a perfect fit for readers who adore nostalgic, emotional, and hopeful stories about the complexities of love, growing up, and second chances, with a strong focus on the transformative power of summer and the beauty of friends-to-lovers romances.

I love a second chance romance & just like Love & Other Words which this reminded me of, I read it in one day. Percy & Sam are the best of friends who for years walk a fine line between protecting that friends & allowing themselves to fall in love. Years later Percy comes back to her teenage vacation town for a funeral. Something separated the two 12 years earlier and now she will have to face Sam who was left heartbroken. This was a beautiful read and although it did seem similar to LAOW, it still hooked me and was the perfect book to end my summer reads. I can’t wait for Charlie’s book set to release in May 2025.

“I loved you so much that the word ‘love’ didn’t seem big enough for how I felt.“

This book has:
-childhood friends to strangers to lovers
-past and present chapters
-next door neighbors
-second chance romance
-its always been you
-summer vibes

quick thoughts: from the very beginning this book gave me summer I turned pretty vibes mixed with love and other words. I was so intrigued by Sam and Percy and their story. I loved this book!! it was also the perfect summer read.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune is a perfect fit for readers who adore nostalgic, emotional, and hopeful stories about the complexities of love, growing up, and second chances, with a strong focus on the transformative power of summer and the beauty of friends-to-lovers romances.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an okay read for me. I liked the characters and watching them grow up together. It was a little too sappy in spots and seemed unrealistic that Sam would forgive such a betrayal. But the story moved well.

First of all, I just have to say that I understand why there are so many raving reviews for this book. I’ve read Fortunes’s Meet Me By The Lake and adored it, and I love Carley’s writing style and how her books read like love letters to summer, young love, and Canada. All of that works beautifully for me.

*Sigh.*

That being said, there were just some things about Every Summer After that bothered me.

1. I got some major ick vibes from one of the main supporting characters. It may just be me, but regardless, those vibes then impacted my thoughts about one of the major plot points of the story. It all just left a bad taste in my mouth.

2. While I loved how the plot alternated between past and present, I felt like there was no character growth and that even in the present, Percy and Sam read very young and didn’t seem to mature.

3. The mystery about why Percy and Sam quit speaking for the past 12-13 years went on for way too long. I had a feeling I knew what had happened, but I wish that reveal came earlier. That plot point also seemed very out of character to me for all involved.

4. The resulting resolution felt very rushed and wrapped up way too quickly, in my opinion. I could have done with less tension and mystery development, and more development of present Percy and Sam.

Despite all of this, I still enjoyed this book. The narration by @ajbridel was wonderful, and I’m excited to see what Carley writes in the future! Thank you to @prhaudio @berkleyromance and Carley Fortune for the opportunity to listen and review ❤️

PS - Reading/listening to this in the Lake of the Ozarks was so fun!!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Well, I late to the party with my review because this book is EVERYWHERE now! I see it on all of the blogs, all over Bookstsgram and friends are talking about this one.

Percy & Sam♡♡♡♡ I just loved these characters. This one had me laughing, crying and wondering why things were taking so long, too. It was such a great summer read, and there is still summer left so if you haven't read this one yet do yourself a favor and get it now!

4.5 STARS 🌟 from me. Who doesn't love a love story?

This read is what a summer book is all about! Percy and Sam met one summer when they were young and that's all it took. First loves who come back together after a family tragadey to realize that those feelings never went away.

This was a fun book. At the beginning I wasn't sure I was going to like the flashback type of timeline but that author did a great job with flow and keeping the story moving even with the time jumps. They didn't feel forced or confusing. The characters were really fun to get to know and you are rooting for them from the get go. I was at least. I also loved that the author wrote what she knew (her job being very similar to the main characters). I will be very interested to see what this author will bring next.

TW: panic attacks and cheating

Okay I loved this book from start till almost finished. The plot twist wasn't a shock but then it happened and I was so mad. And then everything wrapped up so quickly in a pretty bow and it just felt so unrealistic to me. If cheating wasn't involved, like they break up because distance or what not, it would have been amazing!

A thoroughly enjoyable love story about young fated lovers and the way their relationship grows and then falls apart. The characters and the mistakes of youth were relatable. This was a fun read and a wonderful romance!

For starters, this book takes place in Barry’s Bay, a lake town north of Toronto, and that in itself just screams summer romance! The story is told through our heroine, Persephone’s (Percy) point of view and alternates between her youth and summers she spent at her parent’s cottage in Barry’s Bay where she fell in love with her neighbor, Sam, and the present where she returns there for the funeral of Sam’s mother. BUT, Percy and Sam haven’t spoken in 12 years after a falling out during their last summer together.

I loved the dual timelines and watching the start of Percy and Sam’s friendship and seeing how it evolved over all the summers and years spent together. Aside from the two of them, you also got a glimpse of their families and upbringing, friends, school life, etc. and how all of that influenced them both and their entire dynamic.

In some ways this book felt a little nostalgic. Not like I personally every experienced summer love at a lake, but just nostalgia for being young and carefree by allowing yourself to be vulnerable. Those summers were an escape for both Percy and Sam and I loved seeing that coming of age for them both. Plus seeing them as adults and living back those memories and coming to certain realizations was fun to see.

There is a bit of a mystery element as well as the reader doesn’t know what happened all those years ago to drive the two of them away from one another. I feel like there were hints of it throughout, but it ultimately isn’t revealed until the end.

This is a story about love, family, and friendship and all the good and bad parts that come with it. But it was so well crafted and charming and again, the setting was perfect. (Always needing more rom coms set in Canada please.)

You have probably seen this book compared to Love and Other Words and it definitely gives off those vibes, but is also unique in its own way. If you are a fan of that book or just want a summer romance with a fun and beautiful love story, pick this up and give into the hype!

Percy’s summers as a teen were spent at a cottage on the lake, hanging out with the boy from next door, Sam. She loved writing and horror movies, and trained to swim across the lake. Sam was a runner, who read medical textbooks, and helped out at his mother Sue’s tavern.
It’s been 12 years since Percy has seen Sam when she gets a phone call from his older brother Charlie, telling her that Sue has died. So she heads back to Barry’s Bay to pay her respects and face the decisions she made all those years ago.
This book offers a luscious recap of their youthful summer days at the lake, the longing that builds between them, and then explains what the heck went wrong. A tender debut which puts the author straight on my must-read list.

Be still my beating heart. What took me so long to read this book, it's her debut book as well.
As young teens a young girl and her family spend summers at the beach in their cottage where she meets two teen brothers.
The book is told in alternating time periods between today's time period when they are all adults and back when they were teens. It's a friends to lovers kind of romance. All three are friends but she gravitates to one of the brothers and over their teenage years it gradually changes from best friends spending summers together to more as they get into older teenage years.
The author reels you in and you care about the characters, you are rooting for them.
It's an awakening of senses, a vulnerability, a coming alive and coming into your own.
This summer romance has turned into so much more.
It's smooth sailing and you don't see it coming then you get gut punched! No, it couldn't have possibly happened! There's no forgiveness! You start to slightly recover and please, please, NO ! You can't believe what you're reading. It's just not possible.
The author just brought the story to life!

Pub Date 10 May 2022
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

If you’re a fan of Emily Henry, you NEED to read this book. I laughed, cried, and swooned. It’s a beautiful and messy romance.

This is a debut??? I laughed and cried real tears reading Every Summer After. So many emotions, so relatable, and so spicy! Truly loved it.

I would try to summarize the summary but I recommend you read it as it is. I really had high hopes for this book as I saw it a lot on TikTok and it gave me a cute book vibe. So let me say that from the beginning I was hooked and I finished this book in one day (because I wanted to know how it ended). Fortune has a unique writing style. I thought the plot was interesting enough to keep me going but at the same disappointed with the outcome. At first I enjoyed the alternative povs of the MC in the past and present time but then it started to get confusing and some info didn't make sense. The pacing was fast though and I was flying through the chapter pretty quickly. I enjoyed the setting of this book being in Canada.

This book is from Persephone's past and present pov. She has a vacation home in Barry's Bay where she goes during her free time and hangs out with this boy Sam. Let me say that I enjoyed her character at first but man she started to annoy me. Like I understood at some parts but when she blamed her friends and couldn't just see that it was also her fault too. I didn't like her development as she was the same from the beginning to the end. There are many side characters and my favorite is Charlie. The romance is friend to lovers and second chance romance. I was very disappointed with the romance as I didn't ship Sam and Percy together. I feel like they are better as friends then lovers. I was rooting for Percy and Charlie the entire time ever since we got the chemistry between them from the beginning and then I was so happy to see them hook up only for it to be nothing.

The ending was good even though I wasn't happy with the outcome. Readers get an epilogue which is rushed over with information. I had a lot of expectations for this book and was disappointed with what I got. I really thought the romance was going to turn around because Percy and Charlie were red flags for each other. I hate rating books a under 3 stars but guys I was just not happy. This book may be great for others but just not for me.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune was one of my favorite summer reads of 2022. I love stories that span over time, and watching Percy and Sam navigate their relationship was epic.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

All the feels and nostalgia. Could not put down. Brought me back to teenage hood in Canada. Loved this love story and hope we get to see more from debut author Carley Fortune.

I ADORED this book! Every Summer After was everything I love in childhood friends to lovers romance. The angst, the emotions (so many emotions!), the writing, the setting, everything was hands down five stars perfection.