Well, I went into this book not knowing much about it. I had seen that it was a very anticipated read from a lot of bookstagram accounts that I follow. So after reading the synopsis I thought I would give it a try.
I will say that I enjoyed how the book started in the very beginning, it seemed like Guanzon had some good world building that I was excited to see fleshed out. And two main characters that literally tried to kill one another, I was in. However that changed as the book progressed. We lost the world building and gained familiar tropes such as enemies to lovers and the long lost heir. But those just left me wanting, it felt like the story itself was trying to check those boxes so what I personally felt like could have been more nuanced felt rushed and lacking. The story wasn’t bad, but it was not as good as I thought it could have been and therefore, not a story that I can see myself coming back to re read later on.
I found out later on that this was originally a Reylo fanfic and I’m glad that I didn’t know that from the beginning because I feel like I would have been a bit more disappointed, because the tension from Rey and Kylo was missed in the book. However, Guanzon does a great job in making the two main characters Alaric, and Talyson their own character and not Rey and Ben with alternate names. I would still recommend others give this a try because maybe this was the mood I was in.
Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy

This has a Star Wars vibe for me. . I felt like the beginning was jam packed and then it slowed down too much. I would have liked a more consistent pacing. I also felt this was more YA than adult. I am rating it for a YA book since it seemed more juvenile. I really enjoyed the characters and the narrator.

Wow - This book blew me away! So well written; the world-building was incredible. I went back and forth between the audiobook and the ebook, and I appreciated listening to the characters' names and locations and then reading them. I cannot wait to see what else Thea Guanzon writes next in this series. What a superb first novel!

Oh boy, this isn't even pretending not to be Reylo fanfic. I was excited cause I've heard a lot of hype about this one, but it very much missed the mark for me.

The Hurricane Wars is a difficult book to review because folks will either like it or hate it depending on what they come in expecting. Going in, I knew this was a highly anticipated release by those who originally read Thea Guanzon's work online as a Reylo Fan Fic. Fans were so numerous this picked up by a traditional publisher and here we have it. What I didn't expect was how closely the story would mirror the Star Wars universe (but add water and different names for the force) and how silly some of that would feel. For example, the MMC's father is literally called "The Emperor." The MMC's magic is "Dark" whereas the FMC's is "Light" etc. If you are interested in a complex world with a high fantasy epic feel with maybe a little romance thrown in, this is likely not the book for you.

My biggest difficulty with the story is that the first 100 pages or so tries to give us that epic world building anyway. Here we are introduced to multiple characters, overloaded with technical terminology, info dumped on years of war history only to see one side ultimately fall, all to frame why the two characters hate each other so very very much, Sadly, it is poorly done.

However, turn to Part 2 of the book and you get a much different story- the one I believe most of the fans of this book were here for the whole time. Enemies must now work together, in forced proximity, amidst sexual tension, deflecting with delicious banter, into the slowest burn ever!!! It's well done and certainly entertaining. It just takes about 30% of the book to get there. If you want enemies to lovers on the level of "I hate you and I would betray everything I hold dear to admit otherwise" you will likely be quite happy with what The Hurricane Wars offers. By the end I I certainly was!

Many thanks to Harper audio and Net Galley for early access to the audio of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

The Hurrican Wars by Thea Guanzon - Audiobook version

I know that many will love this book, but I will not be one of the many. Its such a bummer because I was really looking forward to reading it!

The pacing felt off from the beginning which made it very hard for me to connect with the story. I am a vibe reader and if I don't care about the characters its ruins the read for me. I just couldn't connect with them, they felt very mundane to me. I know it's a Star Wars fanfic, but it's marketed as Fantasy... I think this was part of my issue. I'm not a huge Sci-Fi reader and this felt very muddled. I disconnected from that part of the book.

Overall, I can't say I'm a fan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an ARC of The Hurricane Wars

I wanna preface this by saying this was one of my most anticipated reads of this year. However, it did not deliver for me. Though I can acknowledge that I'm in the minority and it seems like most early reviews are positive. So I'm glad others are enjoying it at least.

Reading this gave me the same anxiety of walking into an upper level history course halfway into term and the teacher expecting you to know everything for a pop quiz. I literally had no idea what was going on. There is zero back end effort on the world building and lore. The only reason I knew what was going with the two leads is because it's a Reylo fanfiction. There are dragons in this book, but they have absolutely no bearing on the story. You could replace them with 100ft Teletubbies and I don't think it would change anything.

Likely with more editing, thorough would building, and better character development this could have been a knockout.

Having read the original version of this multiple times, I can say for absolute certain that THW, which combines Thea's incredible gift for storytelling along with her almost overwhelmingly vivid worldbuilding and characterization, is going to slap so hard it'll spin you around five or six times AT LEAST.

Knowing this originated as Star Wars fanfiction actually helped add some context around the book's pacing and worldbuilding.

Jeanne Syquia's voice seemed somewhat nasally and wasn't the best I've heard. Her "voices" felt a bit cartoonish.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the ARC.

Wow, this was a wild ride. I absolutely LOVED The Hurricane Wars and cannot wait for everyone to read this. The Hurricane Wars is a beautifully written Southeast Asian-inspired fantasy with conflicting enemies to lovers romance.

I loved the opposing magical elements, the world-building, and the character development. After the surprising but not surprising ending, I’m now anxiously waiting to get my hands on book two.