3.5 ⭐

This is a really great debut, with phenomenal and intricate world building, along with a well developed back story. The writing itself is so beautiful too, full of gorgeous descriptions - you can tell the author is truly an artist.

The slow burn was amazing, I felt the longing, and the descriptions of the first touches, as well as the hug, were splendid. But things finally heated up and when the time came to some actual spice, it was a little disappointing! It was so late in the book too, I almost thought it would never come.

The enemies to lovers started out really well, with great banter and true hate, and I loved the marriage of convenience - although the engagement felt a little too dragged out. I was also hoping for some confessed feelings, but that never came.

I also loved the heavy focus on women in power, women soldiers, just women doing their thing and having some deserved respect.

The pacing could have been better, though. There were multiple instances where an indistinguishable amount of time had passed, where it felt a little off, or it felt like there was no progress to the story, even though months had passed.

I'm also not totally convinced I liked the plot. There was very little war, considering the title of the book, and the story didn't seem to go anywhere. The focus completely shifted to the romance about half way through, and it seemed like almost everything else was forgotten.

Overall this is definitely not bad at all, and I look forward to the next book in the series.

2023 is the year of the Enemies to Lovers Romantasy. There have been quite a few excellent ones, and The Hurricane Wars fits right in there near the top!

On opposing sides of The Hurricane Wars, Tala and Alaric really are enemies. Their first encounter is a violent fight in which Shadow leader Alaric is somewhat intrigued by Lightwielder Tala, and let's the fight drag out rather than instantly killing her. Proves to be a big mistake, buddy!
The clear cut good Vs evil, shadow Vs light fight is muddied somewhat by the sense that their superiors are lying to both Alaric and Tala, and since we see povs from both of them, we know that they both fervently believe in their causes. It's hard to see how this isn't going to end in heartbreak all round.

My one criticism is that it's pretty hard to care about any of the side characters. We don't get enough time with any of them, and neither of our MCs seem to have any real strong connection to others, they are both loners. I feel that in a classic good Vs evil, I need to be rooting for more than just the MCs to up the stakes of the plot. This is what dropped it from a 5 to a 4 for me. Can't wait to see what book 2 holds!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a chance to read an advance copy in exchange for an independent review!

First of all I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review! A thousand thanks!

Before starting I would also like to give some info on the book, which is The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon.
it is the first book of a trilogy (?)
Coming soon also in Italian (March 2024) but in English it is very simple to read
- fantasy romance
- Enemies to lovers
- great complex Worldbuilding
- inspiration from South East Asia (I don't know where the author comes from but there are many elements, from places, atmospheres, how the world is organized hierarchically, not to mention clothes, which reminded me a lot of South East Asia! )
- light/dark
- super slow burn
- forced arranged marriage
- for star wars fans (but also not)
- if you are reylos (or not)

Let's start by saying that from the moment I discovered this book I was extremely curious about it. This is for a few (but simple and objective) reasons: 1 ) it is an enemies to lovers book, 2 ) there was a marriage of convenience, 3 ) It is inspired by Reylo.

You understand now how the third point is central but that the other three were not inferior either. And so I said to myself LET'S GO. As soon as it was possible to request it on Netgalley I jumped in, and to my great surprise (but not too much, given that this is the genre I've been reviewing the most on Netgalley for a year and a half now) they accepted it.

But let's talk about the book, about my reading.
So the book is a fantasy romance with a very particular setting, with oriental hues, but if you are a star wars lover you can't help but highlight the similarities. Already from the plot you can understand how much this book had everything it takes to like it from its premises!

"As she staggered back her eyes di lei met his di lei, her magic di lei reflected in shards of gold setting fire to brown irises, and perhaps this, too, was how a war began."

The things I appreciated the most were two: the narration (therefore both style and structure of what will be a trilogy) and the worldbuilding. I found the narrative sublime so far, as well as the style, and you understand that there is a bigger picture behind it. And we already thought, from the beginning, about creating a story, and not just a first book. What is told in this first book is understood to be only the beginning (not that it is introductory) of a story that I hope will become even more intricate in the next books, because here is the basis for creating something very beautiful.
The worldbuilding on the other hand is probably the element that impressed me the most. When you read a debut book you expect something beautiful but you also understand that being the first experience of an author it cannot be totally perfect nor, at times, extremely complex. I must say that I was 100% satisfied with this element, which is almost the jewel of the crown of the book itself.
The plot flows perfectly and I must say that the type of story told intertwines perfectly with the chosen setting. The characters, as I mentioned before, in addition to having a gradual journey, both among themselves and within the plot of the novel itself, are well characterized and quite realistic with their thousand defects. Even the romance (it's a fantasy romance but expect more tension than actual romance, at least in this volume) is well structured, because it is decidedly gradual and in line with slowburn, which I would say is one of the fundamental points of all these dynamics.

The fact is that this book, as well as being pleasant, is also full of themes typical of a fantasy but also not, such as the acceptance of us and our role in the world, understanding which side we are on, the sense of justice and much more . After this reading I have a lot of faith in the author and I hope to remain satisfied when reading the next volumes. In fact, after all these things said, I am very curious to read more about this world.

Ok, a few things to note before we get into this:

1. I love romantasy, I prefer it to pure romance books and read a lot of it.
2. I love Star Wars, I grew up watching it with my dad.
3. I haven't read the fanfic this book was based on and I'm not a Reylo shipper.

That third point may have affected my experience with The Hurricane Wars. When I requested it, I had no idea it was a Reylo fanfic turned into a book, and if I had known it was, I'm not sure if I would've done so. So take that into consideration.

This was not a bad book overall, but it didn't work for me.

The main reason why is that the book expects you to already know who everyone is, because there's barely any introductions. Sure, we get info dumps at the start which are more than a bit overwhelming (and worldbuiding based), but if you want to know about the characters, tough luck.

In this the book shows its origins, because with fanfics you're already familiar with the characters and don't need any extra details about them to enjoy what you're reading. But in a book? More time should've been taken to flesh out the characters, give them unique personalities etc.

Why should I care about them when I know nothing about them (other than roughly who they're supposed to be)? Someone dies early on, a friend of the mc and I was just like huh okay, moving on...

I was expecting more romance than we got, to be honest. Because I saw a few reviews say it happened so fast, it was insta love, there's spicy scenes, or that the plot is basically working around forcing these two into scenes together. I didn't really experience that?

I mean, their attraction to one another didn't really do anything for me, I wasn't feeling it because there wasn't much depth there, but I do think we got enough plot on the side that this wasn't as romance focused as it could've been.

The romantic scenes were often cringy and I hated the emphasis on their size difference (hence why I avoid Reylo fics turned published books, huge size differences are not my thing, personally), but there were so few of them that I didn't mind them all that much.

The majority of them happened during the last third of the book, but the rest of it was just crumbs, really.

The world building and the plot weren't bad, I think the author did a decent job with both, even if the latter was predictable from the start. But at least it was interesting enough to get me to finish the book. Was it interesting enough to get me to read the sequel though? Ehhhh, not really.

I will give extra points for even attempting to convert everything into a book, it does take skill to not only change character names (and have them make sense in the context of the world) but to also come up with new lore without making it too similar to the original.

I'm sure thousands and thousands of other people will love this book with their whole heart, but sadly I'm not one of them.

P. S. Because this is my 1000th review, I'm feeling nice and I'll round my rating up to 3 stars, but it's somewhere around a 2.5 on the enjoyment scale.

*Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

GAHHHHH!! This book is incredible! I have inhaled this one so so quickly and really want to reread it/need a sequel now!!!!!

Full of delicious tension in this enemies to lovers book, the drama and the angst were perfection! The world building is brilliant, the characters are varied and interesting and there are dragons!

This book is perfect for the Fourth Wing hangover everyone seems to have (including me!) I think I loved this one more though! 🫶 I now need recommendations for my Hurricane Wars hangover!

I have preordered the gorgeous special edition from Waterstones for my shelf, I can’t wait for it to arrive on release day 12th October and have a reread! Thank you so much to the publishers @ for a copy of this book via NetGalley!

4.5 stars. An engaging and beautifully crafted romantasy. I enjoyed the enemies to lovers trope and felt that the romance was used in a great way to move the plot along. The world building was *chef's kiss* and I cannot wait for the next installment.

4 stars!

This was one of my most anticipated reads for the year! The story switches seamlessly between both Tarasyn and Alaric's point of view. The internal dialogues were my absolute favourite and I think that they were very cleverly done. There was so much tension and awkwardness between them both, which at some points I found hilarious.
Just to be clear, this is obviously a Reylo fanfic and that was clear from the beginning. If you know Star Wars then you'll immediately recognise the similarities.
I found the worldbuilding was a little disjointed, but the politics were fairly easy to follow. I just wanted something more, the ending wasn't really the biggest cliffhanger and I kind of wanted a jaw dropping reveal or something, I don't know.

Overall this was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be waiting expectantly for the next one.

Thank you so much NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review 😊

The Hurricane Wars

[I’d like to apologize in advance for any possible grammar errors, English is not my first language]


first of all, I’d like to say that The Hurricane Wars kinda of ruined my life, because after I finished it I spent a month without reading any book, because everything felt bad just because it wasn’t about Talasyn and Alaric.

I am a huge fan of enemies to lovers fantasy romance, I’ve probably already read almost every book of this genre, and because of this some of the new books I read feels boring and more from the same. But I’m very glad to say that this didn’t happened with The Hurricane Wars, it felt fresh and new, and is now on my top 5 favorite enemies to lovers fantasy romance of all time!! (In case You want to know what they are: Fallen Kingdoms, The Cruel Prince, Once Upon a Broken Heart, Children of Blood and Bone)

The only way to translate how I felt reading this book, it’s this:
If I found a magic lamp and ask for a fantasy romance book with:
1- a perfect enemies to lovers couple
2- a perfect villain book boyfriend
3- a perfect worldbuilding
The Hurricane Wars would be materialize in my hands!!

I will now explain my points:

1- A perfect enemeis to lovers couple:

I hate when a book is advertised as “enemeis to lovers” and turns out to be just “a silly hate that last until 20% of the book”.
This is not the case of The Hurricane Wars!!
The couple here really are enemeis. They are in opposites sides of a war. They are destined to destroy each other!! For one to win the other has to lose.
The Night Empire is kind of destroying (wanting to rule) the whole world, and Alaric is its prince and commander of the army of the shadowforged.
Talasyn is a girl from the nation that is their number one enemy and target, and she fights against them with the resistence.
The fact that she has light powers and he have shadow powers makes everything more interesting. Gives them a star-crossed-lovers ying yang vibes.

Their relationship become even more interesting when Talasyn find out that she is the lost heir from another nation, and they make a deal with the Night Empire for her to marry him.
And they became enemies that get married!! You don’t understand the amount of ANGST and CHEMISTRY and SEXUAL TENSION that they two have. Did I mention that they never kissed anyone before? And have a lot of ~repressed hormones~~ going through their veins?!
You really have to read it to see.

2- a perfect villain book boyfriend

I love a villain with tragic past, especially if he is a loser sad boy full of angst that is just a babygirl on the inside.
I once saw a video from a psychologist explaining why woman are so attracted to characters like this, the so called “baby girl” (Kendall Roy, Anakin Skywalker, Kylo Ren and etc)
To summarize is because when the men is kinda of a pathetic loser that can’t get their shit together, it inspire in some women the feeling of wanting to take care of them, be their mother and “fix him” (if you spend a lot of time on twitter you’ve probably saw edits of these kinda of characters with this iconic quote) (“I could fix him” is a lifestyle, and the girls who get it get it, the girls who don’t, don’t) (Ps: this is a joke that only apply to fictional men written by woman! In real life I hate 90% of men LoL)

Anyway, I’m glad to say that Alaric is a perfect villain baby girl.
He has dark hair, wear cool dark clothes, is powerful, has shadow powers, is BIG, HUGE and grumpy… if you are the kind of person that usually falls for this kind of character, prepare to get down on your knees for him.

Ps: if when you were a child you had a crush on prince Zuko from Avatar, Kovu from Lion King 2, the grumpy emo fish from Finding Nemo…
you probably grow up to be an adult obsessed with Kylo Ren, Loki, Klaus Mikaelson, Damon Salvatore, The Darkling etc

so shut up and buy The Hurricane Wars so you can meet your next crush

3- Worldbuilding

I’m not ashamed to confess that I usually care more about the characters and the romance than anything when I’m reading a book. If they are good, I don’t care about the plot, or the worldbuilding, or the writing, or anything. SERIOUSLY.
But The Hurricane Wars is amazing in all this aspects. The amount of the details in the world made feel like I was really there with them going through everything.
The thing that I loved the most is that it was inspired by the author’s culture. I probably didn’t get a lot of references, because I’m not a specialist in the southern’s Asian mythology, but this book made me want to learn more about it and travel to Philippines (the author’s country)!

By the way, if Thea Guanzon made an 3 hour video explaining her inspiration for everything in THW’s world, like the language, the name of the places, the scenarios, the clothes, anything, I would do some popcorn and gladly watch of all it!

Ps: I really meant what I said, and I actually started to read Joseph Campbell’s book about Asian mythology. Hopefully I will get some references when I read THW for the second time.

-

I said that I would comment only three points (just because magic lamps grant you only three wishes Lol), but there are other things that I loved:


4- The Writing

I loved so much Thea’s poetic deep beautiful writing!! Sometimes it felt like reading one of those amazing Taylor Swift’s lyrics full of insanely great metaphors.
Thea became one of those authors that I would gladly read even her grocery list! But if I could choose, I would like a poetry book. Imagine a book only with poems that Alaric wrote for Talasyn? Please, Thea, consider this!! 🥺

I loved the detailed descriptions of everything, especially the clothes! Mostly the fact that was always Alaric describing Talasyn, and she describing him.
You could understand their feelings by the way they described each other, and is amazing to see how the opinion about each other is changing through the story, through the descriptions of their looks!

Anyway… I could spend 5 hours in a stage talking about the Hurricane Wars. I really really really loved it, read it if felt like closing a wound in my heart that was open since December 2019. This wound made me physically sick (seriously haha), and after this I was afraid of become attached to any piece of midia/art.

But I’m not afraid of be totally emotional invested in this book series, because I have the feeling that Thea is one of that villain-lover girls that knows what’s good and is not afraid to give the people what they want ;)
She really made me feel like a rat being fed 😍🐀

I can’t wait to read its sequel, or any other book that Thea writes for the rest of her life!

I can’t wait for it to be released in Brazil so I can make everyone that I know read it and be obsessed about it with me!

I don’t know how to “like things” in a normal way, and I’m afraid that The Hurricane Wars is about to become my new sick obsession! I already bought 2 different versions of the hardcover, and I intend to buy more (unfortunately, I live in Brazil and not every store deliverys to here 😭) (yeah, Waterstones, I’m talking to you 😡)


Thank You Harper Voyager, NetGalley and Thea Guanzon for this Arc.

I want to start off by saying thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Thea Guanzon for an ARC of The Hurricane Wars.
I went into this book completely blind, I love the concept of this book, however I did struggle with the pacing and world building and found myself getting lost. I did find some parts fun and enjoyable and this book truly is real enemies to lovers!
I recently found out that The Hurricane Wars is based on Star Wars fan fiction (which makes a lot of sense) as there is a huge Sci-Fi element throughout.

I’ve been hearing a fair amount of noise about The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon and was intrigued enough to want to form my own opinion. Having just finished it, with that doozy of an ending, I’m already in need of the next book in the series.

We meet one of our main protagonist’s Talasyn at the heart of battle. She is an orphan, who has dragged herself up on the streets turned fighter pilot, with unique light weaving magical abilities. Faced with combat with the other key protagonist in the story Alaric, son of the Night Emperor and armed with Shadow magic, the scene is set for a truly astounding story of an under dog army at war with a malevolent empire, determined to conquer the universe.

If this sounds eerily familiar, I’m sure you’ve heard Star Wars mentioned, don’t let it put you off. Guanzon delivers a truly epic rollercoaster of a story that rails through battles, war, politics, fiery relationships and of course our opposing protagonists who despise everything the other stands and fights for.

The world building and magical systems in The Hurricane Wars are truly intriguing, well constructed and after the initial info dump, necessary to begin the journey are layered and organic, unfolding in an organic way to give you enough information without the depressing and unnecessary overload you may have experienced before. The comparisons between continents and empires in this world are truly astounding, all of which are sharpened by the political intrigue and machinations that are constantly churning in the fore and background.

Back to the story, we meet Talasyn at the point where the war between the Night Empire and the Sardovian Allfold is nearing its end after 10 years and the Allfold’s final hopes are pinned on Talasyn’s magic but, as we know, there isn’t always a happy ending and events take an interesting turn for Talasyn and Alaric.

There’s a lot to live about this first book in the series but, I did have one small disappointment - there were not enough dragons, other than their role protecting Nenavar, which left me a bit disappointed. I do love a dragon. Despite this, I found The Hurricane award to be a rollercoaster of a read and am here for Book 2!

Thank you Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

4.5 stars

- I have mixed feelings about this book. When I started reading it, I got the impression that it was science fiction and certain aspects started sounding familiar. While I was still reading it, I found out that it’s a Kylo Ren (Star Wars) fan fiction. This irritated me as I don’t care for fan fiction. I want to read books where the author came up with their own plot and characters. I begrudgingly kept reading it, trying to figure out why it had already garnered so much attention despite not having been released yet. I managed to separate Star Wars from the story in my mind and that’s when I got pulled into the book. The beginning is clunky and felt amateurish. It got a little better and I became invested in the main characters which kept me going. It’s not up there with the fantasy greats and I don’t think it deserves the hype it’s getting but if you can move past the first part of the story, you’ll enjoy it for what it is: a good enough debut fantasy novel. Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.

The Hurricane Wars is the start to an engaging and dynamic new fantasy series— easily read and immersive with the world building and romance, it’s sure to do well with readers looking for the next big romantasy series!

Set in the middle of a war, the story follows Talasyn and Alaric as they journey through an enemies to lovers relationship that truly runs the gauntlet of emotions. The tension between them was so, so good, and the romance was definitely my favourite element of the story. If readers go into the story more focused on the romance than anything else, I think they’ll come out satisfied. The whole time I was reading I was getting serious reylo vibes, only to find out that was the original inspiration!

The setting is inspired by South Asia and I really enjoyed the world building elements, though at times felt a little generic. I would’ve loved a bit of a lusher setting as far as descriptions and atmosphere, though that’s quite a personal preference for my reading tastes. Overall, I would’ve liked more details in general to make the world feel a little more fully formed. While I enjoyed the romance and some of the political intrigue, the novel as a whole fell a little flat to me. That being said, I did read it very quickly for its size, and the authors writing style is definitely what I’d call ‘bingeable.” While this book wasn’t to my exact taste, I do think it will be a favourite for a lot of readers!

Sadly I was not able to finish this book, Whilst I was really excited for the premise and I am a big fantasy, and romance, reader, I found I could not connect with this story. It’s very high fantasy with lots of complicated language and world building and I found myself lost very quickly and spending too much time on trying to figure out how to pronounce names and places than the story itself. However that was just me, I feel readers of complicated complex fantasy books will enjoy this read.
I did enjoy the journey of Talasyn and Alaric but was far too overwhelmed by the complicated world.
As I said I feel regularly readers of high complicated fantasy will enjoy this, it just wasn’t for me.

Thankyou NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for this eCopy to review

I really wanted to like this book, it had all my favourite things, it was just very slow. The magic system was complicated and not well explained. Considering it was advertised as an enemies to lovers by the end of the book they are still more enemies than lovers.

The descriptions of the settings was good and the wedding night scene was amazing but the rest was a bit of a slog

The Hurricane Wars drops you straight into the middle of a battle ground and this state of affairs continues for the entire book. It’s a real roller coaster of a novel with battles, politics, a malevolent empire and two protagonists who hate everything that the other one stands for.
The war has been going on for 10 years and the Night Empire is determined to crush the Sardovian Allfold. We see the last ditch attempts of the Sardovians to fight back with their greatest weapon, the light weaver Talasyn. She comes face to face with heir to the empire, Prince Alaric but the battle between them ends with Alaric letting Talasyn survive. This might be a questionable decision on Alaric’s part!
I loved the world building in this book. It did mean that the pace at the beginning was quite slow as there was a lot of info dumping but it really did give me such a clear picture of this world and the magic. The contrast between the war weary Allfold and the lush landscape of Nenovarwas brilliant. The descriptions of the landscape, food and clothes when Talasyn got to the dominion were incredibly vivid.
There’s a lot of political intrigue in this book too which is another element that I always love in a fantasy novel. The decisions made by Urduja were cold but completely in keeping with a ruler trying to protect her people even though they betrayed her grandchild.
Enemies to lovers is one of my more favourite romance tropes and I think that it’s done well here. Talasyn and Alaric really do try to kill each other and I loved the shock of the arranged marriage. I enjoyed both of their characters and their constant misunderstandings which were also useful in providing historical background to the story.
I found the frequent jumps between POV quite jarring sometimes although this did ease up as I got further into the book, presumably as I got more accustomed to the switching of narrative focus. It was interesting to get both views of the same event though.
I was disappointed in the very small part played by the dragons. Their role in the defence of Nenovar was highlighted very early on but then they were dealt with and had no further part to play.
This was an enjoyable read and a world that I certainly want to return to. Huge thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I had heard great things about this book and was excited to read it! A new world, a new magic system, it totally intrigued me. But it was so slow and I understand it takes time to build a new world for everyone. I felt like it didn't really get started until 60 - 70% in and then it kinda fizzled out.

Definitely a lot of world building to get through - the world created is rich in detail though and absorbing. Once things are established the tension and pace really ramp up. This is the ultimate slow burn enemies to loves- almost to the point of frustration with the characters. I’m not sure where I got the idea that this would have spice but it definitely doesn’t— and that did dampen my enthusiasm overall- the story felt a little torn between YA and NA but didn’t quite fit into either. A LOT is left unresolved and the ending feels a little abrupt rather than crafted. I did however really like this story and definitely need to see where it goes next.

Wow, I loved this book! Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with this ARC, I was extremely excited about The Hurricane Wars and was not disappointed.

The magic system was so interesting, I loved the idea of the nexus points and communing with these distinct elements. Everything felt so connected to nature and particularly within the Dominion, respectful of the environment. Not so much in the continent where the Hurricane Wars had destroyed much of the land but still, I thoroughly enjoyed the natural elements woven into this story.

I'll admit that I struggled a little with some of the initial world building. The first 30% of the story was quite heavy and I really could not tell where the overarching plot was going to take us (this in itself is not necessarily a bad thing!). Once it became clear where it was heading I pretty much devoured the book from that point on. Shamelessly so. I woke up at 4am this morning and just had to finish the last 15% of the story before my kids were awake 🤣 But I did find I had to push myself a little to persevere in the begining. I'm so glad I did.

Talasyn and Alaric, can we all agree that those two need their heads banged together? The mutual pining was absolutely delicious and the self sabotage from both of them was completely inline with what you'd expect from two individuals raised as they were. The pure idiocy also, in matters of the heart, was truly understandable (though frustrating as hell in the sweetest way) considering their lack of experience due to prioritizing their duties. The slow burn was another level but perfectly executed, I'm a sucker for slow burn which is why I was absolutely hooked when it became apparent that these little fools were entering into a marriage of convenience (YAYYY!).

Talasyn was such a strong lil baby I just wanted to hug her. This girl had been through it, as a child and into adulthood she had experienced way too much trauma. Her defence mechanisms were so understandable and when Alaric suggests her struggle to create a shield is because she has learnt to strike first to protect herself? Urgh. Feels.

Their training together, Alaric's patient instruction... heart melting. He's a good little egg really, they've just been on separate sides of the same war being fed opposing information and manipulated by others around them. I'm very curious to find out more about the history of this war and some more hard truths about either side!

I think one of my favourite aspects of the writing of this book was the way the POVs flipped so frequently. I LOVE a dual POV and the usual format I've read is a chapter assigned to one POV and the next may be the other POV. But the way this flicked back and forth was actually perfect in my opinion because Thea damn well knew who's POV I wanted to read little moments from. She knew I needed Alaric's POV of Talasyn walking down the aisle, immediately followed by her POV of seeing him waiting for her. She knew I needed his POV upon walking into her room on the wedding night while she had been dressed up like a lil present for him 🤣 I could go on but you get my point. I couldn't have asked for more in that respect, I got everything I wanted.

Big shout out to some great side characters as well, I want more Sevraim, he's a treat! And let's all hope for Alaric's sake he finds Khaede and is able to reunite her and Talasyn in the next book!

I enjoyed the enemies to lovers storyline, although it did feel like it dragged a bit. They hate each other, they want each other, they hate each other, and so on. The plotline was interesting and felt like there was a Star Wars connection, that's what I pictured anyway, and after reading some reviews it does seem to be connected.
It was quite a long story, so it did disappoint at the end, where we're left hanging. But I would read the next installment as I want to know what happens.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I thought the romance element of this novel was quite well done, with the characters coming together as naturally as possible under the circumstances! The cliffhanger ending definitely left me wanting to know what happened next, and I thought both protagonists were portrayed realistically and the world-building was good for the first novel of a series. Hopefully we'll get more in the next installment.