I went into this book knowing very little to nothing.
I liked the cover, liked the title, the description seemed right up my alley, so I went for it.

I knew that The Hurricane Wars is speculated to be a monthly pick for a book box, so I expected a fantasy book one way or another, but I quickly realized that this book is scifi-ish + fantasy and romance, which, quite frankly, scifi isn’t my cup of tea.
Though I have to admit the way and the scifi amount in this book works juuuuuuuust about fine for me.

The book is divided into two parts, with the first part the first 160 pages. I must honestly say, during that first part, anything that has to do with worldbuilding, this book somehow lost me. Everytime a name was dropped, I had to take a second to think if this is a term for something, a person or a place. And even the names and terms that have been dropped up until this point, I also had to take a second to search my brain where to sort this into (Is this good? Is this the enemy? What are they talking about? ???).
It felt chaotic and I can’t really say if it’s a me-thing or a book-thing. A map would have been great here, though I know the final version will have one.
Everytime the ships were described, my brain painted the picture of ships like in the Disney movie “Treasure Island”.
I would say the only parts I enjoyed thus far were the conversations between certain characters.
Bottom line is: After 160 pages I remained confused and just as knowledgeable as I was when I started this book, so I understand when this is the moment people would decide to DNF.

Thank the lords it actually got better in the second part, which over all seemed more romance and court politics heavy. I was hooked and invested.
There’s a lot more interaction between the characters, which I really liked. The writing overall seemed more cohesive and I am less confused.
Some of the writing though reminded me a lot of Laini Taylor’s in Daughter of Smoke & Bone, which was really really nice.

I liked Talasyn and Alaric as main characters. Both scarred (not literally) in their own ways because of their past and growing up and fighting during the Hurricane Wars, sworn enemies and understandably not very willing to spend more time with each other than necessary, ended up having great chemistry.
I did like that Talasyn was quite feisty during basically every encounter with Alaric, however, even though I mentioned that the writing seemed more cohesive, the way Talasyn sometimes spoke to Alaric didn’t always seem to match the general writing style, which had a very odd feel to it. This might be because of either their age difference or because of how they grew up? Talasyn, an orphan and a trained soldier, while Alaric grew up as a royal. Not sure.
The last thing I expected was some of the dialogues to be funny, showing even more so of their great chemistry!

The dual pov, which started very loosely and got more and more frequent during the course of the book, was great for understanding the characters and at the same time showed very well that they don’t seem to understand each other at all.
I do hope though that the final version will have something to indicate a pov-change!!

Something to note is that the pacing was..a choice I guess? It was a back and forth for me between “ok this makes sense” and “I’m pretty sure several days and weeks have passed at this point, but it’s like the characters haven’t moved on? How are we still stuck in “this thing that’s supposed to happen in 5 months””. Unless the second part and those 300 pages were to cover about roughly 2 weeks ?

All in all: I enjoyed it. I might do a reread once the book is out for discussion purposes. I’m excited for the sequel as well as for any fan art, which I think this book actually provides a great foundation for.

That feeling when you finish a book that's so good, you don't want to read anything else afterwards. The urge to turn back to the start and read it all over again just to spend some more time with the characters, in this amazing world. This book gave me that so intensely. It's so so good.

The worldbuilding is incredible, it's intense to start with, there's a lot of information because the world is so rich with detail, but I was just so immersed in it. I got lost for hours and would look up to find I'd read 30% of the book without noticing. I'm so intrigued to learn more about the magic system and the world itself. And honestly I'd read the next book if nothing at all happened, just to get to spend more time in this world, with these characters.

I love Talasyn, her rage and her vulnerability, her bravery and reckless courage, her fierce determination to fight for what is right and for those she loves. I really loved how with both Talasyn and Alaric, we really got insight into the events that shaped them into the people they were. The trauma of their childhoods and of coming of age in a brutal war, the ways their flaws made sense, made them something to love about them.

And Alaric is my new favourite hero, so brooding, such pining. All his vulnerability shut down and locked up tight, only to burst out when he's with her. They're perfect together and I'm desperate for more.

One of my favourite things in a fantasy world, especially one where there's war, is when it's hard to tell who's really in the right. Or at least when the story doesn't shy away from both sides having flaws, or from the notion that it's easy to feel righteous when you're sure you're right, when your worldview is shaped by the stories you've been told. I can't wait to see how Talasyn and Alaric continue to find their way through their relationship when they're both so deeply entrenched in their opposing views.

This is honestly the best start to a fantasy series that I've read in years and I'm so thrilled to have read it.

3.5/5 stars. I can’t rate it any lower bc I did have fun, but even I, who reads with negative braincells engaged, just found myself constantly questioning everything because it was all just a little… off. And I was thrilled to received an ARC, I was so excited for this one. I’m E2L #1 fan but I feel like a lot of the reason people don’t like it as much anymore is because of how it’s written lately! Some spoilers ahead, but I simply don’t think that the attraction should start at the first or second meeting when the other party is actively trying to destroy everything you’ve ever known, but even though it wasn’t /acknowledged/ as attraction, why was our mc fantasizing about his face or whatever after 3 interactions all of which were in the middle of war where her friends were dying. There’s no good reason as to why she wasn’t killed off immediately either, bc he very well could’ve. Alaric hates lightweavers based on what he’s been fed by his father, there’s no reason for him to be intrigued by her to the point of letting her go THREE TIMES. It just seemed like very convenient plot armor and I get that sometimes plot armor is necessary but come on. Also when she goes back to Sardovia the first time and purposefully leaves behind the high tech super useful coracle for her dinky one while Alaric has the brains to take it back and let his enchanters study it but Tala is supposed to be the crafty resourceful one?? Idk! Like I said a lot of it just left me scratching my head wondering why the author made some of the choices that were made. The will they won’t they was also more of a “oh they will but Tala’s going to immediately regret it every time” and that happens at least 4 times like girl either stick to your morals or don’t you’re killing me!

I will say the very best part of the book was her and her long lost father reuniting. Many of their scenes just had me near tears, bc even though he isn’t a perfect father he does love her so fiercely, and while you can tell in those initial scenes he wants to pick up right where they left off he eases off for her own comfort and I’m UPSET that we didn’t get a lot of their initial bonding. There are so many weird time skips that I was willing to overlook for the sake of story progression, but this bit of character building it what I’m most upset we missed out on.

As I said it was a fun read, I had a good time with it, but if it had someone like me stopping every few chapters going ??? then I’m sure anyone else who reads with half a braincell engaged will find more than a few problems.

And with that I leave you with this quote from when her father first meets her again, because it’s the only thing I highlighted in the entire book and it still makes my heart melt:

“Another eighteen years could have passed before we found each other again and my heart would still tell me that you were mine.“

There has been a lot of hype for this book, and I am happy to say that I enjoyed it for the most part. But it was not entirely what I was expecting, and I also think that because the blurb is a bit misleading, some people might end up going in with false expectations and getting disappointed.

So first of all, don't be fooled by the title: there are more ballgowns than battles in this book. All the focus is on the romance. If you don't like a lot of romance in your fantasy books, I would not recommend this. The reylo origins are clear, even to someone like me who hasn't read any reylo fanfic. But the two characters, Talasyn and Alaric, didn't feel like copies of their Star Wars equivalents either.

I thought the romance was pretty good. I was invested in it. It's not insta love, and Talasyn and Alaric start out as actual enemies trying to kill each other, though the turning point in their feelings happens too early and for no reason except physical attraction. Having said that, the author later does a good job of giving the pair real things in common to bond over. The romance is not just based on lust, but on genuine connection. The reason for their being enemies is not just swept aside either - the characters fight frequently over the war and their parts in it, and it remains unresolved by the end. It's a good portrayal of conflicted feelings.

The two main characters are cute. Talasyn is a bit of an idiot - the typical feisty heroine, but somehow I liked her anyway. Maybe because she acknowledges her faults, and makes efforts to try be more politically savvy later in the novel. Unfortunately, the book had the same problem as a lot of romantasy, where all the effort seems to be put into the main couple, and other characters are left to fend for scraps of personality and page time.

I enjoyed the tropical setting of Nenavar, and the descriptions of the food made me hungry, but I would have liked more details about the culture of the setting. The aether hearts and flying ships were cool. I was mildly disappointed with the magic of the main characters, shadowforging and lightweaving. All they do is summon weapons and shields made of light and shadow, respectively. The two types of magic felt too similar too each other (aren't they meant to be opposites?) and also like more interesting things could have been done with shadow and light magic. I am hoping the magic system will be explored more in the next book though.

The writing was decent. Nothing stood out to me as really good, but likewise there was nothing really bad that took me out of the story. There are lots of clothing descriptions.

Despite its faults I did enjoy The Hurricane Wars, and I will definitely be reading the sequel! Thanks to Netgally and Harper Voyager for the ARC.

I will try to keep it as honest as possible without being harsh, because I just did not vibe with this book in the slightest.

First of all, the world building (what there is of it) is so convoluted and thrown-together that I couldn't make sense of it or keep track of what was what. The sayings were so ridiculous and confusing with no explanation. "May Enlal's griffins feast on his liver until the Unmaking." Who is Enlal? What is the Unmaking? "May his shade find shelter in the willows from Zannah's all-knowing eye." His shade? Who the is Zannah? Are these Gods? Deities? Past rulers? Never explained. The author just threw together anything she thought sounded whimsical and all-powerful and called it fantasy.

Secondly, the way this was written and the fact we were spoon fed what should have been the ending of this book by chapter 10 made it so honestly boring I wanted to stop. Finding out who Talasyn really was should have been what this book built up to, not something that we found out before we were 20% done with the book. There was no big mystery around who the turncoat was for the Sardovian army either. We found that out too right after we found out who Talasyn was. It was just disappointing. What good is a story if you know all of the "important" stuff straight away?

Third of all, I just didn't think this book flowed at all. We went from having pages upon pages of cringe-worth back and forth between Talasyn and Alaric that amounted to absolutely nothing important to the plot, to having actually important things happen in less than a page, without any of it being fleshed out. If a years long war is coming to an end, I don't want to be told it's happened. I want to see the ending. I want to feel the ending. I don't want a throwaway sentence like "all it took was a month" and then see none of it. So much lost potential.

Fourth - this was, very obviously right from the start, a Rylo fanfiction with different names to try and make it look like it wasn't, but I've seen every Star Wars film, and you're not fooling me. That isn't to say Rylo can't be done well. It very much can be done well. It just isn't done well here.

In conclusion, I liked the concept of this book. It was why I requested an ARC, but the execution fell short for me and I was left feeling mentally exhausted and relieved to have finished.

Unfortunately this was just not the book for me. I felt inundated with the info dumping and world-building at the beginning and I really struggled to then get into the main plot and connect with the characters. I feel like maybe if I come back to this in the future I may be in the mindset to enjoy this more, especially as it is a slow burn but at the moment it is not for me. However I do think loads of people will enjoy this romantic fantasy and it will be a big hit.

The Hurricane Wars Review

Okay so where to start. Fans of Fourth Wing and ACOTAR this one's for you.

I absolutely loved this book. I went into it absolutely blind - not knowing that the ideas had come from a fan fiction of Rey/Kylo from Star Wars apparently? But let's put this aside because just wow all the stars!

This book starts off amid the end of a 10 year war, the book then reverts to a politically charged battle of Courts and minds.
The description and world building is excellent and you can picture what the author is bringing across. I can't wait to pick up a physical copy, hopefully it will have a map! Cause we know how much we like those!

What to expect:

Southeast Asian inspired Fantasy
Dragons
Enemies to Lovers
Banter
Magic systems
Emperors, conquerers and lost royalty
Arranged Marriage
Politics
Slow burn
Dual POV

I absolutely adored this book, it got me hooked and I didn't want to put it down. The writing keeps you engaged and wanting more. I'll be eagerly waiting for the next in the series.
For everyone eagerly waiting for Iron Flame in November like me, I really recommend picking this one up in October to tie you over.

Congratulations to the author for a stunning read!

Review is also up on my Instagram feed today @blonde.reads.fiction
And Goodreads.

<i>I would like to thank HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction, HarperVoyager and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

The Hurricane Wars has a strong beginning for high fantasy lovers and I was extremely excited about it. After that, the romance takes over and the politics assume a less central aspect to the story. Was I disappointed the romance takes such a central role in the story? A bit yes. The premise of the book is intriguing and I hated that it felt more bland, at least against my expectations. Did I still enjoyed the book? Absolutely!

As Romantasies go, this is the best one I’ve read in a while.
The writing is beautiful, the word building incredible, the magic system and politics are interesting and the romance is a believable, (very) slow burn enemies to lovers.
You can understand why they are conflicted and falling in love, you can feel the tension and angst and you end up suffering with them.

Although I would have loved for this book to be more focused on the fantasy side, I really enjoyed reading it and I believe it is a wonderful beginning of a new series.

The Hurricane Wars will be published in October 12th and it should definitely be among Romantasy lovers most anticipated releases

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher Harper Voyager for a copy of this book.

Unfortunately I was unable to finish as I could not get past the overly complicated first few chapters of world building and info dumping and writing style. I know barely anything about the main character! I had absolutely no idea what I was reading and really struggled to get through what I did go through.

Apologies, but thanks again for the copy.

[ARC provided by NetGalley and HarperVoyager. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review The Hurricane Wars

Rating: 3.5/5

I’ve been deliberating on my final rating for The Hurricane Wars for a while. For a large portion of the book I was expecting it to be four stars or higher but in the end, unfortunately this story fell flat for me. It’s currently being pitched as one of the more highly anticipated fantasy books of the year and going in with those high expectations didn’t help with my overall enjoyment. That being said, I think a lot of people will really love this one because there are a lot of fun tropes involved that’ll keep people interested as the plot develops.

Having originated from a Star Wars fanfiction, The Hurricane Wars shows its roots from the very beginning. I hadn’t realised this when I read it but looking back, I can see a lot of similarities with this book and the epic space opera. Now, I’ve read a tonne of amazing fanfics and I’m not against seeing great fics turned into published books, but when the source material shines a little too brightly, I start to question if enough work was done to make this story its own. With fanfiction, we go into them knowing a lot of background information which gives the author more time to spend on the central couple (if there’s a focus on romance), this means you can get away with not including paragraphs of exposition because the reader most likely already knows it all. With The Hurricane Wars, we get some brilliant set up which sets this apart from fanfics, however after that there’s a steady decline in the quality of the story. Characters and elements of the world building begin to fall to the side leaving us with a core romance that is a little bland and a fantasy world that feels underdeveloped.

The book has a really intriguing premise and is a fun spin on the light vs. dark / good vs. evil trope. We have Talasyn, a Sardovian orphan with the ability to wield Lightweave magic, who is in the midst of the Hurricane Wars. She is part of the fight against the tyranny of the Night Emperor Gaheris who seeks to extinguish any threat to his reign. This leads us to Alaric of House Ossinast, Master of the Shadowforged Legion and Gaheris’s only son and heir. Alaric is tasked with obliterating the Sardovian Allford alliance with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, and when he sees Talasyn and her bright Lightweave magic on the battlefield, he knows he must do all that he can to destroy that same magic that caused the Hurricane Wars ten years ago.

Something I noticed as I made my way through this book was that the pacing never felt quite right. The first 30% involved a lot of laborious worldbuilding but then it started to get really exciting following some interesting plot developments. That’s pretty typical with fantasy books and although it can be boring at times, this can also help get me excited for the rest of the story because a detailed introduction generally pays off in the second half. However, the strong intro leads into a lacklustre main plot and I feel this book would have really benefited from fleshing out some of those initial plot points further. I’d have loved to see more of the secondary characters and also a little more of the world to help tie everything together.

The second issue I had with The Hurricane Wars was with the enemies to lovers relationship that the main duo share. For the most part I was really rooting for them and enjoyed the tension that steadily built between Talaysn and Alaric throughout the book, and taking into consideration their own situations, I could totally understand that they would struggle to accept their own attraction. But when you get to the 75% mark and barely any progress is being made in that department, it starts to get a little tiring. It’s around this point that the FMC starts to feel annoying and the MMC two-dimensional, because there’s also little progress made with their own character development and so it’s pretty much the same inner turmoil over and over again.

I can’t stress enough how much I wanted to love this book and to a certain extent I did find it quite enjoyable. I read it in just over 24 hours so there was clearly something gripping me and although I didn’t love The Hurricane Wars, I’ll definitely check out the second book to see if any of the issues that I found are resolved. If you're looking for an epic fantasy then this might not tick all the boxes for you, but if you love romantasy then there's a good chance you'll enjoy this one.

This book was even better than I expected. I knew it was going to be a true enemies to lovers with a very slow burn and that it would take the whole trilogy for the relationship to develop, and it most certainly delivered on my expectations, but it also definitely surpassed them.

It's a fantasy book with lots of politics and very relevant worldbuilding, but it all serves a purpose on the relationship of the two main characters and has consequences on it. The first 30% of the book establishes the Hurricane Wars, and the hatred Alaric and Talasyn feel for each other and what they represent. While the direction of the plot then changes, the pacing is amazing, letting you catch your breath, while keeping every plot and scene relevant, and you get to see the characters interact in many different ways and moments.

This book is all I wanted: a fresh take on the enemies to lovers trope, not only because they do actually hate each other and also have reason to, but because the relationship is not linear at all. They both have doubts, and they can see a bit of kindness and reason in each other, but their reality keeps making it all confusing and they do actually accept that confusion as characters. I also love that you can feel the magical connection between Alaric and Talasyn, who have to work together to stop a bigger menace than the Hurricane Wars, but their emotional and physical connection takes longer to develop, and even then it doesn't make them forget every terrible thing that's happened between them and their countries. It feels incredibly real to me (a queer woman in the asexual spectrum) and I can't wait to see how it keeps developing on the second book.

I'm going to be recommending this book a lot, but I know I have to tell people that this books has quite a bit of politics, the slow burn is really slow, and while the relationship/romance is amazing, it is not a romantasy with lots of spice, as I think the wrong expectations could have a negative effect on readers who expect something along the lines of ACOTAR or FBAA.

⛈️The Hurricane Wars ⛈️ by @theagwrites

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow.

Okay, right off the bat: we all knew I was going to love this. Thea is an exception author who I have had the honour of knowing since 2018. I have followed her writing and loved it for all these years and this is no exception.

But this book. This book really, REALLY has it all:

⛈️Political Intrigue
💍Arranged Marriage
✨ Element based magic (perfect for fans of ATLA and Shadow and Bone)
⚔️Enemies to Lovers (and I’m talking proper enemies, like “we’re on other sides of a war and I genuinely want to stab you” sort of enemies)
🐉DRAGONS
😡Grumpy/Grumpy (and only slightly stabby) dynamic
🌶️Spice
🐉sorry, did I mention that there’s DRAGONS????

We’re following Talasyn, a light weaver and long lost heir to an ancient and mysterious Dominion, on her journey to try and not cause a diplomatic incident as she tries to navigate an arranged marriage with Alaric, the night Emperor and the the man responsible for all her and her friends woes. She’s also trying to come to terms with her powers, how they mix with his oh, and the small matter of hiding her rebel friends from a man who weilds deadly shadows as a weapon, has a manic father obsessed with world domination and is also going to be her husband. No big deal. At least he’s hot 👀

This book is a must read for fans of Darlklina, Zutara, Reylo, all those good ships that just can’t help but occasionally try and kill each-other in between kisses 😌

(This was also a great opportunity to showcase the big purple flowers in my garden, because this cover is STUNNING thank you @afterblossom_art 😍)

This book is so intriguing, I have already sent way too many unhinged voice notes to my friends theorising about where it’s going to go, and I literally cannot stress how proud Thea should be of this debut novel.

If this is not on your TBR, add it NOW.

Thank you so so much to @harpervoyager_uk and Netgalley for sending me an E-arc for review!

I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked to loved it but it is quite a letdown for me. All I've read was the protagonists' repetitive angsty attitude towards the said love interest. The banter of love and hate relationship is over the top hahaha.

And it ended with a sex scene. Yay!

An amazing new fantasy with some of the most original world building I've ever seen. Hurricane wars is a beautifully diverse and rich tale, and one of the best slow burn/enemies to lovers story arcs that readers will be clambering over themselves to see what happens next. The tension between Talasyn and Alaric is front and center but there is also so much tension between Alaric and his father and Talasyn and her leaders. The need to know what’s going to happen next absolutely drives this story. I loved every single minute of this book and cannot wait for the next installment.

This novel was not for me. As someone who loves high fantasy, I thought the concept of the magic system was intriguing but there was just not enough done with it. To me, it felt like the magic and the genre were just incidental, the 'romance' overshadowed it all. This is an enemies-to-lovers but I just didn't find it believable, while the tension between the two characters was good, they too quickly went from one to the other.

Unfortunately not for me. Could not connect with the story or characters. A little bit too much of a romance more than fantasy which I do not prefer, I do think this will appeal to fans who enjoy more romance oriented fantasy.

This book was just a whole lot of dark twisty fantasy goodness from start to finish. While I could tell in parts that it had its origins in fanfiction it certainly wasn’t the worse for it, with a world that felt very fresh and original and great, interesting characters.

Firstly, the world. It’s definitely a dark fantasy world that is created here, with an interesting magic system and mythology. You come into the story near the end of a 10-year-long war, along with all that means, including the death, destruction, and disillusionment.

Our heroine Talasyn has elements of the classic fantasy ‘chosen one’ about her. She’s got a dark and mysterious past, and seems like an underdog, except for the gifts that make her unique, which make her important to the war effort. At times she can come off as a bit single-minded and simplistic, but overall I enjoyed her character development.

Alaric meanwhile is such a good villain/morally grey character. This is a true enemies-to-lovers story. They HATE each other in the beginning, and with good reason! Alaric is heir and head of the army of the Night Empire which is waging war against Talasyn’s homeland. He and his army are responsible for the near extermination of her people. And yet, somehow, this unforgivable character manages to come off as charmingly awkward and even sympathetic! The strange connection between Alaric and Talasyn forms the backbone of this story - I really cannot wait to see how it develops in the next book.

My only real critique - and this may be a consequence of it’s fanfiction roots - is that the story was very narrowed to Alaric and Talasyn. It’s such an interesting world with lots of good secondary characters, I think the book would have benefitted from letting us see more of them. I want more Sevraim, more Khaede and more Elagbi!

This was unexpectedly good. I've not been reading much fantasy romance as I have issues with the sub-genre. However, this book is so 'magical' and I really enjoyed it for that reason. I did quite like the romance too.

Overall the was a good fantasy romance, with an interesting magic system and intriguing characters. I’m really enjoying all these new fantasies with a little bit of spice, my favourite to read! I did struggle a little bit with the FMC as I found her to have about 3 emotions and felt a little bit sorry for the MMC during the last 10%, he deserves better. I am looking forward to the sequel.

This is by far, one of the most magical books I have read in my entire life. Everything about it was spot on: the worldbuilding, the romance, the politics, the side characters, the dual POV; all incredible.

I am a self proclaimed skim reading fiend, known for glossing over when it comes to most of the non plot related parts of a book, but not with this one. I found myself desperately hanging on to every single word, wanting to immerse myself fully into the incredibly beautiful universe that the author builds throughout The Hurricane Wars. I genuinely don't think I've read worldbuilding this good since Tolkien.

Add to that an agonisingly slow burn, enemies to lovers, forced proximity romance that had me wanting to climb into the book and scream at the MMC and FMC and bang their heads together. The will they won't they in this book is so well done I almost forgot it wasn't real and the PASSION between the characters, well. As Niamha says "Hate is a kind of passion..." 😏

Aside from the romance, each character had a beautifully detailed past that was explored in glimpses throughout the book, leading to a genuine love for the characters and an in depth understanding of how they came to be who they are when we meet them.

I cannot find a single thing I didn't like about this book, and I feel as though there is now a hole in my soul because I truly did not want it to end.

I will devour anything that Thea Guanzon writes from this moment forward because THIS. WAS. INCREDIBLE.