Divine Mortals

Gr 10 Up–Hand this to romantasy fans of Gina Chen’s Violet Made of Thorns and Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing. A childhood fight ended with her brother dead and Mona with the power to divine soulmates. The last 10 years have kept her in her room; drinking, entertaining those who want her services, and tending the altar for her brother, unable to rise out of the grief and guilt. Now the king requires her services to secure the royal line, and Mona divines his soulmate only to discover it’s her. Vehemently uninterested in a royal marriage, Mona must hide the answer from the handsome Delmar Whitman, the master of magical practitioners in the kingdom, as well as other diviners. As scheming gods get involved in court politics, Mona learns the fate of the whole world hangs in the balance. Mona and Delmar’s banter-filled romance adds tension to the intrigue as well as some sexy scenes later in the book, though it’s not quite an enemies-to-lovers arc. Helander has constructed a world where gods play favorites and magic is mysterious enough to let the unscrupulous get away with almost anything. Mona is a complex heroine, whose public and private personas differ greatly as she struggles to trust herself and process the grief of her brother’s death. Mona and Delmar are white, with some diversity in the supporting cast.