Get Swept Away by This Romantasy Series
I’m a sucker for a particular type of fantasy: the type with solid worldbuilding, political intrigue, and a good love story. It may sound simple enough, but it’s actually proven to be quite a challenge. Good news, though: Thea Guanzon’s The Hurricane Wars series ticks all the boxes (and then some)!
For starters, the storyworld is lush and vividly imagined. There’s just enough of our world in there that it feels tangible enough to imagine, but definitely a healthy dose of creation that makes it clear it’s a completely different place. This makes sense, given that Guanzon has told interviewers the books are “set in a world spun from the myths and cultures of my home region of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines.”
Not only that, but the political tensions are really well done—not so stressful as to be deterring, but present enough to be interesting and add to the suspense of the plot. And the love story? Well, let’s just say things are really heating up in the second installment of the series, Monsoon Rising.
A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon
A Monsoon Rising begins almost immediately after Talasyn and Alaric’s marriage of state, and time is already running out for them to hone the strange magic that only they can make together. Nobody knows the exact nature of the bond created by Talasyn’s light magic and Alaric’s shadow magic, but it’s the only hope the realm has against the looming threat of the Moonless Dark, a once-every-thousand-years magical phenomenon that destroys every living thing in its path. (oo pressure on the young newlyweds!).
As the political entanglements of the Night Empire and the Nenavar Dominion become increasingly perilous, Talasyn and Alaric find themselves at the center of a brewing storm that has nothing to do with the Moonless Dark. Alliances are being forged, political intrigue is afoot, and there’s no way either of these heroes is escaping anything unscathed. Despite the fact that the pair were once sworn enemies fighting on opposite sides of the Hurricane Wars, their relationship takes on new (and spicy) dimensions as they’re forced to rely on each other in preparation for the Moonless Dark.
As an aside for those of you who (like me) are suckers for a pretty book, this particular edition features beautiful painted edges depicting the storyworld’s seven moons in various stages of eclipse—a significant visual since the Moonless Dark happens when all seven moons are in full eclipse at the same time.
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Gorgeous binding aside, Guanzon’s Philippines-inspired storyworld is absolutely captivating. It’s been a while since I’ve read a fantasy series that’s taken over my imagination like The Hurricane Wars books. But thank the writing gods (or, you know, the very talented author) for this immersive series because books like this are literally the reason I love fantasy. The writing is a dream, and every element of this storyworld is evocatively imagined: the magic, the politics, the landscape, the characters…all of it.
I also love that this isn’t just another fantasy universe that revolves solely around straight white male characters; while there’s certainly room for such characters in fantasy, the genre has a long history of disproportionately featuring such characters as heroes at the expense of others. As award-winning writer N.K. Jemisin said in an interview, sci-fi and fantasy prides itself on being “future forward,” but the genre’s futures tend to feature “mostly straight white male characters and kind of nobody else.” However, in this series, Guanzon has created a dynamic cast of characters that represent a diverse array of races, genders, and sexualities. Each character has a distinct and complex personality; their magic is interesting; and their motivations are nuanced. In other words, Guanzon’s characters are delightfully heterogeneous.
With regard to the main characters, Talasyn and Alaric’s love story definitely deepens in this second installment and it’s nice to see the progression. Walls are coming down, but old habits die hard (I mean, when you’ve spent the majority of your interactions literally trying to kill each other prior to agreeing to a strategic political marriage, well, it makes sense that you’d have trouble letting your guard down). I’ll admit that when I read the first book in the series, I wondered how Guanzon was ever going to write a convincing enemies-to-lovers storyline with these particular characters. But she’s done it, that’s for sure. They’re conflicted in ways that seem believable to me—we see each of them wanting to let the other in, but also struggling with perceived rejections and concerns about the other’s motivations. And somehow, through it all, their relationship manages to be really sweet.
I can’t recommend this series highly enough, and A Monsoon Rising is somehow one of the few second books that’s even better than the first! I can’t wait for the next installment (fair warning: at the time of this writing, Book 3 is slated for publication in January 2026). Happy reading!
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