The Storm by Rachel Hawkins

e-ALC, 07:48:45
Narrated by: Alex Knox, Cathi Colas, Dan Bittner, Jane Oppenheimer, Patti Murin, Petrea Burchard, Stephanie Nemeth-Parker
Release Date: January 6, 2026
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Read from: January 3, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Murder, Death, Dementia, Violence, Adult/Minor Relationship, Toxic Relationship, Abortion, Death of a Parent, Infertility
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Multiple POV, Mystery, Realistic Fiction

     St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.

     When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears a writer is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s less interested in solving a whodunnit than in how a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn’s bottom line. But to her surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. With him is none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name once and for all, but the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores.
     As the summer heats up and another monster storm begins twisting its way towards St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva learns that some people can be just as destructive—and as deadly—as any hurricane, and that the truth of what happened to Landon Fitzroy may not be the only secret Lo is keeping…

 

 

*MY THOUGHTS*

I have to make a disclaimer before I review this. This was described to me as a thriller so I went into this thinking the whole thing was going to be something else. But it wasn’t. It was very different. And because of that, I rated it according to what I really felt while reading. So please make sure we’re not just tacking on words just because.

With that being said, it wasn’t a thriller. The most thrilling part was the ending, but I just said that was part of the climax. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t a thriller. The mystery throughout the story tho was very good! Geneva is just trying to keep her inn open. I couldn’t imagine what this character must have looked like when the person accused of murder in 1984 showed up at the inn. As things start to turn up, it just got weirder and weirder lol And I enjoyed the way things started coming out and coming together.

The historical part of this was my favorite. I have a strange obsession with cold cases. I read them, I watch them, I go back and check on the ones I know about, just everything. And since I read one and I read it via audio, I can truthfully say this was the best idea. Each new bit of evidence has a different narrator and it has an old timey sound to it. The production of this audio was amazing. It truly drew me more into the story. But I think the most emotional part was the talk of the past storms and the mention of the coming storm. I live in a place where we also have to prep for hurricane season and I felt a lot of what she mentioned throughout the novel. One quote in particular stood out to me, where she said she felt betrayed by the water. I have never felt more seen in a book. I’ve lived by the Gulf of MEXICO my entire life and I have never felt as betrayed as I had after living through both Hurricanes Ike and Harvey. Like, that was MY water, MY GULF. We went there to have fun, for field trips and family outings. We did community service there and so much more. Call me dramatic if you must, but it really hurt me to have lived through those.

The ending tho? Lordt it was all over the place. And I did not see that plot twist coming. I figured one part of it, but I had no idea about the part that came almost immediately after lol I genuinely had to go back and re-listen to some parts because i was flabbergasted. And the way some things happened, I was yelling like wtf? It was a lot lol And then the storm came and it just got chaotic. But then she blacked out and it was over. If the whole book had been like the ending I think I would have been ok with saying it was a thriller. But since it was just that one part, I truly think I would have enjoyed it better if I had just seen it was called a historical mystery.

This was a sort of surprise. I wasn’t expecting a lot that happened in this story. From the writing to the whodunit. I had a good time, but I spent so much of it waiting for the thriller part of this book to appear. I guess I just wanted more. If the whole thing had happened during the hurricane I think I would have rated it higher. Alas, it’s a good story, but I felt bamboozled I guess.

Overall, I give this