Book Review: Every Summer After {Carley Fortune}
So EVERYONE is obsessed with this book right now.
If you follow me on Instagram, you might remember the Instastories of me literally CHASING this book around town at the beginning of summer. It was high on my TBR and I was DETERMINED to find myself a copy. I went to Barnes and Noble and not only were they sold out…but apparently ALL Barnes and Nobles in my area for miles around were sold out! Well if THAT didn’t make me want to read it even more, nothing would.
So I took a quick lunch break and then went straight to to bookstore #2…Barbara’s Bookstore in Vernon Hills…SUCCESS! I happily bought my book and left with a smile on my face. I couldn’t wait to start reading!
In fact, I was SO excited to start reading that I declared this book to be the book I was most excited to read this summer!
Goodreads Synopsis of Every Summer After {Carley Fortune}:
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.
My Review of Every Summer After {Carley Fortune}:
I was so excited when I finally DID manage myself a copy of this book! I bought it, I read it, and…Eh.
I really, really liked it. There’s nothing not to like! I smiled, I cried, I felt alllll the emotions while reading. BUT…
It was boring. It took me weeks to finish. I’m not sure what I’m missing here….so many people say they devoured this book in 1 sitting? I felt like nothing really happened within the first 2/3 of this book? It held my interest enough to keep reading but I just kept waiting for something….ANYTHING…to happen? I also just wanted MORE. More storyline, more character development, more reasons to like Percy (I did not), more Sue, more EVERYTHING.
I found the timelines to be confusing. Bouncing around through 12 years while simultaneously talking about the present just didn’t work for me. I found myself going back to the beginning of chapters to remind myself what decade we were in. Eh.
And my biggest issue with this book….IT. WAS. SO. PREDICTABLE. By chapter 2, I figured out the entire ending and I was spot on. And I wasn’t even trying to predict anything! I HATE THAT SO MUCH.
Now I DID enjoy the writing style and I’m very much looking forward to reading another book by Carley Fortune but unfortunately this one just wasn’t my favorite.
And the cover art is weird. Why does Percy have a bald spot?
Bottom Line:
It’s good…definitely not worthy of all the hype.
Have you read this book? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Xo,
Jenny
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Book Coffee Happy 
Thanks for the honest review and for saving me some time. LOL on the bald spot.
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Like…I kept reading and waiting for some explanation about the bald spot??? Whyyyyyy???
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Haha – this morning Geoff asked why I went to bed so late last night and I told him I started a book at lunch and HAD to finish it. It was Every Summer After. Was it amazing? No. Did it keep me guessing? No. Was it cute? Yes. Was it exactly what I needed after reading a heavy mystery novel? Yes. I agree that it was a little boring at times, but overall I did really enjoy the book. I think I read it all in one sitting just so I could finish it and move on to something better. And on that note, I’m starting a serial killer book!
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“And on that note I’m starting a serial killer book”….HA! You and I have the same thoughts on this book. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it. It definitely had its moments but it also unfortunately had REALLY boring and predictable moments as well. Ugh!
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Now I’m torn. I am waiting to pick up this book at the library. Should I or not 🤔🤔
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You definitely should! It’s a good book…I just wasn’t blown away like so many people are.
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I’ve seen this book all over bookstagram. I always appreciate an honest review. I don’t think I’ll read this one though. It sounds very similar to others I’ve read like love and other words by Christina Lauren.
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Reading the book now, and am on chapter 7. So far, I Think it’s cute, but I could see why you thought it was boring. It’s pretty slow. So much flashing back does make the actual storyline move along at a drowsy pace.
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A book that as you say seems to be everywhere, the reviews of it largely positive; it is for this reason that whilst I will probably read it I’m waiting for the hype to die down.
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Yes there really is so much hype around this book right now. Eh…
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I was hoping to find someone who didn’t gush over this book.
I just finished it last night after weeks of waiting for it from the library. Everyone was talking about this one, and it was all over tiktok. But as I started making my way through … not really a page turner. I’d read a couple chapters before bed and then I’d be like ‘hmm I’m good, won’t stay up late for this’. So it took me about a week.
I don’t love the way the plot unraveled. I’m also not convinced they actually belong together at the end. It seems like they probably need therapy first before either one can handle this relationship. I wonder if the jumping back and forth in time actually hurt the story more than it helped.
Anyway, thanks for your review. Since I finished it, I’ve just felt like … huh. So that’s it. But I will be on the look out for this author going forward.
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YES! I agree with everything you said. I’m absolutely baffled as to why so many people are gushing over this book…??
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