Book Review: Chase Me If You Can by Heather Frances

Official Synopsis: Wedding photographer Sloane Michaels spends most of her year running after brides, but she lives for the six weeks each spring she chases tornadoes instead. When the prestigious magazine Nature Shots announces a storm cover contest, Sloane knows that winning could be her best opportunity to establish herself in landscape photography.

The last thing she needs is a distraction in the form of reckless “Wild Wes” Talbot. A legend among storm chasers, he’s been Sloane’s close, personal frenemy for the last decade and is the man to beat for the cover contest.

Sloane isn’t surprised when Wes gets in an accident that jeopardizes his chances. But with an active weather pattern emerging, she doubles down on her need to beat Wes fair and square, and begrudgingly invites him to join her for the remainder of the season.

As they race through hail, high winds, and stormy skies, Sloane realizes that Wes might be more than the rich, flirty, Texas wildcard she thought she knew — and that the feelings blooming between them are more charged and dangerous than the storms they’re chasing.

Sloane Michaels is a wedding photographer with a fierce summer hobby...she spends six weeks each summer in Tornado Alley trying to get the perfect picture of a tornado. When a popular magazine announces a photo contest that could potentially change her life, Sloane is determined to spend her time trying to find the perfect shot. Each of the photographers in the contest is after the same thing, a beautiful tornado, perfect storm structure, the infamous lightning bolt and tornado shot. Sloane is determined to prove to not only herself and the magazine, but to the other chasers that she is meant to be out there too.

But each summer, she runs into Wes Talbot, a popular wild boy chaser who seems to always push the boundaries on safety. Wes has constantly been a thorn in her side, finding ways to get close to her just the share flirty smiles and winks before charging back into danger. Sloane kept help but keep running into Wes, as her best friend is engaged to his, and he just seems to be everywhere. When Sloane ends up finding Wes on the side of the road, truck with blown out windows and looking worse for wear, she decides to help him out. But now they are chasing together in her car while her brother fixes his truck, sharing close hotel rooms, working together to find the perfect chase spot and sharing their hopes for the photo contest. The longer they spend cramped in the small space of her car, and he starts to show the small ways he is willing to act safe for her...Sloane's feelings about Wes start to change. Now Wes is helping her get the perfect shot for the magazine competition, one he is participating in too, helping grow her confidence in her art.

Spending their time together on the plains moving quickly between towns, staring down the barrel of the camera at storms, and finding safety in their crazy hobby, their feelings for each other start to change and soon they are sharing more than just the car as they chase.

For anyone who wishes they would have kissed at the end of Twisters this book is definitely for you. Sloane and Wes have a sort of 'he loves her but shows her by picking on her' vibe, until Sloane starts to see this different side of him while they spend so much time together. As they start to concentrate more on getting Sloane the perfect shot, they share their experiences in life as well as what they want in the future. I really liked how the characters came together over a mutual love of weather, while still competing against each other for this contest. We get to see them chase storms safely, and the weather parts of the book are described really well. I loved how storm structure and tornadoes were described within the text, as well as those 'quiet' moments of chasing where you are just waiting in you car for hours.

I am really excited both as a meteorologist and a reader to see more storm chasing novels hitting the shelves this year/summer. This is my first dive into storm chasing romance and it was really well written with a lot of good meteorology and the romance aspects I missed in Twisters. ( A hill I will die on...they should have kissed.) This book does have quite a few spicy moments once they start to happen, there is a sort-of third act breakup, but overall a happy ending with the two characters figuring out how to trust each other. There is some background plot of shitty/non-understanding parents, but overall the books stress is mostly brought on by Mother Nature herself.

Sloane has a lot of fun takes on how weather compares to emotions and overall rage and I honestly can't help but agree. You can definitely tell that that author has spent time storm chasing and appreciating weather, and knowing how powerful Mother Nature can be. The story feels like a mix of emotions that you experience when you love someone but also when you are familiar with the power of severe weather. Even without the author or characters being meteorologists, there is definitely a lot of understanding of weather as a whole throughout the story.

On a funny, non-spoiler note, I would love to shout out the fun little inside joke of Wes, who is very tall, sending shower selfies to Sloane to show if the showers were meant for him or not. Overall just a very funny bit to have throughout the story, especially when he is described as being 'too tall for life'.

I rated this book 4.5 / 5 stars!

Chase Me If You Can comes out June 23, 2026!

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