Hi friends! I hope you had a wonderful festive break, and that you are ready to live your best life in 2024. I’m starting this year with a throwback review for one of my (spoiler) worst books of 2023 – The Hurricane Wars. Getting the bad out to make way for the good lol. Enjoy!
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Quick Synopsis
An exquisite fantasy brimming with unforgettable characters, sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance, and richly drawn worlds, The Hurricane Wars marks the breathtaking debut of an extraordinary new writer.
Perfect for readers who want:
- Enemies to lovers
- Reylo-inspired fantasy romance
About The Hurricane Wars
Title: The Hurricane Wars
Author: Thea Guanzon
Rating: 2 Stars
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Content Warnings: Parental death (off-page), war, abandonment, colonization
Pages: 472
Age Range: 17+
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Date Published: 3 October 2023
Goodreads Description: All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows.
Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That is until he sees Talasyn burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen.
Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasy alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion–one that could save their world…or destroy it.
I received a review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
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The Hurricane Wars Review
I don’t even know where to start this review. I am a Reylo stan, and ever since I heard about The Hurricane Wars, I have anxiously been anticipating it.
It sounded like such a cool concept, but it was just that – a cool concept. The execution leaves SO much to be desired.
Let’s start with the good. I don’t think Guanzon is a bad writer. Some scenes really gripped me, and I truly enjoyed some of the writing. However, most of the prose is way too descriptive, and the overall structure of the story needs some work.
I want Reylo in space
My biggest gripe with this book is I think the Reylo elements were too stripped down. Essentially she had to take sci-fi characters and mold them into fantasy characters. Reylo is so much more than just large dude and tiny girl (in fact I don’t think their respective body sizes have anything to do with why the ship dynamic works). It’s also so much more than grumpy dude, sunshine girl, because at their core that’s not who Rey and Kylo Ren are.
And because this was a Reylo fanfic adapted for a broader audience, we have to look at the aspects of Reylo. The key thing missing for me was that pull between them, how there is light in darkness and darkness in light. Sure they have their shadow and light magic pulling them together, but it doesn’t play nearly as big a role as the Force does. There was just something missing between Talasyn and Alaric, and I really could not see the echoes of Reylo in them.
Fantasy World or Florida? Who knows?
My other gripe was the worldbuilding. I’m not afraid of complicated worldbuilding, and I get some aspects of this book, but honestly it was just all over the place. It made very little sense, and not enough worldbuilding was done in my opinion. This book might have been better if it were actually set in space. Why does no one do Reylo in space? Where they actually belong?
The plot and pacing was all over the place. For a large chunk of the book nothing happens, and when something does happen, it gets glossed over. Most of the actual Hurricane Wars happens in the first third of the book, and nothing that I read made me actually care about the rebels.
I see a bad redemption arc in your future…
I’m all for redemption arcs (Zutara being one of my favourite ships), but this one feels too far-fetched. Yes, it’s an enemies-to-lovers story, but Alaric was an active participant in the war. He razed an entire village to the ground while Talasyn was in it. He is the colonizer, STILL by the end of the book operating under the delusion that they “had to” colonize the other lands or they would have been killed. And that he can make things better now that he is Emperor. Sir? Please. This enemies to lovers might stretch too far. Obviously, he’ll change his mind in the coming books, but like Talasyn said: “Your empire will always be built on blood”.
I don’t realistically buy a romance like that, and it gave me the ick.
This book gets two stars for making me read “my wet little wife” with my own two eyeballs. I’m not usually one to comment on the sex scenes, since I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, but this was not it. It made me deeply uncomfortable and after slogging through this book, I was disappointed.
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