"Every Summer After" Is The One Book You Should Read This Season
Carley Fortune's debut novel strikes the perfect balance of nostalgia and heat.
The past few years have been “meh” when it comes to my reading.
I wouldn’t call what I’ve been experiencing a “slump” per se; I just haven’t been in the mood to read.
That isn’t to say the books I did pick up when I got the urge (or had enough of an attention span), weren’t good. Last year I finished two great series (The Chronicles of The One by Nora Roberts and The Truly Devious Series penned by Maureen Johnson) and was pleasantly surprised by Laura Hankin’s kind-of-weird-super-witchy A Special Place for Women. And even though it took me a while to finish The Secret History by Donna Tart (I chiseled away at it for about a month), I rated it four out of five stars on Goodreads.
But it’s been a long time since I’ve been blown away by a book; since I’ve picked up a page-turner that I easily could have finished in a day or two —hours, probably, if I had the time to spare — but chose to read it at a glacial pace so I could savor each and every page.
And then Penguin sent me a review copy of Carley Fortune’s debut novel, Every Summer After.
I finished it Monday morning. I’m still thinking about it. I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
The synopsis
When Persephone Fraser meets Sam Florek in Barry’s Bay the summer after she turned 13, the two become inseparable, fast. In the six years that follow summering in her parents' lakeshore cottage and working at his mom’s tavern, Percy finds herself feeling things that aren’t so platonic for the boy next door.
As breathtaking as it is to bear witness to Percy and Sam’s blooming romance, it’s equally as heartbreaking to watch it all fall apart.
It’s been over a decade when Percy receives a gut-wrenching phone call, calling her back home to Barry’s Bay. Back to Sam. She has one weekend to make things right between her and the man she never really wanted to live without. That, and to forgive herself for the mistake she made as a teenager that drove them apart.
The review
I wrote my Goodreads review seconds after I finished the last page of this gorgeous book. It read: If I could give this book thousands of stars, I would. I loved every second and took my sweet time savoring each page. The ending was perfection; everything tied up flawlessly.
As an aspiring fiction writer myself (I have two unpublished manuscripts under my belt, and am currently working on my third), when I fall in love with a book, it’s not just a matter of me loving the story being told.
No, this kind of love for a book goes beyond its entertainment value.
It’s an admiration for the author and their craft; in this case, it was Fortune’s ability to put words to paper in such a way that every line felt important and was written beautifully.
You don’t have to have spent your childhood summers in a lake town to find Fortune’s story breathtakingly nostalgic. Percy and Sam’s story is as much a summer love story as it is simply a story about first love and earth-shattering heartbreak. It’s about making mistakes and forgiving yourself for them; about great love and fighting tooth and nail for it.
One of my biggest takeaways from Fortune’s words was the realization that life is made up of a series of moments, but not every moment has to define you; that not every mistake is a character trait. Her story serves as a gentle reminder that, kid or adult, no one is immune to the big feelings, the all-consuming emotions that send pins and needles down our arms and static in our fingertips.
When I was younger, I went to some great and interesting lengths to make my life feel like a movie (you can read all about my impersonations of fictional television characters here). I learned quickly that in between the fairytale moments, real-life relationships and friendships are mostly made up of raw, unscripted moments and decisions, and that’s what Fortune delivers in her debut novel.
Yes, Percy and Sam’s is a love story, but it isn’t told through rose-tinted lenses. It’s complicated. It’s sweet. It’s messy. It’s sexy (so, so sexy). And it’s going to put you in your feels.
All of them.
Not one single emotion will be spared.
The bottom line.
If you’re looking for a summer read that’s going to move you, heart and soul, that’s going to make you tingle, cry, and smile, that’s going to drown you in a wave of nostalgia and teach you a lesson or two about forgiveness and love in all its forms, then I implore you:
Pick up this book.
Savor every word.
You only get to read a book for the first time once, after all.
Though I have a feeling this is one of the rare few you’ll remember every summer after you do.
And just like that I’ll be adding this to my summer list!
Now I want to read it!