A Book A Week

I’ve been looking forward to The Storm ever since I finished Rachel Hawkins’s last thriller, The Heiress, way back in January of 2024. Hawkins has established herself as the queen of the standalone popcorn thriller, and her yearly releases have become one of my favorite ways to kick off a new reading year. So when she hit pause on that schedule and didn’t release a new thriller in 2025, I found myself eagerly awaiting any scrap of news from one of my go-to authors.

Then, late last fall, I finally learned that Hawkins would be returning with a new thriller, The Storm, at the start of this year. Even better, my friends at St. Martin’s Press provided me with a copy to review. The wait was finally over! But would it be worth the wait?

I’m happy to report that I read this one in a single sitting, which is par for the course with a Hawkins thriller. The story is set around St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama—a coastal town with a notorious history of hurricanes and murder. Geneva Corliss is the current steward of the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel famous for surviving every deadly storm that’s ravaged the small town. The inn has seen better days, and times are tough for Geneva. Between keeping the Rosalie afloat and caring for her Alzheimer-riddled mother, she’s desperate for a break.

That break seems to arrive when August Fletcher, an author, chooses the Rosalie as his base while writing a true-crime book. His subject is Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of murdering her lover, political golden boy Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984. Geneva isn’t particularly interested in solving a decades-old crime, but she can’t help imagining the windfall the inn could see if the book becomes a bestseller.

When August arrives, however, he isn’t alone. He’s joined by his subject, Lo Bailey. Lo claims she’s returned to her hometown to finally clear her name, but the closer Geneva grows to both Lo and August, the more she begins to wonder whether Lo is really there for justice…or revenge. As yet another storm bears down on St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva finds herself caught in a tempest of secrets, lies, and a past that refuses to stay buried.

As I’ve already mentioned, The Storm pulled me in from the very first page, and I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it in one sitting. Hawkins relies on shifting perspectives, time jumps, and the ever-present threat of an approaching storm to generate suspense. It's a combination that propels the story forward at a relentless pace.

That said, I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything wrapped up a bit too neatly. I saw where the story was headed well before the major twists were revealed, and while I was thoroughly engaged in the moment, it didn’t quite linger with me after I turned the final page. Still, as a fast, entertaining popcorn thriller, The Storm delivers exactly what it promises. I was more than happy to spend an afternoon immersed in Rachel Hawkins’s writing, and I’m already looking forward to her next novel—hopefully arriving next year.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2026, 2)