And for those of you who may not know, this story is based on a Reylo fanfic that the author ended up turning into an original story. I want to state that I have not read this fanfic, or any other Reylo fanfics, so I did not go into this with any sort of bias. The plot is never boring or obvious and all this is combined perfectly with the romance which is one of the best I've ever read in a fantasy novel! These two little idiots will make you fall in love and... wait until you read chapter 38 *sneaky eyes Thea Guanzon says: ‘As a lifelong devotee of speculative fiction, I never dreamed that I’d one day have the opportunity to share an epic fantasy of my own with the world—and combine it with my other great love, romance, to boot! When I began envisioning this trilogy, I knew that I wanted to write a story about magic, about two people finding their way to each other against all odds—and I also wanted to write a story about my homeland, about our culture and all that we have overcome and what lies ahead of us still. The beginning was slow. I was ready to two-star this like I did with every other YA romantasy I read this year. Side note, please stop calling romantasy fantasy. It is, at best, fantasy lite. I probably would not be so hard on the romance if this book was not advertised heavily as THE enemies to lovers book. I think this will please romantasy fans who are used to a certain pace and plot structure (SJM books, A Broken Blade, From Blood and Ash, etc) but is not really suitable for anyone looking for a quality fantasy story OR a well-paced 'Zutara' 'Delena' style E2l romance.

And as an Asian-American from Maritime Southeast Asia, I appreciate the little tidbits scattered throughout the story! (ex. soy "pudding", ikan, etc.) This is by no means a masterpiece, and it has a lot of said tropes, but it also feels original. If this is what we get with Reylo fanfic, please give me more of it. Talasyn and Alaric have phenomenal chemistry! Both come from difficult childhoods and both fight in the Hurrican Wars for different reasons and when their worlds collide everything starts to fall into place!

About this book

I will give extra points for even attempting to convert everything into a book, it does take skill to not only change character names (and have them make sense in the context of the world) but to also come up with new lore without making it too similar to the original. Non vedo l'ora di leggere il prossimo libro per ritornare nel fantastico mondo creato da Thea Guanzon e ritrovare i miei due amati idioti! Talasyn a lightweaver is fighting as a soldier against the Night Empire in the Hurricane Wars. Prince Alaric is uses his Shadow magic and hasn't met his equal until he fights Talasyn in the battle field. Soon these two discover that when their magic is combined they create something powerful. With a threat looming in the near distance these two must decide if they are willing to come together to defeat a threat larger than both of their forces.

HarperVoyager has shown nothing but the utmost enthusiasm and support for this process, and I am incredibly thrilled to be working with such a brilliant, passionate team. I know that my messy protagonists Alaric and Talasyn are in the best of hands. I am so excited to bring The Hurricane Wars to life with HarperVoyager and collaborate with them in making this storm unfold.’

Read The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon

Thao Le comments: ‘Thea Guanzon is a master at creating delectable tension and chemistry between her characters and I can’t wait for readers to swoon over this enemies-to-lovers starcrossed romance set against a fantastical Southeast Asian inspired world. I’m so excited to be working with her and the Harper team whose enthusiasm radiates for Thea’s imaginative and cinematic storytelling.’ The world building is impressive, especially for her first published book. It was a little overwhelming at first so I ended up getting the Kindle ebook to follow along with while listening to the audiobook. I have a hard time envisioning characters and the setting unless I know how names of characters and places are spelled, otherwise I get distracted thinking of the different possible spellings when I should be paying attention to the story haha I can consider myself truly privileged to have read this masterpiece 6 months before its release date! I immediately thank Netgalley, HarperVoyager Uk and Thea Guanzon for allowing me to read this ARC!

and i only just found out it’s a Reylo fanfic… no wonder Ali Hazelwood is publicly gagging about this book any chance she gets. Talasyn e Alaric hanno una chimica pazzesca! Entrambi vengono da un infanzia difficile e piena di traumi e entrambi combattono nelle Hurrican Wars per ragioni differenti e quando i loro mondi entrano in contrasto tutto inizia a trovare il proprio posto!

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You have to learn the rules of the game, and then you have to play better than anyone else." -Albert Einstein I would also like to mention that had I known this was a converted Reylo fanfic, I would not have requested it. When I read The Love Hypothesis and realized how familiar it felt, I remembered that the fanfic was better. I wonder if that is also the case here. When you are reading The Hurricane Wars, you can feel the 'fanfic-ness' of it all. Thea Guanzon does an amazing job at the beginning providing some details on the world and the war that is going on around it, but after a blast of 1-2 chapters, things start to drop off very fast.

Although I would have loved for this book to be more focused on the fantasy side, I really enjoyed reading it and I believe it is a wonderful beginning of a new series. For a wartime fantasy story, it felt way too lighthearted. From the dialogue to the overall tone, I didn't feel the gritty, dark wartime vibes I expected. The most impactful thing that happened was Talasyn's friend's death at the beginning but after that, I never felt a single emotion.

I will say though, I absolutely hated how the author used italics so liberally to emphasize certain words. (See what I did there? lolll) It feels very amateur fanfic and I seriously hope she stops doing it in the rest of the series. Like, okay, readers understand what you're trying to say/emphasize because of context clues, duh!! The world building and the plot weren't bad, I think the author did a decent job with both, even if the latter was predictable from the start. But at least it was interesting enough to get me to finish the book. Was it interesting enough to get me to read the sequel though? Ehhhh, not really.