The Most Dangerous Battlefield of All: A Guest Post by Thea Guanzon
We fell in love with Alaric and Talasyn in The Hurricane Wars and we’re so thrilled to join them on another whirlwind adventure in A Monsoon Rising. Thea Guanzon has penned an exclusive essay for us on writing this sequel and dives into developing her characters’ star-crossed romance, down below.
Hardcover
$16.00
$32.00
A Monsoon Rising (B&N Exclusive Edition) (The Hurricane Wars, Book 2)
A Monsoon Rising (B&N Exclusive Edition) (The Hurricane Wars, Book 2)
By Thea Guanzon
In Stock Online
Hardcover
$16.00
$32.00
If you were as sad as we were to say goodbye to Talasyn and Prince Alaric just as their relationship was starting to blossom at the end of The Hurricane Wars, then welcome back to the Night Empire in A Monsoon Rising. Perfect for fans of R. F. Kuang and Jennifer Armentrout.
If you were as sad as we were to say goodbye to Talasyn and Prince Alaric just as their relationship was starting to blossom at the end of The Hurricane Wars, then welcome back to the Night Empire in A Monsoon Rising. Perfect for fans of R. F. Kuang and Jennifer Armentrout.
I’m writing this from my hotel room in West Hollywood, at the tailend of a whirlwind release tour for A Monsoon Rising. Within a span of three days, I met hundreds of my readers in New York, Austin, and Los Angeles–and it was an exhilarating, profoundly touching experience that I’ll always be grateful for. Back in 2023, it was just me and a friend celebrating the U.S. release of my first book with sake cocktails in rainy Manila. And this is not the only way things are different this time around.
My debut novel, The Hurricane Wars, took me over a year to write. Back then, I was still getting my bearings in fantasy–specifically, the creation of an entire world and the execution of multiple story arcs that this entailed.
On the other hand, its sequel, A Monsoon Rising, was wrapped up in around six months. I had already laid the foundations of the world of Lir–its lore, magic system, and the various cultures and geopolitical dynamics that drive it–in the first book. With the heavy lifting out of the way, I could focus on what I truly believe to be the heart of this series: the star-crossed, all-consuming romance between its protagonists, Alaric and Talasyn. Once on opposite sides of a vicious war, now reluctant husband and wife in a political marriage of convenience meant to bring peace to their nations, these two enemies must set aside their contentious history and work together in order to save the world from a greater threat looming on the horizon. In the process, they stumble upon a forbidden attraction to each other, and they learn that perhaps the human heart is the most dangerous battlefield of all.
A Monsoon Rising deals mainly with Alaric and Talasyn grappling with said attraction, and how they start to see who the other is beyond the constraints of war and duty. It was honestly some of the most fun I’ve ever had as an author, nudging these two stubborn and heavily conflicted characters over that fine line between loathing and another kind of passion entirely. This enjoyment, coupled with the fact that the world had already been built, made writing this book a little more painless compared to its predecessor.
But that’s not to say that any of this was easy. The writing process itself may have been quicker, but I went into it absolutely terrified of disappointing people who liked the first book. There was a pressure drafting A Monsoon Rising that I hadn’t felt while working on The Hurricane Wars. I was very conscious of the need to continue the series in such a way that readers would feel it had been worth the long wait in between books. It took me a while to get into the mindset that I couldn’t please everyone and what ultimately mattered was that I took the characters where they needed to go and that I brought to life the story I wanted to tell.
Compared to The Hurricane Wars, A Monsoon Rising is quieter and more character-driven. It brings the romance aspect of romantasy to the forefront. It was important to me that the middle book of the trilogy be this way because Alaric and Talasyn’s love story is such a central aspect of the overall plot. It is this love that will change the world for the better and, in order for the audience to believe that, it needs to feel as earned, as fleshed-out–as real–as possible. I can only hope that I’ve succeeded in making it so.
