EVERY SUMMER AFTER
by Carley Fortune
I absolutely love when I end up reading the right book at the right time, and Every Summer After lined up perfectly with the first warm days of spring in Toronto. This is a true beach read and a very enjoyable one.
Set mostly in Barry’s Bay (my mother-in-law Lori's hometown), Fortune builds a love story from two angles—the budding romance of two teens and their reconnection 12 years later. Percy and Sam meet because their cottages neighbor each other. But while Percy visits just for summer escapes from her life in Toronto, Sam lives there year-round with his mother who runs the local tavern. Attraction sparks right away between the two, but at thirteen becoming best friends seems the safest move. When the relationship eventually does heat up into a romance, Percy and Sam, being teenagers begin to sabotage it for fear they’ll lose it.
Twelve years later, we see them both at thirty-something, back in Barry’s Bay for the funeral of Sam’s mother. It becomes clear that both are keeping secrets about their break up, and Fortune does a wonderful job of teasing out those reveals until the very end. Written during the pandemic as a way to escape her own lock-down life, Fortune has written a sweet and irresistible novel that goes down as easily as a chilled rose on the dock in August. (Lily)
