A Monsoon Rising

What a beautiful sequel! I love Talasyn and Alaric so much. Their chemistry is off the charts… This book was definitely a bit more spicy than the first one but no complaints, the spice was actually well written in my opinion. The world building in this series has been incredible and stunning so far. While the focus of these books definitely lies on the romance, the fantasy aspect didn’t just get brushed off. It’s good and interesting world building. And the plot feels thoroughly fleshed out as well. Overall so so happy I am finally reading this series and I am fuming at the thought that there is not even an announcement for the next book…

After absolutely loving The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon, I was so excited to see how Talasyn and Alaric‘s continues in the second book, A Monsoon Rising.   Talasyn and Alaric are light and dark, and I love how this imagery is continued in this book. The two are very opposite but just work together and with the Moonless Dark, they have a new threat. This created such great suspense and I couldn’t put the story down.   In addition, there is still a lot of tension between Talasyn and Alaric and that made me love their moments even more and the spicy scenes were great as well. This book is definitely more romance focused, and I was here for it. I always love seeing how these two combine their powers and the action and fighting scenes were phenomenal. And the ending blew me away and I’m beyond excited for the next book.   Highly recommended checking out The Hurricane Wars Series and this was an amazing sequel. 5 stars.   (Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an arc.)

I truly love the worldbuilding in this series! The magic system, the beliefs and the exploration of the different countries make this an amazing world to escape to. This book was mostly character-driven, almost the entire first 75% are the characters preparing and training for a supposedly dangerous fight, that ended up falling kind of flat for me. The first book seemed much more plot-driven. I still enjoyed this one though, because we get to see more of the political intrigue and how all sides are scheeming at the same time. The relationship between the mcs also developes and their reluctant falling was so much fun to read about. Their banter and little fights are amazing! I also love how on both sides they are struggling with knowing who to trust, who they are and want to be loyal to and what their goals actually are or should be. The way Talasyn and Alaric start to understand each other and are torn between their duty, their family and home, their feelings for each other and their political ambitions and convictions makes for such an interesting dynamic. I guess it's only logical that as heirs to the throne, the characters are much more caught up with political duties and keeping up with public appearance, but this also made the book seem more slow-paced than I remember the first one being. I'm still really excited for book 3 and can’t wait to see more of this world!