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
- Publisher: Berkley
- Publication Date: May 7 2024
- Genre: Contemporary, Romance
- Targeted Age Range: Adult
- Content Warnings: death of a loved one, cancer, miscarriage mention, pregnancy, grief, anxiety
- Rating: ★★★.5
I’ve always been a spring & summer girl; there’s just something about the way everything seems to crawl out of the deep slumber that is winter — people included, the blooming of flowers, the warmth, the sunshine, the joy. It’s simply infectious. And in a nutshell, that’s how Carley Fortune’s books make me feel. By now, I’ve learned to associate Carley Fortune’s romances with summer; they’re quintessential beach reads. Without fail, Fortune’s books make me want to take two weeks off from my job, and drive to the nearest lake, to sit by the beach — and I don’t even like the beach that much.
This Summer Will Be Different is many things; it’s charming, it’s endearing, it’s a love story wrapped up in grief and a will-they-won’t-they romance. It’s got tropes that I don’t usually gravitate towards. It’s for people who love Anne of Green Gables. But most importantly, it’s a story about a florist — Lucy ‘Bee’ Ashby, who escapes to Prince Edward Island every year, trading in her stressful life in Toronto, for a couple days filled with oysters, delicious wine, and the beach. It’s a story about Lucy’s love for her best friend, Bridget Clark; the only person that Lucy would drop everything for and follow to an island on a day’s notice. And of course, there’s Felix “Wolf” Clark — Bridget’s younger brother who is absolutely off-limits.
Lucy is a typical 20-something year old in a large city. She’s overworked, she’s burnt out, she’s unsure if she’s happy. She’s lost, she’s a people pleaser. Her best friend is getting married, moving on. We all know Lucy. Some of us are Lucy. Wolf is, well, he’s almost too perfect; a 20-something reader, oyster shucker, and cottage constructor, who is just absolutely smitten for Lucy — despite knowing that she’s off limits. I am not someone who picks up a book based on what tropes are in it. If anything, I’m often deterred by specific tropes (for example: insta love). And while Lucy and Felix have an element of insta-love in their dynamic, I do think that it’s backed up by their chemistry. Would I have liked to see more of their relationship that isn’t just them hooking up? Yes, very much so. Do I think that Lucy and Wolf were more insta-lust than anything else? Also yes. Wolf is a physical manifestation of the safe space that is PEI for Lucy; PEI (and Wolf) is the place Lucy runs to when she’s upset, grieving, or lost. I wish that we’d gotten to see more of Lucy’s grief and how the aftermath of everything is intertwined with her time on the island — her healing, especially. But honestly, it didn’t bother me too much.
I spent a large amount of time rooting for Lucy and Wolf, never got overly frustrated at them, and I felt like the dual timeline really helped in getting me invested in their story. I think that Fortune balances out the events of present day, and the events of Lucy and Wolf’s past quite well. Something that I particularly appreciate about Fortune is the way that the tropes she uses doesn’t just feel like tropes for the sake of checking a box off, but rather something that’s been given some thought. There isn’t just miscommunication for the sake of an easy third act breakup; there’s intention behind each character’s actions. Everything is done to further the story in some way, whether it be Lucy’s growth, her relationship with Wolf, or her friendship with Bridget.
And where do I begin with Bridget. Our type-A planner, who a week before her wedding, flees to her hometown with no explanation. I spent a good chunk of the book just wanting to give her a hug; I’d definitely read a book about Bridget herself, and I think that the love between her and Lucy was a real highlight of the book. That being said, I found myself quite frustrated at her stubbornness and how long it took her to open up — especially since Lucy was rescheduling work commitments for her with no explanation. Maybe I’m the problem here.
Still, there was something that just wasn’t quite perfect about this book for me. I wished that the characters had a little more depth to them. I wanted a little more character development. I think that Fortune writes a lot of montage moments, and I think that some of those montage moments would’ve been better had they been full-out scenes. I wanted Lucy to really, properly access what made her happy, to step away from her workaholic tendencies, and I wanted to see more about Lucy’s business — not just as montage moments.
Links for This Summer Will Be Different: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop
Carley Fortune is the New York Times and #1 Globe and Mail bestselling author of Every Summer After. Her second book, Meet Me at the Lake, comes out May 2, 2023. It’s a breathtaking love story about two strangers who come together when they need each other most. Once, in their early twenties, and again a decade later.
Every Summer After is Carley’s debut novel and an instant international bestseller. The book is a nostalgic story of childhood crushes, first loves, and the people and choices that mark us forever.
Carley is an award-winning journalist and worked as an editor at some of Canada’s top publications, including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Toronto Life, and the much-beloved, now-defunct weekly paper, The Grid. She was most recently the Executive Editor of Refinery29 Canada. Carley holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).
Carley spent her young life in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, and in Barry’s Bay, a tiny lakeside town in rural Ontario and the setting for Every Summer After.
She lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons.
