'Divine Rivals' Book Club Readalong Day 8 - Final Day!

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 40-Epilogue of Divine Rivals, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.

Find your discussion questions below, and find LOTS more on The Nest!

Chapter 40 

Iris and Roman wake and go downstairs. Attie calls up and tells them not to touch the curtains because eithrals have been spotted. They come downstairs and the whole house rocks on its foundation. A splitting boom shakes the walls and the ground, and the group stays kneeled on the kitchen floor. 

The bombs drop all around them but Marisol ensures them that the house will not fall while she's in it. 

The world goes silent and Marisol tells everyone to stay still, and that she will return soon. 

The group, of course, ignores Marisol's wishes and they venture out to look for her. They see ruination and help soldiers that they see injured on the street. 

Iris leaves Roman to tend to an injured soldier and suddenly hears someone shouting "down!". It's an eithral, monstrously white and flying closer, nearly at the town. 

Everyone stops moving except for a critically injured soldier who is crying out for his mother. Iris realizes that they're going to be bombed and that this may be the end. 



Chapter 41

Iris imagines her Nan, and the day of her young birthday when she'd given her the Alouette. She sees the day that her brother Forest placed a snail in her palm at the riverbank and she named it Morgie. She sees her mother, Kitt, Atie and replays many memories. 

Suddenly the bomb his the ground and clatters to the crook of a soldiers body. 

It wasn't a bomb as Iris had thought, instead it was a gas. Green smoke spills out of the canister and burns her nose and eyes. She tries to make her way out of the gas and finally sees Kitt who shares his gas mask with her. 

He tells Iris that they need to go and to not look behind. He encourages her to run and drags her to a field. He tells her not to look behind again but she does and it's Roman...

The masked stranger is not Roman, it's Forest! Forest tells Iris to leave Roman behind, that nothing can be done for him. Suddenly she feels terror, like her brother is going to harm her. 

She sees Roman, barely able to walk, blood dripping from his chin with his eyes smoldering. 

He almost reaches her before the green smoke cloud swallows him whole. 



Chapter 42

Iris wakes with a headache to see Forest. She asks him where they are, why he didn't tell her he was alive. 

He simply replies that she needs to rest but Iris insists on going to look for Roman. Forest says that he will take her, but that after she searches, he will take her someplace safe. 

Iris agrees. 

They reach the field and the smoke is gone. They crawl through the grass looking for Roman but they do not find them. Iris relents and Forest takes her to make a camp in the woods several miles from town.

Iris asks Forest where Kitt could be and that they should have brought him with them,  but he becomes angry with her. Iris feels he's being paranoid about something and tells Forest that they should catch a ride with one of the lorries. 

He says no, and she asks if they'll walk all the way to Oath. He replies that yes, until it's safe to board a train. 

Eventually Iris asks her brother directly about his company, his platooon and he replies that they're gone. As the day gets darker, Iris writes on her Alouette to Roman. She tells him that she looked for him and will continue to try to find him. 

On the fourth day of traveling with Forest, the road came into view and she suggests walking along it. Forest shakes his head and Iris hears the lorries rumbling by but cannot see them. 

She notices that Forest is bleeding and tends to him. A glint of metal catches Iris's eye and she sees that it's her mother's gold locket. The one Iris had worn since her mother's death, the one she lost in the trenches. 

And she pieces it together...her brother had been in the trenches. 

Fighting for Dacre. 

She accuses him and Forest tells her that she doesn't understand. 

Iris writes Roman agai, telling him that she's afraid. 

Eventually they board a train after Forest washes and bathes. On the train, Iris considers Forest's wounds and realizes that they should have been fatal...that he should be dead. 

Iris writes to Roman again, telling him things she wishes she had before. 

Forest and Iris get to Oath and back to their apartment. Iris tells Forest that their mother has passed away and he's silent. 

Forest tells Iris about fighting in the trenches, that he's sorry he couldn't save Roman and that he defied Dacre's orders to come save Iris. 

He tells her about being mortally wounded and accepting Dacre's healing, and then fighting for him. Eventually he sleeps. 

Iris goes to her room and finds a note from Kitt. 



Epilogue

Dacre walks the wasteland of the town of Avalon Bluff and comes upon a young man with raven dark hair. He tells his servant, Val to take him below. 

Satisfied with the carnage, Dacre looks eastward to the path that will lead him to Enva. 




I hoped you all loved Divine Rivals as much as I did! Remember, Amber and I will be back on The Nest and here on the blog for June's book from July 20th so stay tuned for more book club fun. 

Happy reading!

 Questions:

1. 👱Well that was a tad shocking! Where has Iris’s brother been and how did he find 

2. 🥰I can’t wait to see who Enva is in the next book. Any guesses as to her identity

3. 📃What did you think of Divine Rivals? Will you be picking up book two?

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