Dnf’d at 44% in

I feel like was just waiting for more than meh world building. Once the romance started up I was still just kind of glazed over from the world building.

This suffers I think because it didn’t have enough laying out the world and relied on you knowing it was fic. I think if we had trimmed up the opening to get to the romance faster it would have been great.

I enjoyed this book, but didn’t connect with the romance as much as I wanted to. I will DEFINITELY be reading book 2. My book club overall loved this book. The story is unique and I loved the cultural influences. I love how swoony Alaric is, and how intelligent Talasyn is. This is definitely a book I’ll recommend to my followers!

This….was definitely interesting. Again, another issue I have with these romantasies, even though I love them is that I would really appreciate a bit more on the world building side but also I felt that the romance was just compelling either.

This world is SO ELABORATE! It’s so expansive and beautiful and I felt very immersed in it. It felt a little slow to me at first with trying to learn the terminology and everything but it does pick up thankfully. The enemies to lovers/slow burn is so well done and enjoyed watching Alaric and Talasyn’s relationship unfold. I’m very excited to read the sequel! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As someone who has been following and reading Thea’s work online for years this release was a major treat! I am so thrilled for the whole world to fall in love with Thea’s writing like I have. This book like everything else she has written was phenomenal. I’m crying just thinking about it.

Initial reviews had me moving The Hurricane Wars down my TBR, but now that I’ve finished it, I’m kicking myself for not starting it sooner. The plot drew me right in and wouldn’t let go. I am OBSESSED with Talasyn and Alaric and the chemistry between them. I had completely forgotten that this story originated as Reylo fanfiction, but would have picked up on it even if I had gone in blind. This book perfectly encapsulated those vibes and the characters were portrayed with such vivid imagery, it was almost as if I was walking among them. This was one of the easiest 5⭐️ ratings that I’ve given all year and I can’t express how excited I am for the sequel and another jaunt into Nenavar. The only thing that could have made this story any better was a bit more of a climactic ending. I definitely don’t hate the current one, but a cliffhanger to leave me breathless definitely would have set it apart.

This is going to be one of the biggest fantasy books of 2023 and I can’t wait for everyone else to read this. If you are a longtime fantasy reader you’re going to love the exquisite plot line and lovable characters that bring the story forward.

This was one of the most hyped books of 2023 but sadly I didn't love it as much as the others did perhaps because I went in with a lot of expectations. I was expecting an Asian inspired fantasy because of the marketing but this one was mainly a Reylo fanfic of sorts(not that they're bad lmao, I've loved many of them 😂) with a magic system and world building that resembled a western fantasy. It does have an enemies to lovers vibe but I never really got the feeling that they hated each other? Alaric's family and armies have killed so many of Talasyn's friends but I never felt like she hated him🤷🏻‍♀️ They kept going back and forth for no reason and then we have an arranged marriage plot thrown in. I thought we'd get some political intrigue but there wasn't much of that, just Talasyn bickering with Alaric despite knowing that her newfound family could be in danger. We don't get to see Talasyn fully utilize her powers or develop them either. So it just felt like wasted potential. Honestly this could have been so much more better but a mix of things kept me from loving this one completely. But others might enjoy this romantasy story!

This is a book where I think the story bit off a little more than it could chew. As a debut novel, I suppose it's not too terrible. It's definitely a start. But I think it's simply a matter of the synopsis confidently promising more that it could realistically provide.

I do like the concept. It's not exactly unique, but it is entertaining enough. I think the lack of cohesion between Parts I and II really do a disservice to the story. I found Part II more interesting and more developed in comparison, but I think Part I really could have set up a completely different (and more engaging) story if it had been utilized more effectively.

And while I never disliked the characters, there also wasn't really anything compelling me to like them either. They do get some more complex characterization as the novel progresses, which helped me get more into their story, but some readers may say it comes a bit too late.

But all in all, even with some hiccups, I am walking away from this with a general positive feeling. And although I don't think I will continue the series, I don't regret picking this up.

First of all, the cover is gorgeous. I saw this was originally a fanfiction and then made into a traditionally published book. The magic system and the world Thea Guanzon creates is a unique experience. The pacing of the book could have been a bit better. Some parts of the book were very interesting and other parts were very slow. I did not love the romance at first but did eventually really enjoy it. This is supposed to be an enemies-to-lovers trope but the relationship quickly went to lovers. I felt there was a bit of a lack of chemistry. I would continue the series, Thank you to netgalley for an arc.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC! I am very grateful and happy to explore everything this author will write in the future as well!

4,5 stars rounded up

I started this book once before it came out and ended up putting it down as I was having a bad mental health time and wasn't in the reading mood. A few months passed and I finally came back to revisit this one and was very glad to confirm that my lack of initial interest was because of my head space and not because of the book because I loved this one! I think it had some bumps starting out, and thus the 4.5 star rating. Initially I found it needlessly repetitive in a way that felt I was being written down to in regards to being reminded of Talasyn's background. But eventually that habit of the author did die off and I really got into it and devoured the last 2/3 of this book! I loved the plot equally as much as I was invested in Talasyn and Alaric's relationship.

Something I've found in general that applied to this one as well is that I tend to really like books that started as fanfiction. I am a big fanfiction reader and grew up reading it a lot and whatever the "fanfiction style" writing is just works so well for me and thus translates well into fics that get published traditionally and I have a pretty high success rate with those.

I've been sitting on this arc for so many months now and this book is just not for me. I'm happy to see its popularity grow over the months, but I've now accepted that this writing and storytelling is too dense for me to comprehend. I've decided to DNF this at 15% at my 6th attempt to read this book, even going so far as to downloading the audiobook and having someone else read it to me to try to get through it, Here are my issues with the book:

The writing is very info dumping heavy, with few dialogue in between. Because the main character doesn't converse with many people in the first few chapters, the first 10% or so is her dictating the war and the history behind it. I personally did not find this to be compelling because for every reason an action happens, there is a flashback to explain this. For what should be a fast paced book, this was incredibly dragging to read.

Our main character is the chosen one of something or other, but for how valuable her skills are, she is undertrained to protect herself, and we get a quick montage of her two weeks of training that took her from being barely able to defend herself from the antagonist/love interest (I presume, based on how often she thinks about his eyes randomly), to matching with him even after marching through the jungle for 5 hours. I like character development, but not in this style. Nothing about the character drives me to want to root for her, and where I ended my journey with this book, I'm not sure why I should be. The enemy realm sounds more fun.

Although this writing style is not for me, I'm sure this suits better for those who enjoy more world-building and heavy information in their books.

This book was unfortunately a huge disappointment. My biggest issue is that it felt like two entirely different books that did not work well together. The first part during the war felt like we were dropped into the middle of it, which actually wasn't so bad because it made me hooked and wondering what happened for them to get there, but I do not feel like it transitioned well to the second part. The second part was both much slower but also did not dive as much as I wanted into the parts that I found interesting. I found the writing awkward and the romance uninteresting. I know this is a Reylo fic - I suspect that those might just not be for me. Overall, I think there are a lot of better romantasy books on the market.

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not sure where to start with this one- it was a pretty rough read for me. I break this down more on my YouTube video, so feel free to check out what I liked and didn't like about this book.

The Hurricane Wars was a highly anticipated release for me. I love a good enemies to lovers, slow burn, political stakes, and sci-fi fantasy settings. So this book sounded like my jam! Unfortunately, the book is poorly paced, badly written, and confusing. The sequence of events don't make sense and the romance is poorly done. Still, I pushed through, hoping it would get better.

The first 25% of the book is so bad. The writing is poorly executed and the world building left me confused. Is this world dangerous or is it not? Because our MC, Talasyn makes a “treacherous journey” to a heavily guarded land and back so easily, even though the characters keep saying she would die on this trip? But still sent her? Alone???

We don't connect with any side character, even though they are so interesting. The ‘revelations’ we learn fall so flat because of the bad pacing and lack of emotional connection to the characters. Don’t even get me started on the romance!

Alaric is suppose to be this insane warrior. He is cunning, incredible, and cruel. The Night Emperor is portrayed as ruthless. But the author gives us half a scene of fighting, and he somehow magically doesn’t want to kill her. He is ‘curious’ but we don’t really see that or experience his switch authentically. Out of nowhere, he just loves her already and she’s also curious. So the ‘enemies’ part in ‘enemies to lovers’ doesn’t really happen. This is a bummer because ...if you’re going to portray the rival as RUTHLESS, I expect more.

Finally, around 50%, their romance makes more sense. It’s more complex, real, and sweet. I felt more intrigued and charmed, but that’s a lot of commitment to ask of your reader before delivering. Still, the book’s world and politics are so juvenile. It feels like a poorly written fanfiction, and the characters react childishly (I mean ALL of them have bad dialogue).

At 60%, we get more character development and depth, but again, that might be a big ask for little reward.

After the 60% mark, we have so many ups and downs. Characters feel two-dimensional, with occasional great scenes. The romance is still sweet, but interrupted by super odd scenes. Is the world in trouble or not? Is the Emperor truly ruthless? Because he’s so okay with the arrange marriage and casually planning a wedding. We also get 6 chapters on just the wedding. Super strange.

Everything just feels strangely catered to ship Alaric and Talasyn together. The book would’ve been fine if it picked a lane- either you want to be a complex, multi dimensional high fantasy, or you want to focus on the romance and not attempt insane political stakes and more.

This book just doesn't make senes to me. I would’ve loved this ship if the circumstances made more sense. They legit go from WAR and KILLING each other, to sitting at a table, discussing marriage so casually, and training together. HOW??? We really don't journey with the MCs in a way that makes sense to me as a reader.

So disappointing, because I think the author writes beautiful scenes between Alaric and Tayalsyn. I wish we had circumstances that made more sense to place them together.

I started enjoying this far more once I realized I had read the original fanfic and it felt like a reread instead of a rip-off. The first third of the book was a little bit of a slog and though there was lots of worldbuilding I still had lots of questions about how the magic system works. Overall, I had fun but I just found myself wanting a bit more throughout the whole book: more thorough worldbuilding and more character development. The descriptions of the food were a high point!

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I will be honest, this book took me awhile to get through and I love Star Wars. I think it was a little hard to get through because it wasn’t as easy to absorb as Star Wars is, understandable because it’s not a movie. But the pace in the beginning just is so slow that it’s hard to get invested. However getting past the 30% mark and it gets tremendously better, and keeps getting better. So if you can/want to keep trying!

I was intrigued by all the people raving about this book, then was hesitant when I learned it was Reylo fiction. I’m glad many people have loved this book and I look forward to what Thea will write in the future, but I think this one is just not for me after all.

Okay, no lie, I really didn't see the Reylo perspective. I went into this KNOWING it was Reylo fanfic and I was ready for Love Hypothesis levels of "she was tiny and he was big and she was good and he was evil" and I didn't get that. I was highly recommended this book by a coworker so I did read it for him, and I did truly enjoy it. But I will say, it's the kind of book you should sit down and read as much of as possible. Taking breaks while reading it didn't help me stay interested, it made me confused.

The worldbuilding was lovely. The characters were typical, but entertaining. I greatly enjoyed our MMC's descent into frustrated love with the FMC. The magic system was fun. The spice was fine, nothing spectacular, but I think it served the plot well. And the dialogue was surprisingly good. Is this the best fantasy I've ever read? No. Was it fun and fast? Relatively. Will I read the sequel? Yes, or my coworker will kill me. 4/5 stars.

The Hurricane Wars has a lot of mixed reviews, but this was an easy five star read for me. As a reader who loves fantasy, I can really appreciate world building and magic systems. This had both. I loved that the author took time to tell us about the history of the world and its magic. While I still don't completely understand the magic system or the ships, that didn't make me enjoy this book any less.

Tasalyn is a feisty character. She was an orphan taken in and has been experiencing war for as long as she can remember. Her magic could get her killed, but it can also save something happening to their world as well. She grows a lot in this story. At first she's fighting for what she knows, but the more that is revealed Tasalyn starts thinking and fighting for herself. I really appreciated that.

Alaric has been controlled by his father his whole life, but in little things starts defying him and seeing things in different ways. While he knows things have happened in the world, I think his involvement with Tasalyn and her people make him start realizing things might not be as black and white as he thinks.

Tasalyn and Alaric are basically forced into an arranged marriage. This is definitely an enemies to lovers situation, but their magic definitely thinks they're compatible. I appreciated this not being instalove. They slowly start appreciating the other in different ways, but this is a definite slow burn. There were also quite a few times that I wanted to scream at them to just sit down and talk, haha. I can't wait to see how their relationship develops.

The Hurricane Wars is also filled with politics, secrets, and betrayal. There are some characters I don't trust and I can't wait to see if some of my theories are correct. I'll be counting down the days for the next book.

My full review will also be published on https://thebookdutchesses.com on February 17th.