A therapist’s take on These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
Spoiler-light: I’m talking about the family and relationship themes, but I’m not giving away the bigger reveals.
There is a lot happening in These Summer Storms. A billionaire family. A private island. An inheritance game created by a controlling father from beyond the grave. Siblings with secrets. Family drama everywhere. And, because we still need a little fun with our dysfunctional-family reckoning, there is also Jack Dean.
Alice Storm has spent years away from her family, building a life that belongs to her instead of the Storm name. Then her father dies, and suddenly she is right back with the people, expectations, and family dynamics she worked so hard to leave behind.
And whew. Families have a way of doing that, don’t they?
You can grow. You can build a completely different life. You can do years of work on yourself. Then you walk back into the room with your family and suddenly some part of you is 17 again.
That was the therapist theme I kept coming back to with Alice:
Sometimes the hardest part of changing isn’t figuring out who you want to be. It’s staying that person around people who are used to the old version of you.
The Storm siblings have each found their own way to survive their family. Alice’s way was leaving. But going back means being confronted with all of it again: her father’s control, family judgment, sibling dynamics, old hurts, old assumptions, and the question of how much she actually owes the family she came from.
If Alice Were Sitting Across From Me
I wouldn’t start by telling Alice she needed to forgive her family, reconnect with everyone, or “just set better boundaries.”
She already left.
I would want to understand what happens inside of her when she is back around them. Does she immediately feel like she has to defend herself? Does she expect to be misunderstood before anyone has even spoken? Is part of her still trying to prove that leaving was the right decision?
And maybe the biggest question: how much power does her family still have over the way she sees herself, even after all that time away?
I might listen for beliefs that sound something like:
“If I let them back in, they’ll pull me right back into the person I used to be.”
“If my family is upset with me, maybe I really am the problem.”
“Choosing myself means disappointing someone.”
“I have to prove that leaving was worth it.”
“If I don’t play along, everyone else will suffer because of me.”
“The only way I can protect myself is to stay away.”
Those aren’t direct quotes from Alice. They’re the kinds of beliefs I found myself wondering about while reading.
If Alice Were My Client
We might talk about the difference between having a boundary and needing everyone else to agree that the boundary is reasonable.
Because those are two very different things.
I would also want to look at the role Alice learned to play in her family and whether she still feels pressure to step back into it when she is around them. Families can be really good at handing us an old script and acting surprised when we decide we don’t want the part anymore.
We might get curious about what is actually hers to carry and what belongs to her parents, her siblings, or the family as a whole. I would want her to be able to care about her family without automatically becoming responsible for everyone’s reactions to her choices.
And I would probably spend some time with the guilt.
Because choosing yourself can feel wrong when you were taught that being a good daughter, sister, partner, or person meant keeping everyone else comfortable.
The goal wouldn’t necessarily be to help Alice cut her family off or pull everyone closer. It would be to help her trust herself enough to decide what kind of relationship she actually wants with them, instead of making that decision from guilt, anger, fear, or obligation.
You are allowed to love people and still decide that some of their expectations are not yours to carry.
A Question for You
Who do you become when you are around your family?
Do you still find yourself slipping into the fixer, the responsible one, the peacekeeper, the difficult one, or the person who stays quiet so nobody gets upset?
And maybe the harder question:
Are you making choices based on the life you want now, or are you still trying to be the person your family expects you to be?
You cannot change your family history. You cannot go back and undo the roles, expectations, or ways everyone learned to relate to each other.
But you can decide whether those old patterns get to keep deciding what happens next.
Healing doesn’t always mean getting your family to finally understand you. Sometimes it means understanding yourself well enough that their disappointment no longer automatically means you made the wrong choice.
If this brought up something familiar about family expectations, guilt, boundaries, or always feeling responsible for everyone else, it might be worth getting curious about the role you learned to play and whether it still fits.
Therapy can be a place to sort through what is actually yours to carry, what you are ready to put down, and how to make choices without needing everyone around you to be happy about them.
I offer virtual therapy for women in Oklahoma and Texas.
