AN EXCELLENT STORY!!! It’s a slow burn, but done in the most perfect way, with pay off! The author did a great job with the world crafting, characters, and a very interesting magic system! Cant wait for book 2!

A really solid debut novel, but it felt more YA than adult fantasy to me. I know this was a former Star Wars Reylo fanfic and sometimes that took me out of the world. I enjoyed this and can't wait for book 2 later this year!

It is a struggle to kindly express the issues that I had with this book. The main characters were flat, with the only real depth coming from them being if you were picturing Kylo Ren and Rey as the characters. The plot drags on way too long and sometimes entire paragraphs is just one giant sentence describing things. Also, it feels like this author didn't visualize the physicality of things. The main character is only a inch taller than her enemy love interest when he is sitting down, but she is capable of knocking him back with a head butt when he is standing? It just could have used alot more time spent editing the content.

This diverse read pulled me in with writing that encouraged me to reread sentences that captured my imagination. I loved the characters and soon became invested in them. Told in a 2 POV, the novel paints a picture of a magical world in which Talasyn and Prince Alaric are drawn together much against their will. The romance between them is written skillfully, as are the emotions and experiences of each.

Torn on this book. I had trouble reading it at first as I knew going in this was supposedly a fanfiction originally.

I’m a huge Thea fan from her fanfiction days and I’m so happy to see her embrace her original content and building on it for traditional publishing for a bigger audience. I’m not a huge romantasy fan but Talasyn and Alaric did satisfy my enemies to lovers thirst

🌶️- yes

This was so Darcy & Elizabeth coded - there were hand clenches - I lost my mind giggling.

We start the book in the beginning of the end. Dropped into battlefields of desolation and grief, thinking we know one thing but really there’s so much more to the story that we hadn’t gotten yet. Honestly, who am I even on at this point I don’t know.

Our two main characters start on opposite sides and then are forced to collide on a single goal while still trying to get the upper hand with each other AND fighting undeniable attraction.

The magic system was so cool. It was so interesting to see realm magic in use. I’m VERY excited to see it play out more as there’s so much to explore.

It’s a lush world with a giggle worthy romance but it’s a gentle pace through out.

- Light vs dark
- Arrangement marriage
- Secret identities
- Dragons
- Political interest
- Dual pov

This was a delightful read as a 🐀

I tabbed for:

- world building
- Magic
- Foreshadowing
- Romance
- Things I love
- Gods
- Objects
- Questions and theories

Hv sent this finished copy to me as an arc because I begged for it shamelessly - but all thoughts and feelings are my own they didn’t ask for anything in return. And hi 👋 if you have a spare Monsoon Rising kicking around… I would be ETERNALLY GRATEFUL because I’m DYING over here for more.

I went in knowing this was fanfiction. When you are reading The Hurricane Wars, you can feel the 'fanfic-ness' of it all. I did not like the writing style or the chaos the intro starts with.

I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley.
I have been waiting for this book since it was announced and the enemies to lovers was so good and I loved the magic and the blend of futuristic and fantastical elements.
However, there were some points where the prose rambled on for a little too long and I found myself skimming passages. Also, since we have both Talasyn and Alaric’s POV it makes Talasyn a little less sympathetic in her actions towards Alaric since we know Alaric’s thoughts concerning the matter.
I still loved it, and am eagerly awaiting book 2!

THW is my kind of adult fantasy. We've got two extremely touch-starved sexy people on opposite sides of a war, who "reluctantly" enter an ✨arranged marriage✨ to (i) smooth over some political business and (ii) basically save the world from an impending natural disaster. Throw in some opposing light/dark magic and our two main characters incapable of not being at each others throats (in more ways than one 😏) and I am standing at attention 🫡 .

Arranged marriage trope will always get me, and I am not ashamed to admit that. While it does take a little bit for things to pick up, once things start progressing between Alaric and Talasyn I struggle to stop reading and must keep devouring so that I can continue to squeal and kick my feet as I watch this tumultuous alliance turn into everything I could want and more.

I do feel it's my duty to add the disclaimer that I came into reading this book as someone who has read the original story this was inspired by an ungodly amount of times, and could recite the whole thing verbatim if I needed to. It is a god-tier comfort read for me. And I adore Thea. As such, it's fair to acknowledge that I am most definitely coming into this with a personal bias, and with some a priori knowledge that helps me have a better grasp on the world that Thea has set-up. But that doesn't make me any less hooked to know where this new story is going and see how these characters stories continue to be fleshed out.

If I thought about it long enough it's probably between 4-5 stars from me, and to be fair I will list a few of my minuscule gripes.
- Multiple relatively large time jumps where (arguably) a lot of individual character/plot development likely occurred, which I'm generally never a fan of.
- Felt lacking on the background of the Night Empire... which although their Emperor is half of the story, I feel like we only scratched the surface of what is going on in there. But, to be fair, this is the first of a trilogy so I am fine working under the expectation that we'll get more in future instalments.
- I am torn as to whether this would've benefited from the first book being more focused on Talasyn and Alaric's individual stories pre-meeting (in line with those previous two points). While I am a simple person, who just wants my two hot baddies to be at each others throats, I also think it would've help give the characters personal journeys more substance and really propped them up for their behaviour we see when interacting with one another. Particularly for Alaric, while I love my hard-exterior-grown-man-boy, I also think there are times that his actions/thoughts don't align with what you would expect based on his upbringing for the past 26ish years.
- Last one, towards the end we get a lot of the "he/she could never feel the same way I do about them/it's all a ruse" line of thinking for both of them... which is one of my least favourite devices in many "enemies to lovers" romances

ANYWAYS, I love this book and will sing its praises as well as gremlin Talasyn and her Night Daddy Alaric with his gauntlets (which must stay on) from the rooftops for as long as I live.

I appreciate the worldbuilding Guanzon did. Sometimes I feel like romantasies put worldbuilding on the backburner but this was not the case. I had a clear sense the world and the politics at play which made me appreciate this story so much more. THE HURRICANE WARS is very, very ReyLo. So if that's your vibe, you're going to love this but I can see why others may not.

I know a lot of people love this one, but it just wasn't for me. It was very much a Reylo fanfic, but moved a bit slower for my liking.

This was marketed as an enemies to lovers romance in a Filipino inspired fantasy world, which is absolutely correct. But I think it's also important to note that this started as a Reylo fanfiction because that is so much of this story, and to be honest if I had known, I wouldn't have requested it.

Talasyn and Alaric are on opposite sides of a war and end up in an arranged marriage after years of meeting on the battlefield. There is obvious dislike with a slow realization of attraction and various political machinations that prevent them from being together. It's well written but I wish Guanzon had been able to develop this a bit more beyond it's Reylo origins. The world could be really interesting, but we don't get to see enough of it for me to care, and I couldn't read the descriptions of Talasyn or Alaric without picturing Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver and it really took me out of the story. Between that and some of the snarky dialogue, the longer the book went on the more grating I found the relationship.

I think it could be a really interesting series, but unless the sequel gets rave reviews I will be giving it a pass. I could be interested in Guanzon's next series though!

It really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY needs to marketed as a Reylo fanfic. I didn't know that until I was way too far into it and I can't say that I love it. It doesn't make the book make any more sense, and it didn't help me connect any of the dots.

I really loved reading this book! I thought it was engaging and definitely an ode to Star Wars!

I mean the Rey and Kylo fan fiction was hard at work here and I loved it.

It combined ships, dragons, unique magic, light and dark powers, and more. Which I thought was fantastic!

I’m dying for book two and may I add that I think having the audiobook is SO HELPFUL because I was struggling with pronunciations until grabbing the audiobook!

Absolutely staggered by Thea Guanzon's storytelling, it's intense, immersive and impossible to put down. I've said this before but it's unlike any other Light vs Dark fantasy out there and the worldbuilding is vast without being overwhelming. The Hurricane Wars is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and R.F. Kuang but I'll take it a step further say that if you're still hungover from Fourth Wing, then this is the cure for it. It's an epic enemies-to-lovers Romantasy with an intense chemistry between the main characters that will keep you turning the pages until you've devoured the whole book (and yes, there are dragons!).

The Hurricane Wars is a Southeast Asian inspired enemies-to-reluctant allies-to-lovers (like for real enemies cause they're on the opposite sides of a war) Romantic Fantasy series starter that's rich in lore, politics, worldbuilding, culture, tension, magic and steam. I dare you not to fall in love with Talasyn (our scrappy survivor of a heroine), Alaric (the softest, most down bad manwife) and their turbulent journeys with a banger of an ending that left me sobbing and staring at the ceiling for days.

This book started off slow for me but it did pick up as it went on. I really enjoyed the world building and the descriptions of the world. I cannot wait for more!

I DNF'd this book at 40%. This book has 0 world building. I was 11% of the way in the book and had no idea what was going on because none of the terms were explained. I started kind of figuring out things for myself but I was really just grasping at straws and making up what I thought was right. The story line has a lot of potential, but the writing, in my opinion, was not good. It felt like the story was jumping around and there was no transition from one part to another. The fact that the book even have parts that are like "4 months later" did not set well with me. Like what the heck were the characters doing during that time. I just could not finish this. I did not review this on any other platform because I do not post dnfs has reviews.

The Hurricane Wars was neither here nor there. I enjoyed it, but I didn't particularly love it. There were more parts that bored me than engaged me.

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.