Whirlwind by Kayla Grosse
For those who love tornados and steamy romances
I had to fan myself a couple times while also simultaneously nerding out due to a major plot point revolving around weather (my personal special interest… it’s honestly out of hand).
Finley Buckley is a 25-year-old meteorology masters student who has a childhood crush on her professor, renowned storm chaser Ryker West. The magnetic pull they’ve had towards each other all year finally reaches a breaking point during their first storm chase together. Now, Finley and Ryker are stuck together all weekend for an official storm chasing expedition across Oklahoma with his team and our lovebirds have to decide if the risks of accepting the nature of their relationship is worth it (in particular from the univeristy’s HR).
It’s a quick read (which was personally great for me since I had just finished a 28 hour audiobook), clocking in at 6h 49m for the audiobook. The audiobook is really cool because it’s a duet with three voice actors (“duet” means the same voice actor will be voicing the same character throughout the book. For example, it might be the male lead’s POV chapter, but whenever the heroine has dialogue, the heroine’s voice actor will say the line instead of the other actor impersonating it) and it has special sound effects in the background, such as windchimes in the background or the weather alert phone alarm going off. Honestly, it tricked me a few times, thinking it was my own phone! But the book has a disclaimer right before the book begins to avoid any panic.
We’ve got a SLEW of tropes going on here: teacher-and-student romance, childhood crush, vast age difference (still very entirely legal and everyone is fully adult), prolonged tension… should I go on?
The lovely thing about this book is that it’s meant simply for enjoyment. Yes, doing the dirty with your college professor usually comes with extreme consequences for both parties. Yes, the age difference is a little weird for most people. Yes, the characters do face consequences if it all goes wrong. But, as I’ve said before, this is a work of fiction and this work in particular is meant to let us live out some ✨fantasies✨ for anyone who’s ever thought about what it would be like to get with their hot professor (or, like me, wondered what it would be like to have a hot professor. Period.) The author certainly did a great job with the timing of the setting so the characters have a moment to freely act out on their desires. It’s a chef’s kiss.
The other thing I love is the character’s passion for meteorology and their appreciation for natural phenomena. It’s contagious. It’s exactly how I feel about hurricanes and tornadoes on a daily basis (AKA I think they’re cool AF and could talk about them all day if anyone would let me). It’s the main reason I picked up this book. HONEST. The romance was secondary lol.
Whirlwind is available wherever books are sold. Highly recommend obtaining a copy from Bookshop.org or Libro.fm