A few weeks ago, I was at a festival in our town with my friends and family, where I discovered an Airstream trailer bookshop, and naturally disappeared for a while. Eventually, my people figured that I had gotten distracted by books and they found me, but of course I couldn’t walk out empty-handed.
I bought Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross purely based on cocktail-fueled vibes and a pretty cover. Turns out this romantasy is a prequel to a set of books I haven’t read, but I dove into this world of gods and celestial magic anyway. This book can definitely be read as a standalone, but you may get something different from it if you’ve read the Divine Rivals duet.
Matilda, the herald of the gods, is the first of her kind. Born from an Underling mother to a Skyward father, she is the only divine who can enter both realms. In a world where power can be stolen through merciless violence, Matilda must carry her secrets close.
There is a mortal boy who dreams of her, and through his dreams, they become friends. While they’ve never met outside of his sleep, their friendship runs deep, but on the worst night of his life, Vincent calls for Matilda’s help, and she doesn’t answer.
Ten years later, war has broken out once again in the mortal world, and Vincent must defend himself. An ominous prophecy sends Matilda back into his life to save him from the perils that await.
In a world of ruthless gods, she must find a way to save the man she loves, even if it requires enormous sacrifice.
In Wild Reverence, Matilda tells her story like she’s speaking directly to the reader, but not in an overly obvious way. It draws the reader in with little lines like, “In this I was as right as I was wrong,” cluing them into future events like an oral retelling would. It’s unique and very compelling to read.
The worldbuilding in this story is truly remarkable. The magic and the world are based on constellations, with detailed and beautiful descriptions of every scene. In this world, every immortal can be killed by one weak point, either the head or the heart, depending on the individual. Creative details like this really bring the spark to the book.
Wild Reverence has an epic plot, but well-paced, with chapters the right length to properly tell the story. It’s plot-driven, but with character development and brief moments of sensuality woven in to balance it all out. Despite the sometimes violent subject matter, there’s a sweetness here that is remarkable.
This book is beautifully heartbreaking, but it still ends in a happily ever after, or at least a happily for now, unclear given I haven’t read the events that follow. I was amazed that I found such a gem of a book on a whim, and I highly recommend Wild Reverence to any fantasy reader.
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