This was even better than I expected. I cried throughout the book, sad and happy tears. It was so cute and raw and spicy and just perfect. Fortune has a special way of making you become so enthralled in her books that it feels so real. I’m absolutely obsessed.

I simply adore a second chance romance. They are right up there with enemies to lovers for me!!! This was so cute and I adored Will and Fern. They were so cute together! This was a great story, written very well.

This was a solid read, but overall one that I struggled to connect to as a romance. Will may have a so-called "soft heart" but he literally abandons the heroine twice in the story, and that cancels out anything good about him. I don't care what anxieties someone has-- In relationships, there needs to at least be honesty and the integrity to not get involved with someone if you're flighty. I would have loved to read more about Fern and much less about Will. An Angsty, puppy-eyed artist does not translate to a good person, especially if the person creates abandonment wounds for others. I have zero patience with that kind of thing in real life.

Carley Fortune clearly cares about her characters and is a talented author. There are redeeming factors about this book. Will was just not a character I liked or wanted to read more about at all. Still, I suggest adding it to the TBR if you're an avid romance reader. I loved the development behind Fern and her relationship with her mom!

I received this book as an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meet Me at the Lake follows Fern who at thirty-two is back at the resort she resented and is now in charge amidst the death of her mother. The resort was her mother’s life and Fern came to resent the place. Things got even tenser when Fern’s former fling doesn’t show upon their agreed meeting date.

As fate would have it though, these two end up meeting again and Carley Fortune gives us everything piece by piece. We follow their meeting a decade ago versus now and how the two timelines end up intersecting. Additionally, we’re reading diary entries from Fern’s mother before she took over the resort along with finding out she’s pregnant with Fern.

It might seem like Meet Me at the Lake has a bit too much going on, but Fortune balances everything perfectly. We learn enough about Fern and Will in the past to enjoy who they are now and realize why they made the choice they did. That doesn’t mean the book isn’t heartbreakingly sad at times.

The sheer amount of tough choices these characters had to make was unbelievable. While the romance was amazing, I feel like the character growth of both Fern and Will was everything. I immediately fell in love with these two and wanted them to get their happy ending. It did take some work but we eventually got there.

While this book is fun and sexy at times, it’s surprisingly emotional. Fern is dealing with the grief of losing her mother while Will is juggling the responsibilities of being the breadwinner in his household. Additionally, Will has some mental health struggles, and seeing that represented on the page was refreshing.
Honestly, I don’t have much I’d change about this book or any complaints. It was everything I was hoping for from a summer read. Meet Me at the Lake had me hooked from page one and I couldn’t put it down. If you’re looking for a solid romance with flashbacks and don’t mind some emotional topics, then this needs to be your next summer read.

First, thank you to Berkley Publishing for the free digital ARC on Netgalley in exchange for a review. All thought are my own.

I absolutely adored this book! From the rich writing, to the flashback storytelling, to the endearing characters… this is a book I’ll recommend everyone to grab for some summer reading, preferably on a dock by a lake. This was more than a romance – it was a coming-of-age type of character arc for the early 30something crowd that was so relatable.

SYNOPSIS IN MY OWN WORDS: Fern is a 32-year-old living in Toronto when she comes to a crossroads in life. She’s pulled back to her childhood home to run a resort she ran away from over ten years ago. Now she’s stuck between carrying on her mother’s legacy at the resort or paving her own path in the city. Enter Will. After spending one whirlwind day with him 10 years ago that changed the course of her life and then never speaking again, he’s at the resort this pivotal summer and might be the only person that can help her alter her life course once again. But after his absence for the past 10 years, it’s going to be impossible to work together without coming back to what really happened between them and if anything can truly change moving forward.

REVIEW: I loved the decision to jump between 22-year-old Fern and 32-year-old Fern and how her 10-year plan played out and life just hits you unexpectedly. I empathized with her and saw a lot of myself in her, despite not being an outdoorsy person living at a Canadian summer resort. I enjoyed the slow burn of the past and how the author managed to stretch out just a single day into an entire backstory but still kept it really interesting. It never felt lagging. I wish we could’ve gotten a little more of Maggie’s diary to supplement the back backstory, but the parts twining together felt in control and organized perfectly. I appreciated the layers Will and Fern each had and it felt like the audience was able to naturally peel them back as the book progressed to get to the center of a beautiful and organic love story.

READ THIS IF:
You love a summer romance
You want your romance books to have more depth to the characters
You enjoy Part of Your World, Sarah Dessen, or Mamma Mia

*spoiler starts here
The underlying theme of grief in this book was written very well. I felt that sadness and ache Fern felt when thinking of her mother and the missed opportunities in their relationship. I felt that made her relationship with Will even more impactful, because Fern was living in a lot of regret at the beginning of the book about not being able to make sure her mother knew she loved her. I thought it was powerful growth for Fern to find Will at his house and not leave anything unspoken, no matter how it might have ended.

I have to admit I read this one before reading Every Summer After, this author’s debut from last summer, but you better believe I’m picking that one up now! The heart that was poured into every page kept me coming back for more and I didn’t want it to end, even if the end was perfect!

I loved everything about this book.
I was captivated from the start and couldn’t put it down. I finished it in one day lol. The author does a magnificent job of world building.
I won’t give anything away but the connection and adventure that one day and one promise can bring I wasn’t sold on until I read it.
It’s heartbreaking and yet so beautiful at the same time.

I was so excited to get an ARC of the latest book by Carley Fortune. I absolutely adored Every Summer After. And this book had the same second chance romance swoony summer vibes. 

Meet Me at the Lake features Fern Brookbanks and Will Baxter. Fern grew up the child of a single mother living at a good old fashioned Dirty Dancing style lake resort in Canada, owned by her family. Will grew up with a younger sister, an artist mom who left him to live in France and a difficult father. 

Fern doesn’t want to inherit and run the resort. She longs for the big city and has a dream of owning a coffee shop. While working at a coffee shop (not hers), she meets Will. He’s been commissioned to paint a mural on the shop’s wall. Fern stays with him in the closed shop all day and they get to be friends. Flirty friends. Who both have significant others. Fern’s long time boyfriend is back at the lake. After the mural is done, Will invites Fern to spend a day with him exploring Toronto, touring his favorite spots. They clearly have a strong connection, great chemistry. At the end of the day, they promise to meet a year later at the dock at Fern’s lake resort. 

Fast forward many years. Fern’s mother dies in a terrible car crash and Fern leaves Toronto to go home and figure out what to do with the resort, nurse her wounds and think about her future. As fate would have it, Will shows up at the resort. He’s still impossibly good looking, in a suit, no longer a starving artist type guy, and surprise(!!!) he's checking in for an extended stay. Fern learns that her mother hired him as a consultant to help turn the resort around. 

I loved both of these characters. Fern so clearly held the resort close to her heart, yet wanted so desperately to experience a new life. She struggled with how her mother died, how she never got the chance to say so many things and experience more of their relationship. It felt very relatable to me. Mother daughter relationships can be rocky, and theirs was no exception. Just when they were figuring it out again, her mom was gone. Towards the end of the book, Fern reads through her mom’s diary. There are entries around her dating and finding out she was pregnant, her joy and worries. Side note- I wish I had a diary for my daughter to read some day!

Will. Oh Will… Let me say this right off, he’s so VERRRY sexy. There’s one scene. Fanning myself…wow.

Will has a secret. Will also holds himself to a much higher standard than he should. Both of these things implode at one point and it’s heartbreaking. Without giving too much away, he wanted to be an artist. He was a great artist. But instead, he did the mature thing and ignored following his passion to take a somewhat corporate and lucrative gig. When Fern sees him after so many years, she has a tough time reconciling the Will of today with the one she spent one magical day with long ago. 

One more note. Dirty Dancing will always be one of my favorite movies of all time! The references to this movie were perfect. And I want to live at an old fashioned lakeside resort, too.

This was a wonderful, warm second chance romance. Throw on your tank top, cut off shorts, flip flops and relax outside with Meet Me at the Lake.
*review to come on SmexyBooks + goodreads when book releases!

🛶 Book Review 🛶

Thanks to @berkleyromance for early access to this book. I liked this one more than Every Summer After.

✔️ Second Chance
✔️ Forced Proximity
✔️ Dual Timelines

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune is about Will and Fern who had a connection years ago (just one night talking, like the movie Before Sunrise). They promised to meetup in a year, but that didn't happen. About a decade later, they see each other again and her offers to help save her family business (a lakeside resort). Lots of angst and feelings from both sides as they work together and continue to have unresolved feelings.

I'm a sucker for a then-and-now story and this was executed well. I loved the scenes of their one day together where they fit so easily contrasted to current day where there's chemistry mixed with awkwardness and anger. In some then-and-now books, the time difference is much shorter, but having this book cover the couple in their twenties vs thirties was a great choice, showing their younger idealism vs the compromises everyone has to make with their expectations as life happens.

Carley is magical at writing the relationship buildup with lots of pining in the "then" portion and pining+angst in the "now". I loved both Will and Fern and rooted for them from start to finish. Overall,
I'd give this 4⭐️

Steam 🔥🔥
Banter 🗣️🗣️🗣️
Swoon 💕💕💕💕

10 years ago, Fern Brookbanks spent a magical day with Will Baxter, and hasn’t heard from him or stopped thinking about him since. Now, she finds herself back at her family-owned resort after her mother suddenly passed away, and she discovers the resort is struggling to stay afloat. Before her mother passed, she hired a consultant to help out…and that consultant is none other than Will Baxter.

MEET ME AT THE LAKE by Carley Fortune was one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year after loving EVERY SUMMER AFTER, and I loved loved loved what Fortune delivered!

The characters were raw and flawed, the setting made for the absolute perfect beach read, and the side characters rounded out the cast beautifully.

I loved seeing Fern and Will’s story unfold over the two timelines, and I AM BEGGING CARLEY FORTUNE to consider a Maggie and Peter book because I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT exist without it!

I think readers will eat this one up this summer!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: May 2, 2023

When I finished this book, there were tears streaming down my face and my heart ached. Don’t worry though, that ache was due to the fact that my heart was bursting with joy! Meet Me at the Lake was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, and Fortune did not disappoint. Once again, she showed how she can make my emotions ebb and flow and overflow with her gorgeous storytelling.

Fern and Will spent one day together and had vowed to meet at the lake one year later. The day came, but Will did not. A decade later, Fern returned home following her mother’s death to find the family resort struggling. And to her surprise, Will had been previously hired by her mother to help turn things around.

My heart was all in from the very beginning of this story. My penchant for second chance romances is not secret, and how could I argue when the universe saw fit to lead these two back to each other after so many years! I am trash for such things, and getting to see them “then” and “now” made me cheer even louder for this union. There was a bit of mystery regarding why Will didn’t show and the secrets he was still keeping, but I promise you will love Will even more when you learn his story.

Fern and Will’s romance may have been the main event, but there were several side stories that captured my heart. It was fantastic sot see the themes of love and forgiveness echoed in the supporting characters’ stories. They made this already beautiful and emotional story even richer for me. I loved my time at Lake Muskoka, and I reveled in every moment of this story.

This was just an okay read for me. I thought Carley did much better on her first novel. Overall, I would recommend it to someone who was looking for a fluffy read but it wouldn't be my first recommendation.

Fern meets Will in a twist of fate that ultimately changes her life in a dramatic way. Fast forward ten years and she finds herself walking in the shoes her mother planned all along but under the worst of circumstances. Things have fallen apart and Fern has big decisions ahead. Checking in Will, a ghost from her past, to her mother's resort turns everything on its head.
As this book is the sophomore novel to one of my favorite contemporary romances of 2022, I pinned some high anticipation into this read. The writing style is the same; I loved the setting, the time hop back and forth between present day and a life-changing 24 hours for the MCs, and the supporting cast of characters. I also really liked Fern as a whole and young Will. But! I did not like present Will's treatment of Fern, his inability to speak to more than shallow topics, his actions to distract her from anything meaningful, and, ultimately, Fern's lack of demand for some bigtime groveling.
I know my opinion won't be shared by others. I lay pretty big stock in my emotional rollercoaster during any given read. Hating a love interest to the point of hoping the MCs don't get a HEA is a pretty big no-no in my book. That being said, there was a lot to like about this read. I loved Fern's reconciliation with her memories of her mother, her relationship with her pseudo-dad, her friendship with Whitney, and Will's character arc once it was finally revealed.
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

This sweet romance follows the love story of Fern and Will, alternating between the present and ten years prior. The alternating chapters are great because we get to really see how much Fern and Will clicked in their earlier lives and how they are fighting to minimize the connection that is still there now (well, Fern is fighting it).

The story kept a great pace and Fern and Will were both very likeable and relatable characters that you can easily fall in love with and root for.

I was extremely happy with this book!

A fun version of the “reconnecting with a lost love” trope, Meet Me at the Lake move back and forth over a 10 year period in the lives of the 2 main characters, Fern and Will. Fern grew up as the daughter of a second generation owner of a vacation lodge in Canada. It’s small town, everybody knows everybody’s business and Fern longs to escape to Toronto and does so when she goes to college. She loves her Mom but doesn’t share her passion for the lodge and it’s yearly vacationers but she’s expected to get a business/management degree and return to the lodge to work and, eventually, take over running it. Fern want to stay in Toronto after graduation and has a dream of opening her own coffee shop…despite the expectations of her boyfriend who works at the lodge and her best friend from grade school and high schools that she will return immediately after graduation. They love the small town, lodge and everything they entail and don’t understand why Fern doesn’t. On one of the last days Fern has in Toronto, she meets Will who’s working on a mural in the coffee shop where Fern works. He’s gorgeous, he “gets” Fern and he offers to spend the day showing Fern his Toronto. They are equally smitten with one another but know they only have 1 day together. They promise to meet at the lodge in 1 year and take it from there. Fern shows up but Will doesn’t and she doesn’t see him for 10 years when she’s forced to return to the lodge from Toronto because her Mother has died. Will shows up to do a management consultation, a very different and secretive man. Their intense chemistry is still there but what, if anything,can they really become together.

I enjoyed this heart warming, second chance romance! Although I did truly enjoy the romance elements, my favorite parts were actually all the side characters and relationships. I would’ve read a whole book about Peter and Maggie. This one didn’t knock me off my feet in the same way EVERY SUMMER AFTER did, but it still put me in my feels and kept me engaged (maybe a little show to start though).

I very much enjoyed this book! I really liked the back and forth chapters between the past and the present with our main characters. I really loved watching their romance blossom when they were younger and the author has a really great way writing that feeling of youthful love. This book definitely has some emotional topics it in it, including loss, grief, and familial expectations, and I thought it was handled really well. Watching the two characters fall back in love when they were older was very sweet. But our main character never lost her voice and stood up for herself and her wants/needs, which was great to read. If you are looking for a beautiful story about love, forgiveness, and with perfect summertime lake vibes, check this one out.

This book will be the book of summer 2023! I enjoyed Carley Fortune's debut novel last summer. I liked this one even more I think. I liked the summer camp setting, I liked the second chance romance as well.

I LOVED Carley Fortune’s debut novel Every Summer After, so was very excited to read her sophomore novel Meet Me at the Lake. The two are very similar in setting and theme, another dreamy lakeside escape perfect for your next summer beach read.

I’m not a big fan of dual timelines, so its not surprising I was more invested in present day Fern and Will- although the hurdles of their adult relationship seemed insignificant compared to how they handled them. I still binged this in one sitting and would recommend if you like:

-dual timelines
-second chance romance
-slow burn
-friends to lovers

I really enjoyed Carleys first book so I was looking forward to this one. However, as much as I kept trying to get into it, I found myself bored. It seems like the going back and forth timeline didn't have enough going on, and it kept alluding to big things... but I wasn't enjoying any of the characters enough to push through. Dnf at 40%

Loved the concept of this, but the book itself just fell a little flat. Struggled to get through it.