Amber and I are BACK this June for a fun new readalong! We're about to start our monthly discussion for our May "Against All Odds" book, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross!
As a reminder, from now on, our monthly discussions will be both here on the OwlCrate blog AND on The Nest!
On each day we'll read a section of Divine Rivals both on the blog and in The Nest's group, and then discuss in the comments our theories and predictions. This means there will be spoilers for each section! Beware!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for chapters 5-10 of Divine Rivals, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.
Find your discussion questions below!
Something I've noticed about this book in particular is how beautifully the fantastical elements are woven with what feels like a real portrayal of the trials in journalism during the first and second world wars. The aesthetic and the tone is just excellent.
Anyway, here we go and I don't promise that I won't tangent today...
Chapter 5
The next day at work Iris learns that their competitor paper is recruiting field correspondents to cover the god's war and her boss warns them all against applying while talking down the brevity of the ongoing war.
A while later he calls Iris into his office and gives Iris three days to hand in an essay that may help earn her the promotion over Roman. She agrees and then runs into Roman himself who asks her about the assignment she's been given, implying that it's favoritism. He tells her that she's only receiving this because their boss pities her.
Which, MY DUDE, this is not how you treat your crush. I mean, come on.
Chapter 6
Iris gets home and finds her mother awake, and making dinner for them. They talk and spend what feels like a normal evening just spending time together, the way it was before Forest left and though her mother is under the influence, she's comforted by her.
Meanwhile Roman goes home to his parents having set him up into an arranged marriage to a cold family of Dacre (that's the maybe evil god) supporters. Initially he refuses but his father reminds him of a reason that he owes loyalty to his family and eventually he relents and agrees to marry.
Chapter 7
Roman retires to his bedroom after dinner and his unexpected engagement to find a letter from Iris asking him about Dacre and Enva. As he has inherited quite a few old myths and books from his grandfather, he sends back a less well known one to Iris about the two branches of the families of old gods, the Skywards and the Underlings.
You guessed it, Dacre is an Underling and Enva is a Skyward. Light and darkness at play here, my friends.
Chapter 8
Iris gets to work to find that Roman is late. And he's never late so she really wants to know why (definitely not that all night texting they're figuring out). Her friend Sara tells her of Roman's engagement notice in the announcements column and of course, Iris pretends not to care.
Iris congratulates Roman (he doesn't want to be congratulated) and asks if he needs help with his article about soldiers missing in the war. Ya know, because her brother is.
She invites him out to talk over sandwiches and they flirt as Roman interviews her about Forest.
Also there are soggy pickles but I didn't get much outside of the EPIC PINING (be grateful I didn't say pickling) ROMANCE.
Chapter 9
Iris returns home to find her mother missing and wants to reply (remember she doesn't know yet!) to Roman's myth that he sent the previous evening. Instead, she finds that he's already sent a letter about being unable to let his guard down. Of course, he followed it up with a classic "lol jk ignore that message sorry to bug" but Iris writes out a beautiful response encouraging him to open up.
And he responds that he shall try.
Chapter 10
Iris is at work the next morning drinking tea and peeking at Roman as he's congratulated on his engagement. She's interrupted by Sara who drops off a notice from the constable about a woman who has been struck and killed by a tram the previous evening.
It makes Iris's gut sink and she grabs her bag, leaves work and goes to the station to inform them that she needs to identify a body.
Unfortunately, Iris's instincts turn out to be true and her mother has died.
That was a really hard end to the chapter and I hope you're all doing okay. Let me know what you're enjoying about Divine Rivals in the comments below!
Onward to Day 3...but tomorrow...
Questions:
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💍👰Do you think the Roman will go through with the marriage? Why do you think Roman's parents arranged this marriage? -
⚔What do you think is happening to the soldiers at the front? -
😭Oh no! I held my breath hoping it wasn't Aster. This hurt my heart! Do you think Iris will recover from losing her mother like this?
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