Title: Wild Reverence 
Author: Rebecca Ross
Genre: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Saturday Books
Publication Date: 2025
Format: Hardcover
Length:  523 pages

Read if you like: friends to lovers, fake marriage, slow burn romance, themes of trust and betrayals, found family, vulnerability in love

Rating:

I loved the Letters of Enchantment duology by Rebecca Ross, so when I heard she was releasing a new standalone novel set within the same world, I knew I’d need to pick it up immediately. While my expectations for this one were high, Ross somehow still managed to blow me away.

This book was fantasy romance perfection. The world building was exquisite, adding so much depth and complexity to a space I already knew and loved, and the character work was astonishing. In Matilda and Vincent, Ross crafted characters I was desperately rooting for, and infused so much perfectly balanced yearning that it took my breath away.

Ross’ writing is lyrical and gorgeous and honestly, I’d read the phone book if you told me that she was the author. This was an incredible story of love magic and sacrifice and I never wanted it to end.

The Book Synopsis: Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross

Born in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic she uses to carry words and letters through the realms. But the gods will kill for power, and Matilda holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest allies.

And there is a mortal who dreams of her, though they have never met in the waking world. Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life—begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. His request went unanswered, and Vincent became a hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda . . . until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

Matilda and Vincent were fated to find each other beyond dreams. But to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, Matilda will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: finally allowing herself to be loved.

The Review

Rebecca Ross never misses for me. What an outstanding book.

If there was one thing in the Letters of Enchantment Duology that I wanted to see more of, it was the magic and world that the books were set in, so Wild Reverence was an absolute, utter delight. This book beautifully built on the premise outlined in the original series, creating a lush history full of vengeful and fascinating gods and weaving them into mortal kind. I loved seeing the different manifestations of magic and the lore was so compelling I could have read a billion pages about it. This was such a wonderful foray into further building out a well-established universe, and it’s probably one of my favourite novels to ever execute a story within a world I was already familiar with. 

In terms of characters, Matilda so perfectly embodied what it meant to be a God in this world, while also acknowledging that the duality of her upbringing made her an outsider to all, no matter how much she tried. Vincent seems to have similarly felt at odds with his place in the world, having been thrust into it through violence and never finding that it quite fit him snugly enough to be comfortable. While they came from dramatically different backgrounds, they were underpinned with similar motivations and tragedies that made their connection with each other feel even more profound. 

Speaking of which, the love story between Matilda and Vincent was complete and total perfection. It was executed perfectly with the exact right amount of tension and yearning. All the ways they became intertwined slowly and methodically had me obsessively turning pages to see how exactly things were going to pan out in the end. I loved every second of their story and how beautifully it came together. 

Wild Reverence was gorgeously written, with Ross’ signature style. She’s such an immensely talented writer, who is so adept at weaving a gorgeous narrative with prose that makes you feel all the emotions. I would read anything that she wrote, but this one was particularly powerful. 

This will probably be one of my favourite reads of the year. An easy 5 star read for me.