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🌶️🌶️

✔️ second chance
✔️ dual timeline
✔️ found family
✔️ dealing with grief

Fortune's debut novel can be controversial for a few reasons. I was ecstatic to read Meet Me at the Lake and neither of those topics come up once throughout the story. Things got dicey there at the beginning and made me say out loud "I will put this book down if that trope is used again" and I finished the book so....

Meet Me at the Lake is no sophomore slump for Carley Fortune. Just like with Every Summer After, this book instantly transports you to the setting and while it might have been February in Texas while reading, it sure felt like I was on the Canadian lakeside.

Will and Fern both meet in their early 20's and have the instant chemistry that you find in many Romance novels but doesn't feel contrived or forced. Fast forward to 10 years later and that chemistry is still there. This story is just as much a contemporary fiction as it is a romance.

Will and Fern are two extremely fleshed out characters but I don't want to get too much into details because I don't want to spoil anything!

Between the perfect chemistry and the supporting characters, Meet Me at the Lake is a must-read for any romance fan!

Meet Me at the Lake is about a boy who meets a girl in the city and spends a full day together then parts ways promising to meet exactly one year later at a resort the girl's mother owns. However, a year later, she waits for him in the promised location and he doesn't show up.

For some unknown reason, I didn't feel connected to this book as I did with Carley Fortune's first book, Every Summer After. I felt maybe this book was not as exciting or as eventful as the first. This book also felt a little rushed at the end of me. Nonetheless, I finished the book and thank NetGalley for the ARC!

Not often does a book make me emotional but also happy at the same time. This book is so much more than a romance novel in the sense where it also deals with loss and depression. It was amazing and I was rotting for the couple the whole book through. All the characters were so real and I loved it. A new insta buy author for me for sure.

Meet me at the Lake
by Carley Fortune
Pub Date: May 2, 2023
Berkely
Thanks to the author, publisher, NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in the city. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.

At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin..
Great book!

It personally felt too much like an attempt to recapture the success of book one, however, I know many people who will love it regardless!

Oh how I just love a second chance romance! Loved the lake setting and deeper themes of grief, family, mental health, and so much more. I wish there had been a little bit more chemistry/tension between the main characters - a little bit more groveling would’ve gone a long for me with this one! Still such an enjoyable, heartfelt read.

Read if you like
🛶 Lake vibes
2️⃣ Second chance romance
😍 Instalove
🤫 Strong silent MMCs
⏱️ Split timelines

Every Summer After was one of my top 10 books of 2022 so naturally Meet Me At The Lake was one of my most anticipated books of this year and am so grateful to get my hands on an advanced copy!

My thoughts 💭
- I really loved Fern’s character and enjoyed following her healing journey after the loss of her mom and finding out what she truly wanted
- I loved the setting and I think my favorite thing about Carley’s books and writing is that you can truly picture yourself at this places. Like I felt like I was at the Brookebanks resort living my best.
- This book is definitely on the slower end as far as pacing goes, not much happens and it did drag a bit for me in the middle.
- I had a really hard time connecting with Will and understanding the pull between him and Fern. They met once ten years ago and never got over each other? It just felt a little extreme for me. I loved Will by the end of the book but it felt like we didn’t learn anything about his character until the last few chapters so I just spent most of it feeling like they knew nothing about each other. I also 100000% think there needed to be more groveling from him but that may be a me thing.


Overall, this one didn’t do it for me like Every Summer After did but it’s still a solid read and I’m looking forward to reading more by Carley!

I binged read Every Summer After and Meet Me at the Lake was no different. I think what I really like about the authors style is her ability to create characters that just resonate with you. The book is written dual timelines, when the main characters Fern and Will meet and then years later. Fern and Will spend an entire day together and they just connect and you feel the connection right along with them. So as you read further, you also experience the disappointments, the regrets but also the happiness and love along with them.

I thought this book was a great follow up and would definitely recommend!

It is rare for me to read a second chance romance that I like, and Meet Me at the Lake was NOT the second chance romance we need. I could not believe that our alternating time line was from ONE DAY SPENT WITH A BOY. She dragggggged out that 24 hours. It was murder. I thought her writing was poor. Development was poor. And there was very little redeeming about this story. The only likable person was Peter.

I've decided to put this one on hold or even DNF it. I think I might revisit it at another time, but I'm really struggling to get into Meet Me at the Lake. I loved Every Summer After and was hooked in the beginning of Meet Me at the Lake, but at 50% in my interest is waning. I'm not super invested in the characters and I'm struggling to see the romance aspect of the plot.

Fern and Will meet and had a whirlwind day together in Toronto. Fast forward nine years later, Fern's mom has just passed away and has left the family lake resort to Fern to run. Her ex-boyfriend, Jamie, is the manager. The resort is not doing well and needs a renovation. In walks Will one day and Fern is shocked. He tells her, he was there a year earlier and Fern's mom, Maggie, hired him to help get the resort back on it's feet. Fern was devastated all those years ago when Will had promised to meet her at the lake a year after they met and he never showed up. Will they be able to rekindle what was the beginning of something special?

MEET ME AT THE LAKE, is such a beautiful story of loss and forgiveness. I really liked Fern and her dedication to Will. Her love for her mother and the resort are shown as well. If you enjoyed Carley Fortune's debut novel, you're sure to enjoy this one! I will say the ending made me teary eyed!

4.5 stars rounding up to 5!

Many thanks, to NetGalley and Berkley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be shared to my Instagram (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

This is so good I immediately went back and reread some scenes. I really liked Fortune’s first book, but it was messy and a bit over the top. This book, on the other hand, is stronger in just about every way, and the characters are more grounded and mature and truly anchor what’s a pretty contrived premise. Just oof! What a lovely, touching romance. I liked that it’s a grief book that explores and celebrates the complicated, often fraught dynamics in a mother/daughter relationship, but it doesn’t sideline the romance at all. Just A+ reading experience and I can already tell it will be a favorite book of the year. Also kudos to the book for SPOILER surprising me with a hero who had postpartum anxiety, which is something I seldom see in a romance, let alone as experienced by a male adoptive parent, although I wish it had been explored a bit more in depth.

Content notes: parental abandonment; unexpected death of a parent in an accident; depression; anxiety; insomnia; unexpected pregnancy (not the heroine).

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune!


I first read Every Summer After last Summer, and while it wasn't a 5 star read for me I did enjoy and feel the overall Summer vibes it gave me. That's exactly how I felt reading this book! While it is late Feb and still extremely cold here in Toronto, you can't help but feel the sun rays and get that ultimate sense of Summer you usually get when reading a Carley Fortune book. While this wasn't my favorite of the two books, I did sympathize a lot with the main character Fern. I think Carley did a great job in showing us how Fern's mother's death extremely impacted her (in more ways than one) and how much she was struggling with the figuring out who she is now that she has to take on the responsibility of running this resort. I did not like Fern's love interest Will if I'm being honest. I found his story to be more on the confusing side, and for some reason I just could not wrap my head around the reasoning to which lead him back to Fern all these years later. Their connection makes up most of the book, so not liking 1/2 characters kind of doesn't help while reading the whole book. Despite that, I do think this is the ultimate Summer book and I kind of wish I waited to read this while on the beach somewhere nice and hot.

Meet Me at the Lake is told in dual timelines; one set in present day, and the other set ten years ago. Ten years ago, Fern and Will had met serendipitously; he’s an artist — charming, albeit a bit arrogant — working on a mural at the coffee shop she’s working at, spent the day together, and altered the course of each other’s lives. Twenty-four hours was all it took for them to share their innermost thoughts, fears, dreams, and secrets. While their chemistry is undeniable; the timing isn’t right. They’d made a plan to meet at Fern’s mother’s lakeside resort on June 14th the following year, but only Fern showed. Ten years later, Fern’s life is completely different from how she envisioned it at twenty two. She’s no longer living in Toronto, but instead, managing her late mother’s lakeside resort, alongside Jamie, her ex-boyfriend. When Will shows up, nine years too late, with an offer to help turn the resort around, Fern hesitantly takes his offer. As they work together to save the resort, old feelings arise, despite the secrets that both of them are still keeping.

Throughout Meet Me at the Lake, we’re reminded that Fern doesn’t want this life — running the resort is the last thing she wants. In fact, she’d told her mother that at twenty two, and has set her sights on opening up her own coffee shop in Toronto since then. When Fern arrives at the resort, however, she realizes that there’s a lot her mother hasn’t told her — particularly, about how the resort is faring. Fern isn’t sure if she’ll stay and fix up the resort, or if she’ll sell it — On one hand, selling the resort will allow her to make the coffee shop a reality; on the other hand, the resort was her mother’s life. By interspersing diary entries from Fern’s late mother in between the two timelines, we get an additional insight into who Fern is — how she grew up, who her mother is, things that factor into her decision. At first, Fern’s memories of the resort are a little more bitter; tinged with memories of canceled girls nights with her mother who had to work late, but she learns more about who her mother is over time. Something that I found particularly powerful in Meet Me at the Lake was the conversation about how what we once wanted when we were younger might not be what we want now, and that’s okay. Our dreams and desires will shift as the environment around us does, and as our circumstances change. I wanted to give Fern the biggest hug as she worked through her grief, and what she wanted for herself.

I’m a lover of the second-chance romance trope, and I really grew to love Fern and Will as a pairing. That being said, something about them felt a little off for me that I’m struggling to identify — perhaps they felt too insta-lovey, maybe the pacing was just off, I wanted them to have a deeper connection in the present day timeline, or all three? That being said, it really is much easier to open up to someone that won’t be a constant in your life — there’s no repercussions, really, and Fern and Will both knew that when they met ten years ago.

I didn’t particularly love the emotional infidelity that took place on both Fern and Will’s part ten years ago, and I also struggled with the amount of secrets they had kept from one another — I just wanted to shake them and say “communicate with each other”. All that being said, I really enjoyed Meet Me at the Lake, and would recommend it to most readers!

Wow- first of all thank you so much Berkley Romance, NetGalley, and Carley Fortune for allowing me to read an ARC of Meet me at the Lake. I screamed out loud in joy for the opportunity to read this book. I am so glad that I was not disappointed. This book was so good and even though I really enjoyed Every Summer After, I loved this one more!

There are so many emotions in this one. Let’s start with the fact that I loved the premise. From there I loved the dual timelines. The character growth and the banter. I ate it all up so much I finished this in one sitting. I feel like this book should come with a playlist! Can’t wait for the world to love Fern with me!

A huge thank you to Berkley for an advanced copy of Meet Me At the Lake by Carley Fortune. I read this as soon as I received my copy since I was so excited. I loved Every Summer After (it was one of my top ten of 2022) so was eagerly anticipating her sophomore novel and I liked Meet Me at the Lake better than Every Summer After. Meet Me at the Lake will be in my top 10 of 2023.

Fern is grieving the loss of her mother and is back home at the Brookbanks Resort that her family ran and where she grew up trying to figure out what to do -- Does she take over the resort or go back to her life in Toronto? When Will walks back into her life as a consultant her mom hired to help turn around the resort. Fern and Will had a magical day ten years ago and shared their dreams and fears. They agreed to meet up at the resort a year later, but when he failed to show up and now nine years later he's walking back into her life...

I loved that this was told in the present, the magical day ten years ago and through Fern's mom journal the summer she found out she was pregnant. The three viewpoints brought together this story of love, dreams, expectations and family in such a beautiful way.

The way Carley Fortune can write about love and characters in the most brilliant way. I was sobbing through the last quarter of the book, but in a good way. I loved this story so much and the Dirty Dancing references and friends and cast of characters were just icing on the cake.

Pre-order a copy of Meet Me on the Lake and continue to fall in love with Carley Fortune. Plus I loved her authors note at the end.

Carley Fortune for me has become one of my favorite authors for books featuring the second chance romance trope. Having loved Every Summer After, and it being one of my top books for 2022, Meet Me at the Lake had pretty high standards, and I'm happy to say that Carley has done it again and blown me away with this book. I think I may have loved this one even more than Every Summer After!

10 years ago, Fern and Will meet when Will is painting a mural at the coffee shop Fern works at in Toronto. They spend one day together with Will showing Fern some can't miss spots in Toronto before she moves back home. Fern is wrestling with the fact that she doesn't want to leave Toronto and wants to establish her own life, not the life her mom has planned out for her helping to run the family's lakeside inn. Will is torn between what he truly wants to do with his life and the path that he'll hate but makes the most sense. Together, they share their fears with each other of following their hearts and write a one year plan for themselves. In a year they promise to meet up at Fern's family's inn to see how they faired in their goals. Fern shows up, Will does not until 9 years later.

All of the emotions that Fern was feeling over seeing Will again and being back home making the decision if she wanted to stay, I felt like I was feeling them alongside her. I was mad at Will for abandoning her, but then so happy when he was showing Fern how much she truly meant to him. I loved the chapters alternating between present day and ten years in the past because it really helped in setting up the next chapter and the emotions you were in for. I liked that this book showed that it is okay to not truly know what you want out of life and it is okay to follow your heart, even if you mess up along the way. And that people handle grief in so many different ways.

There was a great cast of secondary characters, Peter was an incredible father figure for Fern and I liked that he let her heal in her own way and time. The last quarter of the book I had tears in my eyes that would not go away, and the glimpses of Fern's mom's diary entries were a really nice touch.

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Carley Fortune has entertained me again. Something about her good but flawed characters just work for me. Once again, they hold back, don't say what they need to say, and hurt themselves as much as they hurt others.

Both twenty two and beginning the next stage of their lives, Fern and Max meet for the first time and spend a glorious but bittersweet twenty four hours together. We don't know Max's inner thoughts but we do know Fern's and it's obvious that Max has woken Fern up in a way that needed to happen. In Max, Fern sees what she wants but he's not hers for the taking and she's not free to take. But they have a firm date to meet at her family resort in one year.

Fern spends the year thinking about Max but when the day comes he stands her up. A year before, Max gave Fern what she needed to change the direction of her life. Now his absence at the meeting Fern has longed for all year changes Fern again. Already reeling from past hurts, Fern still can't let go of the memories of that twenty four hours with Max.

Then ten years from the date of first meeting Max, there he is at her family's resort. He's there to help her again, when he's really the one that needs help. But these two can't get the words out to say what needs to be said. Usually I don't like that kind of thing, somehow not disclosing what is important, when to do so could explain so much. Too good to be true Max is here now but still, he seems out of reach even though she can touch him. Max is so likeable but has a wall up in some ways, Fern is so careful to not be hurt again, and then there are the interesting side characters to fill out this world of Max and Fern. I really did like what all the characters could add to this sweet story.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC.

I have a hard time putting into words how much I love Carley's writing. In Every Sumer After, my favorite book of 2022, I was hooked from the first paragraph (I went into the book not knowing anything about the plot) but with MMATL I was not so patiently waiting to get my hands on it and when I got the approval email I dropped all my things (work, friends, the book I was currently reading) to start it and I was not disappointed. Carley does a great job of setting a scene in her novels, I've told multiple people "they read like a movie" and that is truly the highest compliment that she can do such a great job at transforming a reader into the scenes she's written. I fell hard and fast for Fern, a character I see in myself a lot. But I think anyone that has a complex relationship with their mothers will find Fern's growth natural and realistic and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Fern met Will in Toronto one day 10 years ago, in a classic love-at-first-sight, meet-cute this should be the fairy tale Fern will tell their kids about one day, the only problem: they're both in relationships. Fern's about to go back to her co-worker-turned-boyfriend to work at her mom's Muskoka lakeside resort, a place she loves but voes to never run once her mom retires and Will is just in Toronto to visit his dad and sister for the summer before heading back to his artist life in Vancouver. Fern has her own plans in mind for the future which include calling Toronto home and breaking the news to her mom that following in her footsteps is out of the question. So while Will shows Fern all around Toronto for their final 24 hours in the city they make big plans and lists for each other to follow. For Fern, it's to move back to Toronto and follow her own career path. For Will, it's to always make art and never sell out. They plan to meet at the resort a year later, with promises of more to come, and to see that they hopefully are living out the pact they made to each other in the dead of night.

Fern shows up, Will doesn't.

It's now 10 years since their first 'date'. After the sudden death of her mother Fern is back at the resort that she swore she'd never work at again when Will checks in. Wearing a suit and holding the title of business consult he tells Fern that he met his mom last year while there for a wedding and bargained with her for a week's vacation in return he'll analyze the business to help them turn a profit. With her mother's bargain and realization that the resort could go under she doesn't send Will away but instead decides to work with him, but with so many things unsaid and questions left unanswered can Will and Fern move past their past to keep the legacy of Fern's mother alive?

Just like ESA, there's a big "jaw-dropping' moment in this book but unlike in ESA I didn't see this one coming, it hurt but their story is unlike any I've read and I cannot wait to read it again.

Another story by Carley Fortune that made me wish I had a waterfront house growing up. I really enjoyed the story telling and characters. I was completely consumed with wanting them to reunite. I love the family backstories and mental health ties. I thought it was important to show men experiencing these emotions too.

I can’t wait to recommend this to my friends as their top summer read!