Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

6 reviews

abicaro17's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Holy shit..... Well Rebecca Ross it's on sight girl! Iris is a reporter competing for a columnist spot against fellow reporter, Roman. As Iris writes letter to her brother who's away at war, she tucks them away inside her closet. These letter end up in the hands of her rival, Roman, who begins to write her back. As war tears across the country and propaganda and misinformation reigns supreme, Iris and Roman create a magical friendship through letters. I adore this story! It's just magical enough to be not realistic but not too crazy as to be hard to understand and follow. Iris is a strong and yet logical and likable character. She makes normal choices and thinks through her issues before jumping into action. Roman is adorable and this conclusion makes me mad af. Like gotta go read Ruthless Vows brb. My only issue with this book is that the start is slow and the world building isn't explained very well until later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Body horror, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Alcoholism, Classism, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Addiction, Vomit, War, Alcohol, Violence, Gore, and Sexual content

filipa_maia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was such a surprise! I was not expecting to become so invested in this characters and a story about war.

I like how strong Iris is, I like how fearless Kitt is, I like Attie, and Marisol - this book has bunch of interesting and unique characters.

I loved all the twists and turns the plot took, just when I thought I had everything figured out, something completely blindsided me and I was caught of guard.

I can't wait to read the second book, find out more about these Gods, about Forest and how it will all end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Classism, Violence, War, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Addiction

picaresquedreamer's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Child death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death of parent, Death, and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual content

tabea1409's review

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, War, Death, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

emilywemily6's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book was beautiful and poetic. Time flew by while listening to it and I truly escaped into the story. The first 25% set up the world and the characters, but after they got to the war I was captivated. The letter melted me heart and I saw how the characters fell for each other as they shed small pieces of armor to grow closer to each other. I loved the magic system from the nebulous gods, and it felt like we got to hear about ordinary people living their lives in a world with a pantheon of gods and the subsequent magical overflow, rather than mortal characters being made important in a story about the gods (like a lot of Greek myths are). And I loved that perspective! The ending was tense and stressful and I’m in a mega book hangover and can’t wait to read the next book as soon as it comes out!! The writing was so lyrical and beautiful, with lots of descriptions on how things felt so I really felt immersed in the world. The blend of a pseudo WW1 world and the magical pantheon of gods was really interesting too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual content, Grief, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content and Gun violence

Minor: Slavery

patricktreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Divine Rivals is a Romeo and Juliet with a bit of a period historical war and bit of fantasy mixed into it. It was a bit of a slow start, but I expected a little of  that with this being this first in a multi book series. There was a lot of world building, and revealing of the magical systems. 

Normally period pieces don't work well for me, but Ross wrote in a way that just had that hook. It could have been the magically in the time piece or possibly the journalism and writer aspect of things. Etiher way it just worked and I absolutely can't wait until the next one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Blood, Classism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Violence, and Slavery