaping them with the wounds of what has been lost while keeping alive the yearning to reclaim those bonds.
Truth, Censorship, and the Power of Storytelling
The story consistently emphasizes how truth is a battleground in Divine Rivals, a contested space where censorship by authorities and propaganda efforts obscure the realities of war. Iris’s drive to report truthfully reflects a rebellion against Oath’s chancellor’s censorship and Zeb’s narrow editorial vision, which limit what the public knows about the war’s brutality.
Her work at the Inkridden Tribune allows her to reclaim her voice, turning her articles into weapons of awareness that can influence public sentiment and policy. Roman’s initial manipulation of Iris’s letters for career advantage contrasts with his eventual awakening, where he recognizes the moral imperative of honest reporting and abandons the Gazette’s constraints to align himself with Iris’s mission of truth.
The enchanted typewriters symbolize the sanctity of unfiltered communication, serving as a private conduit for sharing vulnerabilities, fears, and genuine experiences across distance, bypassing the suppressive systems that govern public discourse. Storytelling in this world is more than a profession; it is a resistance against silence and misinformation, revealing how words can be both fragile and powerful.
As Iris writes for soldiers who cannot voice their pain and Roman chooses to share realities that unsettle comfortable ignorance, storytelling emerges as an act of rebellion and a means of preserving humanity amid violence. It underscores the cost of silence and the transformative power of truth, which becomes a lifeline for societies otherwise kept in darkness by fear and political agendas.
Love, Identity, and Trust
The slow-burn relationship between Iris and Roman in Divine Rivals reveals how love is deeply intertwined with identity and the struggle to trust amidst chaos. Their anonymous correspondence allows them to strip away societal expectations and personal barriers, enabling a vulnerable honesty that contrasts sharply with their guarded interactions in person.
The revelation of Roman as Carver tests the boundaries of love and forgiveness, exposing how trust can feel like betrayal when it is built upon hidden identities, even if intentions are sincere. Iris’s anger and eventual forgiveness reveal the layered process of understanding that love is not about perfection but about the courage to be seen and accepted fully, even in one’s mistakes.
Roman’s love for Iris drives him to break free from familial obligations and an arranged marriage, representing his journey toward reclaiming agency and authenticity. The war backdrop intensifies their relationship, showing how intimacy becomes a sanctuary while also being fragile amid destruction.
Their impromptu marriage before Avalon Bluff’s fall becomes a testament to love’s ability to assert meaning in moments overshadowed by death and uncertainty. Love in the novel is not a mere subplot; it becomes a source of hope and a catalyst for personal transformation.
It challenges characters to reconcile their fears, to trust despite betrayal, and to find in each other the resolve to face the collapsing world around them with unity, proving that in a world ravaged by war, love remains a radical act of resistance and faith.