The Hurricane Wars

DNF@50% 

I usually don't rate books i DNF'd but I feel the need to after wasting so much of my free time on this (since i barely have time to read this month). 

First of all, this is yet another case of a YA book being published as an adult book. Nothing in the first 50% makes the book stand out from YA titles. It has your typical YA tropes and nothing really makes it any different from other titles in the genre. There is a focus on the politics but it's nothing complex or interesting. Same goes for the magic system which is very typical and underdeveloped. As mentioned though, i only read half of the book so maybe things change but i just was so bored I couldn't make myself continue. It feels like a book I have simply read many times before.

I think what took me out of the story the most is the romance, the obvious Reylo inspo. I didn't think it would bother me at all but as someone who is familiar with the Star Wars movies, it is really hard to disconnect the couple from the characters they were based on. Alaric basically looks identical to Adam Driver. “Waves of disheveled black hair framed pale angular features dotted with beauty marks. He had a long nose, a sharp jawline, the overall harshness alleviated by a pair of full, soft lips”. And, of course, he has very broad shoulders. They both act similar to their counter-parts (especially Alaric). At around 30-35% there was one scene that felt like it was taken out of The Last Jedi, just with a different setting.

Maybe it's just me but, while i dont mind stories inspired by ships/other things, i do not want to read about the same characters in an AU in my books. It's a personal preference though, if you are a fan of Adam, or a Reylo stan, you will probably enjoy that factor.

I wanted to force myself to finish as this was one of my most anticipated reads for this year, but I just don't think anything could make me like this book. Maybe it's about time I finally acknowledge maybe this genre just isn't for me (with a few exceptions!). If you are a big fan of the romantasy genre, don't mind the Reylo inspiration, and are okay with an instant attraction trope, don't let me dissuade you from reading the book, there's a chance you will like it. It however was just not for me.

The Hurricane Wars has a strong beginning for high fantasy lovers and I was extremely excited about it. After that, the romance takes over and the politics assume a less central aspect to the story. Was I disappointed the romance takes such a central role in the story? A bit yes. The premise of the book is intriguing and I hated that it felt more bland, at least against my expectations. Did I still enjoyed the book? Absolutely!

As Romantasies go, this is the best one I've read in a while.
The writing is beautiful, the word building incredible, the magic system and politics are interesting and the romance is a believable, (very) slow burn enemies to lovers.
You can understand why they are conflicted and falling in love, you can feel the tension and angst and you end up suffering with them.

Although I would have loved for this book to be more focused on the fantasy side, I really enjoyed reading it and I believe it is a wonderful beginning of a new series.

The Hurricane Wars will be published in October 12th and it should definitely be among Romantasy lovers most anticipated releases.

I would like to thank HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction, HarperVoyager and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

- - - - review update October 3 - - - -

I've reviewed this book a few months ago, but since then, a lot more reviews came, and most mention the same issue. I want to add my piece as well.

When I read The Hurricane Wars, I didn't know it started as Star Wars fanfiction, and I want to emphasize that at no point I felt that I lacked context for what was happening, or that I was expected to have prior knowledge of the world and events.

I am indeed a StarWars fan and, to be honest, when I was reading I did think “Cool! This reminds me of StarWars because of the light and the ships”. However, in no moment I thought about Rey and Kylo (and I'm actually a Reylo shipper, though I never read any fanfic).

Nowadays every romantasy seems like fanfiction of S. J. Maas and JLA, we need only to read the titles to know what is coming: bad boy is not bad, the FMC turns out to be an overpowered Mary Sue, the MMCs are some variation of our favorite batboys, vampires and daddy Niktos, . This apparently bothers absolutely no one, unless we change the fanfic to Reylo and StarWars.

This is by no means a masterpiece, and it has a lot of said tropes, but it also feels original. If this is what we get with Reylo fanfic, please give me more of it.

Personally, I think this was a lot better than a certain well loved best seller.