A grand love that stands the test of realms and time – a mildly spoilery review of a story from the world of Rebecca Ross’ “Letters of Enchantment” duology
Hello and welcome back to another round of “Monica’s heart goes through many emotions in one book.” Today we’ll be talking about Rebecca Ross’s latest novel, “Wild Reverence,” a book that I didn’t actually realize was set in the world of the “Letters of Enchantment” duology until I started reading it. I feel stupid! I fell so in love with that duology Rebecca Ross is now on my list of authors called: “If they write a book, I grab it immediately.” So when I started reading this book and noticed, “Hm, some of the gods’ names are familiar…” I was ecstatic. To be back in the world I fell so in love with a few years ago… Yes, please!
Before jumping in, a quick synopsis: Underling Realm goddess Matilda is born with heralding powers – one who can cross the realms with words and letters when need be. When she is beholden to a secret that no one must know, suddenly her life is in great danger. Meanwhile, the mortal Vincent once dreamt of young Matilda when he was a child, a goddess he believed to be a friend and someone he could call on in times of strife. When he used the written word to try and reach Matilda during the worst day of his life, she didn’t come. Angry at all the gods, he no longer offers his words and prayers to them, nor does he care for them… until Matilda suddenly shows up at his home with a letter addressed to him. Both their fates are intertwined, and they must rely on each other to have the lives they desperately want.
My star rating: 4 out of 5 divine stars.
I really enjoyed this book, and I would’ve given it 5 stars if not for the beginning. It starts off slow, but really picks up when a certain event happens that triggers the events of the book. Once that happened, I devoured it.
I think one of the big things I liked was how the author wrote the relationship/friendship between Matilda and Vincent. They happen to “run into each other” in Vincent’s dreams and that’s how they meet. One of the gods of the Underling Realm, Alva, has the ability to enter the dreams of mortals, and she writes out dream scrolls after she sees them. She has been secretly giving them to Matilda for her to read and enjoy – a sort of bond between the two when Matilda was younger. One day Matilda is given a dream scroll that includes Vincent’s dreams, and she sees that he has dreamt of her. This begins their connection and her, I guess you can say “fascination” with Vincent, and his with her.
I mentioned above that this is going to be a spoilery review, so I’m going to add that here before continuing.
So there’s a lot that’s going on in this book because Matilda, with the power of crossing realms, jumps around. A lot. She’s in the Underling Realm, the Mortal Realm, and the Skyward Realm. She is the herald of the gods, after all. However, you soon find out that not only can she jump from different realms because of her powers, but also because she’s not just an Underling goddess: she’s a Skyward goddess too. For much of her childhood and adolescence, she does not know who her father is. Her mother, Zenia, refuses to say, but mostly because she has been cursed to not say the name of the one she was with (gods and their curses, amirite?).
Matilda jumps from realm to realm to try and manipulate an impending battle between Vincent and his uncle Grimald, who claims to be the rightful Lord of Wyndrift, their ancestral home. Grimald will stop at nothing to claim the title, and Vincent will stop at nothing to, well, stop him. However, in the mortal world, it’s important to have an edge against your opponent. In the case of Grimald, he has a Skyward god on his side. So Matilda, with her feelings intertwined with the fate of the battle, does everything in her power to help Vincent fight his uncle and defend his home once and for all.
The Characters. I really enjoyed following Matilda’s story. She is essentially the “Chosen One” trope in goddess form and has very strong plot armor, but I like her as a character. She’s strong and loyal, but flawed in ways that create tension and roadblocks for what she wants to accomplish. But I could feel her love for Vincent through the pages and through every choice she made. It’s nice to have the one who’s “in distress” be the man because, let’s face it, the woman is much more powerful than anyone. Like, damn, she takes an arrow to the torso for this man and while in pain still tries to negotiate a peaceful end to the impending battle between Vincent and Grimald. That’s pretty bad ass.
After the relationship between Matilda and Vincent, the next best relationship would have to be Matilda and Bade, the god of war. Their relationship is a father/daughter one, and has been since Matilda was born. Matilda is not Bade’s daughter, but he treats her as such. Growing up he took care of her, taught her to fight, taught her many things that she used when she was older; and many of them were things that ended up saving her life. I think the climax of their relationship is one of the more powerful moments in the book. For Matilda’s whole life, Bade was under the power of something called a “salt vow,” a powerful piece of magic that basically bonds someone to another. In this case, Bade vowed to protect Matilda and be her ally, never to betray her or lead her astray. Because of this vow, Matilda’s feelings about Bade were more of him protecting her out of obligation – the penalty for breaking a salt vow is that Matilda can end his immortality and he’d be a disgrace of a god.
But near the third act of the book, Matilda offers to break the vow; have Bane no longer be indebted to her for any reason, unless he so chooses. It soon becomes clear that he loves Matilda so much he didn’t need a salt vow to stand by her side, and it’s so lovely and I teared up at that. I also teared up at a part of the book where Matilda is trying to help Bade while he is lost, and crying out his name isn’t working. She then decides to scream out, “Father!” and he hears her call. I mean, come on… the name “father” breaks him from his reverie and reunites them? Ugh, it’s so adorable, I can’t help but tear up.
I also loved a moment where Bade offers to help Vincent in the battle, and Vincent asks, “Why are you helping me?”
Bane’s response is simple: “Because she is yours, and you are hers. And she is precious to me.” Oh Bade, you old softy, you. I loved that; loved the author showing the softer side of the god of war. With Matilda and with the mortal Adria, who he fell in love with and whose life he saved. I like how we were shown how the gods can be just as weak as mortals when it comes to matters of the heart.
The Plot. While the plot generally centers around the fighting between Vincent and his uncle, Matilda’s got a lot going on as well. She finds out a secret about herself and who her father is, she finds out who she is as a goddess – and the powers that lie dormant within her, and she finds out who she is as a woman in love with a man. A goddess in love with a mortal. The logistics can be a lot, and she knows this well. But that doesn’t stop her from trying to figure out how to be with the man she loves.
Turns out, there’s a lot that that entails.
Again, there is the “Chosen One” trope feel to this. At first you believe her to be this specific type of goddess, and it turns out she’s actually so much more. I know there’s some spoilers that abound in this review, but I don’t want to lay out all of them. I will just say that she is more powerful than anyone could have possibly imagined. The beauty of this character is that she uses her powers and abilities to help those she loves. Again, loyal and selfless to a fault. A goddess we could only hope to have.
I felt like the story tied itself together nicely in the end. There was a lot of jumping around for Matilda, but it worked pretty well for the story. This book serves as a prequel to the “Letters of Enchantment” duology, so there are names fans of those books would recognize. For instance, this book chronicles the beginning of Dacre and Enva’s relationship and marriage. Those are the two gods that are at war with each other in “Divine Rivals” and “Ruthless Vows.” Enva comes down to the Underling realm to marry Dacre and eventually betrays him and the Underlings, but with one caveat: Matilda. She helps Matilda with what she needs to save Vincent and his people, and Enva expects Matilda to repay her debt… eventually. Enva calls in this favor many years later in the epilogue, when she asks Matilda to use her power of words, letters, and correspondence to enchant three identical typewriters to be bound together. If you’ve read the “Letters of Enchantment” series, you’ll understand what happens next.
Overall, I really loved this book. A charming story filled with love, friendship, loyalty, bravery, and fighting for what is most important. The protagonists were beautiful in their heartbreak and love, and the antagonists were ruthless in their cruelty and anger. You grow to love Matilda and Vincent, and grow to hate anyone who tries to keep them apart.
That’s my review of “Wild Reverence” in all its glory! I tried to not have too many spoilers since I know it’s a newer book. Have any of you read it yet? Loved it? Hated it? Swooned? Sneered? Let me know down in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
Until next time, my lovelies!
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