Rating: Solid Book, 3 stars

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon is a book inspired by many of the wars in the Philippines. We follow Talasyn and Alaric, two different magic wielders on opposite sides of a decades-long conflict as they are brought together in a contentious alliance to face an even greater threat.

I think that this book started off really strong. I was intrigued by the world that was introduced, and the magic system felt like a creative take on elemental powers. There may have been a bit more info-dumping in the early bit of the book for my taste, but it's a debut, so I wasn't too concerned about it. I was excited for an enemies to lovers story in which they have genuine reason to hate each other.

I think that this story is definitely a romance book with fantasy elements. The focus is on the relationship between the two main characters and the game of cat and mouse that makes up the slow burn portion of their relationship. I have seen this called Reylo Fanfic, and I can't speak to that because I don't know what that really consists of, but it is a smol girl and large boi. There is an uneasy alliance, arranged marriage, and one bed tropes. I definitely see this being a popular book.

However, what I saw as one of the main drawbacks is that the fantasy elements are not nearly as strong as the romantic elements are. I think that the world and magic system have a lot of potential, but it wasn't really fleshed out well beyond the info dumps. Then as we got further into the book past the info-dumping, it was a lot of telling rather than showing for both the world building and the character development. There were times that we were told that the court was highly political and that there was a lot of political maneuvering, but we never really got to see it or hear about it. It all seemed to happen off the screen unless there was something that was important to the romance plot line. So with those pieces being weaker, it felt like the book was waaaaay too long.

I'd say that the romance was believable. The enemies to lovers didn't happen quickly by any means, and there was a lot of back and forth as it progressed throughout the story. I liked both the characters, but Alaric didn't seem to have a lot of personality beyond how he related to Talasyn whether as an enemy or an ally. The time we spent in his head felt very repetitve, and he showed the most personality when we were viewing him through Talasyn's POV. I almost think this would have been stronger if it was predominantly Talasyn's POV with just a chapter here and there from Alaric. I think this would have helped with the length.

Really, overall this would have been a 4 star book if it hadn't been nearly 500 pages. I definitely think there is an audience out there that will absolutely love it, but for me sadly, there was just some pieces that were missing that would have improved my experience.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperVoyager for an advanced copy of The Hurricane Wars. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-arc of this book now onto my review

This was a strong debut for this series, I thoroughly enjoyed the story telling and how the characters interacted with one another. I would have liked the story to continue more with the political intrigue and a bit let of the romance, but over all it was very well done and I plan to read the next installment in this series.

3-1/2 stars rounded to 4

Oh my god. 4.75 stars Amazing!

I have thoughts. So many,many thoughts. About Alaric, about Talasyn, about Geharis and Urduja!! Gaaaahhhhhhh!!!!


It is time to officially put in my review.

Talasyn, daughter of a Lightweaver, a race that had been extinct due to the Hurricane Wars. A war that was started when The Night Emperor’s father was killed.

Now the Night Emperor Geharis and Alaric of House Ossinast are out to have complete domination of Sardovia. Talasyn together with the rest of the warriors of Sardovia are fighting to keep their remaining strongholds.

There’s a lot to unpack with both Talasyn and Alaric’s character as the story goes and it is dual POV but as far as book 1 is concerned we don’t get a lot of chapters from Alaric’s pov. The world building is heavily influenced by vibes of star wars and filipino culture, which I adore!

The romance aspect of it is vast and it is a slow burn romance. It is your enemies to lovers that will progress to a marriage of convenience, want to guess how Alaric feels about that?

I am excited to have book 2 soon and just continue with Alaric and Talasyn’s story!

📣 *intense* enemies to lovers where they slowly catch *very conflicted feelings*

📖 what’s been the best part of your day so far? Mine just started about 40 minutes ago but it’s definitely been enjoying a quiet morning & a cup of coffee by myself in the den 😍.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Despite the fact that it took me so long to read (#moodreaderlife 😤), The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon is so good, so intense, so very perched on the knife’s edge.

As so many others have said the enemies to lovers designation really applies in this fantasy, & not in a cutesy way.

Talasyn & Alaric have been on opposing sides in a long war with many casualties, including people close to them both.

They meet at a couple of different moments before their arranged betrothal (!) & the magical weapons fly between them.

But despite their animosity & the fact that their past is so bloody & complicated—& that he in particular is part of an Empire bent on taking &/or destroying anything it wants in its quest—the leads actually have a lot in common, not to mention a mutual attraction.

These complicated feelings are not miraculously solved by their betrothal & book 2 will hopefully do a lot of emotional work that picks up where this one leaves off.

Not only is this book compelling on the action-front, the emotions & the deeper backstories & feelings that run through Talasyn & Alaric are strikingly crafted. Each of them is complex, not one-note, & I can’t wait to see what happens in book 2.

5 ⭐️. Out now!

Please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.

[ID: Jess’s white hand holds the ebook in front of a waterfall. A rainbow runs across the waterfall & another glowing white line runs immediately above the ebook.]

This is a gem of a book with all the best enemies to lovers vibes for you to be obsessed with!

I LOVE this one. You take Star Wars, add in dragons, a war torn land, and a FMC & MMC who hate each other but also should just kiss. 😘

The Hurricane Wars is so fun, it gives strong Reylo (Kylo Ren and Ray from Star Wars) vibes for anyone who needs more of that in your life.

The first half drags a bit as we have a TON of story here, but I was so enthralled when our enemies started having tension that I was IN IT and read the rest in a night.

I truly think this one is going to be BIG and the Fairyloot edition is one I am eagerly awaiting. 🤓🤓

I predict this will be one of the most talked about books of the Fall and I am here for it!

Is The Hurricane Wars on your TBR? It should be!

Thank you so much to @harpervoyagerus for this advanced copy! I lovedddddd it!

The Hurricane Wars was such a fun book and I really liked it, even though I’m not really a sci-fi person. It was really well written and I liked the characters so it helped draw ,e into the story even though I usually don’t like sci-fi.

Action packed , fast paced, with an added hint of spice.

This book was a roller coaster of emotions and sympathy for our two lead characters. They have far more in common than they know but throughout the book it is hard for them to truly see it. Even when they do , their shared conflicting pasts make it hard for them to truly connect. Talasyn is a fantastic and strong FMC but , like anyone who has been in her position , has plenty of faults. She is overly headstrong and lets certain goals get in the way of her own happiness.
Alaric is our violent and stern MMC, he is prince/emperor and he has been a constant enemy against Talasyn and her group of fellow soldiers. He is highly manipulated by his father and only seeks to please him but as we go he starts to see he isn’t exactly who his father wants him to be.

I liked the dynamic between the two characters however I will say there is far too much back and forth and by the end it is super hard to believe that this is an enemies to lovers. It is more like an enemies to tolerating each other. I found their moments of mild spice to be exhilarating but I had hoped for more for them. Both emotionally and physically.

I liked the contrast between the Night Empire and Nenavar. One is so dark and solemn while the other is colorful and bright . Just like the representation of our lead characters. It created nice imagery and comparisons.

Overall I had wished for more of a true enemies to lovers but every time they would start getting close to each other they immediately went back to complete and utter hatred and it felt like any effort to become closer was cut off completely. By the end it seemed they were kind of closer but with all the time spent together one would think it would have been a lot closer .
Highlights:
Lots of action .
Enemies to lovers (kind of)
Mild spice
Suspenseful

this book is MY roman empire ✨

i haven't read a fantasy romance that's consumed me this way since finishing fourth wing back in may. in this southeast asian inspired fantasy romance, we follow talasyn, who grew up an orphan and was raised to fight with the sardovians against the night empire in the years-long hurricane wars. she meets alaric, the son of the emperor of the night empire, in combat during a battle, their opposite magical abilities—lightweaving and shadowweaving—coming to a head.

without spoiling it, i can tell you that the dynamic between the two characters is very much giving rey/kylo ren vibes. it's enemies to lovers in its truest form, with a delicious slow burn, forbidden love, political intrigue, and a unique magic system.

i don't want to hide my review for spoiler and don't want to spoil anything, but just READ IT! you won't regret it. it had me giggling and kicking my feet like a loser at 1am :P <3

thank you to the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was amazing! Little hard for me to follow at first but the more I read the more I wanted to keep reading and was sadly disappointed when it ended. Looking forward to the next book, can't get enough of the storyline or characters!

This is an absolutely fantastic romantasy with one of the best slow burns I’ve ever read. The world building is rich with detail and the magical system is SO COOL—they fight their wars with ships that can create storms!!—and it’s full of political intrigue and drama. It took me a minute to get into this one because my brain is working against me pretty hard these days, but once I was in I could not put it down. I am so excited to continue on with this series and I truly cannot wait to find out what happens next! Thanks so much to Harper for this lovely advanced review copy.

a beautifully written enemies to lovers fantasy. I love when they are true enemies rather than just ... disliking eachother.

this was brilliant.

Thank you to Netgalley & HarperCollins Publishers for an ARC.

Talasyn, a orphan, is hiding a dangerous secret - she's a Lightweaver. She can pull forth light from the ether and bend it to her will. She can create weapons and shields from the Light.

Prince Alaric, the emperor's only son and heir, is Shadowforged. He has been raised to despise Lightweavers for what they did to his family. During one of their battles, it is discovered that together they can create a strange, new magic that might be the only thing that can save their world.

Positives:
- Total REYLO vibes
- The enemies to lovers aspect was amazing. They were TRUE enemies. Like, they were trying to kill each other up until (and maybe a little after) they are forced into a very uncomfortable situation.
- I loved both Talasyn and Alaric! When the book got a little slow, I kept going because I enjoyed both of the characters.

What Didn't Work for Me:
- The slow burn was possibly the SLOWEST BURN I have ever read in my entire life. Too slow for me. Once both the characters start to have thoughts about one another, there is so much of the "but I know he/she could never feel this way" (approximately 300 pages of it). And even though readers get little snippets here and there of the characters having "moments", it wasn't enough for me.
- Too many side characters - it was hard for me to keep track of them. Some of the more important side characters had potential (Sevraim) but weren't fully fleshed out. Maybe in book two?

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023. While I did enjoy it, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I will read book two when it's released because I'm curious how Talasyn & Alaric's story will unfold.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year and I’m happy to report that it did not let me down. I did struggle a bit in the beginning because there was a lot of information and terminology and it felt like it was thrown at me all at once. The pacing in the beginning was also a little slow, but around 35% in I found myself unable to put it down.

Read this if you like:
⭐️ Enemies to lovers where they’re actual enemies
⭐️ Slow burn
⭐️ A unique magic system
⭐️ Lots and lots of angst

Blog Post goes Live Oct 17th
Featured in Instagram Stories but due to low rating will not be featured as post

There are few things I like less in reading than to be bamboozled into finding out something I’m reading is a fanfiction with the serial numbers scrubbed off. For that reason, I’ll point out one or two things someone else might enjoy. But I’ll get it out of the way that I did not enjoy this, and I felt like it was incredibly obvious what the source material on this was and it completely ruined what could have been a unique and fun new debut.

The story is following two enemies who are forced together while their two sides war for control of their world. One, the Kylo Ren character who I don’t even remember the name of because he was described exactly how you would describe Adam Driver, is the heir/emperor of the Shadow Empire. Our female character is one of the last Light Seekers, and stands in opposition to the Shadow Empire.

The two have a clear connection through the text (they meet once and then they can do nothing but think about each other), and the book moves at a fast pace so if you love fast paced stories this is one to pick up. The author has some very interesting additions to the story, such as dragons that defend a somewhat neutral land the two converge on though these are small and don’t take away too much from the very clear Star Wars inspiration.

I’ve seen it said that many people enjoy seeing the source material through these types of books - for those readers this is a big recommendation. Additionally she does an interesting job with her wide cast of characters initially. After about 30% or so this becomes much more singular and focused in our main characters, however knowing the nature of fanfiction this seems to make sense so again this could work for those readers.

For me I really did not enjoy it - but I can see this being a huge hit for those that don’t mind this type of thing.

1 out of 5 Weave Weapons

In "The Hurricane Wars" by Thea Guanzon, we're thrown into a world in a never-ending conflict, known as the Hurricane Wars. Talasyn grew up in the midst of this chaos, an orphan in a nation constantly under attack from the tyrannical Night Emperor, and finds her solace among the valiant soldiers fighting for freedom. She harbors a secret of being an untrained light magic wielder; a power long believed extinct due to the Night Empire's efforts. Enter Prince Alaric, the formidable heir to the Night Emperor's throne, forged into a formidable weapon by his father. With the might of his armies and formidable shadow magic, Alaric has remained undefeated in his mission to eliminate threats to the empire. Their destinies become entwined in a confrontation that merges their powers, unleashing a combined force previously unseen.

The writing style swings between some flowery prose and casual, modern speech, which can be a bit jarring.

While the story begins in the middle of conflict and battle and has a backdrop of political intrigue, this story is a fantasy romance and the change feels abrupt. While I found the initial narrative gripping with its politics and warfare, the transition to a focus on love and arranged marriage felt abrupt. It seemed like the plot that I found most intriguing was just the backstory in an effort to get to the love story. Nevertheless, the book offers a blend of beloved tropes like enemies-to-lovers, secret royalty, enemies-to-lovers, instant attraction, and the slowest of slow burns. I did enjoy the romance. There's a whole lot of bickering between the two main characters, and they're constantly apologizing and second-guessing themselves. But at some point, things started to feel slow and all of the tension was just gone. The plot was forgotten and the romance was the only story remaining.

Additionally, I wish there were a more pronounced exploration of Filipino culture, offering a potential avenue for further enriching the narrative.

Thanks to Netgalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the eARC. This is an honest review.

4.5/5

True enemies to lovers and true slow burn romance full of angst and yearning...this is exactly the kind of story I'm been waiting for in the ever growing adult fantasy romance genre.

To be fair, my love for this book is a bit biased since I read and enjoyed this story in it's original fanfic form and, just as I suspected, it works well as an original fantasy world. The similarities are there, obviously, but Thea Guanzon has intricately crafted a world and characters of her own that I can't wait to see more of in future installments.

Something that I sometimes struggle with with fantasy romance is when the story can't strike right balance between romance and fantasy plot. The Hurricane Wars balances them perfectly. There's a great mix between the complicated enemies to lovers dynamic of Talasyn/Alaric and the overarching and layered political intrigue between the different sides of the titular wars (and since Talasyn and Alaric are important players on both sides of the conflict, their romance is intricately linked to the plot and the political maneuverings within).

There is quite a lot of worldbuilding at the beginning of the book which may overwhelm some readers (particularly if they're not used to reading fantasy) but I personally found it interesting and I really enjoy Thea Guanzon's writing style. She's quite descriptive and there's lots of "purple prose" that may not work for some readers but it worked for me in immersing myself into the wonderful Filipino-inspired setting she has created. I will say though, it does slow down the pacing a bit in the beginning. It doesn't feel like the story truly takes off until 1/3 of the way through once you get past the setup.

As mentioned earlier, Talasyn/Alaric's romance is true "want-to-kill-each-other" enemies to lovers and very much a slowburn that will take place over the course of the trilogy. If you love romances with lots of yearning, complicated feelings, and scenes that evoke the same feeling as the "Mr. Darcy hand flex" in Pride and Prejudice (2005), this is the fantasy romance book for you. Their relationship develops in a way that makes sense - mutual hatred that gets complicated when they start to find common ground and realize their growing attraction for each other. Their respective political and familial allegiances cause even more complications and lead to miscommunications that are actually understandable as they each have to withhold certain information and motivations from the other. All of this creates an excellent amount of angst and tension that I can't wait to see further develop throughout the trilogy.

I've read some excellent fantasy romances this year and while Divine Rivals remains my number one favorite, this one is a close second.

The Hurricane Wars is the first novel in a new series of the same name. The cover and genres were enough to entice me to try it; however, I was nervous going into this one as I’ve seen a lot of mixed ratings. I didn’t go through all the actual reviews, but the mixed ratings alone were enough to make me wary. The story takes some elements from Star Wars (a Kylo/Ren romance) and gives it a fanfic twist. This type of fanfic is not new, but I hoped the author would give her own spin on it. This is also a very difficult task to accomplish as, like retellings, readers are aware of the original material, so the author must balance using the source information with their own twists.

The story follows Talasyn, an orphan soldier with Lightweaver powers who fights to keep Sardovia safe from the Kesath Empire. She comes face to face with Prince Alaric of the empire where their worlds become intertwined. Since I know the source material, it was difficult to separate the two in my head at times because they were too similar in characteristics. It did not ruin my enjoyment, but it was a lot of overlap, at least for me. Other readers, whether they know the source material or not, may feel differently. The two characters were decent, but I felt they needed a little more depth. I also felt the plot started working too hard to put the two characters together and it did not feel as organic. I think the romance between them does have potential, but I think the next novel in the series has a lot of work to do to make readers like me connect with it.

The world-building takes some inspiration from Filipino culture, and I loved that the author tried to integrate it. There were plot twists, but I think they needed a bit more subtlety. As-is, they were easy to guess as they were hidden in plain sight. The basic outline of the story was great, but I believe the details are where I got lost. I prefer more exploration with everything from world-building to plot to character development, so this novel was not quite my cup of tea. I still believe there is potential, and the rest of the series could be amazing, but I find myself on the fence on continuing. Overall, I think there are many readers that will love this novel as-is, so I hope all readers try it out for themselves.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Harper Voyager, for the opportunity to read this enjoyable novel. The opinions expressed are completely my own.**

*Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book.

The Hurricane Wars is a political/war fantasy with a slow burn romance. The world building in this novel is amazing, highly detailed. I loved getting to know the characters and the lives they were living. The pacing of this book is rather slow, however there are faster points (just like in real life). It is immersive and I found the magic system to be familiar yet still set apart from others in this genre. I am certainly looking forward to the rest of the trilogy!

This had everything I love and more! The plot, the magic system, the world building, the banter....ugh I love every second of it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really did enjoy this, and am looking forward to the sequel! That being said, it wasn't my favorite. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in a fanfiction/serial format instead of a novel? It made a lot of sense while I was reading this that it started out as a Reylo fanfic.

I love a slow burn romance/fantasy romance, but this felt like SUCH a slow burn, but also like it didn't have the satisfying build-up? They started out as enemies (love that!) but also almost immediately had an inexplicable attraction. I loved the glimpses of burn that we got, but I'm not sure the build-up felt natural, maybe a little forced.

The world itself and the magic are really cool, I loved all of her wonderful descriptions. I also love the characters and the more we learn about Alaric and Talasyn, the more I like and understand them. The ending felt super abrupt, there is a huge build-up to multiple events that have not happened yet, so we know that there will be a lot going on that we haven't seen resolved yet.

I have a feeling the books will only get better as the series progresses, and I'm excited to see how things end up!