"I don't think we know what we're made of until the worst moment possible happens. Then we must decide who we truly are and what is most important to us. I think we're often surprised by what we become."

4 ⭐

This book was lovely, but unfortunately a bit of a disappointment, and I am SO sad to say that. Divine Rivals was one of my top reads in 2023 - I absolutely adored that book, couldn't put it down and dreamed about it after I had finished it. But Ruthless Vows didn't hit the same way unfortunately. Maybe that's because I waited so long to read the sequel after the first one, but I refreshed my memory before starting it so I don't think that was the issue. I think the issue is that this book didn't have the same magical quality to it, I didn't feel as connected to the characters as I did in the first book and everything just felt more lacklustre than I was hoping for. The craft of the writing was still absolutely beautiful, the lyrical prose and the poetic quotes were still there in abundance, and there were moments where my heart hurt with what was happening to Iris and Roman - but the rest of the time I just felt... meh. This book took me 11 days to finish and I had to drag myself through parts which I wasn't prepared for after how I flew through Divine Rivals.

I don't want to just compare it to the first book, but I think the emotional cliff hanger we were left on at the end of Divine Rivals made me think the next book would continue on with that high strung tension, I expected to dive straight into this book still riding that wild wave but instead we were thrust back into the mundanity of Iris' life back at the Inkridden Tribune in Oath. We didn't really get to see Iris have any sort of breakdown over the trauma she experienced and the heartbreak she was feeling about their separation, I mean, she just watched Roman get attacked and gassed, and had no way of knowing if he was even alive. Her reaction to this felt a bit superficial and I think we needed more of that deep emotional internal monologue from Iris to really feel the full impact of what she went through. I also think this book was dragged out a bit too much, it took us almost 100 pages for Iris to find a way to contact Roman and then concoct a plan to get closer to him, and then another 200 pages for the real action to begin. Iris and Roman hardly got to spend any time together and I just didn't feel their desperation as vividly as I did in the first book. Then at the end, their reunion felt rushed, the time jumps to the epilogue were very cute but they were too quickly tacked on the end as if in an afterthought.

The introduction of the gods is what threw me off as well, because I wasn't expecting them to be so... human.
>>>SPOILER: Dacre used his divine powers to create a puppet army, wiping the minds of the opponents soldiers he harmed during the war and then half-healed them to keep them subservient to him - which is an absolutely terrifying premise. But then the Dacre on page didn't live up to the terrifying powerful twisted actions he had wrought. He wasn't particularly threatening or scary, he was described as otherworldly beautiful but he didn't feel very charming or awe-inspiring, he was just sort of... there. I mean, when he got shot at in one of the towns he simply ducked out of the way behind the car and ran with his lieutenant to hide!? That sounds so... weak, I don't know. And Enva, while she sounded ethereal and kind, she had literally just killed all of the gods apart from Dacre and everyone who learned of this just shrugged and went "good for her" instead of being terrified or wowed by a divinity that is wreaking war upon the land and killing other gods in the process. The fact that her absorbing the other gods powers left her weaker instead of stronger just didn't work for me.<<<END SPOILER
I think part of the magic in Divine Rivals was the fact that the god were this imminent unknown force that was threatening them, the eithrals were terrifying wyvern creatures from the underworld, and that tension and fear just didn't follow through into the second book, in my opinion. The gods felt so easily beatable and that disappointed me. Their backstory also didn't feel particularly fleshed out, the world building in both of these books was really the weakest part of it and I truly do think Rebecca Ross relied to heavily on the historical-esque setting, so we were expected to fill in the blanks with real world knowledge.

I've said a lot of negative things about this book but there was quite a bit to like as well. Iris' found family with Attie, Tobias, Sarah and her brother was really lovely, I enjoyed seeing the way they all worked together and had undying support for each other. It was nice to see Marisol and Keegan again and I am glad they were safely reunited. I did think the side characters were a little bit one dimensional in some ways, sadly, but it was lovely to see their adventures. The way Roman basically fell in love with Iris a second time as his memories slowly came back to him through their magical type writers was so poetic, and yet again, I am a sucker for a book that includes sending letters to each other and falling in love with someone's words. Overall, this was a nice book, it was good in a lot of ways but unfortunately felt like a let down compared to the brilliance and magic of the first book. I'm glad I read it, and I think this story is so sweet, but this didn't live up to the hype or my dreams of this being a full five star duology. But it is still worth a read, in my opinion, just don't expect too much I guess.

liked the first one better. this was forgettable and felt lackluster as a final book in a duology. i thought it was random that iris was the ONLY one en a wanted to kill dacre??? like that teenage girl is a writer not a fighter. it just didn’t match up honestly but it was decent

Amazing (as always). Writing style that is out of this world and so poetic, literally fell in love with this world all over again but I do think that first book was definitely better. Especially from a romance perspective, the fact that the concept of the letter with one side not knowing the other's identity felt repetitive, but one another hand the way Rebecca Ross explores the mythical divines' story is so interesting and how everything surrounding works, but the ending really intrigued me and I'm curious to understand futher what this could mean for the story, but something that really annoyed me how forest's death was passed so fast, as if Iris didn't care for him even though he's the main and only reason she decided to go to the front the first time and report from there. So for his death to be passed over in a two chapters was really strange to me and it felt weird. But maybe that's just me and I guess it was the end of the book so Rebecca Ross had to end the book somehow but I still think that forest and sarah were overlooked and the whole metaphorical perspective about how this book started with Iris looking for her brother and it ends with her losing him, it's a very visible parallel to the hunger games' last book mockingjay when Prim died after being the whole reasoning for Katniss to volunteer as tribute in the first book which lead off to a big chain of event but, still ended with Prim dead, either way would I recommend this book? A hundred percent. It contributes so much to the stories and main characters along side some side characters (TOBIAS AND ATTIEE)

Over all 4.5 stars read

Unpopular opinion: I prefer the second over the first book of the letters of enchantment duology.

After freshly completing the book and breathing in the acknowledgements (hidden jewels) I can only praise the author.

Not only the storyline and the complexity of the protagonist and secondary characters but the way she puts magic in to her words. Honestly, she got me crying over a side character, who's actions i dont sympahyse with.

Furthermore, i like how the gods who symbolise good and evil aren't following the classical archetypes and the book doesn't skip to the epilogue after the great war is won. (I want to discuss the Graveyard with a fellow history-obsessed reader)

And at last, how Iris and Roman find each other again. Mr. "How I love to loose to you."

Honorable mention: The Albatross by Taylor Swift. The book was published more than 3 months before The Anthology??

I’m not gonna lie i cant remember what i rated divine rival but this book for sure is a 5 star. I am so in love with iris and rowan.