These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
ARC from PRH Audio, Ballantine Books and Netgalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
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’s name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over.
Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge–an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel the Storm family in ways both petty and life-altering.
My Review: 4 stars
These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean is the perfect example of a highly functioning dysfunctional family that are meeting up for the reading of their father’s will.
I had no idea what this book was about when I began to listen, and within minutes I was hooked. Alice, the FMC, was the only sibling not wrapped up in her family’s immense wealth and pretty much ridded herself from the family. She decided to suck it up, go to Storm Island, yes, they own the island, and then leave the next day. Upon arrival however, each family member was given a letter from their deceased dad with a different task. These tasks were demeaning and some bordered on ridiculous. Alice’s task was different though, which caused a lot of discontent between the siblings. Additionally, her one night stand with a stranger from the train turns out to be a large plot point and a good addition the story.
I really enjoyed the many ways the word “storm” came into play. It was an obvious play on words, but it still worked for me. How everyone handled themselves, grew from their father’s games and competitive spirit all ended up being a more realistic ending than I thought it would.
Quotes I liked:
Her father was incredibly easy to fall in love with, and absolutely impossible to love.”
“It’s always worth leaving when someone doesn’t want you to stay.”
“Cute how you think having children makes you a grown-up.”
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