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.
Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.
Title : Every Summer After
Author : Carley Fortune
Format : eBook (overdrive)
Page Count : 307
Genre : romance
Publisher : Berkley
Release Date : May 10, 2022
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★
Hollis' 2 star review
And the award for the writing of the most unlikely thirteen year olds (and the most annoying fifteen year old) goes to..
But seriously, I almost DNF'd this at 13% because I was just not buying it. Why not just age these kids up so they could actually act in a way that befit their age? Additionally, it made it really hard to believe there was going to be this great long-lasting relationship out of those early interactions because they were so.. bland? Awkward? And, in the case of the older brother, weird and inappropriate?
So, yes, the past-time-y flashbacks? Obviously not my favourite. And it didn't get better even as they aged up because everyone was so so dumb. Like, truly. This was just dramatic for no reason. And sure, yes, kids are idiots. But these kids were actually relatively intelligent and, in some cases outright smart, so it didn't quite make sense for them to be this stupid.
But then it got worse. Then I started hating the present-day scenes, too. Especially once we'd caught up to the why of this big break between these two characters and.. no. Sorry. I hate the trope in general but some authors can make it work if I believe in the why of it -- or if the characters are good enough. And I don't and they weren't. And I don't understand how everything was forgiven, everyone was friends, and the blameless party gaslit himself into taking on a share of the blame. That's a whole new level of mess and I just can't.
Even all the great bits of Canadiana couldn't save this one, sorry.
I definitely read a different book than everybody else but hey that's okay. Super glad this was everyone's favourite last year. I'm late to the party anyway so (vague gesture) just ignore me.
I will give her next book, which is out in like a month, a try but it seems like we have another second-chance something, and another giant timeline gap, so like.. I don't know, is this her formula, the same way Ali Hazelwood does the pixie chick and giant man shtick? If it doesn't include the other bit, the trope I hated in this one, maybe it could be a winner. Maybe. We'll see.
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