Every Summer After

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune is a touching and beautifully woven tale of love, loss, and the power of second chances. This novel captures the essence of summer, evoking nostalgia with its vivid descriptions and deeply relatable characters.

The story revolves around Persephone Fraser, affectionately known as Percy, who has avoided her hometown for years after making a life-altering mistake. Fortune skillfully takes readers through a dual timeline, alternating between Percy's childhood summers and her present-day confrontation with past decisions. This structure not only keeps the narrative engaging but also allows for a deeper connection with the characters.

Percy’s journey back to Barry’s Bay is prompted by the passing of a loved one, forcing her to face Sam Florek, her childhood friend and first love. Their chemistry is palpable, and their shared history is rich with moments that range from heartwarming to heart-wrenching. The author's depiction of their relationship is authentic, showcasing the complexities of love and friendship.

One of the novel's strengths is its setting. The lakeside town of Barry’s Bay is almost a character in itself, with Fortune's descriptive prose bringing its charm to life. Readers will find themselves transported to lazy summer days filled with swimming, boating, and the smell of pine trees.

Fortune's writing is both poetic and accessible, making this book an enjoyable read for a wide audience. Her background as a journalist shines through in her attention to detail and the emotional depth she brings to her storytelling.

For those who appreciate character-driven narratives with a strong emotional core, Every Summer After is a must-read. It is a testament to the enduring nature of love and the importance of forgiveness, both of oneself and others. Whether you’re lounging by the beach or curled up on a rainy day, this book promises to be a companion that stays with you long after the final page is turned.

I just finished this book and I am a puddle. I don’t read a lot of love and romance books, but I needed a break from mystery/thriller books while I was at the beach. This book deals with the impact that first love has on you and it had me hooked from the start. One of the best novels I have ever read. It is a must read. A book that you’ll finish and immediately be sad that it’s over.

this book was phenomenal!! i loved every page and i fell in love with the story and characters. it’s told in past and present timelines over the course of six summers and one weekend 12 years later. you get small town, second chance romance, childhood best friends to lovers to strangers to lovers, and more! some of my fav tropes in one book <3 i love the parallel events between the past and present chapters, seeing how percy and sam grown and matured but also stay the same throughout the years (iykyk - the friendship bracelets, “swear on it”, ice cream). their attraction and connection are undeniable! the book perfectly captures friendship, teenage angst, first love, loss, mistakes, and forgiveness. it’s also about finding your person, someone who understands you like no other. the writing was spectacular - it was so magical and enchanting as it encapsulated summer nostalgia at a lakeside cottage. i felt like i experienced every summer with percy and sam. i love how real and relatable the characters are. percy and sam are two flawed characters that let their fears get in their way, but they try their best to repair what they broke. i adore sam so so much, he’s the sweetest and kindest guy who loves really hard. the sarcasm and banter between the two were soo good too, i loved how we get a glimpse of what they were like at 13 and then at 30.

this is the PERFECT summer read, i highly recommend it!! i promise you’ll love this if you love ‘love and other words’ by christina lauren! i didn’t think i’d find a book like laow that hits the same, but reading this book made my lil laow heart so happy 💞 i’m blown away by the fact that this is carley fortune’s debut novel and i hope there is more to come!

I loved the setting (in remote northern Ontario) because it reminded me of our childhood vacations up there when we lived in Rochester. This is a coming of age story, of course, and a realistic one. But it is also a kind of warning about what can happen when you miss the opportunity of a lifetime. They had the opportunity to marry, or at least stay together, at 18. Their powerful love for one another was certainly there. Instead , "too young," they separated, fell apart emotionally, and spent the next twelve years apart in emotional misery. To be sure, some are indeed "Too young" but "too young" can also mean a missed opportunity of a kind that only rarely happens in life.

This book was sooooooo good, I loved it so much. I absolutely FLEW through it and truly couldn’t get enough. I just loved the story and thought she did such a good job of going back and forth between the past and present and tying the story all together. This book is heartwarming and will absolutely have you in your feels. So so good. 5 stars easily!!!

What happens when you meet The One at age 13? This seemingly sweet books takes the route that they're sensible, have all the time in the world, & both have goals. They only have summers & a holiday together so they rely on email & phone calls. Their emotions, mistakes, miscommunications, dating others ring true as they grow through their teens until college. Their relationship exists completely in a bubble in a small resort town w/essentially non-existent parents & they do nothing w/o each other so readers see the couple under a microscope. Without ground rules for attending 2 different colleges, things blow up.

I found a great deal to like in this - the couple, the specificity of their friendship, the writing, and the setting - Canadian woodsy resorts were off my radar. The alternating Then/Now format didn't bother me. I rooted for them. I expected the YA novel to transition into the advertised beach read.

It doesn't. There's no real emotional growth for Persephone from 13 to 32 although she notes every detail of Sam's physical change into hotness (thereby dragging out the teen years too long). Neither of them take any advice even when they ask for it. They make the usual mistake of not communicating that leads to their breakup & 13 year estrangement.

This could've been a better book despite the local resort boy/visiting girl & friends to romance tropes (the author acknowledges all the authors she's read in this genre). There's a sweetness & innocence to Sam that disappears the minute he arrives at a pre-college program - he has an excuse but fails to communicate to P. She, being left behind & alone, panics & acts out. P. is revealed to be so self-centered that she didn't realize that Sam is so smart that he's valedictorian of his class & accepted into an elite academic program at his elite university or has loads of friends at his high school. She also stays the same emotional age through the epilogue. I couldn't understand why after all the loneliness & loss, they STILL hadn't married a year after they reconcile (when he'd proposed a decade earlier). They're 32 & fully aware of how short life can be. Graphic sex scenes that go on for pages appear out of nowhere in the last 1/3 of the book that ruin all the subtlety that had come before. Hope the author gets a better editor & decides her genre - beach read, novel, erotica, or YA. It's imperfect, but worth a read.

As other reviews have already pointed out, it’s a love story. A brilliant written and heart-warming love story, which gripped me right from the very beginning, when Percy tells us about the dangers of a hair cut right after a break up. The writing is elegant and agile. The story is timeless and warm, but never getting cheap. I felt I was right there, by the lake in those hot summer months with the adorable characters. I gave it four stars because of the long sex scenes, a little boring for my liking, and the cliché line “white girl privilege”, which I think is a very simplistic view of the world and human relations and, in the book, is thrown aleatory, without any relation to the story whatsoever.

I truly wanted to love this book. I know this is the authors first book, so I will say that I don’t regret reading it. The book started off so well and very strong and I couldn’t put it down. I loved a good 2/3 of it. The characters were fully developed and well liked. The story lines were easy to follow and left me wanting me more. The buildup and anticipation to reveal what Percy needed to tell Sam was pretty predictable. I truly hoped I was wrong about my prediction as I didn’t want that to be what broke her/them. Once the climax was revealed, the story just fell through the cracks. The potential the author could’ve given Sam and Percy’s relationship after they were reunited truly fell short and was rushed.