This summer they'll keep their promise. This summer they won't give into temptation. This summer will be different.
Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn't know he's her best friend's younger brother. Lucy and Felix's chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.
It's easier said than done.
Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won't wind up in Felix's bed. Again.
If Lucy can't help being drawn to Felix, at least she's always kept her heart out of it.
When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she's never been able to. But Felix's sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy's beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.
Title : This Summer Will Be Different
Author : Carley Fortune
Format : eBook (overdrive)
Page Count : 320
Genre : romance
Publisher : Berkley
Release Date : May 7, 2024
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★ ★ .5
Hollis' 3.5 star review
Okay Vicki. You were right. If any Fortune was going to work for me, it would be this one. And it did. But I have to admit, there was a little side-eye in the beginning..
I'm not sure what this recent trend is in romance where relationships between girl besties become a little too much, too involved, too important, but I have to admit.. I'm not a fan. Don't get me wrong, I love a ride or die but these have come across a little strange. And it was that element that was really the buzz kill in the early to mid chapters for me. But more specifically, it was how Lucy's bestie Bridget, the sister of the guy she was secretly seeing/secretly into, was just behaving so poorly. Selfishly. It's one thing to need time to work out what you need to work out, think things through without being influenced one way or another, but the way she overtook everyone's lives around her, with something huge and expensive looming in the very near future.. I just could not. Especially with how she reacted, no matter how gently she was approached, or how much understanding she was given. I confess, I wanted to drown her at sea.
And she wasn't the only one. Lucy had a few habits that drove me a little nuts but I appreciated that they were acknowledged as a problem and became something she had to unlearn, that she had conversations with those around her about it, and subsequently worked through it, to eventually become a person who was more than just that one thing. That's true character growth.
But, surprisingly, everything else outside of that? I was enjoying. I worried initially at the fast tracked chemistry and connection between Lucy and Felix but the aftermath of that, the slowburn, the way they ended up in and out of each other's orbits, the way they actually got to know each other a little bit each time, but still acknowledged they didn't know enough, was where this really sparkled. And the mature conversations they had after they did finally connect and were honest with each other.. wow. I didn't expect it and I was tickled by how it was so well handled.
Overall, for the most part, this just felt.. easy. Not without some angst and some light emotional elements to delve into, but breezy. Fun. And a lot of that has to do with Fortune thankfully not falling into the other recent trend (pitfall) in contemporary romance of taking on too much, doing too many things, feeling like everything has to be a lesson or have a takeaway. This was just itself. And it was a better experience overall as a result.
And because this was such a better experience, I guess this means I will be picking up the author's next release after all.
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