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A review by ellyra
The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-paced
3.0
This one was a rough one. I nearly gave up on finishing this book at multiple points.
I can tell that it was an excellent Fanfiction, however the transition to an original fantasy story was awkward. Mainly because the author stuck too much to the Star Wars world and to original scenes of her fanfic even when they didn't work in a fantasy world.
I enjoyed the World building inspired by the author philippino's origins, my issue was when this fantasy magic system was used not only to replace the Force (which worked) but also Star Wars futuristic technology (that one telecommunication scene at the beginning was ridiculous and should have been dropped completely).
Then the writing : it was descriptive and lush but it felt too overwritten, like the author was trying too much to have a crafty prose. I checked the first two chapters of the original fanfic and the writing style there was just righly dosed. Too bad it wasn't the case in the book, it felt like a chore to read at some time and took me way too long to finish this book because of it.
The plot : the story unfolds in two parts. The first 150 pages are a war novel with a loooooot of infodump. People that are not used to complex fantasy worldbuilding are probably not going to make it past this first part.
And then the 300 pages left are a political ennemies to lovers romance with fanfictions tropes like "forced proximity".
The romance and characters : Not gonna lie I am not the biggest fan of the two main characters as I am not a big fan of Rey and Kylo Ren to start with. On top of that, I found them immature, especially Talasyn but she's only 19 after all. It does get better as the story progress. I was very irritated with her at the beginning of the book but could sympathize with her by the end.
As for the relationship, it is a real "ennemies to lovers", if the attraction is very fast, the emotional connection is a slow burn. And by the end of book 1, their relationship is very messy and will probably continue to evolve in the following books.
I wasn't very much rooting for the romance in the first half (the insta attraction wasn't for me and I felt the characters too immature) but I ended up completely invested in the relationship by the end of the book.
So the book and the romance do get better in the second half. I did enjoy the general plot and was invested in it since the very beggining which is why I ended up not giving up on this book.
I can tell that it was an excellent Fanfiction, however the transition to an original fantasy story was awkward. Mainly because the author stuck too much to the Star Wars world and to original scenes of her fanfic even when they didn't work in a fantasy world.
I enjoyed the World building inspired by the author philippino's origins, my issue was when this fantasy magic system was used not only to replace the Force (which worked) but also Star Wars futuristic technology (that one telecommunication scene at the beginning was ridiculous and should have been dropped completely).
Then the writing : it was descriptive and lush but it felt too overwritten, like the author was trying too much to have a crafty prose. I checked the first two chapters of the original fanfic and the writing style there was just righly dosed. Too bad it wasn't the case in the book, it felt like a chore to read at some time and took me way too long to finish this book because of it.
The plot : the story unfolds in two parts. The first 150 pages are a war novel with a loooooot of infodump. People that are not used to complex fantasy worldbuilding are probably not going to make it past this first part.
And then the 300 pages left are a political ennemies to lovers romance with fanfictions tropes like "forced proximity".
The romance and characters : Not gonna lie I am not the biggest fan of the two main characters as I am not a big fan of Rey and Kylo Ren to start with. On top of that, I found them immature, especially Talasyn but she's only 19 after all. It does get better as the story progress. I was very irritated with her at the beginning of the book but could sympathize with her by the end.
As for the relationship, it is a real "ennemies to lovers", if the attraction is very fast, the emotional connection is a slow burn. And by the end of book 1, their relationship is very messy and will probably continue to evolve in the following books.
I wasn't very much rooting for the romance in the first half (the insta attraction wasn't for me and I felt the characters too immature) but I ended up completely invested in the relationship by the end of the book.
So the book and the romance do get better in the second half. I did enjoy the general plot and was invested in it since the very beggining which is why I ended up not giving up on this book.