Hurricane Wars Sequel A Monsoon Rising Puts Romance Ahead of Politics

Thea Guanzon’s fantasy debut The Hurricane Wars was one of the buzziest genre titles released last year, a lush South Asian-inspired fantasy story about warring kingdoms, competing light and dark magic, and a pair of adversarial military leaders who find themselves thrown together and then desperately drawn to one another. A romance that owes more than a bit to fan favorite “Reylo” ship from Star Wars, the relationship between Nenevarian Lightweaver Talasyn and Alaric, the powerful Shadow weaver heir to the Night Empire, is enemies to lovers on steroids, as the two are forced to wed as part of a treaty to between their two kingdoms, even as they each have ulterior motives for agreeing to their partnership. Its eagerly awaited sequel, A Monsoon Rising, leans even further into the story’s central romance—though it comes at the sacrifice of much of the series’ larger worldbuilding and narrative tension. 

Don’t get me wrong, readers who prioritize the love story at the center of this series will find much to enjoy here. The volatile relationship between Talasyn and Alaric is deftly handled, the pining is frequently off the charts, and the story handles many familiar beats of the enemies-to-lovers trope with style. Each insisting the other means nothing to them? Check. Getting trapped in a remote location together and forced to confront their feelings? Also, check! Trying to pass off their mutual obsession with one another as a mere physical attraction? You bet! Internally grappling with divided loyalties between their hearts and their homelands? Constantly. Nothing about Talasyn and Alaric’s relationship arc is particularly new—to be honest, the story maybe doesn’t focus enough on their genuinely opposing beliefs about the best way to achieve a new future for their empire—but it is well handled and entertainingly written. 

In the wake of Alaric and Talasyn’s wedding, much of A Monsoon Rising is about the duo navigating how to live together, even as they both scheme and plot against one another. Their respective kingdoms need then to work together to stop an event known as the Moonless Dark, a magical confluence of eclipses that could destroy their entire world. But even as Alaric and Talsin train together (and the mutual desire grows as they get more comfortable with one another) they’re both keeping (big) secrets from one another. She’s funneling information to a hidden group of rebels on her home island of Nenevar, led by a Sardovian Allfold general who is plotting to overthrow the Night Empire. He’s in meetings with his bullying regent father, who’s quietly working on a potion to strip Talasyn of her magic, and insists that his son will eventually have to take his wife hostage to keep her in the kingdom. As the tension builds between them to an almost unbearable level, they’re wach tormented not only by their desire for one another but the guilt of the many secrets they’re keeping. Will either of them be able to go through with their ulterior plans? Only the next volume in this series will be able to say for sure. 

Guanzon is a natural at writing sexual and romantic tension, both of which are dialed up to 11 in this sequel. I like to think this is because of her roots in transformative fandom, where fic writers are masters at pumping up slow burns to the very limits of their readers’ tolerance. A Monsoon Rising also delves a bit deeper into Alaric’s tortured childhood and abusive current relationship with his father, which helps give the character some necessary new depth. Also, in a genre currently experiencing a wave of what I’ll refer to as “shadow daddy” characters at the moment, he’s refreshingly progressive and generally non-toxic. Other than the fact that he literally wields Shadow magic and rules a conquering, colonizing kingdom (admittedly, not a small thing), it’s hard to even call him the bad guy the story (and Talasyn) sometimes desperately seem to want him to be. 

However, the increased focus on Alaric and Talasyn’s relationship, their tortured inner monologues about their feelings, and their refusal to talk to one another about them, means that much of the political focus from the first book is missing here. The pair were ostensibly forced to wed in large part because only their Light and Dark magic combined was the only thing that could save their world. Yet, the threat of the allegedly all-important Moonless Dark is maybe the third biggest thing going on in this story at any given moment, and while we see several “training” sessions between the supposed saviors, the whole thing is weirdly treated almost like an afterthought for much of the story and wildly anticlimactic. Despite the conflict inherent in forcibly joining two very different kingdoms to one another, there’s very little emphasis on the larger geopolitical realities of what that looks like, and even the story’s big moments—like a massive rebel attack—are most often treated through the lens of how it affects Talasyn and Alaric’s relationship before anything else. (Also, sorry in advance if you’ve forgotten the ins and outs of this world’s aether-based magical system, it’s referenced so infrequently there’s no time for a refresher on how any of it works.)

Where The Hurricane Wars felt more like a fantasy with heavy romance elements blended into its larger story, A Monsoon Rising very much follows a more traditional romantasy format, where nearly every other element of the book only exists in relation to its central pairing. It feels weird to criticize this, given how much I actually love romantasy as a reader, but it is disappointing for many reasons. Not the least of which is that pretty much everything that isn’t directly about Talasyn and Alaric and their romantic feelings for one another feels like weird filler. 

For those of us who were hoping for a broadening of our understanding of these various kingdoms, their histories, or the unique magical systems used by their peoples, there’s not much here. (Things I want to know more about: That first Lightweaver rebellion, the literal dragons that live in the seas around Nenevar and are apparently willing to let strangers pet them when they sunbathe on shore, and the story of the Shadowforged general who has become the head of the Sardovian rebellion.) But, for those whose primary concern is the series’ love story, you won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough. Here’s hoping the cliffhanger that closes this installment helps the larger series find a better balance in the third book.

A Moonsoon Rising is now available wherever books are sold. 

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB