Books like Divine Rivals

A River Enchanted is Rebecca Ross's adult fantasy debut, and it shares Divine Rivals' gift for weaving romance into a world shaped by invisible forces. Set on the isle of Cadence, the story follows two childhood rivals, Jack and Adaira, who must work together when girls start vanishing from the island. Ross brings the same attention to language and atmosphere here, with music replacing letters as the magical thread that binds the characters.

The Scottish folklore influences give the setting a misty, tactile quality that readers of Divine Rivals will recognize instantly. Where Divine Rivals uses journalism and war correspondence, A River Enchanted uses bardic music and clan politics to create tension between its leads. Both books trust their readers to sit with slow-burn emotion rather than rushing toward resolution.

The found-family dynamics and the way secrets reshape relationships will feel familiar to anyone who loved Iris and Roman's story. This is the ideal next read for someone who wants Ross's signature style in a new setting.

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy takes the pen-pal romance at the heart of Divine Rivals and drops it into a wildly original fantasy world where the dead rise as marshals patrol the wastelands. Hart and Mercy work at competing funeral homes and despise each other in person, but they have each been writing anonymous letters to a pen pal they are falling for. The dramatic irony drives the entire novel: readers know what the characters do not, and that tension mirrors the magical letter exchange between Iris and Roman.

Aster Glenn Gray's debut has a sharper comedic edge than Divine Rivals, but the emotional core is identical. Both books ask what happens when the person you love on paper turns out to be the person you clash with in real life. The fantasy elements here are stranger and more inventive, with demi-gods and sentient beasts, but the romance stays grounded in genuine vulnerability.

Readers who want that specific thrill of two people falling in love through words before they realize the truth will find exactly that here.

What the River Knows shares Divine Rivals' commitment to a headstrong heroine who refuses to stay on the sidelines. Isabel Ibanez's novel follows Inez, a young Argentine heiress who travels to 1884 Egypt after her parents' suspicious deaths, determined to uncover the truth despite everyone telling her to go home. The historical fantasy setting, lush with Egyptian archaeology and river magic, scratches the same itch as Divine Rivals' war-torn fantasy world.

Both books pair a determined female lead with a guarded love interest who tries to keep her at arm's length, and both let the romance build through shared work and reluctant respect. The sense of place in What the River Knows is extraordinary; readers can practically feel the Nile heat the way they can feel the trenches in Divine Rivals. Ibanez and Ross actually critiqued each other's manuscripts during writing, and that creative kinship shows in the way both novels balance adventure with emotional honesty.

This is a strong pick for readers who want the romance and the mystery in equal measure.

One Dark Window offers a darker, more gothic take on the romantasy formula that made Divine Rivals so popular. Rachel Gillig's debut follows Elspeth, who has hidden a monster inside her mind since childhood, and the mysterious Captain of the Destrier who needs her forbidden magic to save their kingdom. The prose has a dense, atmospheric quality that will appeal to readers who loved Ross's descriptive style, though Gillig leans harder into horror elements and moral ambiguity.

Both novels feature card-based or object-based magic systems that feel tactile and rule-bound, giving the fantasy elements real weight. The romance here burns slower and darker than Iris and Roman's, but it carries the same sense of two people recognizing something essential in each other despite every reason to stay apart. One Dark Window rewards patient readers who enjoy piecing together a complex magic system while watching a love story unfold through meaningful glances and loaded conversations.

If Divine Rivals left you wanting a romantasy with sharper teeth, this delivers.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries brings the academic-rivals-to-lovers energy of Divine Rivals into a cozy, folklore-rich fantasy that feels like reading by a fire on a cold night. Heather Fawcett's novel follows Emily Wilde, a prickly, brilliant scholar cataloguing faerie folklore in a remote Scandinavian village, and Wendell Bambleby, her charming rival academic who shows up uninvited. The epistolary framing device, told through Emily's field notes and journal entries, echoes the letter-writing magic of Divine Rivals.

Both books use their academic settings to create natural friction between the leads, and both understand that intellectual respect is the foundation of the best romances. The faerie lore here is drawn from real Northern European traditions, giving the fantasy a grounded, textured feel that matches Ross's attention to worldbuilding detail. Emily Wilde's is lighter in tone than Divine Rivals, with more humor and less war, but the slow thaw of two stubborn people falling for each other hits the same emotional notes.

A perfect pick for readers who want the rivals-to-lovers arc without the battlefield.

The Priory of the Orange Tree scales up the warring-gods mythology of Divine Rivals into a sprawling epic fantasy with a romance that unfolds across multiple continents. Samantha Shannon's standalone novel weaves together four point-of-view characters in a world where an ancient evil stirs and two rival magical traditions must unite. The scope is much larger than Divine Rivals, but the emotional through-line is similar: people on opposite sides of a conflict finding common ground through trust and vulnerability.

Shannon's prose is formal and precise, sharing Ross's gift for making fantasy language feel natural rather than overwrought. The book centers a same-sex romance alongside its political intrigue, and both love stories in the novel share Divine Rivals' theme of connection across dividing lines. At over 800 pages, this is a commitment, but readers who loved the mythological elements of Divine Rivals and wanted more will find this deeply satisfying.

The dragon-rider elements also make it a good bridge for readers who came to Divine Rivals from Fourth Wing.

Heartless Hunter flips the enemies-to-lovers dynamic of Divine Rivals into a cat-and-mouse thriller where the romance carries genuine danger. Kristen Ciccarelli's novel is set in a world where witches are hunted, and follows Rune, a witch hiding in plain sight, and Gideon, a witch hunter who does not know what she is. The tension here runs hotter and more dangerous than in Divine Rivals, because the secret between the leads is not just emotional but life-threatening.

Both books share a fascination with how people connect across ideological divides, and both use their fantasy settings to comment on propaganda and the stories nations tell about their enemies. Ciccarelli's pacing is tighter and more thriller-influenced than Ross's lyrical approach, but she matches Ross's ability to make every interaction between the leads feel loaded with meaning. The dual perspective lets readers see both sides of every loaded conversation, creating the same dramatic irony that makes Divine Rivals' letter exchanges so addictive.

Readers who want the tension turned up to maximum will find this impossible to put down.