I thought this was a summer read and I was happily surprised to find it was not!

The Summer storms in the title refer to the Storm family as they all return to their father's private island in Rhode Island following his surprise death in a hang gliding accident. This novel blends family dysfunction, power struggles, and slow-burning tension as the family is asked to follow a series of directives delivered by letters post death—an actual inheritance game that requires the entire family to remain on Storm Island for a week.

Alice Storm has returned after five years, cast out by her billionaire father. Her return has caused plenty of hurt feeling to resurface and old wounds to open. MacLean has created deeply flawed characters, each struggling with their own motivations. The story does not simply focus on the wealth and scandal of the Storm family but explores the emotional weight of legacy, exile, and the struggle to break free from predetermined roles.

The novel’s pacing is brisk, though some of its major reveals arrive suddenly, leaving certain twists feeling slightly underdeveloped. However, the tension and character depth ensure that every moment remains engaging.
These Summer Storms is a suspenseful novel filled with plenty of contemporary family dysfunction.
#randomhouse #ballantine

These Summer Storms may be a departure from MacLean’s historic romance catalogue, but it definitely doesn’t depart from the quality I’ve come to know and love in her writing. The Storm siblings are wonderfully complex characters, who quite often made me want to rip my hair out. The supporting characters were just as interesting, and I wanted more of them even though that likely would be a whole other book (Tony! Ugh my heart!) I also was positive at the beginning of the book that I would hate Sam forever and somehow she made me feel for him by the end. I’m glad we got more of Jack as the book went on because he’s a damn hunk (MacLean specializes in writing hunky men you want to take a bite out of.) There were parts that I thought would be predictable (which isn’t always a bad thing) but I was thrilled that they didn’t turn out to be. I will read whatever Sarah MacLean writes and this makes me really excited for whatever is next for her! Thank you to NetGalley & Random House for the ARC.

Wow! What a great book! The Storms are a completely dysfunctional family controlled by their father, Franklin. He being the person who changed the world with his inventions. Dying suddenly, the children come home for the celebration including Alice who was kicked out five years ago. Franklin gives them one last test before they can inherit his fortune. The week is filled with surprises, confessions, and discoveries. A good read!

A decadent and delicious novel that is filled with family woes, loss, love and fortunes. This was witty, thrilling and heart-rending. It was fast paced with intriguing characters and a entertaining plot. Perfect for readers who love Big Little Lies and Succession. Great to read over a long rainy weekend, or basking in the sun on a beach. 5 stars.

4.5 stars. Historical romance maven Sarah MacLean's first foray (as far as I know) into contemporary fiction is emotional, warm, and funny. MacLean seems the right age to have also read and loved The Westing Game as a kid, and there's some of its DNA here, with the late Franklin Storm's grown children competing for his inheritance. The private island setting feels almost like a locked room mystery. And the burgeoning romance between Alice and a man with hidden motives is heated but also sweet. I'm happy to read whatever MacLean decides to do next!

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

One word: perfection. I loved everything about this. Crisp, dynamic writing. Flawed, multi-dimensional characters. Sexy AF energy. It's like Succession, but sexier. Just read it, you'll love it.

One of the rare few who actually hasn't read too many of Sarah Maclean's historical romances, I found this book to be a delight - loved all the characters and their complexities which the author didn't sugarcoat or shy away from. The romance (the hookup and then resultant forgiveness) felt rushed to me but only because of the tight timeframe (and the plot device of keeping the main character at the house). Overall, I found this to be a welcome foray into the contemporary period and I hope the author continues to write more!

Wow. That was just not what I expected. I expected a contemporary romance....not a rom com, but for sure a romance. What I got was a Succession meets Inheritance Games story of a truly unlikeable family. I don't know if MacLean wanted us to feel her disdain for money and people and business or if she just actually loves horrible humans, but this was a rough road. I actually liked Jack at times and wanted to like Alice, but their in general, they all behaved in ways that embarrassed me through the pages. I finished because I wanted to see how it all played out but am not sure that I feel satisfied by my own choices.

Not sure if it's a format issue, but my version had 172 parentheticals and it was very distracting. I enjoyed the book overall, but would have loved a heavier family- drama. It's Succession-light. Everyone is awful (which is fine)- I wanted more awful? The only time I found myself engaged was when Alice was alone with Jack.

Sarah Maclean is a master of the genre. I loved so much about this book! I was nervous we wouldn’t get the witty prose all her historical romances have in a contemporary, but this one has some great one liners.

The characters felt real, and the grief felt real. This book was beautifully written.

I didn’t fully buy into the main characters falling in love, which is why I took off a star. But overall I very much enjoyed and would highly recommend this book!

Ok, admittedly I wasn’t really sold on the plot because mega-rich people kind of give me the iiiick...but the author is so funny, leaning into the discomfort the rest of us have towards the 1%. Her descriptions are a sharp and cynical and I related to it so hard.

I received an ARC, this is only my third review but I LOVE NETGALLEY. So, thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for making my week.

The summary:

It’s set in Rhode Island, on private island owned by a super wealthy family. The storms are heirs to a massive tech company fortune. But when their father dies there’s a surprise hitch to getting his money. Instead of splitting the fortune outright, each sibling must complete a uniquely tailored, uniquely painful challenge, issued by handwritten letters from their late father (his last words).


Alice was exiled from her family 5 years ago over some business dealings and hasn’t spoken to her family —even her 3 siblings since. Her homecoming is as controversial as her fall from grace, fraught with tension and resentment. It’s awkward.

Complicating matters even more is Jack, a guy she meets on the train up from the city. There’s an enemies-to-lovers trope but their romance struggles to take off thanks to a frustrating (yet effective) failure-to-launch dynamic despite the rage chemistry simmering in the background the intense Storm family drama.

The family is trying to grieve, but a lifetime of dysfunction has handicapped their emotional processing and they’re otherwise distracted by their impending financial ruin. It’s sloppy.

If I had to pick something that I didn’t like (which I don’t….I’m just saying…) it’s Sila. She was annoying, prissy, and there was nothing redeemable about her. She’s giving quintessential poor little rich girl and it grated on my nerves.

Jack, though? He was a delight.

Alice is loathing an upcoming homecoming that unfortunately she has to attend. Being that her last name is Storm everyone around the world knows her as one of the infamous Storms. With her father recently passing and summoning her family to the island they grew up on, Alice can't stay away even though she hasn't seen her siblings in almost half a decade. Once there the family realizes they must play a form of inheritance games to access their individual inheritances. Alice doesn't want any part of it, put stays partly for her siblings and partly because she's grieving. With mysterious one night stand Jack thrown into the mix of people on the island (he's the fixer), she's not sure how much she can take of her father's games before breaking.

I have been a huge fan of Sarah MacLean's historical romances. Chances are if you liked her HR books, you're probably going to like These Summer Storms as well. While this book wasn't heavily focused on romance, I still enjoyed the relationship between Jack and Alice.

I feel like These Summer Storms was a fairly easy read. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to stop. And yes, these characters are very complex. You tend to hate them and at the same time love them - just like you would a sibling - ha!

I stan for MacLean and so wanted to love this book. It's good. It's a lovely beach read. It's a vibe. Just don't think about it too long. Which is okay because you'll forget it as soon as you are done with it.

It's good. It's candy.

Sarah Maclean is one of my favorite historical romance writers and I've read one short work that of hers that was contemporary, so when I saw this novel of hers on NetGalley, I immediately requested it. As with her historical romances, These Summer Storms is intense and detailed and while it felt more women's fiction than romance, in places, it does end with the HEA.

These Summer Storms centers on Alice Storm and her very dysfunctional family. The novel begins with Alice returning to her family home (on a private island) upon news that her father has died. We learn that she's been estranged from the billionaire family for years, working and living independently from the wealth that she was brought up with, and almost immediately her family reminds her that she's going to have to work her way back into the fold. As the first day home progresses, it becomes clear that the patriarch of the family had plans in mind, upon his death, and those plans appeared to include pushing on the insecurities and wounds that each sibling and his wife had. And as the week progresses, we learn how Alice's one night stand factors in to all of this, as well as why the siblings do what they do and how they feel about what is happening.

The Summer Storms asks us to imagine what it must be like to live in a family where everyone is jockeying for position, thirsty for the love and attention of their parents, never quite getting what they want, and therefore always feeling a little out of sorts, a little unsatisfied, even when they think they're getting what they want/deserve. It plunges us into a world of refinement, not feelings, and how that philosophy can go terribly awry, resulting in a sibling dynamic that's better for the messiness. And while this novel could've let us cold and bitter, the ending is quite the opposite--warm and satisfactory.

Loved it - a perfect soapy rich-person romance, with a hint of class warfare of the best kind. Excellent escapist romance for this era.

Imagine having to play any games to get your inheritance after being a from your family and having to deal with this with a brother and sister whom you have no relationship with.
It also did a great job with this book. It is my first book by this author, but it will definitely not be my last.

These Summer Storms is a little family drama, a little romance and a lot of hot bodyguard vibes. If you loved Succession, Revenge, Brothers and Sisters, maybe even Dirty Sexy Money, it's a summer 2025 beach bag must read.

After the death of their patriarch, the Storms are gathering at their family home in Rhode Island. Even Alice, who was all but disowned, returns. But they find their inheritance has a catch, it's an all-or-nothing deal. They each must complete a task for all to secure the bag. Franklin Storm is still pulling the strings from the beyond with the help of fixer Jack Dean. Old wounds are reopened. And secrets are revealed on the sun-kissed shores of Newport. The question is, will the family be driven apart once and for all, or...? Like I'd tell you. All you need to know is, it is DELICIOUSLY FUN.

I've loved MacLean's historicals, so I shouldn't have doubted she'd work her magic in a contemporary setting. The picture she paints of Newport is sure to lure readers into historical romance to find out more about who might have walked the halls of some of these gorgeous mansions. If I didn't know better, I'd say this book is a little bit of a Trojan Horse. I love it.

Longtime (podcast) listener; first-time reader (I need to be in a very specific mood to pick up an historical).

Maclean has written a book for her readers who are looking to feel literary but still want the comfort of a capital-R Romance arc.

The whole "setting as character" rhetoric makes me cringe, so let's just call it Geography as Narrative.
This would not be the same book if it hadn't been set on Storm Island. Because a Gilded Age manor on a private island off the coast of New Hampshire is a *mood*.

Maclean takes great care in describing the island, the house, the weather. But the main POV character, the prodigal Alice, is a watercolor artist who hasn't been back in five years. So the attention to color, texture, light quality avoids feeling expository and instead works toward character development (Alice's, not Storm Island's, which is a character but you didn't hear it from me).

Alice's role is that of an observer. While not neutral, per se, she definitely has Middle Child energy: alienated, independent, and conflict avoidant. Her siblings also play the roles assigned to them by birth order. My favorite was Sam, whose text-to-speech running gag had me genuinely laughing out loud at times. Her mother is technically new money, but has Old Money energy. If you have "midday gin and tonic" on your bingo card, don't worry, they'll get there.

Jack, Alice's love interest, is a pirate. Ok, that's a lie. But I do know Maclean loves the name Jack for an MMC and also loves pirates. Jack was her dad's "fixer" and likes to silently show up where Alice happens to be. He also loves to sail and has a tattoo of both a compass *and* a sextant. So I only half-lied about the pirate thing.

They're all on Storm Island (name is destiny) because Alice's father recently died in a glider accident. He sounded like a fun-loving tyrant who garnered very mixed feelings from everyone who came into contact with him, including (and maybe especially) Alice.

The children are given tasks that they must abide by or complete within a week in order to get their inheritances. This could have easily turned Willy Wonka-esque device, where one by one each sibling learns their lesson and/or drops out. But the tasks are nuanced enough to avoid predictability and the lessons learned are never expressly laid out on the page for the reader. This is all to say, I think this will do very well on the book clubs circuit.

The romance is there, but doesn't steal the spotlight. It hits all the usual beats, but those beats are sped up and slowed down and rearranged to fit within the main storyline. By the end, I wanted Alice and Jack to be together because I like the idea of someone finding their person where and when they least expect it. But would I bet the Storm estate on an HEA? Eh...

All in all, I would recommend this for the unique authorial voice (I especially appreciate the parenthetical asides) and unique take on family wealth, sibling dynamics, and the grief of losing someone you loved but maybe didn't like.

Thank you to Ballentine Books for the ARC. That was going to be a brutal countdown to July.

This was my first book by the author but it won’t be my last. The suspense, women’s fiction, and the emotions all made for a quick read. To play a game to win an inheritance is unheard of. The characters are oftentimes unlikable but well developed. Sibling rivalry comes into play but in the end works out. Thanks NetGalley for an arc.

WOW, this book took me by surprise: inheritance games, a super rich, dysfunctional family with many secrets. The story takes place in a beautiful setting, a New England island estate. This is a mix of women's fiction, suspense, sprinkled with romance and dang, the romance plot was so so good! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5!!

This is my first book by this author, but I will 100% be checking out her backlist.

"Bad decisions abounded that day, and he could easily be the worst of all of them."

"Don't you ever let yourself feel ordinary again."

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing this E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.