From the moment that I saw the cover and read the synopsis of Every Summer After, I knew that this was the book that I had been waiting for. This book is everything that my Northern Ontario loving, Southern Ontario city living heart has ever wanted. No other book has ever been this perfect and I’m going to be honest I cried because I was just overwhelmed. I had joked earlier that I needed this arc to keep breathing, well I’ve read it and can confirm. I did in fact need this book.

This book felt like a hug. I don’t even know what else to say, but I’m going to do my best to say it all. I’m so freaking emotional about it. I want it in every single way that it will be published. I want to hold it and never let it go. Every Summer After by @carleyfortune releases May 2022 so this is the most advanced review I’ve ever given or will ever give a book but I’m just at a loss. I can’t move on. This book felt like home to me and I felt safe within its pages. I have never had this reaction to a book before and I can’t imagine that I ever will again. I could smell the cottage, feel the lake, hear the very heartbeat of this book. Because I know it. I have been Percy, staring at the other side of the lake and dreaming of swimming to it. I’ve swam in those northern waters every single summer for my entire life. I understand the burn of arms and legs in that open water swim. I know what a cedar cabin smells like, because for me, it’s within nearly identical walls, I’ve done the work of attempting to figure out who I want to be. I’ve cried on cottage docks under one of the most breathtaking sunrise or sunset. In my little overactive imagination, I dreamed up a world where my lake crush became more.

Every Summer After was hard to read at times, it was real and raw, and inherently human. It’s childhood friendships and first loves. It’s finding who you are and struggling with your place in this world. It’s desire and longing. It’s growth - painful, slow and necessary. It’s second chances and forgiveness. It’s coming home.

The content warnings for this book are rather intense: death of a parent, grief, on page panic attacks, anxiety cheating. I’ve said many times over that I would never recommend a book with cheating, but this book has made me a liar. It was not a frivolous plot point but carried immense weight. It was inevitable and handled with immense care. It didn’t feel wrong, in fact, it felt necessary.

I hope that when it comes time, you’ll give this book a chance. Because it deserves it. Carley, I hope you write a thousand more books because I already know I’ll never get enough: of Sam and Persephone or anything else you’ll write. Thank you for this book.

A million thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance e-copy of Every Summer After. I guarantee that this is the most honest review I’ve ever given to a book. All options are very much my own.