A review by booksalacarte
A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

5⭐️ 3🌶️

Second book

High fantasy

Light/dark magic

War

Marriage of convenience

Enemies to lovers

Rebellion

A Monsoon Rising starts immediately after the ending of The Hurricane Wars. Basically, within the same conversation. I think that if it has been a little between reading the first and starting the second, it was a decent way to get back into the world and magic system.

I loved the development of the role of the dragons!

The character development was really well done. This is definitely a more romance focused sequel, solidifying the main couple and showing the push and pull of duty vs their confused feelings. I thoroughly enjoyed that it was paced as it was, making it easy to see how this will be a 3+ book series. Balancing of being each other’s consorts is such an interesting take on political relationships… I love it!

This was so much easier to get lost in, I think because book 1 did all the heavy lifting when it came to world-building.

I am HIGHLY anticipating the next book, if only to witness the soul wrecking devastation that is coming from that cliffhanger!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Votager for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.