One advantage of being among fiction readers especially on Instagram is that I'm never short of fine recommendations. Some of them I take with a grain of salt while others prove to be worth every minute I spent reading. So the glowing reviews of the Letters of Enchantment duology: Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross all over book spaces are so convincing that I'm immediately interested.
Before I can get my hands on the duology, I notice its prequel, Wild Reverence, is already published. What better way to get into Ms Ross’ fantasy world and lore of gods and goddesses than by reading it.
Series: Prequel, Standalone
Pages: 544
Published: September 2025
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Mythology
Wild Reverence, though a prequel to the duology, is a standalone that can be read on its own without spoiling the main books. It's set hundreds of years before the duology. In this world, we meet gods and goddesses called ‘divines’ who rule the skies and the underworld. But they are confined by their powers to their realms. None of them can travel to or enter another realm, except one goddess—Matilda.
Matilda, the heroine of this book, is born to an underling mother and skyward father. She's a mystery to the goddesses of fate and death because her powers are not fully known. One thing sets her apart from the others—she's able to travel both worlds without restrictions. She becomes a herald to the gods, delivering messages for anyone who requests her service.
Her destiny soon becomes entwined with a young human boy, Vincent, when she begins to appear in his dream. He falls in love with her not knowing who she is. Then they are separated for many years until when the goddess of death requests Matilda to deliver a letter to him. What is the content of this letter? Will Vincent remember her after the many years of separation? Will the love of a mortal and goddess stand the test of time and overcome the odds?
My Review And Rating
I took my time with this book because the author writes in a poetic prose style that is easy to read, and her words stay with you long after the last page. I bookmarked many paragraphs and lines while reading because the words are rich and beautiful. She's prolific and every word matters in the telling of her tale, there's no tautology or waste of language.
The plot is good but I hoped for something deeper, like a tougher conflict especially between the divines. However the focus on the love story between Matilda and Vincent is fascinating. The worldbuilding and atmospheric richness pulled me in from the beginning to the end.
The mythology is rich and fascinating to read. It's like I travelled to a realm where these powerful but narcissistic gods and goddesses rule, guided by laws they had crafted themselves and they war within themselves for survival and power. Humans are beneath them, a means to their selfish ends but one goddess chose to be different from them.
My favourite characters in this book are Matilda and Vincent. I know it's a bit on the nose, they being the lead protagonists and the story is centered on them. But I feel it's more of Matilda's thoughts and journey than Vincent's. As the Herald of the Gods, I liked that Matilda is unique, powerful yet humble when compared with other divines. Though faced with troubles from childhood, she endured and evolved into this courageous and strong goddess.
Her romance and relationship with Vincent starts slowly but becomes intense and achingly beautiful. Their struggle often stems from miscommunication and separation especially when they need each other the most which is touching and painful to read. Sometimes I want to scream into my book and speak some sense into their heads if they were real people.
One annoying character in the book is Warin, the god of spring. He's the arch villain and quite formidable. Scenes when I expect him to be dealt with or dead, he later shows up at inopportune times to cause chaos and troubles. I think the author did great with this character. Warin got me worked in every scene he appeared in.
Rating this book, I will give it a 4.5 stars out of 5. This is one beautiful and heartfelt love story that will stay with me for a long time. It's emotional, devastating in some parts, well-written and surprisingly original. The author did great with this one and I can't wait to read the duology. This book takes the top spot on my list of favourite romance reads.
All images above are from my E-library
Header images compiled in Canva.
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