i enjoyed this but it wasn't a fave. I can see how reylo /starwars fans could absolutely love this but it just didnt work for me. I understand enought about star wars to get the connection but it did just start to feel a bit too much like an fiction . I would have prefered a story that i could dive in to without that connection

I started reading the book, but I couldn't get into it. I’m sad because I was excited to read The Hurricane Wars.

i love fantasy!!!! thea guanzon is a true mastermind and i absolutely adored this!!! i am so so excited for whats to come and im now ordering the hardback hehehe!!!

This one wasn’t for me and I stopped reading at 74%. That said, I can see why it’s been popular with so many other readers. The world building was strong, the political manoeuvring was interesting, and there were some side characters who had the potential to become exciting. I personally needed more from the romance side of this book. I think if you’re going to make a point about something being enemies to lovers you have to live up to the trope. I don’t mind a slow-burn or lack of spice but the main characters spent a great deal of the book apart and when they were finally together I didn’t feel invested in them as a couple because they as individuals had such separate goals and obstacles to overcome. At the point I DNF’d the slower pace coupled with lack of romantic tension is what had me putting down the book.
Star rating based on what I did read: 3/5

I was curious about this book. Firstly, because of the cover and the storm respectively the Hurricane it promised in the title. Secondly, because of the mixed reviews this book had gotten even before it was published and I was wondering where my own reading tastes would land.

Interestingly enough, I loved & still love this book a couple of months after I read it and am excited to see how the story ends in its sequel.

The Hurricane Wars does have excitement in it, a lot of tragic & wars & unanswered questions and magic is stirring, even though yet not fully revealed.

At the beginning we find ourselves in a war setting that then changes to the machinations of a highly evolved & politically divided court and in which the female main character has got to find her way as well as figuring out her feelings for this prince of the Night Empire whom she first met on the battle fields and now has to deal with in the political machinations of their nations fighting for prevalence and/or survival over each other.

The world is richly built, and specially, in the second part we start to see more parts of this world that is amazingly rich & diverse.

And now I cannot really wait until the second book is out, because I simply would like to know how it all ends and how this new threat that arose is being met, and, of course, will they or won't they & will there be a happy ever after?

Thank you to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was super excited to read this book, and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it. There were parts I enjoyed, but other aspects fell flat for me.

The world-building felt very info-dumpy and confusing, however there were parts of it I enjoyed, and the magic system was interesting. I know that this book began as a Reylo fan-fiction, and as someone who has never watched Star Wars, I do wonder if I was at a bit of a disadvantage because of this.

I found the pacing very inconsistent, and there were some parts that felt repetitive. The beginning was very chaotic and jarring, but the rest of the book had some slower parts that dragged and made me reluctant to pick it up.

I enjoyed the main characters, who felt well developed. I loved the dual POV and reading their internal monologues. Their interactions and banter were so fun, and the slow burn was well done. I do feel like the side characters could have been more fleshed out, though.

Overall, I think a lot of people will enjoy this one. There’s some romantasy tropes that we all know and love, as well as aspects that make the book feel more unique.

was really excited to read this as i’ve heard nothing but good things, and it definitely lived up to it! i really enjoyed this and the writing style a lot. i love d the storyline and the characters! 3.5

This book deserves all the hype it is getting and more. Absolutely amazing, well developed characters, fantastic plot. Very impressed!

I need the next instalment immediately...

As with all new fantasy books, the first in the series is a lot of world building. It took me a little bit of time to be fully immersed in the world, as it felt more modern than many fantasy books I have read, but once you get there, you won't be able to put the book down.

I feel that the author did enemies to lovers VERY well in this book. Talasyn and Alaric are fighting on two different sides of the hurricane wars, and the death and destruction caused by the latter is not easily forgiven. However, you can feel as the reader how lonely they both are, and how much they need each other.

There's a whole lot of political power plays, physical battles and endless brooding. The characters are wonderfully written, with the reader able to sympathise on both accounts. The point of view switches between them, so you can get an understanding of what's going through Alaric's head too. Oftentimes it annoys me when things could be solved with communication, but as they are sworn enemies, you understand why they are hesitant to share and open up - the trust isn't there yet.

I'm excited to see where this story heads next, and hopefully see our unlikely lovers find a way back to each other.

The Hurricane Wars review

Rating: ??/5

I really really wanted to like this book, and I do, but…it’s just not great. I have heard a lot about how this book was rushed to be published and didn’t go through a great editing process and im not normally someone who can tell that kind of thing, but with this one…I could tell. There were a lot of editing errors and timeline errors that just didn’t make sense, which was a bit annoying!

But the storyline: initially, the world building, was A LOT! And I felt like information was being repeated over and over again, and I’m sure this is where some people DNF’ed the book!
The storyline then started to drag after this, stuff being repeated, stuff that wasn’t really needed, like I’m sure like 100 pages of this book could have been cut and it wouldn’t have mattered!

The romance overall was the only thing that kept me going, I really wanted to like the political storyline but that draggggged and again just kept going over and over points that were already made (and didn’t need to be made again)!
And then the ending, I had just over 100 pages of this book left for the longest time (like over a week) and I couldn’t wait to sit down and finish it…but like where was the big ending?! There was no cliffhanger, no sudden ending that would make me want to immediately get the second book (when it’s out), and it was just so MEH!!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

It took me so long to write this review because I stopped reading the book at 30% but kept thinking I was going to pick it up again. However, I never did. I think knowing this was a Reylo fanfic made it hard to enjoy – not because I dislike the ship, but because I couldn't separate the Star Wars characters from the new characters in this new universe. To me, the book relies way too much on character traits already known in Rey and Kylo Ren, on worldbuilding aspects from Star Wars. See, that's standard in fanfiction, but when you transform the fanfiction into something new, you gotta make people care for the characters and the world without any previous knowledge, but the book doesn't create anything distinguishable. Some books can get away with the "illogical pulling" between characters who are supposed to be enemies; to me, this one did not.

DNF at 30%. Maybe I'll try reading it again later this year, once I readjust my expectations!

Fantastic book! I loved the world building and the chemistry between the characters. The writing was beautifully done and drew you right into this world and allowed you to fully imagine it. Definitely looking forward to the next book!
Oh and I met the author and Thea is just the nicest person! :)

This book had me in an absolute chokehold. It's a SLOWWWburn enemies to sort of lovers in a fantasy world with dragons and magic. What more could you want.

The basic enemies to lovers basis of this story of people from opposite sides of a Great War is enjoyable but I struggled to read this visually. I soft DNF’d it until I got an audio copy after release and then found it not enjoyable. If you prefer to get immediately stuck in with little world building / backstory this will be more your thing than it was mine. I felt this was a story I’d prefer to watch unfold than read.

Wow, what a way to start a new series. Brilliant story and characters - looking forward to reading the next instalment and seeing how Alric and Tala's relationship progresses

This has been a super hyped up book but absolutely not for me. I’m sure plenty of reviews will discuss the plot etc, however I’m just going to talk about how the book made me feel. I’ll start by saying this is not the book to read while there is a genocide happening in Gaza because this is basically a coloniser love story with 2 characters, Tasalyn and Alaric, on opposite sides of a war who somehow manage to ‘agree to disagree’ when it comes to right and wrong.

This book starts with a heavy info dump, you are thrown into the middle of a war between the Sardovians and the Nenavarenes (I can’t look back at this book to see if i’ve spelt that right!!), or rather you’re thrown into the Nenavarenes b0mbing the Sardovians after a wedding ceremony. You won’t understand a lot of this, you’ll feel pretty confused, but you have to go just go with it.

Prince Alaric is the son of the Night Emperor, the Nenavarenes - this book starts with him being part of the siege that leads a lot of people d*ad, including the bridgegroom and Tasalyn’s friend, and possibly the bride Khaede, who is also Tasalyn’s friend and who is pregnant. Anyway, it’s a battle that Alaric’s side initiates, a lot die and he faces off with Tasalyn, a Sardovian. They fight but he lets her live for some reason. There’s other plot that happens, turns out their powers merge and create a force that could end the Hurricane Wars, but basically it ends with Alaric and Tasalyn hating each other but being engaged to help form an alliance between the 2 sides.

If you’re hoping for a deep, complex exploration of forgiveness and understanding the horrors of w@r, this isn’t the book for you. What basically follows is a love story between people with a load of dead people between them, both sides will bicker and snipe at each other about who started it and who is on the right side, but ultimately it doesn’t matter because Tasalyn just can’t get past the warmonger’s grey eyes and “lush lips”. I should point out again that during their flirting and attraction and more, Tasalyn’s pregnant best friend Khaede (who is also now a widow) is still missing – because of him. But don’t worry, super cute moment, he said he’ll find out if she’s alive – swoon.

Meanwhile Alaric, as he develops feelings for Tasalyn, shows sympathy and anger at the thought of her starving and suffering as a child – but completely misses the point that he has orphaned and/or k!lled thousands of children and forced others into w@rtorn poverty invading under the orders of his father. He can see her as a human being because he fancies her but has no compassion for those he sees as less. There is no real moral conflict for Alaric, he feels bad that his past actions (and the actions he still actively supports) upset Tasalyn but he doesn’t show any real guilt for the blood on his hands – he never apologises for his part in so much death and pain or admits his ignorance and cowardice. Instead he’s effectively going “I’m sorry you feel that way” – not “I’m sorry I made you feel that way because I’m not a good person”.

Tasalyn is hiding people, Sardovians who escaped the invasion, and she’s hiding them from her betrothed because she’s scared he’ll kill them. She’s making deals and obeying plans she doesn’t want to obey because she is scared of what he will do if she doesn’t play along. This is the couple being romanticised here – she is scared of him hurting people. He calls her a liar repeatedly, he’s hot and then cold with her, cruel then flirting – it’s unhinged that this toxic romance is such a big part of the book when it’s so unsettling and uncomfortable to read. Tasalyn even calls Alaric a hypocrite for felling bad for what she has lived through while still declaring his allegiance to the nation that put her through it – she’s right, he is a cowardly hypocrite. But then so is Tasalyn. Because as much as she claims to hate everything Alaric stands for, she still thinks more about wanting him than the safety of her people and her missing PREGNANT best friend. Ultimately she stands for nothing.

I read recently that this was based on Reylo fanfiction and it shows – there is no depth or heart to this book, it’s just heading towards smut, the whole book feels like an excuse to get to it – to smut that is not attractive AT ALL, it’s more skin crawling than toe curling. Tasalyn can look past everything that Alaric has done and supports/believes because he has such muscular thighs, big shoulders and thick fingers (!!) – I don’t even understand how she can let him touch her. At one point a rightly outraged Sardovian calls him a “war criminal” after seeing him sat at their table eating and she feels defensive of him and his reaction to the insult is to smirk. WHAT IS THIS BOOK!?!?!?!?!?!

I’ve probably made it clear at this point but this book wasn’t just a disappointing read but one that made me feel quite angry and disgusted. Genocide is the elephant in the room in this book and they just look around it, they just agree to disagree because they are attracted to each other, all to get to some of the cringiest sex scenes I’ve read.

I won’t be reading more of this series but thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review

Love and magic across the divide?

A whole new fantasy world to explore with twists and turns a plenty along the way. This first book in what hopefully will grow into a series of novels sets up the back stories and characters really well. Thea has created a magical system with a different feel and the promise of greater things to come. Can’t wait to see how Tala and Alric’s relationship works out, really looking forward to the next instalment.

I think I came at this book from a completely different angle than all the 1-3 star reviews I’ve seen, because I thoroughly enjoyed it! The world building was perfectly done - I believed in these places, customs and conflicts. The magic element was exciting, and Talasyn’s journey to learning how to control and use her magic was fascinating.

And then there’s Talasyn’s love interest. Alaric uses a magic that’s the opposite to Talasyn’s - dark to her light. When their magic accidentally merges during a battle and creates a new, immensely powerful magic, Alarics interest is piqued. Talasyn hates Alaric and his kingdom - or does she?

There’s a lot of sexual tension going on in this book, and Alaric and Talasyn have a rather combative relationship. There was a part of me that just wanted them to sort it out, but there’s a lot of water under the bridge between these two, so it’s understandable.

So, I’m looking forward to the next book for a lot of reasons: there’s the “will they/ won’t they; whether Alarics father will ruin everything or not; whether the continents will survive the ensuing natural disaster; whether Talasyn will harness her powers in time; what’s going to happen to Talasyn’s friends?!
So many questions and I’m just going to have to wait!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the early access to this book.

Even though it was hard to get my head around it first, as the book starts us off in the middle, I very quickly became engaged with the book. I prefer this to slow-paced books. The romance aspect was still slow-burn, and there was a bit too much politics involved to my liking, but that's understandable in a book like this.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to more from this author.

The Hurricane Wars starts with throwing us straight into the middle of a battle as part of the titular war, which has been fought between the Night Empire (a power-hungry group who originally acted in for vengeance) and the Sardovians (who at this point are fighting to keep their remaining strongholds). The emotional intensity of the setting doesn’t calm down for a few chapters, as we get to know Talasyn and the Sardovian side in particular very well. It is told from both hers and Alarics’ points of view, but we get a little less from his side which serves to emphasise his mysteriousness.

For an extremely basic explanation of why Talasyn and Alaric are sworn enemies, aside from being on opposite sides of the war, Talasyn is one of the last Lightweavers (someone who can manipulate light and use it in battle by constructing weapons) and Alaric is one of the Shadowforged (who can do the same but with shadows). It’s the age old light versus dark… or Rey versus Kylo Ren… I’ll get back to that though!

Fairly early in we get a revolution about Talasyn that makes things a lot more interesting, and related to that we meet Prince Elagbi who is one of the sweetest characters! Halfway through we get a huge plot point, and if I hadn’t already been loving it due to the separate character arcs of Talasyn and Alaric then I would have fallen for the book at the halfway point, but as it happens I loved both of their characters so I guess I just found it even more entertaining at that point.

There’s a fair bit of politics involved in the story, which adds to the intensity throughout. But we also get many moments between Talasyn and Alaric that will (if you’re anything like me) have you smirking at the book for the most of the time due to:

1. Their sassy remarks at one another
2. Their utter silliness at not seeing how perfectly matched they are together

“Do you make it a habit to compliment everyone who’s trying to kill you?”
“Not everyone. Just you.”

This is a super slow burn and enemies-to-lovers done in the best way, if Star Wars had gone the same way with Rey and Kylo Ren then Episodes VII-IX genuinely would have been my favourite trilogy but it’s fine because Thea gives us everything we could have wanted but better with Alaric and Talasyn’s relationship (including fantastic world-building to go with it). There were no parts in the story that I struggled to imagine because Thea describes as much as possible, without it being too bogged down with descriptions.

If you like your romantasy with a big of spice then you’ll get some, but don’t expect too much because Talasyn and Alaric are both busy pretending they have no attraction to one another for around 40% of the time and then another 40% is spent with them both thinking the other has no attraction to them whilst obviously wanting it.

All-in-all, I adored this story. It was an emotionally charged entry into the trilogy and I’ll be picking up the next books as soon as possible! I did try turning the pages at the back a couple of times, just in case some more magically appeared…

“…sometimes it’s the blow that molds us.”