not gonna miss my shot

Sloane Michaels is ready. She has her bags packed, she has an out-of-office notice on her website for her wedding photography business. She has reminder her brothers that they will have to help their mother for the next six weeks. And she is ready to find her unicorn shot, the one that is so rare it might come along once. This is her time of the year to chase what she loves most. Tornadoes.

Every year the photography magazine Nature Shots holds a contest for the best nature shot, and Sloane hits the road (along with many other photographers) to try to find the shot to win that contest. And they do that chasing storms. The tornadoes, the lightning, the clouds—the most dramatic combination wins, and this is Sloane’s year. She is getting burnt out on the demanding bridezillas and wants to make the switch to nature photography. So she has to win that contest.

She’ll be out on the roads with her best friend Tracy, Tracy’s fiancé Matt, and unfortunately, Matt’s friend Wes. Wes Talbot has a reputation for being an excellent photographer, but also for being a little crazy. He will take risks that others won’t, and that’s something Sloane won’t do. She has too much at stake. Her wedding photography pays her bills, but it won’t pay for a new car or new camera equipment if she were to find herself too deep in the storm. And she has family at home depending on her.

But when Wes does get caught a little too close to the storm and his car windows explode into his car, Sloane takes pity on him. For years they have sniped at each other while chasing storms, but she didn’t want to see him hurt or even sidelined from his photography. They’re not too far from her place in Colorado Springs, and her brother has a garage where Wes can get his car fixed. But when they find out it will take a few days to get the glass needed for the repairs, and more time yet to clear all the broken glass out from his doors, Sloane agrees to work with Wes and they go after the storms in her car together.

Their close proximity means that they are thrown into tight spaces together, and they they see glimpses of the private lives they usually keep hidden during storm season, so sparks start to fly. But as the dangerous tornadoes get closer, and the storm chasers do too, will Sloane decide to take some risks after all, but with her heart?

Chase Me If You Can is a debut novel about chasing storms and chasing the one you love. It blends heart and humor with flirting and romance, and it swept me away. I loved the chemistry between the leads, and I was so moved by how they reacted when one of the tornadoes they were chasing was heading for a small town. I have lived almost my entire life in places with those weekly tornado sirens, so I was happy to see that was addressed, as most of the storms are out on the prairies, damaging only fields.

I had a lot of fun with this book. There were storms, there was banter, there was romance, there were doughnuts. I liked the ending a lot, and I was really happy that I spent time with these crazy photographers. Chase Me If You Can is perfect for anyone missing the movie Twister or just needing a good, old-fashioned romance with hailstorms popping up way too often.

Egalleys for Chase Me If You Can were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.