A monsoon is moving in while Prince Alaric, the Night Emperor’s son, and Talasyn, his new bride, frantically try to merge their magic to protect their world from an advancing enemy. This fantasy romance, set in Southeast Asia, is the second book in The Hurricane Wars series. I liked A Monsoon Rising even better than the first, because it has more romance, more dragons, and less political intrigue. Plus, it weaves monsoons, volcanoes, and eclipses seamlessly into the story!

In the first book, The Hurricane Wars, Talasyn, a warrior, is fighting for her country, which is under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor. The Emperor’s greatest warrior is Prince Alaric, his son and heir, and Talasyn has been raised to see them both as utterly evil. In book one, Alaric and Talasyn try to kill each other more than once (luckily, they don’t succeed!), but each encounter pulls them closer.

Talasyn wields a rare and special kind of magic—she’s a Lightweaver. This is the same kind of magic that killed Alaric’s grandfather and led his father to start the devastating Hurricane Wars. Alaric, who commands Night Shadow magic, is not his father, though. The more he sees Talasyn, the stronger his attraction grows. They find each other almost irresistible—especially after discovering that, together, their magic creates a force greater than anything anyone has ever seen. By the end of book one, they are married in an alliance of convenience.

In A Monsoon Rising, Alaric and Talasyn have gone from enemies to lovers and are learning to work their magic together to fend off attacks from their enemy, the Voidfell, a death-dealing machine deployed by Alaric’s father. Both reflect on their wedding night, longing to kiss again, yet they hesitate, afraid of getting too close. Their countries have been at war for years, and neither of them trusts easily after being raised to see the other as the ultimate enemy.

Alaric’s father is almost comically evil and beats him, thinking Alaric is weak. He doesn’t trust Talasyn either and schemes against her—fearing she will cause his son to fall in love. When Talasyn finds Alaric after one of these beatings, she tends to his wounds with tenderness. He’s soothed by her care, both of them starved for affection. But Talasyn is unsettled by her growing feelings and visits the Lightweaver shrine on an island, hoping for answers about her mother, who abandoned her at a harsh orphanage when she was young.

Alaric feels hurt that Talasyn left for the shrine without telling him—stirring his own painful memories of being abandoned by his mother. To regain his strength, he sets off alone to a Shadow Sever. When a messenger eagle delivers a note informing Talasyn of Alaric’s journey and the approaching storm, she scrambles to rescue him. She finds him just as the monsoon hits, and the floodwaters begin to rise.

As the storm rages, the attraction and tension between them reach a breaking point. It’s a beautiful, sensual scene as they make love, the monsoon lashing around them. They insist they aren’t in love, but they agree to enjoy the physical side of their marriage while they can. Both worry about their allies’ schemes to seize each other’s territories—neither wants to betray the other, yet both remain tethered to the causes they were raised to serve.

The second half of the story flies by with action, and I couldn’t put the book down. I won’t spoil the ending, but it leaves off on a major cliffhanger, and now I can’t wait to read the final book. I’m curious if Talasyn’s grandmother, Urduja, will turn out to be as evil as Alaric’s father—and if so, how they’ll manage to defeat them both.

I’d like to see Alaric and Talasyn learn to trust each other more in the next book. I’m not a fan of cliffhangers, especially when it means waiting a whole year for the next installment! Still, despite that frustration, this book is a DIK (Desert Island Keeper) for me. The way the author wove the monsoon into Alaric and Talasyn’s love story was pure magic, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.