loved this family that came together for a funeral and many secrets come out during the week of playing the game to get the money. loved the romance of allice and jack. loved her siblings

I wanted inheritance drama. I got… grief-themed group therapy with a side of deeply stupid tasks from a dead man’s will. One kid isn’t allowed to talk during odd-numbered hours. The wife has to say something nice about her husband every day. The daughter just has to physically be present. That’s it. That’s the challenge.

Everyone’s annoying. Alice is slightly less annoying, so congrats to her, I guess. But I don’t care about any of them. I don’t want them to get the money. I just want to be free.

This book is like watching a family escape room designed by a ghost with a God complex and zero charisma. I’m out. DNF at 27%. Thank you Ballantine for the gifted ebook.

So I read almost exclusively Romance (as mel.reads.romance would suggest lol). Reading (and loving) Historical Romances I naturally fell in love with the heroes and heroines written by Sarah MacLean. She is able to create such vivid, animated characters that suck you in and make you FEEL. So while These Summer Storms isn't "technically" a romance, there was no way I was going to pass it up. I was NOT disappointed.
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These Summer Storms checks so may boxes. A little mystery, a little humor, a little drama & a little romance. It has all the right pieces of each of those, combining into one amazing novel. All my favorite parts of reading romances were touched on with Jack and Alice. With all of the other family members and friends providing the right amount of conflict, growth & contrast needed to bring the story full circle.
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At first I was prepared to be mad at this book for delaying Duchess' book (lol) but after reading I can't be mad at all. I loved it!

Think Knives Out had a baby with The Summer I Turned Pretty, then sent it to therapy. That’s These Summer Storms—a juicy, sharp, and gorgeously written novel where secrets spill like wine on white linen, and love blooms in the wreckage of legacy.

Sarah MacLean trades ballrooms for beachfront estates in this lush, addictive story about Alice Storm—prodigal daughter, exiled truth-teller, and reluctant participant in her dead father’s final game. The setup? A week trapped on a private island with her wildly dysfunctional family, each forced to complete cryptic tasks in order to claim their inheritance. Yes, it’s giving “dark money meets emotional hostage situation,” and yes, I devoured every second.

Alice is the perfect heroine: prickly, wounded, brilliant, and so done with the Storm family’s drama. But when you mix sibling tension, old wounds, suspicious wills, and the brooding, maddeningly attractive Jack Dean (aka the man who was loyal to her father and the only one who sees her clearly), you’ve got a powder keg of secrets just waiting to blow.

What makes this book sing is the emotional depth beneath the scandal. It’s a story about grief that doesn’t pretend to be clean, about love that grows in the cracks, and about finding peace with the truth—even if it doesn’t come with a billion-dollar inheritance.

These Summer Storms is sexy, cathartic, twisty, and tender as hell. Read it for the family drama, stay for the slow-burn tension, and leave with your heart pleasantly wrecked.

A strong start and a great premise - 4 siblings gather on their family island after the death of their billionaire father (think Steve Jobs or Richard Branson). One of the siblings, Alice, has been estranged from her family for five years but comes back for the funeral - and is not welcomed with open arms. Her father was always one to force intense games and challenges on his kids (The Storm Summer Olympics), has left one last game for them to play in order for them to get their inheritance - if any of them lose, they all lose. Love this premise and I was hooked!

Less appealing to me was that the games weren't even handed so it became less exciting when it was revealed what each sibling had to do in order to win. Additionally, there was a hefty rom-com element that kept taking me out of the core story that I preferred.

I’m always worried when an author moves to a new genre. I should have trusted Sarah because she knows hot to write a story.
This book is about familial relationships & the secrets that are woven in the dna of blood relation. All of them have been manipulated by Franklin and now they are stuck on an island for a week.
Families are complicated and messy without a competition for money. This one is a doozy.

Sarah is a professional driver on a new course.

Need a reading slump buster? This is the book for you!
I've been in a slump in the sense that l've had trouble focusing on reading lately-buying/ selling/moving has consumed my brain. The books I have read have been fantastic, but I've gotten through them so slowly. That is, until These Summer Storms! I tore through this one in 48 hours via a combination of kindle and audio (because, @justjuliawhelan narrates the audio) and could NOT stop reading. The mix of family drama, rich people behaving badly, and a little bit of romance hooked me from the first chapter. The characters were interesting (and frequently unlikable) and the plot was full of family secrets and plenty of drama surrounding an inheritance game after the death of the Storm siblings' billionaire father. This is an unputdownable summer read perfect for your beach bag or vacation!

I always love a good family drama with lots of twists and people behaving badly. This did not disappoint!

I honestly don’t know why I waited so long to pick this one up — it completely hooked me. The story follows Alice, who walked away from her billionaire family five years ago after being disowned by her controlling father. Now, after his passing, she’s called back home with one condition: the will requires her to stay for a full week at the estate. She has no interest in being there — not after her family turned their backs on her — but things begin to shift.

As the week unfolds, Alice starts reconnecting with her siblings in unexpected and heartwarming ways. Old wounds resurface, secrets unravel, and everything she thought she knew about her family begins to change.

Then there’s Jack — her late father’s right-hand man — who complicates everything. Thrown into close proximity, the two share a connection neither of them expected. Jack understands the weight of privilege and expectations, and while Alice has worked hard to make it on her own, their bond deepens day by day. She’s hesitant to trust him — or any man, for that matter — but something about Jack feels different.

This book had everything I love in a family drama: tension, healing, romance, and that addictive “rich people with problems” energy. Alice’s journey felt honest and empowering, and I was rooting for her every step of the way.


Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine books for this free advanced copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I loved it. The romance was so nice with all the fighting and how sad the little rich kids were. I loved Emily, she was a calming force. The brother made me laugh so many times at how he acted. The very end where the did gave them so little was so ick.

While a tad meandering at times, These Summer Storms was still very enjoyable and a great read for the summer. It hit the spot of being dramatic, tense, and scandalous the way a good beach read does!

“These Summer Storms” is a DRAMA-filled contemporary fiction about an estranged daughter returning home upon the death of her tech-billionaire father. She is returning to the lion’s den where her mother and siblings are ready to tear each other apart for sport. Everyone is ready to grab their piece of the inheritance, but there’s a catch - their father left them tasks to complete in order to get their share, and they have to do it together, or no one gets anything. Can they make it through the week together unscathed?

This book was drama from the beginning! The writing was very well done. I thought all the characters were very fleshed out, as if they were real people. The story is mainly told from Alice’s perspective, but her siblings’ each have a POV chapter sporadically placed throughout which really added to their depth.

I wanted to grab my popcorn so badly at all their interactions with each other, which were constantly oscillating between warm, neutral, and barbed with ice. It gave “Knives Out” vibes that were so mesmerizing, it was hard to put down.

I loved the idea of the inheritance tasks; you really got a feel for just how manipulative and controlling their father really was. The character interactions were SO entertaining, almost like watching a reality TV show.

While half of this book was focused on the family interactions, there was also a heavy dose of romance as the MC develops feelings for the executor of her father’s inheritance games. I think I liked this aspect of the book least, but it was not bad. The ending was beautiful, realistic perfection.

Thank you to Ballantine Books, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Love of a story of rich people behaving badly. Amazing. Enthralling. Captivating. I was pulled in from the first page. Felt a bit ambiguous at the end and anticlimatic. Expected more of a family renunion than we got.

These Summer Storms follows the complex billionaire family and all the trials that they must work through. Life isn't always easy just because you have everything you could ever want at your finger tips. Loved the characters, secrets and reflection of this great "summer" read. Pick this one up it doesn't disappoint.

Thank you to the publisher for this advanced reader copy via Net Galley.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Alice Storm returns to her family’s island off the coast of Rhode Island after her tech mogul billionaire father suddenly dies. She hasn’t seen her family in years after a falling out with her father, and upon his death he sets up a week of inheritance games in an idyllic setting. This is FILLED with succession level drama and family secrets, but also has a great romance subplot. There were a lot of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, and I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read, "These Summer Storms", by Sarah MacLean! I thought this was incredible and I will be thinking about the "Storm" family for days to come! I love contemporary with multiple siblings--this was my TROPE!

I've been looking for something to fill the Elin Hilderbrand void ever since she announced her retirement and I picked up These Summer Storms hearing it was about rich people and family drama and thinking it would scratch that itch - what I got was totally different but equally as good! TSS is more of Succession and dramatic vibes than the beachy summer vibes than the cover illustrates, but this book drew me in from page 1 and kept me hooked until the very last page!

I hope MacLean keeps writing contemporary novels in the future as she has a new fan in me!

4 stars

I have been a huge fan of Sarah MacLean's historical romances for years now, so picking up her first ever contemporary novel was an absolute no-brainer. As with every MacLean book, her banter is top-notch and her ability to drill down to the emotional core of the book is on full display. What surprised me about this novel is how evocatively she painted the windswept, tempest-tossed setting of Storm Island; I could almost smell the salt air and hear the waves crashing on the shoreline at points.

It's certainly an addictive read; it's hard to look away from the rich people drama of the Storm inheritance games, the romantic complications that develop, and the pent-up emotion brought about by the Storm patriarch's death. My thing - and I have this issue with quite a few of Sarah book's - is that the length of the book does cause some conflicts and plot points to become far too drawn out and repetitive. Despite this, I still thoroughly enjoyed These Summer Storms and I feel like it would be a great addition to anyone's beach read collection this summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

If you like reading about family dynamics, especially as it pertains to the ultra-wealthy, you've found your next read. This was set on the family's private island during the summer so the setting makes for a fantastic beach read. I enjoyed so much the character arcs and storylines-- this is the kind of family drama that I just don't want to put down. I had this novel in both an eARC as well as an audiocopy, and Julia Whelen could read me a grocery list and I'd be happy-- that certainly added to my enjoyment of this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first time reading this author and this was an interesting family story. Alice is our FMC who's father has just passed away. She was estranged from the family for the last five years because she stood up to her father's company. Her father is world famous - think Steve Jobs or Bill Gates for the industry he was involved in. The family gathers for his "celebration" and the father is still the puppet master over everyone's life as they hear the terms of the trust regarding their inheritance. So, it's a week with Alice, her siblings, Sam, Greta and Emily, their mother Elisabeth and Jack, her Dad's right hand man. 4 1/2 stars.