In Stormy Weather by Chelsea Curto

 

Summary (from the publishers): From USA Today bestselling indie author Chelsea Curto comes an academic rivals-to-lovers romance about storm-chasing meteorologists during hurricane season in Florida—perfect for fans of Ali Hazelwood and B.K. Borison.

Nothing can rain on Quincy Monroe’s parade. She’s a woman-in-STEM with a PhD in atmospheric sciences, the host of a successful online weather show, and has one million followers on her meteorology Instagram.

Quincy has spent endless hours forging her path in this male-dominated field, becoming one of the best in the industry. And with a new job opportunity, nothing can derail her success. Except for the ill-timed arrival of Sebastian Dunn.

Sebastian is her best friend’s brother, her long-suffering academic and professional rival, and a flashy TV weatherman from New York City that everyone swoons over. Everyone but Quincy.

Over a scorching Florida summer and record-breaking hurricane season, Sebastian and Quincy are forced into close proximity. Setting aside their grudges to chase storms and stay alive is one thing, but can they weather the inevitable collision of their hearts?

Review: Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book, which will be out on July 16th!

This is the third extreme weather romance I have read this year, and I have enjoyed them all! There are a lot of elements that I enjoyed about this one: 

• Love a best friend's brother trope. Sebastian has always been down bad for Quincy since way back in school; she just was too caught up in herself to see it. 
• LOVE that they're both in meteorology!! They are both successful and impressive in their own right. I love that Quincy has built up this social media following around forecasting and has over a million followers. When they start sparring while she's on live stream, I ate it up. It was so fun to see viewers live reactions to their on-air back and forth. 
• The stormy weather. The hurricanes and extreme weather tracking and chasing add a lot of tension and high stakes to this. I love how excited the characters get for it and how passionate they are about it. 
• Love that Quincy is a woman in STEM and fighting to be recognized in a male-dominated and sexist field. I was like get it, girl, show them who's boss. 
• Their friend group was also great. I love that Quincy's friend is a best-selling author and am hoping we get her story in a future book. 
• I did love the grand gesture type scene at the end when they finally get together for real. I was eating it up. 

I do have mixed feelings on a few points. But I want to emphasize that overall, I still enjoyed this and would recommend it. But here are my cons that keep me from rating it higher: 

• I love a lot of their banter. But sometimes it veered into too mean for me. Also, sometimes Sebastian was giving, "He's just picking on you because he likes you." I couldn't help but think if he had just stopped giving her a hard time in school and instead showed his real interest, maybe this could have been a very different story. 
• The sexism in this felt too heavy handed at times. I do not at all doubt that this is a sexist field but a lot of times nowadays, it's more subtle. This almost felt like a caricature of old, white men behavior. And I also didn't love that it's Sebastian who fights her battles with the National Weather Service. Love that he shows up for her, but she can take care of herself, Seb. 
• Some of this felt repetitive. Over and over, Sebastian indicates that he thinks he has deeper feelings for her. Over and over she just mutely stares at him at shock. Cut to them continuing to casually hook up. Cut to another scene where he admits he maybe has feelings. I just feel like it went on a bit long and maybe she should have believed him that he was into her well before she finally did. 
• WHY in the SAM h-e-ll did they go to the scene of a category 5 hurricane. That was SO unnecessary and dangerous. I appreciate the trauma bonding and the tub scene but good lord, way to stress me out for NO reason. They could have covered the storm from a safe distance. 
• This is very open door (which is fine) but some of the things they say to each other in the heat of the moment gave me the ICK. I don't want to even quote it here but let's just say he suggests some fingerpainting style activities with bodily secretions to her in the heat of the moment and it was NOT IT for me. 

I was wondering the whole book how the ending would go as far as their two careers, which were really both at a crossroads during this book and at the point where they get together. I have to say I was surprised by the ending in that regard, which was not what I was expecting! But I actually did like the way it ended up a lot. 

Stars: 3.5