- The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
- Book One of a series
- Published on October 3rd, 2023 by Harper Voyager
- Genres: Fiction, Adult, Fantasy, Romance
- Tropes: Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Lovers, Really Royalty Reveal
- Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️
- Anne’s Rating: 9.7 out of 10
I have loved Thea’s writing for years – starting back during her AO3 days. I have always been impressed with her storytelling ability, her world building, and her attention to detail writing in worlds that already existed. With The Hurricane Wars she gets to show how incredible she is at creating a new universe of her own, steeped in fantasy and conflict. It’s probably weird for me to feel so proud of someone that I’ve not spoken to much, but I am SO proud of Guanzon. This is her debut novel (the first in a trilogy!!!) and she already has people creating fan art and cosplaying as Talasyn and Alaric. And it’s no surprise, as the two leads of this series are easy to love. No one is more deserving of the recognition of becoming a popular published author.
The Hurricane Wars takes place in a richly-described world filled with wizards (basically – they’re not actually wizards. Maybe more like element benders?) who are embroiled in a war that has lasted about as long as the main characters have been alive. We enter at what seems like the end of this war – with the bad guys winning and the good guys forced into hiding. But just when you think this book is only going to be about fighting and action, the plot develops a royal twist that changes everything for our leads – Talasyn and Alaric.
Talasyn is a scrappy little ball of passion and guts – she doesn’t give up on anything and doesn’t back down from a fight. Her journey of going from a nobody to royalty is written in such a way that it feels like this trope is brand new – Guanzon brings a fresh take that packs a ton of tension and heightens the overall story. Witnessing Talasyn’s struggles (on so many different fronts) endears her to the reader – you want to see her succeed and reach her highest potential and happiness.
And Alaric. Oh my sweet dumb gaslit groomed baby boy. I will admit that I am a sucker for hot boys with long hair that never got a chance to become anything other than dark and twisted. Alaric is a villain on a path to realizing that “evil” was never who he was, but rather what he was moulded to become. You just want to jump into the story, give him a weighted blanket, smack him on the back of the head and tell him his dad is literally The Worst, and then give him a cookie. He’s awkward and he’s lost. The wheels are in motion for him to have one helluva redemption arc, and I can’t wait to see how it all happens.
Now, the spice level on this first book is fairly tame – THERE IS SPICE (trust me I don’t read books without them anymore because what’s the point) – but I think it’s just a taste of what we have to come in the rest of the trilogy. I have a feeling that this first book was exposition and world building (getting us hooked), the third book will be very emotion-heavy with betrayals (probably) and ultimate redemption, and the second book is just gonna be horny as hell. And Guanzon proves, near the end of this first book, that she knows how to write some spice. I mean, I was kicking my feet, twirling my hair, and emitting some ungodly, creature-like screeches reading it. Alaric and Talasyn are gonna be so stupid falling in love with each other and literally doin it all the time, but they’re still gonna be like “no the other person hates me” because they’re dumb dumbs. Ugh, A Monsoon Rising, GET IN MY BOOKSHELF NOW!
In summary, if you are a fan of fantasy, enemies-to-lovers, witty banter and generally flirt-bullying – read this book. I really think you’ll like it.
- SJ’s Rating: 9.8 out of 10
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