Overall - 2.5
Characters - 3
Action - 2
Smut - 4
Plot - 1
I requested A Monsoon Rising because while I didn't love the first book enough to buy it but wanted to know if anything would get better in the sequel. Unfortunately, it didn't but then like….kinda did!? Walk with me friends. Lets see where this review goes.
So firstly, I had and continue to have no real grasp on what is happening or why. I never knew what the Hurricane Wars were or why? I don't know why Talasyn has light powers or why Alaric has shadow powers other than, its just something they can both do. I get that they need to use their powers together to stop some kind of cataclysmic blight but the urgency of this was lost on me because we spent so much time going back and forth with the couple to their respective countries and not really doing anything but eventually have sex.
Now, the romance/smut got so much better in this which ill get to but it was also irritating as well. In book 1 where they kept fighting their attraction, they still kept doing it even after they’d banged. Why!? Why are you fighting this!? Cause you both have to betray each other? Im not sure that matters anymore dude when youre balls deep in her and marking her with your man juice. For things so graphic it was extremely childish for them to keep acting like they werent in love.
Now, where it gets confusing is that both Talasyn and Alaric were virgins so even tho theyre in their 20s, neither of them have any experience or game. This is where it gets good because their couplings were so cute and funny and realistic. That was the pull here. Whenever they were actually honest with each other in intimate moments (not all sexual) i was sooooo invested. The tortured stoic young grump falling for the colourful, outlandish and quick witted sunshine. I was here for it but it kept getting put aside for like, the plot or whatever 😩🤣
My point is that all i cared about was Alaric being saved from his abusive father and he and Talasyn working out how to be together. Everything else was dry filler. The odd dragons, the unclear worlds and its inhabitants, the war, the rebels, i cared about none of it and near the end, found myself skimming through just to find the bits that interested me. A drunken scene between Alaric and his father in law was hilarious and if it had been more like that i might have liked it more.
Theres nothing wrong with this book per se, for me the romance was lost within a sea of over description, dialogue and characters that weren’t all needed in order to push the story she wanted to tell. This book was largely filler as book 2s are prone to be, but it didn’t have to be. The smut was great but things could’ve been wrapped up sooner without all the parties and other nonsense.
A Monsoon Rising was released on the 5th December 2025.
Thank you to #netgalley and publishers for the arc. All thoughts are my own.
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