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jocelyn62013's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
September 2024 book club pick
Pacing was off, but overall a good story for having one of my least favorite tropes (arranged marriage). The 2nd trope involved, enemies to lovers, can work quite well here, but we'll have to wait til book 2 to see if they grow enough for it to make sense (it's really just hate plus chemistry rn). I am a patient reader and there's enough here to hope it will pay off.
The book starts mid-war with lots of info dumping but leaning high fantasy. I actually deeply enjoyed this part but wished it had a little more room to breathe. Then once Talasyn and Alaric were courting each other it got very slow and very romantasy in it's pacing. I think I wouldn't mind this as much if I liked the characters more, but personally I'd still be satisfied with her killing him as much as if they end up in love.
For a debut, I like it and it's been my favorite of our book club picks this year so far (not including my pick). I am defibitely going to pick up the next book when it releases.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Sexual content
pm_me_book_recs's review against another edition
Dnf @ 50%
Characters are super flat and incredibly immature. The world and magic are all very cool (and air ships!?), but I cannot get past the awful character dialogue and colonizer romance.
Characters are super flat and incredibly immature. The world and magic are all very cool (and air ships!?), but I cannot get past the awful character dialogue and colonizer romance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and War
hellavaral's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, and War
Minor: Child abuse, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
florecita_lectora's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Grief, and Abandonment
Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
eeyores_flowers's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War
roseleebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This was a solid read for me and I really enjoyed it overall. I wasn't sure going in how much Guanzon's fanfic might play into it and having never read it can say that other than some of the character descriptions and descriptions of the magic system at times I would not have realized that it originated from that.
What I liked: the ambition of the plot. There was a lot happening but it felt cohesive and like it was progressing in a way that made sense. The political aspects were more enjoyable than I would have expected. The tension between Talasyn and Alaric was very well written also. Early in the book I was looking forward to scenes where they interacted. I also really liked listening to this on audiobook. I read some of it in book format but the writing and dialogue really lend themselves well to an audio format.
What I didn't like: sometimes the angst and arguments between Talasyn and Alaric were a little too much for me. And maybe this was because I wasn't quite in the mood to read about that type of relationship.Also, the earlier parts of the book during the war felt very abrupt and didn't allow us to develop much connection to the events and the side characters. However, none of this detracted enough from the book to be a big issue enough.
Overall this was an entertaining read and I will be continuing the series with the next book.
What I liked: the ambition of the plot. There was a lot happening but it felt cohesive and like it was progressing in a way that made sense. The political aspects were more enjoyable than I would have expected. The tension between Talasyn and Alaric was very well written also. Early in the book I was looking forward to scenes where they interacted. I also really liked listening to this on audiobook. I read some of it in book format but the writing and dialogue really lend themselves well to an audio format.
What I didn't like: sometimes the angst and arguments between Talasyn and Alaric were a little too much for me. And maybe this was because I wasn't quite in the mood to read about that type of relationship.
Overall this was an entertaining read and I will be continuing the series with the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse
teri_b's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I was curious about this book. Firstly, because of the cover and the storm respectively the Hurricane it promised in the title. Secondly, because of the mixed reviews this book had gotten even before it was published and I was wondering where my own reading tastes would land.
Interestingly enough, I loved & still love this book a couple of months after I read it and am excited to see how the story ends in its sequel.
The Hurricane Wars does have excitement in it, a lot of tragic & wars & unanswered questions and magic is stirring, even though yet not fully revealed.
At the beginning we find ourselves in a war setting that then changes to the machinations of a highly evolved & politically divided court and in which the female main character has got to find her way as well as figuring out her feelings for this prince of the Night Empire whom she first met on the battle fields and now has to deal with in the political machinations of their nations fighting for prevalence and/or survival over each other.
The world is richly built, and specially, in the second part we start to see more parts of this world that is amazingly rich & diverse.
And now I cannot really wait until the second book is out, because I simply would like to know how it all ends and how this new threat that arose is being met, and, of course, will they or won't they & will there be a happy ever after?
Interestingly enough, I loved & still love this book a couple of months after I read it and am excited to see how the story ends in its sequel.
The Hurricane Wars does have excitement in it, a lot of tragic & wars & unanswered questions and magic is stirring, even though yet not fully revealed.
At the beginning we find ourselves in a war setting that then changes to the machinations of a highly evolved & politically divided court and in which the female main character has got to find her way as well as figuring out her feelings for this prince of the Night Empire whom she first met on the battle fields and now has to deal with in the political machinations of their nations fighting for prevalence and/or survival over each other.
The world is richly built, and specially, in the second part we start to see more parts of this world that is amazingly rich & diverse.
And now I cannot really wait until the second book is out, because I simply would like to know how it all ends and how this new threat that arose is being met, and, of course, will they or won't they & will there be a happy ever after?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Death of parent
amy_in_the_city's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I didn't know going into this that it was a Reylo fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, but I figured it out about 50 pages in. There were a few issues I think were caused in part by it originally being a fanfic. First, the characters were underdeveloped in the beginning, and I didn't quite buy that they were really enemies. They were truly enemies because they were on opposite sides of a war, but I would have liked for there to be a more personal element to it. Maybe one or both of them could have personally killed someone the other one loved or he could have been responsible for destroying her village, or something like that. In a fanfiction, we have this backstory already because it's in the source material, but since these are new characters, we don't know what they've done to really cause them to hate each other.
The magic system also wasn't very well developed. The shadow magic and the light magic didn't do anything different from each other. They both just formed weapons that did the same things but in different colors. I chalk this up to this being adapted from Star Wars fanfiction where the characters originally probably used the same source of power (the Force) and the same type of weapon (lightsabers).
The pacing was off. It took almost 200 pages for the main characters to actually have a conversation and interact beyond a few fight scenes. It was so weird to have a romance book where the couple hardly interacts for the first half of the book. Once the romance got started, I did enjoy how it developed. I was put off a bit by the insta-lust. The characters would be in the middle of trying to kill each other and then they'd be thinking about how the other one's eyes are so beautiful. Despite the insta-lust, I'd say the romance itself is a slow burn. They started getting to some good character development towards the end as they began to really explore the differences in their ideologies and the conflict that causes in their relationship.
Overall, I enjoyed this well enough, and it definitely picked up towards the end. I'm not sure if I'll read the next book in the series as I'm not super invested in the plot or characters though.
The magic system also wasn't very well developed. The shadow magic and the light magic didn't do anything different from each other. They both just formed weapons that did the same things but in different colors. I chalk this up to this being adapted from Star Wars fanfiction where the characters originally probably used the same source of power (the Force) and the same type of weapon (lightsabers).
The pacing was off. It took almost 200 pages for the main characters to actually have a conversation and interact beyond a few fight scenes. It was so weird to have a romance book where the couple hardly interacts for the first half of the book. Once the romance got started, I did enjoy how it developed. I was put off a bit by the insta-lust. The characters would be in the middle of trying to kill each other and then they'd be thinking about how the other one's eyes are so beautiful. Despite the insta-lust, I'd say the romance itself is a slow burn. They started getting to some good character development towards the end as they began to really explore the differences in their ideologies and the conflict that causes in their relationship.
Overall, I enjoyed this well enough, and it definitely picked up towards the end. I'm not sure if I'll read the next book in the series as I'm not super invested in the plot or characters though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent
sfdogmom's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Good! One 🌶️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Death
Minor: Sexual content
shellbow's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I think the people this book was written for will love it. But if you aren't emphatically in that category, it will likely fall flat.
I'm a fan of Reylo, the fandom that this originally pertained to, and in it I can see the classic tropes: fated equals, enemies to lovers, "you're not alone". But taken within only the context of itself, the Hurricane Wars was more of a meandering series of events than anything else. The writing was prone to sentences that lasted paragraphs, and I found myself desperate for a period. The cycle of romantic tension and then bitter enmity between the main characters became repetitive and a bit boring. And out of the many dramatic points set up, only one comes to fruition, leaving me confused what the rest of the book would be about even when I was on the last twenty pages.
Overall, if you're a fan of Reylo, or an avid fanfiction reader, it will be an easy, breezy read. But if you are neither of those things, I would look for something with more substance.
I'm a fan of Reylo, the fandom that this originally pertained to, and in it I can see the classic tropes: fated equals, enemies to lovers, "you're not alone". But taken within only the context of itself, the Hurricane Wars was more of a meandering series of events than anything else. The writing was prone to sentences that lasted paragraphs, and I found myself desperate for a period. The cycle of romantic tension and then bitter enmity between the main characters became repetitive and a bit boring. And out of the many dramatic points set up, only one comes to fruition, leaving me confused what the rest of the book would be about even when I was on the last twenty pages.
Overall, if you're a fan of Reylo, or an avid fanfiction reader, it will be an easy, breezy read. But if you are neither of those things, I would look for something with more substance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Abandonment, and Colonisation