Book Review: A Monsoon Rising By Thea Guanzon

Official Synopsis: After a lifetime of war, Alaric and Talasyn were thrust into an alliance between their homelands that was supposed to end the fighting; however, being married to their sworn foe feels far from peaceful. Now Talasyn must play the part of Alaric’s willing empress while her allies secretly plot to overthrow his reign. But the longer the couple are forced together, the harder it becomes to deny the feelings crackling like lightning between them. When the time comes to act, can she trust him, or must she ignore her heart for the sake of so many others?

As the master of the Shadowforged Legion, Alaric has trained for battle all his life, but marrying a Lightweaver might be his most dangerous challenge yet. With tensions between nations churning, he needs to focus on the greater threat—the Moonless Dark, a cataclysmic magical event that could devour everything. Only he and Talasyn can stop it, with a powerful merging of light and shadow that they alone can create together. But saving their world from this disaster is a mere preface to his father’s more sinister schemes, and his wife is a burning flame in the darkness, tempting both his loyalties and his desires.

The Hurricane Wars aren’t over. It’s time to choose what—and who—to fight for. The world holds its breath amidst a whirlwind of new magic and old secrets that could change everything.

I'm still trying to pull myself together after finishing this book. This series has to be one of my favorites of the last few years. It is a perfect mix of fantasy, with politics and stakes, and romance, especially this one. I would definitely say this book leans more into 'romantasy' and adult than the first one did. The book is marked as both 'adult' and 'young adult' so I would be sure to double-check who you are giving it to.

That being said, this book was an absolute delight. I was going through all the emotions while reading it, from trying to figure out if the characters caught real feelings, to hoping they would maybe, finally kiss again. Alaric and Talasyn have a lot of past trauma that really comes to light in their interactions in this novel, especially since the goal is to save their continents and then betray each other. They are going through their own internal emotions, while trying to figure out each other's, and how those feels can work in their favor or not.

Watching Alaric and Talasyn learn to work together, especially when trying to make sure the Moonless Dark doesn't destroy their world was also really magically, literally. I love the magic within this book, and how they are forced to work together, with their opposing magic to figure out a way to save their worlds. By doing this, they are also hoping to set up a world where their countries can get along, but they aren't the only ones who are pulling the strings within the world, and that definitely shows throughout the novel.

I'm trying so hard to give a good review without giving spoilers for this book, or even the first one. My biggest thing is that you should definitely pick this series up, mostly so we can all sit waiting for the third book together, suffering as we anxiously await the fate of our not-so-heroes.

The one thing that really stood out to me was that though this book is the second in a trilogy, it had a plot that really stood out on it's own. Yes, there are other background things happening, but the plot itself is them working to help against the Moonless Dark, which will hopefully move along more positive impacts in the next novel. That is until the cliffhanger at the end, that definitely puts a twist in everything.

As you can probably assume, I rated this book 5 out of 5 stars, and will most likely be re-reading it early next year.

A Monsoon Rising is expected to be released December 10, 2024!

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