☆☆☆¾
(Rounded down due to the rating system).

The heart is a battlefield.

What drew me to the book / Why I requested: I like many people no doubt, was drawn in by the absolutely gorgeous cover. Though had I known it was a Reylo fanfic I wouldn't have requested it.

My thoughts whilst reading:
Starting at the prologue I was worried as I didn't enjoy it much and found it read a little more YA-ish than I was expecting the book to be so I imagined that the rest of the book would be like that but to my pleasant surprise as soon as I hit the first chapter things immediately improved. Going on from that I enjoyed the action of the opening chapters and how we just get into things, we start with a wedding in the regiment but not long after we're amidst a battle and no one is safe. That said I found the book to be a little infodump-y but it wasn't overwhelming so the book was still readable without boring me. Within the battle, it also talked about Sardovia's technologies and I was intrigued by the mix of Magic and Science and how they used them. Onto the first interaction between the enemies-to-lovers-to-be, I found myself a little disappointed I guess you could say that Talasyn was already calling Alaric's eyes magnetic like come on we couldn't have waited til at least the third interaction for that? Other than that I was enjoying the book so far.
I really enjoyed how the bigger plot twists and reveals were paced in the book, things that you would normally expect to see like 80% into the book happened within the first 30% instead which left me wondering where else the book had to go and what else it had to offer, unfortunately the answer to that wasn't much. I actually started to enjoy the book less after the big battle that happened around <spoiler> 30% </spoiler> but I'll get into why that is in a minute.
Around here there is a scene where <spoiler> Alaric lets Talasyn go which I disliked as this is like their third meeting and at this point, we hadn't seen a lot of Alaric from his POV so for him to just let her go was very like ehh as we didn't really know or understand him yet and why it was he did this, as she is meant to be his enemy like he just lets her go, what was his motivation? He should've just killed her considering she is his enemy and he is some fearsome General + Prince and all that </spoiler>.
Now, onto Part 2. I disliked the 4 month time jump and feel it would've been interesting to see some of those 4 months, Talasyn <spoiler> reconnecting with her Dad, her training and what it was like for her to go from a soldier to a princess and how the change affected her </spoiler>, rather than just skipping them, especially as a lot of part 2 was full of scenes I felt could've been left out or swapped for other things.
I have to admit here is where I read some of the book as fast as possible (until the 60ish% mark) which may have led to some of my enjoying it less as I was worried about not finishing the book in time, which is when I realised that the book didn't release here for another week and I was like 'oh' at my silly mistake. After this, I was excited to be able to read the book at my regular pace and to be able to properly enjoy the book again but I found that unfortunately, I wasn't enjoying the shift in the book (more on this later).
Then I was hit with a twist I didn't see coming <spoiler> the arranged marriage </spoiler> which I thought would be interesting, to say the least (whether it was or not the jury is still out for me, I enjoyed it at times but others not so much). That said with Alaric becoming a more regular character I was rolling my eyes in his POVs when he kept going on about Talasyn for no necessary reason like please shut up. With that said I did enjoy how the chapters would occasionally switch between Talasyn and Alaric like it created an interesting contrast.
On a quick side note: I really liked the relationship between Talasyn and Elagbi and I was sad we didn't get to see more of it and how it developed.
Unfortunately whilst reading I found myself thinking that the book wasn't all that memorable, like I'd be reading it a while and I was rather far into it but still couldn't remember certain things like character's names or events from earlier in the book.
I get that in the last sort of quarter we're meant to see Talasyn warring with herself over Alaric and how she feels because he's the enemy and all that but I found it to be a little lacking like it was just her being "screw him he's the enemy" and then going near him and being "his skin against mine makes me feel good" like I would've liked to see a deeper struggle especially as she would always realise how she couldn't give in because there were consequences only to still give in without any problems until after. On the relationship I also think I would've enjoyed the book more had it been taken slower and been more developed than it was, I wouldn't have minded if stuff between the two didn't really start until book 2 but this is more just a personal preference I guess.
For the ending I get it's a cliffhanger but I feel I would've been more hooked and invested in book 2 had it been a bigger and more dramatic cliffhanger, like I was hardly on the edge of my seat for it or anything though I thought seeing Gaheris was interesting.
I don't get the title or why the War was called the Hurricane war(s).


Overall:
I think the reason I didn't enjoy a lot of Part 2 was because we went from the action-packed Hurricane Wars to Talasyn sitting in a palace and then the book zoomed in on her and Alaric, like the big dramas outside of them really slowed down which was what I enjoyed so much about Part 1.
That said I am still interested to see how all the loose threads come together in book 2, we have the Sardovians and Darius, the Dragons and the consuming Darkness thing. Plus how Talasyn will continue in her relationship with Alaric and if she will plot against him which I would like to see.

Miscellaneous:
I didn't get the Dragons, they were in the book for maybe 20 pages and then one got injured and they just disappeared for the rest of the book like what happened to the injured Dragon?
I somehow missed the fact that Alaric was 7 years older than Talasyn and when I found out it gave me a mini shock like nothing in his description or the way he acted showed (to me) that he was older than Talasyn like he just didn't seem 7 years more mature if that makes sense.
The Coralces / Wasps / Wolves / ships left me not confused but a little baffled I guess, like the descriptions were a little lacking and I just couldn't picture them. I also don't think the descriptions in the book matched how they look on the US cover. Description wise I imagined them to be something more like steampunk or Sci-Fi-esque rather than literal flying (boatlike)ships.
Some of the location's names had a really sort of big (and weird) contrast. You had places like Lasthaven and Frostplum compared to places with more solid and creative names such as Sardovia, Kestah and The Dominion etc. It was just a little weird.
I was weirdly interested in the Seven Moons and whether they were literal or metaphorical and if they were literal how they impacted the planet and wildlife of the place.
What actually are Aether hearts? Are they lumps of rock or coal? Gems?
Chapter 10 started off rather weirdly, to explain we have to go back to the end of chapter 9 where we see Amirante and Talasyn say they have to train, then we go onto chapter 10 where the first paragraph states there is a time jump and saying the progress of their training, it was a very short paragraph which is then followed up by something completely unrelated and major like that information could've easily been included in the last chapter or even in an off-handed comment somewhere else in the chapter but because of how it's set up you read about how the training went only after that to go straight into a battle like it was just an odd choice.
I had a bad feeling that Elagbi would die which I didn't want to happen at all, I also felt that not just he would die but the Queen would die as well at the same time in a double blow so I was happy when I got to the end and that didn't happen (although there are 2 more books so I'm not that optimistic yet).
I thought the ending would entail Gaheris taking over Alaric's body and taking control which would've been an interesting and dramatic cliffhanger (the kind that I wanted the book to end on to keep me hooked).
I wanted to see more Aethermancy, it was clearly big and important to the world so it would've been interesting to explore it more though maybe we'll see it in book 2 or 3.
There was an 'intimate' scene between Talasyn and Alaric where he was like "You're so small" it was very eughh, I mainly skipped that scene though as everything I did read was a little cringey.
That's pretty much the end of my thoughts though I will say, I would like to see the series end with Alaric dead.

Why I rounded the rating up / down: I would've rounded up the rating but for me the beginning was the strongest part of the book and the rest didn't hold up as well.
Do I regret reading it: No.
Will I be reading the sequel: Probably, I don't see it being on my immediate TBR when it gets released but I will keep an eye out for it.
Will I invest in a physical copy: Yes, partly because it was a book boxes monthly option.
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollinsUK for the ARC.

Shadowforger clashes with Lightweaver in this slow-burn enemies to lovers romantasy. Talasyn and Alaric fight for opposite sides in the Hurricane Wars, but from the moment they first meet on the battlefield, their lives are changed.

The Hurricane Wars was one of my highly anticipated reads, and while I overall liked the novel and will be continuing with the series, it was an okay read for me, rather than my newest obsession. I love a good slow-burn and enemies-to-lovers romance, but I'd expected a bit more of the 'epic' that we were promised in the blurb. Plot twists were fairly obvious and there were several elements in the plot that were giving me strong Star Wars vibes: from Alaric's father, the emperor, exerting control over his son through a weird magic that wasn't fully explained, to his facial mask as part of his uniform, to the concept of the Shadow Empire threatening to annex the continent, just to mention a few, I learnt after having read the story that this came from a Reylo fanfiction, which was a lightbulb moment for me.

The second half of the novel is very much focused on the relationship between Talasyn and Alaric, as they forge an alliance and navigate the Navarene court. I felt at times that this focus on the couple came at the expense of further world building (I would have liked to have seen more of Navare, and felt that some of the secondary characters were a bit flat). Also, the dual POV was skewed strongly towards Talasyn's perspective, and I would have liked more of Alaric for a better balance, as I feel that there is still a lot we don't know about him.

All in all, 3 stars from me, but I am sure there will be lots of people who will absolutely adore this.

I was a bit late to the excitement around this book so didn’t get caught up in the hype and didn’t know the origins of the story. Having now read the book, I can absolutely see the fanfic elements but they did not affect my reading or enjoyment.

The story telling itself was full of vivid descriptions and whilst the world building can definitely be expanded upon, I really enjoyed the rich magical system and the history we’ve discovered so far.

The characters were well written and I couldn’t help but root for them as a couple. I love the enemies to lovers trope and this story has that along with so many other popular tropes but beware this is a very slow burn!

Although the pacing was a little slow at the beginning, it picked up and I’ll definitely be reading the second book when it’s released.

3.5 stars, rounded to 4 as I do want to read the next instalment.

Reviewers have described this as ‘fanfic’, a term I was only vaguely aware of. I disliked the latest Star Wars trilogy ( in fact episode 7 was so disappointing I left the cinema almost in tears), so I was unaware of any comparison. Though I did think the juxtaposition of magic and certain SciFi-like technologies a bit odd. And with hindsight, the aerial ‘fleets’ of the opposing factions now seem pretty familiar….
Anyway, to me the story was far more derivative of ACOTAR, the main protagonists blurring into Feyre ( with more than a sprinkling of Nesta) and Rhysand as I read. The enemies-to-lovers theme treads a well-established path, no real surprises in it. And the story centres pretty much round these two characters.
Alaric seems pretty brainwashed by his dad, and the character-building and world development need a bit of work. I would have liked more explanation of the magic around which the story is constructed, because it was quite novel and that must be getting increasingly difficult for writers in this genre to come up with.
However having just come from reading the latest work by a well-esteemed writer which bored me so completely that I gave up on it ( and gave it 1 star cos I couldn’t give it less), The Hurricane Wars was a refreshing pick-me-up.
But a good start to a potentially good series.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The premise of this new fantasy series really excited me however I was disappointed by the reality of the book.
The Hurricane Wars includes a host of tropes which are very popular right now, which I'm sure, will entice many a reader.

I think that while the dialogue was enjoyable, the world building was lacking, and where it did exist, it was a bit clunky.

I think this has the potential to be a great series if there was more of a focus on world building, and perhaps if the writing could encompass a larger scope of the general narrative.
Sometimes it was hard to follow time passing or the geography of the world as everything was rushing towards the dialogue between the love interests.

All in all, a series which could achieve great success with a few improvements.

Unfotantly this book wasn't for me and I was seduced by the beautiful jacket. But look at that cover its gorgeous.
The writing was overly wordy and descriptive, which made the book something confusing to understand. So many sentences could have been cut out or made more concise. This flaw got better as the novel progressed, but it definitely hindered my enjoyment of the book. Reminded me of Fourth Wing which I really didn't enjoy either.

Overall, I understand why The Hurricane Wars will appeal to others, but this book is not for me. I didn't care for the plot, the characters, or the world, and nothing blew me away.

The Hurricane Wars is a pretty decent debut book, I enjoyed the overall plot and the characters a lot. The world feels vibrant and intricate with a pretty complicated political situation and an interesting magic system.

The main issue was the pacing, the first half of the book was incredibly slow and there wasn't much drive to the story, I struggled to read more than a chapter at a time. The world-building is lacking in the first half too, you're thrown into this quite complex world with no context and no explanations of what anything is and expected just to follow along because the main character does know what's happening. There are new words for pretty much everything in the world and it was tough to follow, it felt a lot like I'd started reading the second or third book in a series and all the setup was already done.

The second half was much stronger for me, mainly because Talasyn is on the back foot and has to learn about the new place she ends up in so there are more explanations for the reader to learn too. The relationships develop a lot more in the second half and I really enjoyed the banter between Talasyn and Alaric, they're definitely a slow burn but it was really well done!

I am intrigued enough to want to carry on with the series, I just wish the first half had been easier to get through because I'd have enjoyed the overall experience a lot more!

I’m so sad that this has been such a tough read for me, I was so excited for this book but I have just found it so confusing and to be honest so very slow that Iv become bored and disinterested in the plot.

I felt Iv been really thrown into a magic system that needs much deeper lore and exploration that I got. I found myself stumbling past sections that I didn’t fully understand and lots of detailed information about things I didn’t feel necessary, for example the very long and detailed information about the creation of war ships, when what I needed was more information of how the magic worked and why.

The characters are ok, but I couldn’t invest in the romance through all the info dumps of war information

I’m so sorry, it just didn’t grip me from the start.

I would say if your into a good detailed war story and more sci fi than fantasy it could work for you, but this was sadly a miss for me.

As always huge thank you for providing me with a copy for my honest opinion.

4 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC to review. All thoughts are my own.

When I first started reading this, I didn't think it was going to be for me. The world setting was very sci-fi/otherworldly, and I found it a struggle to get intrigued. However, once the banter between the main characters becomes witty and enjoyable, and the setting moves from active war to the brewing tensions in Talasyn's home South East Asian-inspired dominion, things changed shape for me. I really began to enjoy this.

The character development for both Alaric and Talasyn is well-paced, and I appreciated that these enemies remained as such throughout, even when their romantic feelings blossomed. Sure, there was some tedium around the whole "I really like him/her, but no! We are from enemy lines!" repetition, but it all made sense in the timeline of things. It showed the complexity of identity versus the heart, and I appreciated the author's time spent building these two up.

I also really enjoyed the political maneuvering of the empires and the manipulation that both Alaric and Talasyn can't seem to break free from. Familial ties were deeply rooted in this, and navigating the half-truths and sheer conditioning is intriguing. Both can see the other's toxicity for what it's worth, yet it's so engrained for enemy lines to keep drawing up because that is what is expected.

Admittedly, despite the hype, this isn't a literary gem. There are quite a few loopholes to the storyline, and clunky plot devices that make this more juvenile and exasperating to read at times. When I initially started reading, I was convinced it was based heavily on Star Wars in some way as it felt both in world setting and in the overall storyline to be something I've watched, and happened to find it was previously a Reylo fanfic. So if you're not huge on Star Wars (like myself), then perhaps this won't hit as hard. Whilst I did have this knowledge in my mind as I read, I didn't find it to be entirely off-putting but it did mean overall plot lines and the progression of character arcs were very predictable.

This is a debut novel, and I did enjoy several elements of this read, and I will be continuing with the series.

I requested this after seeing it on a Goodreads list (can't remember which one - maybe something about most anticipated autumnal releases?) and then reading the description. It sounded like a good old time and I was in such a romantasy mood after reading Fourth Wing (I still am, so some good recs please?). Unfortunately, this book is not delivering what I've been promised.

My big issue with this book is the writing style/plot. I am so unbelievably confused, and I've had to go back and reread passages to try and make sense of it, only to realise that it doesn't really make sense. I think the world building isn't great and I really don't understand the magic system. Another weird thing for me is that some things are really over-described, whilst other things are completely glossed over or skipped entirely. For example, very early on the main character has to do some intense training, but we never see the training. It just skips to 2 weeks later when she's all trained and ready to go? Why were we not shown this training sequence? I feel like it's the perfect opportunity to also explain the world a bit, so we can understand what's going on in this world and why it's so important that she has this training.

I don't know, I'm just confused and bored and not interested in the romance. I really wanted to love this, so I'm pretty gutted.

Ok, so. I enjoyed this, it was fun. Would I say it was great and something I’ll come back to again and again? Probably not.
I can tell that this is rooted in fanfiction, but I did enjoy the tropes and main characters plotline. I’d have enjoyed seeing more development of some of the entertaining side characters.
I do think the lyrical descriptions and extensive imagery jarred with the romance and tropes - I’m not sure this book knows whether it wants to be a sweeping fantasy series or beach-read romantasy, and it gave me whiplash sometimes.
I’m glad I persisted through the fairly stodgy first 20% but sadly this didn’t quite live up to the hype, certainly for my preferences.

I'm not totally sure how I feel about this one?! There were some bits I really enjoyed, like the magic system and the vivid descriptions of Nenavar ✨📖

What I didn't like so much was the massive amount of info-dumping/'telling' rather than 'showing'. I get that this is the first book in a series, so there needed to be some groundwork in terms of history and the geography of the world, but I just found it a bit overwhelming and uninteresting?

Saying that, I think I'll read book two to see what happens with the main characters! It just won't be one I'll be rushing out to buy on publication day.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! 🌙

I will admit this book took me a little bit to get into where I started this a few months ago and put it down. However, I think that was just me. I wanted to read this as on paper it has all things that I love war, a bit of romance a political marriage- what more could I ask for.

I did end up loving this world as someone who has been watching a lot of DND content recently a lot of the book reminded me of this, and this may just be because of the amount I have watched but I found it drew me in.

I cannot wait to read more of this author and more of this world. The only reason I gave it four stars was because I put it down a while ago but I believe this will be a book that I will be looking and rereading when I am trying to find something to sweep me away. The characters are the typical enemies to lovers who pay off is so good and I cannot wait to see how this goes. Thank you for NetGalley and Harper for allowing me to read this book and I cannot wait to get my hands physically on it because I know it may be a book that will grow on me more. is so good and I cannot wait to see how this goes.

Instagram post will go up Tuesday 10th October

I have started this book so many times in the hope that it would grip me. Sadly, I just couldn't get into it. There is a lot of world building and information to take in which is to be expected with a fantasy novel. I just found the story hard going and it became a chore to read.

This made the reader work for more than it was worth. Sentences were convoluted and I had to read everything twice to figure them out. World-building was rich, but so poorly explained I had to spend too much time trying to figure out what was what and why the characters were there. A war was going on that made no sense. Characters and the plot were lost in the noise and I couldn’t bring myself to care for them. Eventually, I had to stop. There might be a three star book hiding in there, but since it couldn’t entice me to read it, I’m only giving it two.

It was… fine

Finding out at the end that this was a converted ReyLo fanfic made all the gripes I have with this novel make sense.

The aim of many fan fics is to provide a different conclusion for your fave characters than provided in their original worlds. Fan fictions have the benefit of existing in a rich and already established world, with characters that have been built and fleshed out by another. They’re character focused and fulfil the wishes of readers.

The novel started strong with epic battles and the author works hard to create a world that isn’t Star Wars I guess… but then the fantasy elements fall off completely and it becomes a romance. An unsatisfying romance that, in my opinion, didn’t fulfil enemies to lovers AT ALL. Yes they tried to kill each other (kind of) but the switch is instant. Then it’s a lot of back and forth.

The side characters that seemed were going to factor in just disappear after a few chapters, which was disappointing as they had such potential.

If you enjoy romance novels then maybe this is for you. Think ‘arranged marriage’ and ‘forced proximity’, NOT ‘enemies to lovers’ or ‘epic fantasy’

Was going to be 2 stars most of the way through but there’s a well-written smut scene that had some hot lines in it so I threw in a cheeky star just for that

What an amazing start to the series! The Hurricane Wars brings the sci-fi and fantasy genre in with favourite tropes, such as enemies to lovers, slow burn, angst and marriage of convenience.

Our FMC, Talasyn - a Lightweaver, and our MMC, Alaric - a Shadowforged, are fighting on two opposite sides of the Hurricane Wars. With new revelations, the two are drawn together into a marriage of convenience, and we see if they can turn their hatred of one another into something more... hate is a form of passion, afterall.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
I will say that it took me a bit of time to get into the story due to the information dumps, but after that, I was completely drawn in and could not put it down!

I enjoyed seeing the romance, angst and tension (very slow burn) between Alaric and Talasyn grow. But being on two opposite sides of the War puts doubts into their minds - and the question of how they will work through these feelings, when thousands of the people Talasyn grew up with, was a soldier for, were slaughtered by Alaric and the Shadowforged.

Talasyn is a strong FMC, she knows her own mind and wants the best for the people. But she can't help having doubts, and I can't wait to see her grow more in the next book.

'An orphan who was too mouthy. A soldier with only one friend. A Lightweaver who could barely master the basics. A Lachis'ka who was too coarse mannered. And now a bride who would never be loved'.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this copy. This review is voluntary.

The hurricane wars literally starts in the midst of battle. The reader is transported into dense high fantasy world-building, this is very beautiful and vivid. I can see the Star Wars fanfic in this world.
The romance is enemies to lovers, he falls first and there is plenty of yearning. I enjoyed the romance element, this became more of the focus for the last 50% and the book was a lighter read at this point. The dual POV was well done and helped to build the tension. There is instant attraction but the relationship is a slow-burn due to the complicated feelings. This book is basically conflict - you have the war, politics and opposing feelings/beliefs.
I would say that I felt the book could have been shorter, I felt some paragraphs were too long and it felt a chore to read then. This meant I lost my connection to the characters/story at times, which is why I feel the book is 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

“Hate is a kind of passion”

This book is an enemies to lovers romantasy with wonderful world building and some amazing battle scenes.
It’s an east asian inspired world and I loved seeing all the culture incorporated into the story from the food to clothing and so much more.

The story starts with the two main characters actively trying to kill each other, repeatedly and I just knew from then this book would be so good!
Throughout the story we see them both battle their desires and attraction to one another while also having to deal with them having an arranged marriage to form an alliance and treaty for peace.

They’re both smart, resourceful & lethal but around each other they collectively have one brain cell and I loved reading their scenes so much. The way I was giggling every time they slipped and said something nice. And just how awkward they were and constantly misunderstanding what the other is trying to say.
Talasyn is a stab first ask questions later girl and Alaric is broody and mysterious. Despite their attraction to one another they don’t trust each other and keep secrets and I am looking forward to see how this will affect their relationship in the sequel.

The Hurricane Wars have been going on for as long as Talasyn can remember. Fighting for her people is all she has ever known, but are they really her people? Abandoned on the steps of a Sardovian orphanage as a baby. Talasyn dreams of finding where she came from, and the source of the Lightweave magic that runs through her veins.

It took me a little while to get into this one. The world-building is good and it holds a lot of promise as a decent fantasy novel, but the emphasis is much more on the romance and that’s where I struggled.

I didn’t love the enemies-to-lovers romance. It felt inorganic to me and became the main focus of a story that should have been about an epic-fantasy-level global conflict. Alaric becomes obsessed with Talasyn after their very first meeting, when all she’s done is try to kill him. Very forced and convenient only to turning the novel into a love story.

The rest of the plot was actually not bad, but it was too much romance, not enough action and adventure for me.