The Divines ARC review.
I thank the Author for providing me an eARC and a physical ARC. This has not affected my review or reading experience.
4 // 5 stars
2 // 5 spice - more of kisses and a closed-door scene
The FMC, Terah, is a battle-hardened soldier who has very unique skills and powers. Tired of their world with an ongoing war, Terah chooses to attend the Divine-Academy - a Neutral ground for people from all factions (Light/Dark Guardians, Blessed and Demons) where war doesn't exist. This is where she met the MMC, Gabriel - a Blessed who then became her partner and safe space.
But even being in the Academy doesn't spare Terah from the War as Demon attacks has been happening in the area and they seem to be targetting her; plus she started to have unsual powers. She then tries to stop the Demons and Dark Guardians from their evil plan.
=======
This book is THICK, running at 750 pages. The Divines is a New Adult Contemporary Fantasy with Romance in an Academic-setting. From the beginning of the book, it is already fast-paced and action-packed. I love how the fight scenes were described as it was very easy to read and I can imagine the setting very well in my head. This is perfect for fans who loves magic-based world in a military-style, Academic-setting.
The story also has a nice mix of Love, Acceptance, Family and Belongingness along with Trauma, suffering, betrayal and death which at times tugged my heartstrings, especially the last part (Caleb!!) The romance is a nice palette-cleanser from all the books I've read prior to this that had very explicit scenes. So it is very refreshing and good for teens who are interested to read the book.
Plot: The plot is very promising but I need more world-building probably, like more expansion on their factions and their magic. I love the Trial scenes at the last half of the book. The twist at the end was quite predictable (since introducing Damian) but nevertheless, it has been very well explained and I think would open up nicely for the plot of Book 2.
Characters: I don't have any particular favorite from this set, except probably Gabriel.
* Terah is a badass FMC, and while I love that about her, this is also one of her downfalls for me (I'll explain later on).
* Gabriel has that Golden Retriever vibe. I love how he tries to understand Terah. annnndd I like his powers.
* Caleb definitely has some issues.
* Damian - always cold.
Now what made this a 4-star read for me?
*Terah - Being trained for War at such a young age, she is easily a very powerful character. However, this made her have a "Savior-Complex" ..She always has that tendency to save every single character at the expense of herself, plus during the last battle when several other Divines (who don't know how to kick ass and Terah was basically rescuing them) offered to heal her, she said no and to just save their powers for themselves. I was confused at that point because if you are looking for the highest chance of survivability of Terah and her fellow students, she should have just allowed them to heal her fully so when the fighting comes then she can defend them properly. Unlike what happened in the story where they all basically suffered because no one other than Terah can fight the Dark Guardians and she is very much injured with depleted powers.
*Matt - I wasn't too keen to have him as a romantic interest. Imagining him to be the one who raised Terah up from childhood but suddenly he likes her as a Woman? I mean, normally that would have been a "Brother-Sister situation"
*Some scenes were repetitive and fell flat which made some chapters longer than it should be.
*the battle scenes were quite unrealistic in the sense that no other person in the Academy hears any battle going on between Terah x Demons. As per the descriptions, these Demons can get quite large - I find it quite confusing that Terah and/or Gabriel would be battling these huge creatures, use quite a lot of their magnificent powers, but no one hears them? So again, comes Terah's Savior-complex where she must save the Academy. It's just quite weird for me.
But yeah, all in all, this is still a good read for me and I would gladly read Book 2.