“Given our respective objectives, it would probably save a lot of time if we died together.”

Stolen from Goodreads: All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows. Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. 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. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen. Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasy alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion–one that could save their world…or destroy it.

It would have saved me a lot of time if they had died together. That sounds bad. This book is popular and I can understand, in part, why it is popular. However, it just doesn’t deliver on almost anything aside from being a Reylo fanfiction that got a glow-up. Yes, another Reylo, I keep on bumping into them this year and it’s only January. However, unlike The Love Hypothesis, this didn’t work for me. A combination of the writing, the plot, and the characterization really just dropped this like a brick.

One of the reasons that this book didn’t work for me is that the language was so flowery. It literally deserves its own section in Bath and Bodyworks. It was so flowery that it sometimes obscured or confused the meaning of the sentence just to sound pretty. She describes a man’s voice like wine; is his voice dry, fruity, or full of tannins? I will never know. I don’t need three descriptors for one object if you’re picking your vocabulary well. If you use the word verdant to describe an island, you don’t also have to use emerald and lush. I get it. I really do. The language was so flowery and extraneous that I found myself just skimming full sections of descriptions to pick up the key bits and leave the rest.

The plot of this felt meandering. I was constantly feeling like I made hardly any progress reading it at all. I think it’s because the book doesn’t need to be this long for the plot. It needs to be this long for the overlong descriptions. Cut out some descriptions and the plot would only take up like 66% of the current length, maybe less. It’s one of those that felt like a lot was going on, but also nothing was going on. It was a lot of small things and feelings being hurled every which way. Neither the plot nor the relationship really progressed that much past the first half of the book.

Okay, I can feel someone about to complain that the entire last half of the book was mostly relationship development. Yes, and? I watched Talasyn and Alaric take one step forward and six steps back about fifteen times. They’re still in basically the same place they were when their arranged marriage started. Attracted, but untrusting. “They trust each other.” The end of that glorified hand job in the last 30 pages tells me otherwise. Yes, glorified hand job. You read that right. If you’re looking for smut, this ain’t it. I feel so bad for Kylo. *cough* I mean Alaric. Also, that hand job is the only thing that makes this adult. Everything else feels so Y.A. about it. Also, this is a straight-up colonizer romance. He’s done terrible things to her people. I think for me there is a difference between an enemies-to-lovers and a colonizer romance and this is the latter.

I actually don’t mind fanfiction getting a glow up and I don’t mind Reylo. I’ve seen far more problematic ships floating out in the deep waters of AO3. I just wish they would disguise it a tad more. Like, I don’t mind it, but Reylo isn’t a selling point for me. I like myself a tall, dark, handsome man, but I can only read about couples with the same physical descriptions so many times. It could also be that I find Rey annoying. I found her annoying in the movies and if they carry on too many of her traits, I also find her annoying here. I didn’t mind Olive in The Love Hypothesis, but I would happily yeet Talasyn over the side of her airship. I’m fine with the emo goths ruling the world. Also, I could practically see this being an epic space opera in my head instead of a fantasy. I actually feel like it would have worked better. I get why they didn’t, but…

Overall, I guess if you have to read all the Reylo or you’ll just die, you’ll enjoy this book. I think I’m just going to sit on this for a bit to decide if I care enough to read the next one. Right now, my gut tells me no. I might wait for the reviews, see if people who liked it are happy with the ending. Readers looking for slow burn romance with a dash of enemies to heavy petting, airship fans, and readers who like shadow daddies, will probably also enjoy this. I am a sucker for the arranged marriage trope, but I was hoping they’d be a bit more unified by the end of this first book.

Have you read The Hurricane Wars? What’s your favorite part? Let me know in the comments below!

Important Bits:
Length: 472 pages
Published: October 3, 2023 by Harper Voyager
Representation: Reylo
Content Warnings: Death of a Parent (off page), Abandonment of a child (off page), Death of a friend, Death, Blood, War
Awards: Nominee for Goodreads Choice Award Best Romantasy (2023)
The Hurricane Wars Series: The Hurricane Wars (2023)
Also by: From a Certain Point of View (2023)