Published by Balantine Books on July 8, 2025
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Fiction
Rating:
Goodreads
New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean’s first foray into contemporary fiction, with a sharp, sexy novel about a wealthy New England family's long-overdue reckoning with hidden desires, destructive secrets…and one 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’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. The rules of the game are clear: stay on the island for one week, complete the tasks, receive the inheritance.
One week on Storm Island is an impossible task for Alice. Every corner of the sprawling old house is bursting dysfunctional chaos: Her older sister’s secret love affair. Her brother’s incessant mansplaining. Her sister-in-law’s unapologetic greed. Her younger sister’s obsession with "vibes". Her mother’s penchant for stirring up competition between her children. And all under the stern, watchful gaze of Jack Dean, her father’s enigmatic, unfairly good-looking, second-in-command. It will be a miracle if Alice manages to escape the week unscathed.
A story about the transformative power of grief, love, and family, this luscious novel is at once deliciously clever and surprisingly tender, exploring past secrets, present truths, and futures forged in the wake of wild summer storms.
It had been five years since she was exiled by her family, but following her father's death, Alice returned to her childhood home for some inheritance games where her father was pulling the strings from the great beyond.
Grab some popcorn and just sit back and enjoy all this delicious drama. I was enthralled by this family. There was so much tension and such an interesting and complex dynamic at play as they all tried to fulfill their father's last wishes in hopes of earning his billions.
I was always rooting for Alice, and I could not resist Jack - the fixer. They were both early favorites, but I was surprised by how some of the others grew on me. This week of forced family time pushed some long lingering issues to the forefront. It had them taking stock and reflecting on their lives. I was rather pleased with the direction everyone was heading at the end.
Overall, this was a book that I devoured. The drama, the mystery, the romance - I was here for all of it, and I loved every second of it.
Published by Berkley on May 6, 2025
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Rating:
Goodreads
Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer there at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.
Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.
Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.
Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.
Alice had spent one memorable summer at the lake, and now, was in need of its comfort as she attempts to rebuild her life.
Fortune is on my short list of authors-who-can-do-no-wrong. I swear! I found myself lost in this story, and I just could not get enough of it. This was the sequel I didn't think I needed but am so glad exists. I really adored my trip back to Barry's Bay where I got to catch up with the main characters from Every Summer After, and was thrilled that Charlie was the star this time around.
Charlie was the brother not chosen, but you could tell he wanted what Sam and Percy had, and I wanted it for him!!! Alice was wonderful and at a crossroads in her life. She and Charlie fit together so well, and I was rooting hard for these two kids to make this lake thing permanent. The perfect balance of light and hefty moments, I was swept away by this tale which filled my heart with so much warmth and joy.
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