Review: The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars #1)

The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars #1)
By Thea Guanzon

Published By: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: October 12, 2023
Date Read: October 28, 2023
Genre: Adult – Fantasy
Source: eARC from Netgalley and Harper Voyager
Format: Audiobook and E-Book
Pages: 477

From Goodreads:
The Night Empire will rule all. Nothing can stand in the way of its might and power. Little by little, year by year, the Hurricane Wars take more and more from those who resists the empire’s supremacy. And yet, there is hope in the darkness. One lone light stands against the empire.

Talasyn was left on the steps of a Sardovian orphanage as a baby. All she has ever known are the Hurricane Wars, as her people fight for freedom from the tyranny of the Night Emperor Gaheris. But are they her people? Talasyn dreams of one day finding where she comes from – her true place, family, and the source of the Lightweave magic that flows through her veins like sunlight.

Alaric of House Ossinast, Master of the Shadowforged Legion and Gaheris’s only son and heir has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating the Sardovian Allford alliance with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, all Alaric can see is their extinguish all threats to the empire. 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. He tries and fails to kill her, his now greatest enemy slipping through his fingers. But a greater threat is coming. One that will overshadow the Hurricane Wars. Will these mortal enemies be able to come together to confront it or is everything that has been fought over for so long about to be destroyed?

The Hurricane Wars isn’t a book I’ve been aware of for very long. I feel like I saw it randomly one day on social media, and then suddenly it was everywhere. After seeing it a lot in the months building up to release, I decided that it really looked like something I’d love. This is another great addition to the slowly rising Romantasy genre, and I really enjoyed every moment of it. However, if you’re looking for a super spicy romantasy book, this is not it.

Before picking up this book, I had no idea that The Hurricane Wars started as ReyLo fanfic, but you can definitely see those influences right from the start. I buddy read this book with a friend, who was re-reading it and I remember sending them a message enquiring whether this was supposed to be a Fantasy book or Sci-fi. It is fantasy through and through but you can really see the Star Wars kind of influences with the airships that the world has. As a Star Wars fan myself, I actually really enjoyed this, and I do feel like once you get into it, this world and the characters do stand on their own as well.

One thing I really enjoyed about The Hurricane Wars was that it’s a book of two halves. You have the first half focusing on the exact wars mentioned in the title, and at the start of this book I was certain the hurricane wars was going to be the entire focus of the book, if not the series. But as you get further into the book you see the aftermath of the wars after they have ended… or maybe come to a pause (it’s a series, so who knows if they’re truly done). I actually loved this as I find with fantasy books that have wars in them, the wars never finish until the end of the series and you never see that journey of how the worlds and characters recover, so I loved that half way through the first book we start seeing this element. It was a really unique and fresh take for me.

The romance between the characters is slow burn throughout the entire book. It is a romantasy book but if you’re wanting the characters to admit their love for each other fast… you’re not going to find that here. I really enjoyed the slow burn. As a plot focused reader, I really like when the romance is a slight hint but not overpowering the plot. That’s what I found here. The romance is a strong focus but it’s interweaved with the plot so perfectly that there is no overpowering going on here which was fantastic. Plot and romance is very well balanced in this one.

My one gripe with this book was the characters. I loved both of the main characters, I loved the light and dark element of their powers and how they complimented each other. But considering this is an adult book, the characters felt very YA. Not that that’s a bad thing, I love YA books, but I just felt like their personalities, their behaviours was just way younger than their supposed ages, which felt a little bit disjointed to me for an adult book. Especially considering they were both soldiers in a way… their attitudes were just super immature at times. The miscommunication between them drove me insane. I have come to the conclusion that both of them are just stupid, and I wanted to reach into the book and bang their heads together. I ended up getting so frustrated at them throughout the book. Miscommunication tropes are one of my least favourite tropes and they just ended up annoying me a little bit.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it has great potential to be an amazing series. There was quite a bit of worldbuilding, so my advice is have the map in the front of the book on hand for the first few chapters. I am really looking forward to the second book and seeing where this story goes. It was a strong first book of a series and I will definitely be keeping an eye on Thea Guanzon as a potential rising author for me.

Follow K-Books on WordPress.com