camille_caterpillar 's review for:

These Summer Storms: A Novel by Sarah MacLean

4.0

emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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If you wished Succession didn’t get quite as bleak, or if you wished The Gilded Age got a little wilder, then, my friend, you wished for THESE SUMMER STORMS. 

The four Storm children are summoned to their family’s summer estate to receive their inheritance—but there’s a catch. Actually, several. Conditions, secrets, and emotional landmines abound, and no one’s walking away unscathed. 

At the centre of it all is Alice, the third child and our main character. Shunned by the family for daring to challenge her father, Alice is a fiercely independent artist and teacher whose pride is both her armour and her Achilles’ heel. 

Greta, the eldest, has spent her life chasing the approval of a mother who seems constitutionally incapable of giving it. 

Then there’s Sam, the only son, and a walking cautionary tale of unchecked jealousy. He’s so consumed by his own bitterness that he becomes hilariously odious. Married to Silla, a gold digger with the emotional warmth of a glacier, and father to two children.
 

Emily, the youngest at 28, still acts like she’s 20, and not in a charming way. Her cowardice is her defining trait, but unlike the rest of the cast, she somehow escapes the narrative’s reckoning. Everyone else gets a moment of growth or at least self-awareness. This omission bugged me a bit.

Presiding over this emotional circus is Elizabeth, the Storm matriarch. Icy, imperious, and seemingly allergic to kindness, Elizabeth is a fascinating study in emotional repression.

And then there’s Jack, the deceased patriarch’s right-hand man. Smoking hot, obviously. While this isn’t a romance per se, Sarah MacLean’s roots in the genre shine through, especially in the scenes involving Jack and Alice.

This book was a ride—laugh-out-loud funny in places, deeply frustrating in others, and unexpectedly moving. The ending was almost perfectly satisfying. The only sour note? The dead patriarch’s bizarre involvement in Alice and Jack’s

happy ending

. It was weird. Borderline gross. But not enough to ruin the payoff.