Divine Rivals

Written by Rebecca Ross in 2023, Divine Rivals is the first installment in the Letters of Enchantment duology. The story follows protagonists Iris Winnow and Roman Kitt, rival journalists and mystery pen pals from Oath who independently become war correspondents to report on the conflict between two rival gods in the west. Divine Rivals explores a variety of powerful themes, such as relationships in wartime, the emotional connectivity of the written word, and the dangers of censorship.

This guide refers to the 2023 hardback edition published by Wednesday Books, an imprint of Macmillan.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide describe instances of alcohol addiction, wartime violence, and symptoms of PTSD.

Plot Summary

Centuries ago, 100 Underling and Skyward gods warred incessantly until only five remained. With the gods’ numbers diminished, the humans were able to band together and place the five gods in a magically induced slumber before burying them under different sections of Cambria. Seven months ago, the Underling god Dacre and the Skyward god Enva awakened. Seeking revenge on his greatest enemy, Dacre declared war on Enva in the west.

Eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow is a high school dropout who works as a journalist at the Oath Gazette to pay the bills for the apartment that she shares with her mother, Aster, who is addicted to alcohol. In the months since Iris’s older brother, Forest, enlisted to fight in the war on behalf of Enva, she has barely kept afloat. Her only ambition is to defeat her work rival, Roman, by securing the higher-paying position as columnist. She holds this goal despite the reality that, due to unethical censorship of the media on the part of Oath’s chancellor, Iris is not permitted to report on the most important facts about the war.

Nineteen-year-old Roman C. Kitt lives a life of his father’s choosing, for he has given up his dreams of obtaining a literature degree to instead become a journalist and submit to an engagement with Elinor Little, the daughter of a wealthy chemist.

In the months since her brother, Forest, left to join Enva’s war effort, Iris has written letters to Forest using her deceased nan’s Alouette typewriter. After signing off, she slips the letters underneath her wardrobe door, where they mysteriously disappear. Forest himself never writes back, but one day, a mysterious correspondent answers, eventually introducing himself as Carver. While Iris does not discover that the correspondent is actually Roman until months later, he is fully aware of her identity from the very beginning, as he has been reading all of her letters to Forest.

When the untimely death of Iris’s mother, Aster, depletes her devotion to the Gazette and causes her to lose the columnist position to Roman, Iris joins the Inkridden Tribune as a war correspondent. She is determined to locate her brother and is fairly certain that he is either dead or missing from the war front. Once she leaves Oath, Iris is surprised to discover that it is not her wardrobe that is enchanted to deliver her letters to Carver, but her typewriter. She and Roman learn that their typewriters are from a set of three that were enchanted decades ago to connect three childhood friends (Iris’s and Roman’s respective grandmothers as well as a sickly girl with tuberculosis named Alouette) across any distance.

While stationed at Avalon Bluff, Iris befriends Attie, another war correspondent, and Marisol, the owner of the bed-and-breakfast they reside at. The three women bond over tending to the garden that Marisol wants to be perfect for when her wife, Keegan, returns from the front lines. While Avalon Bluff is 80 kilometers from the front lines, they still face daily dangers from Dacre’s monstrous flying eithrals, which drop bombs on anything that moves below during the day. Dacre’s hounds present another hazard, for they hunt for any signs of life at night. In addition to churning out influential articles for the Inkridden Tribune, Iris now writes letters for soldiers to send to their loved ones. Even as she begins to develop feelings for her pen pal, Carver, Iris is surprised to find that she misses Roman.

As the mystery correspondence between the two continues, Roman develops feelings for Iris that give him the courage to end his engagement to Elinor, quit his job at the Gazette, and travel to Avalon Bluff as a war correspondent to be with Iris. Iris greets Roman’s arrival with her customary hostility, but she slowly warms to him as they bond over morning runs. While he is in Avalon Bluff, Roman continues to correspond with Iris as Carver, and he finally finds the courage to write a letter admitting the truth. Before Iris can read it, circumstances conspire to send them both to the trenches on the front lines. The enemy attacks during their time in the trenches, severely injuring Roman’s leg and causing Iris to lose her mother’s golden locket. Iris finally learns of Roman’s dual identity as Carver once they return to Avalon Bluff and she has a chance to read “Carver’s” letter. The letter is romantic, and while Roman admits to loving her, Iris feels foolish and betrayed by his deception. When she confronts him in the Avalon Bluff infirmary, he kisses her desperately, but she flees, needing the time and space to process the revelation of his true identity.

Eventually, Iris forgives Roman after determining that her feelings for him and Carver are the same. In a conversation after Roman is discharged from the infirmary, Iris makes a joke about him proposing. Roman soon after proposes to Iris for real, and she accepts. However, their moment of celebration is interrupted by the evacuation siren, which warns that Dacre’s forces are closing in on Avalon Bluff and will be attacking the town by dawn. Meanwhile, Marisol’s wife, Keegan, arrives with her platoon to begin preparations for defending the town as citizens evacuate. She also brings a letter addressed to Iris that informs her of her brother’s survival. Iris decides to stay rather than evacuating, for she believes that if Forest is fighting at the front lines, he will find his way to her in Avalon Bluff. Roman stays by her side, determined not to leave her.

Iris spends her remaining time spreading her mother’s ashes and marrying Roman, who organizes an impromptu wedding with the help of Attie, Marisol, and Keegan. After a night of intimacy, Iris and Roman wake to the sound of Dacre’s eithrals bombing the town. The bombs turn out to contain tear gas, which separates Iris from Roman. The gas also allows Forest—who secretly arrived in town days ago—to drag Iris away from Avalon Bluff. Iris protests the entire way, desperate to return for Roman, who pursues her but is unable to run due to his injuries.

Forest and Iris return to Oath and settle into their old apartment, which no longer feels like home to Iris. Forest does not comfort her in her grief over Roman, which causes Iris to question who her brother has become. She learns that Forest was injured at the front lines mere weeks into his service; he was then taken to the town of Meriah, where he was too weak to evacuate once Dacre attacked the area. Dacre himself healed Forest and forced him to serve in his army. Finding Iris’s locket in the trenches gave Forest the strength and courage to break free of Dacre’s control and transport her to safety.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Iris, Roman is found in the golden fields after Dacre successfully conquers Avalon Bluff. He is healed and taken to the underworld to serve as Dacre’s servant and first war correspondent.