Book Review: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Published: May 10th 2022 by Piatkus
Rating: ★★★★★ (5)
Genre: Adult // Contemporary Romance
Quick Thoughts: It came into my life in a haze of lakeside heat, heavenly friendships and a love time could not erase.
About The Book:
Five summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.
A magazine writer has to make a choice when she returns to the lake she grew up on, and to the man she thought she’d never have to live without, in this achingly nostalgic debut.
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser that has felt too true for the last decade, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart. Until the day she gets a call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek.
For five summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family restaurant and curling up together with books-medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her-Percy and Sam had been inseparable. And slowly that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.
When Percy returns to the lake to attend Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. Percy must confront the decisions she’s made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, in order to determine, once and for all, whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.
Told over the course of five years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
First Thoughts
I picked up Every Summer After on a trip to The Works last year after hearing some good things, but it stayed on my bookshelf—untouched—for so long. When thinking of books I wanted to still read whilst it was summer, it stood out to me, begging the question of why haven’t you read me yet? And I was about to find out that I would wish I had months ago.
My Review
When Persephone’s Parents buy a cottage on the lake in Barry’s Bay for summer visits, she’s not expecting to meet Sam and the Florek family next door. Sam, who, makes her smile and feel listened to, who becomes her very best friend—and then, one summer, through working at his Mom’s Tavern and hanging out with him and his brother Charlie, so much more than friends. Over five glorious summers, Percy and Sam dip from friends to lovers to complicated to strangers, but the love they share is unlike anything else—until one misunderstanding and reckless mistake messes it all up.
In present day, a decade later, Percy has not loved anyone like she loved Sam, and hasn’t forgiven herself for the things she did. But when she makes her way back to the lake to attend Sam’s mother’s funeral and sees him after all this time, she’s welcomed with open arms. Back together for the first time in so long feels strange, but the connection is still as electric and magnetic as always, despite the hurt they both acknowledge is lingering in the air. Crossing the boundary into something more once again is a frightful feeling for both Percy and Sam, and opening the wound is both relieving and gut-wrenching. But when it could mean they might return to being each other’s family, isn’t it worth it to go back and fix a summer turned cold?
Overall, Every Summer After came into my life in a haze of lakeside heat, heavenly friendships and a love time could not erase. I fell in love with Percy and Sam’s love story, and the memories they made in an idyllic setting that felt like summer encapsulated. From side characters Charlie and Delilah to painful reminders of forgiveness and owning your story, I found myself smiling, crying, and then doing a haphazard mix of the two by the time the last page was turned. I can’t believe I waited so long to read this magnificent novel—I think I have another favourite contemporary romance book and author to must-buy. Five golden stars!
About The Author
Carley Fortune is the #1 New York Times and #1 Globe and Mail bestselling author of EVERY SUMMER AFTER and MEET ME AT THE LAKE. Her third book, THIS SUMMER WILL BE DIFFERENT, comes out May 7, 2024.
Carley is an award-winning journalist and worked as an editor at some of Canada’s top publications, including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Toronto Life, and The Grid. She was most recently the Executive Editor of Refinery29 Canada. Carley spent her young life in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, and in Barry’s Bay, a tiny lakeside town in rural Ontario and the setting for EVERY SUMMER AFTER.
Carley lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons. Follow her on Instagram @carleyfortune.
Have you read Every Summer After?
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happy reading!
