Some storms cleanse, others destroy—but in Sarah MacLean’s The Summer Storms, they do both.
A sweeping family drama full of secrets, games, and unexpected love, this story kept me turning the pages late into the night.
Book Title: The Summer Storms
Author: Sarah MacLean
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: July 8, 2025
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Family Drama
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
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Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean’s first foray into contemporary fiction delivers a sharp, layered novel about a wealthy New England family’s long-overdue reckoning with hidden desires, destructive secrets, and one fateful week that threatens to tear them apart.
Alice isn’t like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents’ approval, attention, and untold billions, she left—building her own life beyond the family name and influence. Nothing could bring her back…except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Returning to the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, Alice plans to keep her head down, pay her final respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over.
But her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and children a final challenge—an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel them in ways both petty and profound. The rules are simple: stay on the island for one week, complete the tasks, and receive the inheritance.
One week on Storm Island proves impossible. Every corner of the sprawling old house teems with dysfunction: a sister hiding a forbidden love affair, a brother full of arrogance, a sister-in-law’s greed, the youngest sibling’s obsession with “vibes,” and a mother who thrives on competition. Over it all looms Jack Dean—her father’s enigmatic, dangerously charming right-hand man. If Alice survives the week, it will be nothing short of a miracle.
A story about the transformative power of grief, love, and family, These Summer Storms is clever, tender, and deeply human—exploring past secrets, present truths, and futures forged in the wake of wild summer storms.
Why You'll Love It
- Cutthroat Family Dynamics: If you love messy, high-stakes family secrets and siblings pitted against each other (think *Succession* meets a beach read).
- High-Stakes Inheritance Game: A structured, manipulative challenge left by a deceased patriarch creates relentless tension and forces characters into brutal confrontations.
- Atmospheric Island Setting: The story is confined to a private island off the Rhode Island coast, making the mood tense, isolated, and highly dramatic, with literal storms mirroring the emotional chaos.
- The "Outsider" Trope: Alice's journey from family exile to reluctant participant grounds the novel, offering a clear character to root for as she fights an established power structure.
Mind Games by Nora Roberts — a powerful blend of suspense and emotion set against the quiet beauty of Kentucky hills.
My Review
The siblings embody dysfunction in sharp, distinct ways. Her brother, consumed by arrogance, treats every conversation like a battlefield. A sister hides a forbidden romance, her choices rippling through the family. The youngest leans into “vibes” and appearances, a softer mask for deeper insecurities. Their mother hovers with a cold, cutting presence that makes every misstep sting sharper. The family bonds are fragile at best—and the envelope tasks only amplify the cracks.
If you’ve enjoyed authors I’ve featured like
Catherine Bybee, RaeAnne Thayne, or Sharon Sala, These Summer Storms delivers that same satisfying mix of secrets, conflicts, and emotional release. It’s a story that lingers well after the last page.
Then there’s Jack Dean—introduced first as the mysterious stranger Alice encounters on a train, leading to a fleeting hotel tryst where neither shares names. Only later does she realize he is her father’s right-hand man, the “fixer” who kept Storm Island running. Jack’s presence is steady, practical, and maddeningly calm compared to the chaos around him. The connection between Alice and Jack is combustible, but it’s Jack’s grounding presence that helps Alice navigate the storm—both literal and emotional—that awaits her.
When the family secret surfaces near the end, it lands not as a cheap twist but as the storm’s inevitable eye. It reframes everything—the patriarch’s control, Alice’s exile, and the siblings’ fractures. The reveal pushes each character to reckon with whether they value wealth, approval, or something far harder: love and forgiveness.
The recurring storm imagery is more than clever wordplay—it’s symbolic. Storms mark turning points: the chaos of childhood games, the event that split Alice from her family, and the literal storm that crashes in on the final inheritance showdown. MacLean threads this motif until the storm becomes almost a character itself, uprooting trees, secrets, the family, and the island itself.
Favorite Quotes
“Alice, if I pitied you, I would be able to keep my hands off of you.”
“He doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you.”
“Dads are like that,” she said softly. “They’re the first kings we know, for better or worse.”
Final Thoughts
These Summer Storms isn’t a love story—it’s a story about survival, control, and what happens when the fragile bonds of family are tested in the harshest way. Sarah MacLean takes her signature gift for character-driven drama and applies it to a contemporary setting, showing that she can move beyond historical romance without losing her emotional punch.
The Storm family’s inheritance game may be fictional, but the feelings it stirs—resentment, grief, jealousy, and the desperate need for approval—ring true. Alice’s journey from exile to reluctant participant grounds the novel, while Jack Dean offers just enough steadiness to keep her from being swept away. And the storm, both literal and symbolic, becomes the perfect mirror of the chaos inside the house.
This was a true page-turner. Sarah MacLean’s writing makes Storm Island vivid—you can almost hear the thunder rolling in as secrets crack open. The tension of the tasks, the dysfunction of the siblings, and Alice’s complicated connection with Jack make for a story that feels both intimate and sweeping.
My only disappointment was how quickly the ending was tied up. After so many pages of slow-building tension leading into the final storm, the resolution came together in just a few paragraphs. It left me wishing for a bit more closure on certain characters and their arcs.
Mixed reactions from early readers show this book won’t be for everyone, but I found it immersive, unsettling, and deeply compelling. If you’re willing to weather the storms, this one is worth the ride.
“Sometimes the fiercest storms aren’t in the sky at all—they’re the ones we inherit.”
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