I went into this one knowing it was going to be sad, but luckily, it wasn’t as sad as I thought it would be (though there were some tears). But come on, storm chasers? I was having visions of Twister meets sexy times. For the most part, I was close.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
One-Sentence Synopsis
The fiance of a deceased storm chaser joins his team and ends up falling for his best friend. For a full synopsis, see this book’s Goodreads page.
Unexpected Loss
Right away, this story starts off on a depressing note. Drew is excited to be getting married to her fiance, Colby, and even though he’s currently chasing a big storm that has devastated a whole area and everyone is worried about him, Drew knows he’s fine. Sure enough, he calls her to tell her he’s okay.
And the next morning, the police show up to tell her he was hit by a car and is in the hospital, close to death.
Needing a Change
Fast forward a year later. Drew feels aimless and unsure of what she’s doing with her life when one of Colby’s storm chasing teammates invites her to join them on a trip to Oklahoma. Knowing she wants to do something to shake things up, she agrees.
Long Held Crushes
Colby’s best friend, Aiden, has had a thing for Drew for years. When he sees that she’ll be traveling with them, he vows to keep his distance. This is partially in honor of his friend and partially because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. It’s hard to keep his distance though when he’s paired with her on the road to show her the ins and outs (no pun intended) of storm chasing.
Sad, Then Not Sad
When it started out sad, I expected the whole tone of the story to be super low and kind of melancholy, but it wasn’t. It was actually a fun read with some good storm chasing scenes and interesting character interactions. Drew misses her fiance, but enough time has passed that she’s ready to move on, and of course she notices how good Aiden looks. It doesn’t help that she catches him getting it on with another woman, a scene that titillates her more than anything else.
Teamwork
The side characters are great and I’d love to see stories for all of them as well. Though they weren’t talked about in detail, enough was given to pique my interest. I especially wanted to see something between the good ol’ boy and the nerdy girl, but no relationship or foreplay was alluded to. I even liked the older sassy woman that Drew visited in the camping area where the team stayed while chasing in Oklahoma.
The Romance Factor
The passion between Drew and Aiden was strong, but I liked the angst that was there as well. Aiden has that complex about not being good enough for Drew, but there’s also the fact that he doesn’t want to move in on his best friend’s woman…even though his best friend has been gone for a year. Also, the fights these two had felt intense, which upped the conflict, which gave me feels. 4/5
The Steam Factor
Voyeurism isn’t something I see a lot of in romance, probably because it doesn’t always work for the heroine to see the hero getting it on with another woman. However, Drew secretly watching Aidan with a one-night stand was kind of hot and set things up for what I wanted to see happen between them. There was also definitely a nice mix of sex and storm adrenaline going on. Because thunderstorm sex is so hot right now. 4/5
Final Thoughts
Except for a few differences, it really was like reading a sexier version of Twister, and I loved it. The characters felt real, the relationship between Drew and Aiden felt well developed (probably because Aiden had been holding onto some feelings for a long time), and the storm chases were awesome. Definitely a fun way to spend a couple hours and a nice way to kick off storm season in Kansas.
The Romance Factor 