I saw These Summer Storms (2025) by Sarah MacLean on NPR’s Favorite Books List. I’ve never read anything by Sarah MacLean, but I’m a fan of romance novels, and this one seemed interesting enough. So I picked it up. Unfortunately, I found this one more disappointing than not. After a fun beginning, the plot did not feel believable, and I didn’t like the characters. By the end of the book, I was curious how it was going to end, but I was also ready for it to be done.
Alice Storm hasn’t seen her very rich family in five years. She is the daughter of a tech billionaire, Franklin Storm, who is egotistic, controlling, and unlikable. When she publicly outed her father’s company for its bad practices regarding sexual harassment, her father told her to “get off his island.” In all that time, Alice has not seen her mother, Elizabeth; her two older siblings Greta and Sam, and her youngest sibling Emily. She was cut off from all of the money and made her own way as an artist and art teacher in New York City.
But she has just received news that her father is dead from an accident, and she is on her way back to their private island off the coast of Rhode Island for his funeral/celebration of life. Her ex-fiance, Griffin, has just recently broken things off with no explanation. On the train, she sits next to a good-looking man who helps her get away from paparazzi and gives her a ride. They end up hooking up before she sneaks away in the morning.
Alice sails across the island to meet her mostly rude and obnoxious family–except for Emily, who is in a happy relationship and seems like a genuine, caring person. It doesn’t take long before the guy Alice slept with the night before shows up at the island. He is Jack Dean, and her father’s number two man at his company. Jack Dean is there to tell them about their father’s wishes as far as the will is concerned and oversee/judge the process.
Franklin Storm gave most members of the family a personal letter with a task to fulfill. All members of the family must complete the task or none of them will get their inheritance. Greta must break off her years-long relationship with her father’s bodyguard–a man she loves more than anything. Sam can only talk on even hours, and he has to clean and fix a bunch of things on the island. Alice did not get a letter at all, but she must stay on the island for the whole week. Even though Alice is now self sufficient and doesn’t care about the money, she is facing incredible family pressure to stay. Emily did not receive instructions, and Elizabeth, their mother, was instructed to say one nice thing about Franklin every day and “tell the truth.”
I’m pretty sure there is nothing remotely legal about this, but it also doesn’t make a lot of sense. Greta is supposed to break up with the man she loves. Franklin is not a likable character, but it’s still a mystery why he would do this to his daughter. The book says he doesn’t like to share, but he’s dead; he doesn’t have to share. And wasn’t he already sharing his favorite bodyguard when they were secretly, but not so secretly hooking up before he died. And Franklin liked his bodyguard. Why would he do this? Also, all Greta has to do is tell her beau everything that’s happening. He can disappear until the end of the week, and people can think they broke up. Greta inherits the money, her bodyguard boyfriend comes back, and the problem is solved. This plotline drove me crazy.
Another big problem for me was that I didn’t like Jack Dean. This book could have turned around for me if I had been into the love story. And when they first met on the train, he was really promising. But when they’re on the island, they were always fighting. He never apologized or explained anything to her. He was constantly lying or withholding information, and I didn’t trust him. He is too much like her father. The only thing they had going for each other was the physical attraction–not the best basis for a long-term relationship. Not my favorite book of the year.
You can find all my reviews on my blog.
