Carley FortuneReviews

Really enjoyed this one!

I enjoyed this book. I toyed between 3.5 to 4 stars because I did read it quickly, it was an easy read, and an enjoyable journey. But the jumping around in years was a little bit annoying. Almost too much jumping around. And it was obvious how it was going to end. But I guess that's true for every romance. This was about a girl who hooks up with her friend's brother, before she realizes he's her brother. You could see that coming a mile away at the beginning. And then it's their journey and how they continue to hook up over the years but keep it from everybody. And then when they tell everybody, now she all of a sudden needs time to figure out her life and then they kind of end things again, kind of. But in the end, everyone's happy and she has her flower farm on Prince Edward Island. It did make me want to go to PEI. Overall, enjoyable. I'm glad I read it. And I own one other book by this author. Good summer read, nothing earth shattering!½

I didn't love Carley Fortune's other books, but this one was great. I loved the characters Lucy and Felix and they had great chemistry.

Lucy is vacationing with her best friend on Princess Edward Island. When her friend is delayed, she forms an instant electric attraction with a hunky guy shucking oysters at a local restaurant. This leads to a shocking discovery and Lucy trying to keep a promise to her best friend.

I enjoyed this book, it was a fun, romantic summer read. The friendships within the book were priceless. I felt more of a connection to the friendships than I did with the romantic relationship. Plot was fairly predictable, but still a perfect mental getaway. Writing was beautifully descriptive of PEI to the point I want to visit. I’ve read Every Summer After, but now need to read Meet Me at the Lake. If you are looking for a light summer read with a little heat, I recommend This Summer Will Be Different.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC. This is my honest opinion.

This is a dual timeline, second-chance romance that’s full of Dirty Dancing summer nostalgia mixed with Before Sunrise vibes since the meeting between Fern and Will involves one night touring a city that ends up life-changing. It was a little slow for me at the beginning but paid off in the end.

“Let me tell you something about me: I am extremely picky about people. Most of them, I don't particularly like. I have very high standards for the ones I let into my life these days. And you, Will Baxter, are my favorite of all of them.”

If you’re looking for a nostalgic summer story about young love and second chances, read this book on the dock by your favorite lake. While you’re there with toes skimming the placid water, you’ll meet Sam and Percy—summer friends who grow into more than friends until they’re not. Then, you’ll watch adult Sam and Percy reunite after more than a decade separated, more than a relationship severed, where they’ll be forced into more turbulent waters, confronting a past they’ve spent so long avoiding.

My favorite coming-of-age stories are those that have dual time perspectives between youth and adulthood. I love seeing how milestone moments or crossroad choices impact an adult life, and Every Summer After captures that ebb and flow perfectly. In the same vein as Christina Lauren’s Love and Other Words, this story highlights the best and worst parts of the bildungsroman summer romance, anchoring you in both nostalgia and relief: longing for summers past and thanking your lucky, summer stars that you don’t have to relive it.

I'm not much of a romance reader but when this book was chosen for Canada Reads 2024 I thought I would give it a try. The defender said that romance fiction is the most read genre in the world but I don't think I'll be reading many more. Since this was the first book kicked off Canada Reads this year, I imagine the other defenders were similarily unimpressed.

It's the old story line: boy meets girl, they fall in love, they part, then they meet again later and are still in love. The only interesting part of this book was that the girl/woman inherits a vacation lodge in Ontario's lake country and she has to work hard to make it profitable again. The boy/man is now a financial consultant (he was an artist when they met) and was hired by the mom before she was killed in a car accident. It surprised the daughter when he showed up at the lodge a few weeks after her mom's death but nothing after that was really a surprise.

If you want a light, fluffy read then this is probably the book for you. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

Every Summer After tells the story of Percy and Sam, neighbors at Percy’s parents’ lake house, who develop a romantic relationship over several shared summers and whose eventual love is undone by a horrible secret that forces the couple to go their separate ways. When Sam’s mother dies, Percy returns to Barry’s Bay to pay her respects and maybe right the most terrible wrong of her life—if it isn’t too late.

The author compellingly conveys the magic and uncertainty of young and budding love with characters the reader can’t help falling for. The then-and-now format reveals clues at more or less the right speed, though the secret was telegraphed. A cute summer love story bordering on YA/NA, it makes me wonder if off-page sex would have been more appropriate for the tone of the novel. The sex scenes came off as forced and repetitive with lip biting ala Fifty Shades.

Still, I had a good time reading this straightforward story, sure to appeal to anyone who has experienced a childhood crush. Recommended.

Predictable and trite. Lots of "I learned at 17...." but wait for 100 pages before you find out what happened at 17. Lots of misunderstandings that could have been resolved and questions that could have been answered easily, but weren't. Resolved by a previously unseen character arriving and explaining everything. Will has anxiety issues that he believes will escalate if he has children, but Fern is happily pregnant at the end of the novel. She'll raise the kids and take care of his mental health and she's happy because the sex is great and they've spent several week together. Need I say more?

The premise of this book is weak. I gave it 2 stars.

This was good, didn't quite live up to the hype for me.

This was cute but dug deeper too

I genuinely disliked so much about this book.
I would have rathered Fern get together with Jamie, because he was really was a nice guy and knew her really well. Like Will heard all of her life story in one day, saw her on the dock and was like Oh no! Mental illness!! And then, he shows up again a decade later, talks to her mom behind her back, but because they want to sleep together, they can make it work.
And the one day they hung out and told each other so so much, she pretended to not have a boyfriend and was emotionally cheating, if not ready to physically cheat!! If someone were ready to cheat on their SO of multiple years with you, what makes you think they won't cheat on you?
Women are not rehabs for broken men. Her grief is so much lower key, but he's so broken, mentally ill, so depressed, hard knock life artist, and she's just gonna support him?? This isn't a mutually supportive relationship.
And most of their interest in each other is just about sleeping with each other.
And that's another thing, why do books act like because you enjoy sleeping together and you have no common interests except banging therefore you're a perfect couple?? You really think you're gonna be happily married at 63 because sex is fun??
And Will spends most of the book barely telling her anything! It takes his sister telling her most of his backstory and setting things up so Fern can make him tell her the rest of it, like Will and Fern weren't about to fight for each other.

They can go die in a hole. Give me back my time.

She sleeps with his brother and they still get together??

They're a pretty good example of "you could live a hundred lifetimes and never deserve that boy."

This book will make you want to revisit your carefree youth if you were lucky enough to live on a lake during those summer months.
A well-plotted, fun story with a great narrator!

I liked this better than Every Summer After, but honestly probably because of the absence of teenage angst as the flashbacks were set in the character's early twenties.

That being said the ending was pretty tidy for everything the characters had to wade through, but I overall enjoyed it.

For the amount I have seen this book on social media it was just okay for me. There was so much teenage angst in all the flashbacks. It was also slow at points.

This is a second chance romance with lots of flashbacks, which is admittedly one of my lest favorite romance tropes.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune is a contemporary romance that brings all the feels of an adult romance with the drama of a YA.

I seriously loved this book! It was a bit of a slow start, but once I got into it I was binging this book like there was no tomorrow. It was really hard to put it down and sneak away from the book, I just didn't want to stop!

Percy and Sam are childhood friends turned romantic partners, but of course that all goes to crap after an unfortunate, plot twist incident. Many years later, Sam's Mom passes away and Percy comes to the funeral. Sparks start flying again and the two find each other drawn back to one another. This story is a friends to lovers and second chance love story all wrapped up into one. It's a great read with lots of drama. It has it's up and downs (like Sam being a jerk, and Percy not standing up for herself as much as she should). But otherwise, it's a great summer read with many horror movie references.

If you're looking for a great romance that will take you on a roller coaster of emotions, this book is it! I highly recommend it!

Also: Canadian author and Canadian setting!

Five out of five stars!

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

rounded down from 3.5
Slow moving, boring.
Meh.

A second-chance love story between Fern and Will who spent one day together exploring Toronto and vowed to meet one year later. I'm a sucker for a single-day wandering story (The Sun Is Also a Star, Nick & Norah, etc.). We flip back and forth between that first day together and their reunion ten years later. I love the subplot of figuring out what you want vs. what your family expects from you. Very readable, though there were a few plot points that felt out-of-character or a bit too jarring.

TW Mental Illness½

I love a summer romance.
Percy receives a call from Charlie Fraser, notifying her of his mom's death. This brings memories flooding back - of all the times that she spent summers at the lake with Charlie and his brother, Sam. Sam and Percy were best friends, and then they fell for each other. But, something happened 12 years earlier that broke them.
Now, seeing Sam again, Percy wonders if it is too late to repair their relationship and for Sam to forgive her for what she did.
A great summer romance!

I fell in love with Will and Fern, and felt both heartache at parts of their story and joy at others.
This book examines the pair and the day they met in a coffee shop 10 years earlier, and then again in the present, when they meet again.
Fern is dealing with a tragedy, and the pressure of running a resort, when Will appears at the resort. Fern doesn't know how to react to seeing Will again. What will happen between them?
As you learn more about their story, you find yourself rooting for them to make it work, until it comes crashing down around them. But why? Will they be able to find their way back?
Unwanted pregnancies, depression, death-possible triggers, but I loved this story.

Exquisite debut!

Meh. Young love. How do we learn to forgive ourselves? Panic attacks? Those came out of nowhere. Trite.

This was definitely a YA novel, and if I review it on that premise, I gave this book 3 stars. I received this book as a gift and when I looked at the genres listed on GoodReads, I missed the Young Adult classification at the very end. As a result, I found myself frustrated reading this book because it wasn't relevant to my view point. I am giving it 3 stars because it was my misunderstanding of the genre that made me dislike it. I liked the setting - north-eastern Ontario in a lake community. It was nice to read about life in a small Canadian lake community like this. The book begins when Persephone is 13, and her Parents have purchased a cottage at Kaminiskag Lake, which is an actual lake in Ontario. The time line goes back and forth from 13 year old Persephone to 30 year old Persephone. The past timeline increases every year until Persephone is 18. Persephone and her friend Sam, who lives in the community year round, enjoy the lake and all its summer delights as they both grow up together. Friendship turns into something else, and with both being adolescents, make may adolescent mistakes. They lose contact for 12 years, and when Persephone returns to the lake after the death of Sam's mom, all the mistakes come out in the open. The book is surprisingly well constructed and the characterizations are very good. This is a first novel for Carley Fortune, and she has done a remarkable job with it. I recommend this novel as a well-rounded YA novel. I'm sure that those who love this genre of romance will enjoy this book.