#Carley Fortune

[bigdreamsandwildthings]

A new cozy comfort read with my lil guy 🥰

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2024 📖 no. 069

This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune

“It’s the kind of night where I can feel something lock into place. This is it, I think. This is everything I want.”

[bookishfreedom]

this one was pitched to me as “if The Summer I Turned Pretty grew up” - and somehow it’s totally true and I still ended up loving it ?

[mybookdiaries]

You’re not an escape. You’re everything.

Meet me at the lake, Carley fortune

[edwardslovelyelizabeth]

This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune

«Felix backs me against the wall, and we kiss. He tastes like good rye and woodsmoke and the sweetest end to the best day of my life. When we part, he takes my hand and tugs me toward the stairs. Fingers laced, we climb up to our bedroom in the home we’ve built together. A house full of books. A field full of flowers. Our own special island.»

[bass-alien]

Friday night vibes 🌙

[sussex-newswire]

"How did you react when Prince Harry and Meghan [the Duchess of Sussex] wanted to adapt your book?  

"It was very surreal. I was deeply touched because the book was very difficult for me to write. It was my second book. I struggled with a lot of imposter syndrome writing it. I was also dealing with my own postpartum mental health issues writing it, and the book deals with some tough subjects. It deals with grief, it deals with mental health, it deals with finding yourself on a path that you never intended to be on, and two characters who have really gone through a lot. It meant so much to me to have it recognized in that way because it had been such a difficult journey. I’m enormously grateful, and I’m so happy about the partnership."

[gwynberdara]

books i read in 2023: every summer after by carley fortune

“i lean in to give him a hug, and it feels like coming home and saying goodbye and four thousand days of longing”

[idreamimpossiblethings]

"I feel his fingers twine around mine, and for a moment, my whole heart is held between our palms." - Carley Fortune, This Summer Will Be Different (p. 127)

[maddiesflame]

Olá! Poderia fazer headers do livro every summer after com essas cores, por favor?

[betterthanthemovies]

books read in 2024:

out on a limb - hannah bonam-young

keeping 13 - chloe walsh

picking daisies on sundays - liana cincotti

done and dusted - lyla sage

flawless - elsie silver

funny feelings - tarah dewitt

call it what you want - brigid kemmerer

a love letter to whiskey - kandi steiner

once upon a broken heart - stephanie garber

mile high - liz tomforde

night shift - annie crown

heartless - elsie silver

afterglow effect - alecia gabrielle

too wrong to be right - melonie johnson

just go with it - madison wright

powerless - elsie silver

just friends - tiffany pitcock

magnolia parks - jessa hastings

twisted love - ana huang

the duet - hailey gardiner

love redesigned - lauren asher

happily never after - lynn painter

camp let you go - kristen lucero

more than just us - allie otoski

the infinity between us - n.s. perkins

older - jennifer hartmann

wild love - elsie silver

diving in - bianca miller

funny story - emily henry

the seven year slip - ashley poston

the rule book - sarah adams

next of kin - hannah bonam-young

twice shy - sarah hogle

rewrite our story - kat singleton

the truth & lies duet - c.w. farnsworth

just for the summer - abby jimenez

the deal - elle kennedy

the cruel prince - holly black

the consequences of falling - liliana rose hastings

the summer of perfect mistakes - cynthia st. aubin

the right move - liz tomforde

the summer of broken rules - k.l. walther

this summer will be different - carley fortune

catch the sun - jennifer hartmann

every last word - tamara ireland stone

like i never said - c.w. farnsworth

a thousand broken pieces - tillie cole

caught up - liz tomforde

the art of breathing - cali melle

she followed the moon back to herself - amanda lovelace

the cinnamon bun book store - laurie gilmore

where time stands still - n.s. perkins

the irish goodbye - amy ewing

blue sisters - coco mellors

all too well - corinne michaels

forget me not - alyson derrick

when we were friends - jane green

i fell in love with hope - lancali

the housemaid - freida mcfadden

the perfect marriage - jeneva rose

daisy haites - jessa hastings

dead poets society - nancy h. kleinbaum

summer on dune road - rachel cullen

can't help falling in love - sophie sullivan

by the book - c.a. steinhaus

pageboy - elliot page

caraval - stephanie garber

red - annie cardi

hooked - emily mcintire

maine characters - hannah orenstein

firefly lane - kristin hannah

dear ava - ilsa madden-mills

the perks of being a wallflower - stephen chbosky

whispers of deception - liliana rose hastings

cruel summer - maisey yates

friends to lovers - sally blakely

radio silence - alice oseman

call it what you want - alissa derogatis

keeping 13 - chloe walsh (reread)

a wish for us - tillie cole

an irish summer - alexandra paige

this song is (not) for you - laura nowlin

my december darling - lauren asher

reading goal: 84/50

[bigdreamsandwildthings]

In my soft pink romance era 💕

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2023 📖 no. 054

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

“I spent just one day with Will, and it changed my life. I once thought he might be my soulmate. I once thought he and I would be here together under very different circumstances. I once thought a lot of things about Will.”

[teenageread]

Review: This Summer Will Be Different

Initial Thoughts:

Never before have I wanted to go to PEI (the smallest province in Canada) so badly, and if Carley Fortune does not make you book a ticket (or drive like me), we did not read the same novel. I know Fortune in the literature world writes these epic romances that make you not only fall in love with the characters, but the location as well, and this novel can be a testament to that statement. Fortune makes you fall in love with Lucy and PEI at the same time as this novel not only spans before the summer of Bridget getting married, but the past five summers, and some thanksgiving. As Felix and Lucy try to deny the chemistry they feel for each other, this secret romance has you gasping for the conclusion. The thing is though, where Felix is the perfect book boyfriend, and I loved his and Lucy’s relationship, that is not the romance this novel is about. Taking inspiration from Anne of Green Gables (PEI classic story), this novel is an ode to female friendship that makes you more emotional than anything Felix does or could do. This is a love story of Lucy and Bridget, two best friends who found each other in college and helped through the toughest challenges of young womanhood. This type of friendship has not been told before (by novels that I’ve read) because it's not about a group of friends or a found family, but that single person that makes you feel more seen and heard than anyone else in a truly platonic sort of way. That is to me what makes this novel phenomenal, not only a good romance and a beautiful location, but as an ode to female friendship that makes you hold your girlfriends close and want to treasure the friendship you created. 

Characters:

I honestly think Lucy is the perfect character and an excellent POV for this novel. Lucy is in her mid-twenties and like every mid-twenties girl she has some things figured out, but not all, and is desperate to cling to what she knows. With the novel flashing back to summer five years before, four years before, and Thanksgiving three years before, we get to see the growth Lucy has done in her life, while simultaneously experiencing the growth within this novel. Past Lucy has already dealt with the hard drama of choosing a job her parents disagree with and dealing with the passing of her close aunt, allowing this novel to be about her relationship with Felix and Bridget. Yes both of them, because as much as Lucy spends the novel crushing on Felix, Bridget is also a main focus of the novel. Fortune's ability to make this novel equally about Lucy falling in love with Felix, and about her friendship with Bridget is one of the reasons why I fall in love with this novel and Lucy herself. Lucy is a well-developed character who does not take drama and is honestly a good friend to Bridget the entire novel. Felix and Bridegt, the dynamic siblings are also extremely well developed in both the past and present of this novel. Felix shows a fantastic arrange of emotions and behaviors as you tell throughout the years when Lucy and him are friends or there is tension. Bridget, who is lofty in this novel due to her secret, has a close connection with Lucy and her brother and is also a good friend despite the secrets behind her. My favorite part of Fortune’s story is that Lucy and Bridget are such strong characters with such a strong base that no matter the secret they are holding, it does not break their friendship, thus, no third-act reunion where they become besties again, they are always friends. The need for female friendships to withstand any hardship is displayed beautifully within this novel, in which Lucy and Bridget show that at every single point during this novel, neither character ever lets us down! 

Plot / Writing:

Fortune holds readers' attention with the countdown to Bridget’s wedding, which may or may not happen. Where the novel begins talking about how five summers ago, Lucy slept with Felix before learning that the handsome local she met at the restaurant was Wolf, Bridget’s little brother, someone who Bridget said not to fall in love with, you would think the secret would crack their friendship, but it does not. Thus, the plot and current starting point of the novel, show the countdown to Bridget’s wedding, one that days prior has Bridget fleeing to PEI from Toronto (Canada geography - they are not close) and begs Lucy to come. Thus, during the flashbacks to summers (and Thanksgiving) previous on PEI, we get the present-day countdown of whether Bridget will get married or not. Fortune is amazing at this, keeping the novel in the present, but giving us flashbacks when needed, all to stir along this mystery of what is going on with Bridget. Amongst the romance of Felix and Lucy growing closer into something more, we have Bridget who is losing her mind, one that Fortune does not tell us why until near the end of the novel, giving us it at the crux, and then kept going. That’s right; why Bridget fled to the island is revealed as a third act, but it's not the end of the novel, allowing us to get a full conclusion to the problem, plus an epilogue to wrap everything up nicely. The multiple plots felt needed in this story, and as I said before, Fortune does a superb job at sharing the romance in this novel between Lucy and Felix, and Lucy and Bridget, as this novel is equally about friendship as it is about love.  

Conclusion: 

This novel is a testament to summer, love, and female friendship as Fortune makes you fall in love with PEI, Lucy, Felix, and Bridget, and makes you wish for your own summertime bliss in PEI. Lucy never met to fall for Felix, but she did mean to fall for Bridget, and where I was not expected to fall for this novel, Fortune knew what they were doing, and I fell hard. 

To my own version of Bridget (or Lucy), Normy I love you forever and you truly are the best parts of me.

[rissyrosie]

I decided too name my favorite couples on my ‘favorites’ bookshelf from what I read:

~ Laura Jean and Peter Kavinsky from ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ by Jenny Han

~Jaewoo and Jenny from ‘XOXO’ by Axie Oh

(Yes I pictured Wony as Jenny and Taehyung as Jaewoo)

~Macallan and Levi from ‘Better Off Friends’ by Elizabeth Eulberg

Quentin and Margo from ‘Paper Towns’ by John Greene

~Jo and Laurie from ‘Little Women’ by Louisa May Alcott

Percy and Sam from ‘Every Summer After’ by Carley Fortune

~Levi and Cather from ‘Fangirl’ by Rainbow Rowell

America and Maxon from ‘The Selection Series’ by Kiera Cass

~Beyah and Samson from ‘Heart Bones’ by Colleen Hoover (only coho book I liked from her)

~Felicity and Alec from ‘Paper Hearts’ by Ali Novak

[noemyreads]

every summer after - carley fortune

book synopsis

they say you can never go home again, and for persephone fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

until she receives the call that sends her racing back to barry’s bay and into the orbit of sam florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

for six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—percy and sam had been inseparable. eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

when percy returns to the lake for sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. but until percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

review

I didn't expect much from this book (truth be told, I didn't expect anything), I only read it because it was chosen in my friends' book club. it was so random I didn't even bother to read the synopsis.

i rated 2/5. like I said, I didn't expect anything from the book, but as the reading flowed I started to think that the story would be something more than just friends to lovers with slow burn, BUT THAT WAS IT.

pers lived her whole life waiting for a teenage romance that took one step forward and two steps back and never engaged in anything more than a friendship. I was very uncomfortable with this co-dependence of the two, both dated (at different times) and still wanted each other. I feel sorry for their partners, God forbid dating someone who is in love with their best friend and doesn't dare to give direction to this relationship.

i found sam a little annoying, i wanted pers with charlie or mason, I think sam lacked something and those two had.

anyway, this book reminded me of “the summer I got pretty”, the difference is that TSITP is good.