I felt like there was a lot happening without any real world building at the beginning. It built as the story went, which is fine, but I wasn't a fan of that style. It also felt like it moved very slowly up until the end and it was a little difficult for me to get through. Nothing overtly wrong with it, just not for me.

2.5 stars.

This book throws you into everything pretty much immediately. It took me a large chunk of the book to understand what the terms, places, and names were and I kept getting confused because of how sudden everything is. Honestly, it was pretty overwhelming trying to picture this world; the worldbuilding could have been better. It was very obvious this world was based off a certain popular movie franchise but there were some things that happened in this book that just needed to be explored/explained more, and it didn't help that the terminology was confusing. There were also a few time skips that I personally felt took away from how good the plot could have been. It made the story feel rushed and I didn't know the characters well enough to get attached to them. Plot wise, I'm not very confident I knew what was going on for most of the book and admittedly, I wasn't all that interested to bother clarifying. It felt so fast in the beginning but then it started to drag towards the middle. I would have loved to see more of the magic in the characters and just an overall better background of the world (but I also wish this was a new world created by the author, and not something that was built off one that already existed).

As for the characters, I didn't see enough of Talasyn and Alaric together in the first half of the book to understand why they thought about each other so often. The romance between them felt rushed and sudden, and I wasn't too convinced of it. However, I did enjoy their banter and I wish there was more of that because it gave the characters personality. Other than that, all of the characters were pretty flat. There are some things that I'm pretty curious about but I'm still deciding if I want to continue this series. While I would love to see how everything turns out, this book did take me longer than I wanted to finish because I wasn't all that interested, especially in the beginning. With that being said, the second half is definitely much better and despite the lack of plot and unique characters, there were still some things that I enjoyed about it.

This is more of a disclaimer about how I personally felt about this book -
Right before I started this book, I found out this was a Star Wars fan fiction. There's nothing wrong with fanfic, but I personally have a difficult time reading stories that I know are fanfics because it makes me already have an impression of the characters (that don't necessarily have to do with the book I'm reading) that I can't unsee and it distracts me from the stories themselves. While reading this, I can definitely see the similarities and unfortunately, this made me struggle with enjoying the book. The whole time, I was picturing Kylo and Ren instead of Alaric and Tasalyn, and then I was picturing the Star Wars franchise, which makes me wish even more that the author worked on building this as a separate world.

Where to start with this. I am not really sure if I really like this book or in the middle. Right off the bat, I thought it was confusing to follow. Theres a lot of world building in this book since it’s the first of the series. I felt that the world building got lost in too much was happening. Because of that I was getting a little bit confused with what the plot line of the story actually was. I feel the real plot started to happen around page 300 out of a 400 or so paged book, which to me is too long. I found myself losing interest pretty often in the beginning and some places in the middle. Like I said before it’s a lot and gets clots in sauce at times. Overall, I had a hard time getting into this fantasy world because I wasn’t sure if it was based off of Star Wars with some Game of Thrones in there too and that made it difficult for me to picture the world I was being told about. It came across as just a whole bunch of fantasy things all smashed together in my opinion. I found the characters to not be that great. I like one of them better than the other they both were just kind of mediocre. I read a lot of other reviews that said how strong the female character was in the story and how she’s a stand out. And yes, she could fight and was magically inclined; however, her personality was less than great I didn’t get a personality at all from her. As for our male lead character, same situation, good fighter, but no personality. The book to me didn’t really start to get better until chapters 25 to the end of the book. This is where a lot of the romance and in my opinion, the plot actually was talked about. If I recommend this story to someone I want them to be very aware this is not romance heavy at all, it’s very dense in my opinion, and you need to have a true love for fantasy, sci-fi stories. If that’s your jam, then this book will be five out of five for you. If it’s not, and you’re looking for more of a romance fantasy story this isn’t it. People saying that this is a romance fantasy please do not called this book of the series that.. It has some romance, but it is not a romantasy.

This was my most anticipated read of the year, and it absolutely lives up to the hype! In the words of Stefon, this book has *everything.*

- Unique & imaginative world building (think Shadow & Bone magic meets steampunk but make it inter-dimensional)

- Amazing ETL dynamic, as in the main characters are fighting on opposite sides of a war but their chemistry is electric when they’re not trying to kill each other.

- Immaculate SEA vibes in everything from the clothes to the food to the mythology to the DRAGONS.

Truly I can’t say enough about how much I loved this book!

I am so sad to say that Hurricane Wars really didn’t work for me (DNF at 35%). I work in the hurricane/meteorology space, so I was beyond excited by the idea of a fantasy novel where storms are wielded as weapons. I loved the fight scenes and the writing style, and found myself quickly attached to the characters. I unfortunately couldn’t get invested in this one due to the wealth of characters (and characters going by different names), a complicated magic system, an extensive setting, and what felt like a lack of world building to go along with that extensive setting (lots of assumptions were made). I think I could maybe enjoy this one on audio, so I’m really hoping to try again in that format.

Look. I love fanfic. I’ve written and read it for many years. I would never disdain a writer for getting their start there. But a novel is a different beast. It has a different shape, and so needs different pacing, different on-ramps for the reader, different techniques of worldbuilding.

This very much felt like the author didn’t understand the medium and a search-and-replace had been done without much attention to the other aspects of creating a novel rather than a serialized fic. Because I know Star Wars well, I could see every cognate, and it was distracting.

I also can’t decide if the book is more burdened by the heavy dosing of tropes or by the belaboured and uneven prose. Half the time it has the brisk tone of a SW novel, and the other half it’s overly-purple, “you really didn’t need to use your thesaurus eight times in one sentence” fantasy-pastiche. Sometimes that bounce happens within a paragraph, and it’s quite jarring.

I really wanted to like this. It came with a good recommendation, and I was excited for a Filipina fantasy writer. But that wasn’t really what I got, and the overall impression I’m left with is of an immature writer.

That said, if you really like a particular kind of fanfic and don’t mind the distracting substitution of words that came with filing the serial numbers off, this may be a book for you. Or, you could go read fanfic for free.

✨ The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon ✨

“It is you, after all.”

My initial Goodreads review of this just said “no I have no thoughts in my head” and I think that still encapsulates how I feel about this book. When I got to the end, I just starred into the distance, jaw completely slack. That is still true so I am sorry that this review is literally just all vibes.

I went into this knowing two things: that it was enemies to lovers and that it was slow burn. Two of my absolute favorite things in the whole world.

This book is for the girlies who love fan fiction, who just vibe with plots, who go absolutely feral for yet another shadow daddy. It has political intrigue, really interesting magic systems, and some amazing tension.

It’s based on Reylo fan fiction (which alone will sell this book for some) but as someone who is not a Reylo girlie, I’ll keep going just in case you need other reasons to give this a try. Alaric is SO hot and he is SO in love with Talasyn that it HURTS while also making me kick my feet in glee. I had the literal time of my life reading this book. It was hate to love in the BEST WAY.

The world building can feel a little overwhelming at first and definitely requires you to just go with the flow— remember if something is important, it’ll be brought back up again.

This was a pretty fast-paced and addicting story. I think you could read it without any background just fine, but if you know the background of the story you will probably enjoy it more. It was originally an AO3 fanfic of Kylo and Rey from Star Wars. Alaric in The Hurricane Wars is definitely very Kylo coded, but I love Adam Driver so I had no problems picturing him as Alaric while reading this. The main premise of two opposing forces on opposite sides of a war falling for each other is the same. But this is more fantasy leaning than sci-fi in comparison to star wars. Also I would say the characters themselves are a bit different. Alaric is a little more normal, less monster (I mean he still kills a lot of people but he's pretty sure it's always justified, pretty sure Kylo doesn't care if the deaths he's caused are justified).

Okay getting that out of the way, now I'll just talk about the story. Overall, I liked it. It was a breeze to read through because I was curious about multiple things and wanted to find out about them. I also loved the interactions between Alaric and Talasyn. A lot of cute silliness (like when you can tell Alaric is so smitten but he can't admit it to himself). There is a bit of will they won't they back and forth stuff which can get kind of frustrating but I think it's ultimately needed. It would be too soon for them to just be perfectly in love and everything good already. The side characters didn't shine as much for me (well one did but they were a short lived character) but I'm hoping we'll get more side character interactions in the following books. The romance was believable and the characters are obviously a very good fit for each other if they can just get past their differences.

Warning, reading this did put me in a reylo spiral and I started reading multiple reylo fics on AO3 because I needed a good happy ending (since this is first in a series we don't have that yet).

Having read the fanfic that this story was originally, I'm so happy that Thea has made this possible for herself. I do love this version and the changes that she's made to fit her own culture. I was a little lost in the first few chapters because of all the name drops and trying to figure out who was on what side. It reminded me of reading Game of Thrones for the first time (before the show) and memorizing names and who was in what family. But after those first few chapters it was a lot easier to follow. It was also a little hard for my brain to figure out where everything was right off the bat since I didn't get a map to reference, but I'm so glad that a map is coming in the finished version. Thea truly does know how to transport the reader and get you to care about these characters immediately. Despite knowing who these characters were based on, I think I love these versions of them even more because they are completely of her own creation. I can't wait to see what other changes are coming from fanfic to book in the rest of the trilogy and I'm so happy for my friend.

I went into this book hoping to be wowed! Sadly, I wasn’t. The writing style of the author is effortlessly beautiful, but the story itself just didn’t grip me the way I was hoping it would. The characters also fell flat for me. I couldn’t bring myself to care about what laid in store for them. This is largely due to the fact that I found the romance lacking. There wasn’t that spark of chemistry that I usually get from other reads. The plot also moved very slowly until part-way to the end. Anyways, this was a bummer for me, but I can see how it’ll appeal to other readers.

This was a little rough to get into at first but definitely improved along the way. I will say that after seeing that this was originally a Reylo fanfic, I wasn’t able to unsee it. I think the characters held their own though and the slow burn enemies to lovers aspect was great. While the world and magic system were interesting, the romance is mostly what kept my attention. Things didn’t really get going until the end, so I’m hopeful that the next book will be even better. Overall a good start to the series but didn’t quite live up to the hype for me.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC!

I'm going to need a support group to help me get through the time in between books in this series and just people to scream with about all is obviously not fair in love and war!!! Aaaggghhhhh!!!!! And, shut up and just kiss each other!!!!!! (Breathing hard bc I really needed to let that out)

I loved this more than I can describe. I'm a major Reylo fan, and this scifi fantasy gave me Star Wars vibes along with the most perfect Reylo depiction between Talasyn and Alaric. (Alaric!!!!!)

The Hurricane War is a war between light and darkness. Talasyn is the last known lightweaver, and as the war continues, she tries to learn more about her powers. Alaric and Talasyn clash several times in the beginning of the book, all of which left me wanting more of that tense energy. (And there is more!)

This story weaves beautiful magic systems and descriptions with a love story that had my heart racing. All I can really say is that I need more, a lot more!

Out October 3, 2023!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc review!!!

"Love can make us do impossible, beautiful, terrible things. Love can bloom like revolution."

3.5 stars

Let me start off by saying I was born in the Philippines and raised in America by my Filipina mother - so I was so excited to see that this Filipina author based this fantasy book off of the Filipino experience: the unpredictably wild weather, the delicious food, and the history of colonization. She writes in the foreword: "This is a story about stopping the stormships, about working together to survive Dead Season. It's about the cost of war and the price of freedom, and what it takes to make a nation. It's about love, love where there was once hatred, love that is stronger than any cage that seeks to contain it. It's about my homeland and what units us, and all that we have overcome and what lies ahead of us still."


Our main character, Talasyn, reminds me of ACOTAR's Nesta (my favorite character in the series). Talasyn is rough around the edges (stubborn), she was raised an orphan and became a soldier at a young age. She later finds out secrets about her family of origin and is working through the trauma.

Prince Alaric is the son of the emperor and the enemy that Talasyn must marry despite her hatred for him.

"A country of islands ruled only by queens, where the skies are home to dragons and the streets are made of gold."

The first half of the book went by a bit slow with heavy world-building and lots of random characters introduced, but it definitely picked up by the second half... and I found the last 20% of the book to be my favorite parts.. I was actually bummed that the book had ended because I felt as if the ending was where it really started to pick up and captivate me the most... then again, that was also when we saw the enemies turn into lovers and had a long awaited satisfying spicy scene.

"Talasyn stared at the dragons. They were too big for her senses to encompass but she drank in the sight of them anyway."

I was hoping that there would be more of the dragons throughout the book, but it seemed like they were only a brief blip in the story along with most of the magical/fantastical elements...unfortunately.

Fantasy books are known for their terrific descriptions of the food and that was what I was most impressed by - there were many parallels made to the Filipinos foods that I grew up loving so much. There's a sweet silken bean curd with brown sugar that is enjoyed by the characters which is meant to be the beloved taho dessert of the Philippines made with silken tofu and tapioca pearls. They obviously have a pig roast and the national fruit is mango just like in the Philippines. I definitely appreciated being reminded of the flavors and foods I grew up with - it had me craving my mother's home cooking so much, I might have to cook up some lumpia this weekend.

I give this book a 3.5 - I definitely think that if you can make it past the world-building that the slow burn enemies to lovers romance and the ending are worth it. This book definitely gets better and better as you keep turning the pages - I would certainly like to know what's in store for our characters and would definitely consume the sequel.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Harper Voyager Publishing and Thea Guanzon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I had really high expectations of this book when I found out it was written by a Filipina - even though it didn't quite live up to what I was hoping for I would still recommend this book to fantasy lovers who don't mind a lot of world building and setting up for the next book which I predict will be even better!

Thanks to NetGalley & Avon and Harper Voyager for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF'ed this at 20% of the way through.

The beginning was worldbuilding whiplash. And not even *good* worldbuilding--just...throw you in the middle of a fight and hope for the best whiplash. I was so confused by all the unexplained terms and worldbuilding until I looked up GR reviews and said this is Rey/Kylo (Star Wars) fanfiction originally.

And THEN the story finally made sense. The protagonist is Rey, and the "somehow cute" murdering bad boy is Kylo. There are ships but technically they're in the water but will continue to be described as if they're flying through the sky....there's the Force but it's called something else.

I've read other Reylo books before and they have better writing than this. I wish the author and editors worked together to make sure the story really disconnected itself from Star Wars entirely. This book is just a dark romance with minimal fantasy in the background.

Buddy read with Zana

I would like to preface that Zana and I read things other than colonizer romances, even if it doesn't seem that way. Is this a new genre? Colonizer romantasies?

I would also like to preface that had I known this was a converted Reylo fanfic, I would not have requested it. When I read The Love Hypothesis and realized how familiar it felt, I remembered that the fanfic was better. I wonder if that is also the case here.

The beginning was slow. I was ready to two-star this like I did with every other YA romantasy I read this year. Side note, please stop calling romantasy fantasy. It is, at best, fantasy lite. Very very lite.

I also wasn't really sure where Thea's Filipinx heritage was going to come into play, because the story felt very white, as so much fantasy is. And what would I have preferred, a "normal" romance, or colonization?

This review is sounding very negative. I promise, it's not. Things eventually pick up. I think Zana ended up enjoying it more than me, but there are parts I liked. Tall man and small woman aside, the story really begins to come into its own once we let go of Talasyn's pretentiousness. Alaric is always going to be an asshole, but we're into that, aren't we? Well, I am. I need help, but do you?

For those that read enemies-to-lovers and dabble in YA/NA romantasy, this will be an easy read for you. You will eat this shit up and then ask for more. However, I have problems with the genre as a whole, and often look for things to nitpick. Some of the flowery descriptions could use some editing. And by editing, I mean deletion. "It made her think of rough silk and honey mead in an oaken barrel." Silk? Mead? At the same time? Separately? What does this mean?

This book converted me somewhere around the marriage of convenience trope. I am trash for that. I am trash for many things. I would've given an extra star for more smut, so can we add there? Please? Reylo fanfic is unhinged. Give me some A/B/O. Give me anything. That glorified handjob is not it.

More funnies. "Something had seized within his chest." I think that's a heart attack, bb. Also all of the euphemisms. Less euphemisms. More sex. If this turns into a closed door series, I'm out. That last 5% got a little hot and heavy, but not as hot and heavy as I would like. So, more of that, if anyone is listening.

If you're still here, thanks for listening to this rant.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This is going to be huge when it's out, it was so so good!! I really enjoyed this and cannot wait for the sequel because that cliffhanger is going to haunt me!!!!!!!

This one has me torn. There were some things I liked and some things I didn’t like. The writing itself is pretty well done for a debut (a trend I’ve been noticing a lot lately in fantasy and I’m HERE for it). I liked the small blend of sci-fi (I was not expecting this). I also enjoyed the dual POV — I feel like it’s not often that I get to read an enemies-to-lovers that has both (or all) love interests POV’s. It also had some of my favorite tropes:
* lost heir
* enemies to lovers
* warrior FMC
* one bed trope
Here’s where I’m torn: the plot is really giving nothing new (I know it’s fanfiction-ish or based so I’m not being too harsh on this point). You’re literally thrown into this book —and I do like that in a book, but only if it’s pulled off well, and I think this struggled a little bit with that. There were so many different things and different time jumps and different places all over the world all within the first 10ish chapters (roughly) that it gave me whiplash. And lastly, I’m still confused on the magic system. Maybe it was explained well and I’m just missing it, but I need a deep dive into this system because I don’t understand the rules it complies to or where it’s from or how it’s sourced. And the Aether realm??? What the hell is even that?? Nexus points?? Where do they come from??
All in all, 3.5 rounded to 4. I WILL read book two, I think this series could go places. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Hello! If you loved Fourth Wing, better listen up! With all the elements of easy to read fantasy and tension you could cut with a knife, the Hurricane Wars is perfect for anyone looking to get further into fantasy. I cannot emphasize enough how lovable this book is, and I can't wait for everyone to enjoy it as much as I did.

I am completely in awe of this book, and it absolutely deserves the hype it has been getting!

The formula for this was really unique and different. It begins with a brutal, violent war, and a frightening altercation with the man who later becomes our MMC. Its interesting to have a story start this way, as I am used to having spent time with a lot of the characters and get attached to them before the action breaks out, and at first I wasn't sure how I felt about this happening in reverse. I was worried it would take some of the intensity out of the story if I didn't know these characters prior to them experiencing this level of tragedy, HOWEVER, I am happy to report that this formula actually made perfect sense and served the story incredibly well in the long term.

This enemies-to-lovers story is TRULY rooted in a lot of hurt, hatred, violence, and years upon years of warfare separating the two. The conflict in the beginning makes this so much more sinister as the two continue to encounter each other later. The tension was thick, the banter was delightful, and the whiplash the characters felt over their own attraction to one another felt visceral and intuitive. It was truly unique and impressive, and left me feeling unsure what was going to happen next at every turn.

Also, this WORLD! It is so full and immersive, with beautiful imagery and the most natural world building. The magic is completely enchanting and different, and I felt like I could imagine it in full in my head. The political intrigue is thick as well, and its genuinely quite difficult to decide who you trust or believe.

You may have heard that this story began as a Reylo fan-fic, and maybe this has enticed you even more! Or maybe you're not sure that this is your thing. But, if you like a genuine and well-handled enemies to lovers story? A Southeast-Asia inspired fantasy with rich world building and unique magic? A conflict that keeps your heart pounding and leaves you questioning everything you know? If you like any of these things, this IS your thing (I promise!) It does keep the spirit of some of what we know from Reylo, but there is so much that is brand new and creative and stunningly unique. I just loved this, and I think the hype it has received is completely well-deserved!

Thank you so much to Avon & Harper Voyager & NetGalley for this eArc! I will be watching like a hawk for news of book two!

Growing up as an orphan in a war-torn country, Talasyn became a soldier at fourteen, fighting along with her countrymen against the evil Night Emperor and his deadly forces. Talasyn has a special nascent magical power that involves using an intense light to form weapons and potentially, wipe out enemies. The Night Emperor had previously all but eradicated her kind. Her country’s forces are losing at a devastating pace so when Talasyn sees an opportunity to eventually turn the tide, she must take it while going against her whole nature.

The emperor’s son, Prince Alaric, has been essentially brain-washed by his father to despise and distrust Lightweavers such as Talasyn. When they encounter one another on the battle field, each is intrigued but they still consider themselves deadly enemies. Alaric’s family Shadow powers are made from darkness, the Shadowgate, but instead of being only opposing, somehow the light and dark can be complimentary.

Forced into an uneasy union by the Emperor and Talaysn’s recently found family in yet another country, she and Alaric must learn to work together before there is little left of their world from the destructive forces of reigniting a never-ending war as well as a natural disaster in the offing.

Talasyn and Alaric spend most of their time verbally, and at times physically, assaulting one another once they are in forced proximity. Talasyn is very young, only twenty, while Alaric is seven years older. Her lack of maturity, big learning curve as a being part of a new society, and his being dominated by his father even after Alaric is named Emperor, keeps them in constant turmoil.

Since this story is essentially a Star Wars, Kylo-Ren fanfic, many elements will seem familiar. Naturally there is quite a bit of world building for this epic style fantasy story. While some of elements are enjoyable, and I understand the pattern is somewhat laid out by the homage, Talaysn and Alaric’s constant strife riddled relationship is difficult to take at times. Some parts are repetitive and unnecessarily lengthy bogging down the story. Readers who enjoy this story will look forward to the next installment which is sure to be an intense ride.