A review by ianb
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After hearing a Friend fall in love with this book and kindly gifting me a copy for my birthday I decided that it was time to pick it up off the shelf and dive in and this one left me feeling a lot of emotions while reading it that it’s so worthy of the 5 stars! It deserves them all!  Breathtaking, emotional, vulnerable, tender, intense, beautiful, funny and just real! This is a stunning debut novel from Carley Fortune, 
 
Percy (Persephone) Fraser and Sam Florek meet when they’re 13-years old and her family buys a summer lake cottage in Barry’s Bay next to the one he lives in year-round with his mom, Sue, and older brother, Charlie. They become best friends, spending summers and holidays together each year until Percy returns to Toronto for school. Her independence and wit complement Sam’s intelligence and sensitivity, and together they bond over her writing and love of horror movies, swimming, working together at Sue’s restaurant, and their ritual “three updates” they offer one another every time they talk after an absence. For six summers their friendship evolves and deepens until their future looks clear … until something happens, and it isn’t. 12 years have passed and when 1 event means that Percy returns to Barry Bay it’s time for her to come face to face with her feelings once again. 
 
This is a story about real life and while reading it you can’t help but fall in love with the characters but also just get lost in their story and the world created. This book does an amazing job at switching between the present day and the summers gone by to let you the read go on the journey with them to discover summers gone by that have left to what both characters are feeling now. The past timeline captures the curiosity, confusion and hunger of being young and seeing friendship become something more, and the present one explores what happens when love has to find its way back. 
 
If you love a character-rich, emotionally evocative, BEAUTIFULLY written story that explores what love feels like, both good and bad, this is one you won’t want to miss! I laughed, my heart raced, sometimes it truly hurt, but at every single moment I was experiencing this book as if I was there, and it’s such a rare book that takes me to that place. 
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