{"id":4654,"date":"2025-11-01T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2025-11-01T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T05:05:00","slug":"the-storm-by-rachel-hawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4654","title":{"rendered":"The Storm by Rachel Hawkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Storm<\/strong> by Rachel Hawkins<\/a>
on January 6, 2026
Genres:<\/strong> Fiction \/ Gothic<\/a>, Fiction \/ Thrillers \/ Psychological<\/a>, Fiction \/ Thrillers \/ Suspense<\/a>
Pages:<\/strong> 288
Format:<\/strong> ARC<\/a>
Buy on Amazon<\/a>
Goodreads<\/a> <\/p>\n

Rachel Hawkins returns with another atmospheric, gothic-tinged thriller\u2014this time set against the haunting backdrop of Alabama\u2019s Gulf Coast, where hurricanes aren\u2019t the only storms that leave destruction in their wake.<\/p>\n

St. Medard\u2019s Bay is known for three things: its deadly hurricanes, the century-old Rosalie Inn, and the long-ago scandal surrounding Lo Bailey, the local girl accused of murdering her lover, Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.<\/p>\n

Decades later, Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, is barely keeping the doors open. When a writer, August Fletcher, arrives in town to research the infamous murder\u2014and brings Lo Bailey herself along\u2014Geneva sees a chance to revive her struggling business. But as old secrets resurface and another powerful storm barrels toward St. Medard\u2019s Bay, Geneva realizes that Lo\u2019s return may have more to do with revenge than redemption.<\/p>\n

And in a town where every hurricane seems to claim a life, Geneva begins to wonder if the past ever truly stays buried.<\/p>\n

My Thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This was such a moody, atmospheric thriller that took me a little while to settle into\u2014but once I did, I was completely hooked. Rachel Hawkins does what she does best here: she builds a setting that feels alive, claustrophobic, and humming with secrets.<\/p>\n

In the present day, we meet Geneva Corliss, who\u2019s reluctantly taken over the Rosalie Inn after her mother\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s worsens. She\u2019s a character I grew to admire\u2014the kind of woman who quietly evolves into her strength. She came home with a boyfriend who didn\u2019t last, but the loss only made her more independent and grounded.<\/p>\n

The story alternates between the present and the past, slowly revealing the tangled web connecting Geneva\u2019s mother, Ellen (the good girl) and her two friends\u2014Lo (the wild one) and Frieda (the odd duck)\u2014to a murder that made St. Medard\u2019s infamous. Each of these women has a storm attached to her story, both literally and metaphorically, and I loved how Hawkins used the hurricanes as emotional and narrative anchors. The storms are all named after women, and they feel like living characters themselves\u2014volatile, destructive, unforgettable.<\/p>\n

As the newest storm builds on the horizon, so does the tension. The pacing in the last third had me holding my breath\u2014everything collides in a way that\u2019s both tragic and satisfying. Hawkins masterfully connects the timelines and reveals how past sins ripple through generations.<\/p>\n

I loved how the Rosalie Inn and the storms mirror each other\u2014resilient, battered, and full of ghosts. The setting truly shines, and by the end, I felt like I could hear the wind howling outside the Inn\u2019s shuttered windows.<\/p>\n

Overall, The Storm<\/em> is a slow-burn southern gothic thriller full of secrets, sisterhood, and survival. It\u2019s haunting, beautifully written, and deeply immersive\u2014the kind of story that creeps under your skin and stays there.<\/p>\n

A very huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin\u2019s Press for sharing this addictive thriller\u2019s eARC with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/div>\n<\/p>

The post The Storm by Rachel Hawkins<\/a> appeared first on Book Nook Buzz<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins on January 6, 2026 Genres: Fiction \/ Gothic, Fiction \/ Thrillers \/ Psychological, Fiction \/ Thrillers \/ Suspense Pages: 288 Format: ARC Buy on Amazon Goodreads Rachel Hawkins returns with another atmospheric, gothic-tinged thriller\u2014this time set against the haunting backdrop of Alabama\u2019s Gulf Coast, where hurricanes aren\u2019t the only storms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}