Channi

Divine Rivals is a breath of fresh air in the romantasy genre.

I really wasn’t sure how to rate this book. Emily Henry is one of my favorite authors and what works here works really well, but at the same time I had some issues with the story.

Starting with what works well: as usual, Emily Henry is such a good writer. She can have me laughing out loud one moment and holding back tears the next. Alice is a great protagonist— I found her to be so likable and layered. Additionally, there are plenty of surprises that are fun to unravel.

Now, onto the critiques: There are so many moving pieces in Great Big Beautiful Life, and I think the story would’ve benefited from cutting some parts out and focusing in on certain, more integral elements. Some questions are still unanswered by the end of the novel, which is really frustrating. Additionally, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the love story, which was not the main focus of this novel but still big enough to matter.

Ali Hazelwood is a comfort author at this point. Nobody is going to claim the Steminist novellas are high art, but this one was cute and I liked the characters well enough.