A fun fact about myself: when I was about 7 or 8 years old, I saw the film Twister (the original) for the first time, much to the dismay of my family and friends, because I can’t say how many times I’ve seen it since—but it must be several dozens. Watching this film led to my fascination with tornadoes. Since then, whenever I can watch a film, TV series or TV programme about tornadoes, I do. I don’t think I’ll ever get to see one in real life—they’re very rare in my country—but I’ll always be amazed at what nature can create, even if I deplore the number of victims and the damage tornadoes cause. Anyway, all this is to say that when Kayla Grosse announced she was writing a book about storm chasers, I was sure I would read it and love it. Spoiler alert: I did. 

 

Again, the only thing that made me put my Kindle down while reading this book was the fact that the Sandman came to knock me out so I could finally get some sleep. I really did devour this novel from beginning to end. I was as fascinated by the storm chasing scenes as I was by the relationship between T-Daddy… er Ryker and Finley. The two of them were as endearing as they were at times unbearable. Repeat after me: COM-MU-NI-CA-TION! Now, isn’t that difficult? Is it? 🤣 All joking aside, I really liked the two main characters in Whirlwind. 

 

Finley is an extremely intelligent and determined FMC. She has given herself the tools to succeed in the field she is so passionate about and I am a huge fan of her. Ryker is an MMC who knows how to grovel and proves that he would do it for Finley for miles and miles after the mistakes he made at the beginning of the book. It was interesting to get their respective perspectives on the consequences of a teacher-student relationship. It wasn’t just ‘who cares, you only live once’, but inner reflections that rightly weighed up all the pros and cons of this forbidden relationship. 

 

I was happy to see Jake from the Cowboys of Night Hawk series again. Since Finley is his cousin and best friend, the conversations they have together are sincere and we finally get to know more about him. I loved Joey! Seriously, he almost steals the show from Ryker and Finley in this book, his presence is so crucial. As for Hawk, he lives up to his nickname in so many ways, and even though Ezra is a character who’s a little less visible, I really wanted to find out more about him. I don’t think I would have minded finding several seasons of Tempest Trackers to sink my teeth into 😄 

 

Whirlwind is a novel that only confirms that Kayla Grosse has become an author whose books I will read as soon as they come out. I highly recommend this book. 

 

Thanks to Kayla Grosse for giving me the opportunity to receive an ARC of Whirlwind. This review is my own. All opinions expressed are mine.