Every Summer After

Hello hello, welcome back! Gosh I can’t believe half the year has already gone by. We’re right in the middle of summer and there is no more time to waste on books that don’t serve us. If you’ve been following the new Prime Video releases and what’s trending, you’ve probably heard of Every Year After, the new series based on Carley Fortune’s book Every Summer After. And the opinions on the show are a mixed bunch. Before it was announced as an Amazon Prime show, I had people around me tell me to not waste my time reading Carley Fortune, that her novels were poorly written. So on today’s episode, we’ll explore together this book that brought on such excitement among the BookTok community and I’ll give you my thoughts on the show.

So Every Summer After is Canadian author Carley Fortune’s debut novel. She explains in her author’s note that this novel came to fruition during the COVID-19 pandemic while she wanted to relive her childhood in Barry’s Bay. It was also nominated for a few Goodreads awards and received great praise from other authors in the same genre (think Emily Henry). And honestly, Henry’s blurb was what pushed me to read it. We’ve talked about her books in the past so I did value her opinion. Before we jump into the review, let’s talk about the plot.

The novel follows Persephone Fraser, an editor in her late 20s who goes back to her early teens lake town called Barry’s Bay. We know she has some unfinished business with Sam Florek, the boy from her neighbouring cottage and the novel jumps back and forth between current Persephone and Percy in her early teens.

I understand that Fortune wanted to represent her home country and showcase it, but it felt too obvious and in your face.

The setting is the best thing in this novel. Carley Fortune did an excellent job at describing Barry’s Bay (which is a real place in Ontario Canada). Everything clicks together and feels super real. When I got to the author’s note at the end of the book, that’s when I realized why the setting was so well done. She actually went there every summer and lived more or less like Percy does! Fortune explains that her summers in Barry’s Bay meant so much to her and she wanted to relive those joyful moments during the pandemic. This led to her writing Every Summer After. While the setting was beautifully described and almost felt like a character itself, I was irked by the obvious Canadian references. I understand that Fortune wanted to represent her home country and showcase it, but it felt too obvious and in your face. At one point, Percy covers herself with a blanket. Did we really need to know that it was a Hudson’s Bay blanket? No. The Hudson’s Bay Company was indeed a staple Canadian store (maybe that’s why it went bankrupt in 2025) but it’s not a recognizable icon across the world. For example, if a character is described as wearing a Burberry scarf, well ok, yes that is relevant because it shows the character has a certain relationship with money. Whether that’d be that they have lots of it and can afford to show their class through clothes or whether that character wants to appear as if they belong to a certain wealth class, the scarf is a symbol for something. Mentioning the brand gives context. For Percy, the Hudson’s Bay blanket doesn’t represent anything but a simple blanket. Another example, the Tim Horton’s coffee break. During one of their trips down to the cottage, Percy and her family pull into a rest stop to get refreshments at the Canadian coffee chain, Tim Hortons or Tim’s. You don’t need to say you’re stopping at Tim’s for a coffee break. Just say you pulled into a rest stop and got back on the road. Nothing happened at the coffee shop. Maybe I’m desensitized to American product placements in books but I don’t believe that if an American character stops on the highway for a rest stop, they mention going into a Dunkin’s. Or that they are wearing their new PJ set from Target. Anyways, moving on to the characters. They are all dramatic to a certain level and have poor communication. The main characters include Persephone (Percy), Sam and his brother Charlie, Sue Florek (their mother), Delilah (Percy’s high school friend), and Chantal (Percy’s adulthood friend). Let’s start with our protagonist, Percy. She’s a really sweet kid and I think a lot of young girls can relate to her experience of growing up. She was not a popular kid like Delilah and experienced a lot of ups and downs with her friendships. She has unique qualities and quirks such as liking horror films. I like that Percy recognizes she’s at fault in her adult relationships and does blame herself for being indifferent. One of her exes, Sebastian realized that about her and she acknowledged to him that he was right. On the down side, she does have this annoying quirk sometimes of using repetitive words to start her sentences. The first clear example is when she is headed back to Barry’s Bay and keeps repeating the word “twelve” to emphasize how long it’s being since she’s seen Sam. I also noticed a similar stylistic element in One Golden Summer, the author’s other novel set in Barry’s Bay. Fortune uses so many short sentences in that novel that it doesn’t read fluently. Sam is a good love interest, I can really feel their connection and they have great chemistry. He is so clearly in love with Percy and it shows in a lot of his actions, which I love. I think why I loved their story so much was because their romance developed slowly as they were growing up. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that I’m pretty impatient when it comes to characters getting together when they so obviously like each other. However, this novel is my exception. It feels more natural for Percy and Sam to get together slowly since they were kids and started maturing together. I’m not gonna gotta get into the details of all the characters because I want to take a moment to talk about the show. It was bad. The storyline was so out of whack and it felt more like a fan fic of Every Summer After where the producers only kept the characters and the setting and gave us a whole new story. I hate Sam in the show, especially older Sam. In the book, Percy loses contact with Delilah as they head out to uni and only reconnect briefly at the end of the novel. In the show, she is very much active and becomes friends with Percy again. Chantal, Percy’s adult friend, is also another prominent character in the show. She is physically there with Percy in Barry’s Bay. I do think that it’s very sweet and I like that she is a more involved character. However, it messes up the timeline and a lot of elements had to be shifted around. I also hate adult Percy. She is almost exclusively focused on Sam’s physique when they meet again after those 12 years of no contact. I feel like as adults, they are reminiscing on their good childhood relationship and less about who they are now. Percy literally cannot go 2 lines without mentioning his hard muscles or attractive body. Please focus on other good things about Sam. One last thing about the show: a lot of Canadian elements were stripped! Percy is from Seattle now instead of Toronto and Barry’s Bay is now in British Columbia when in the book and in reality, it’s in southern Ontario. The characters went to American universities as opposed to the University of Toronto. The thing that bothered me the most was an interview that Carley Fortune did about the show, she talks about how happy she is with the show and that it was important to have Canada represented…Girl, Canada has been stripped down to the bone. Just from watching the show, and if you’re not paying attention to details, you can just say the story is taking place in the US.

I think why I loved their story so much was because their romance developed slowly as they were growing up.

If you only remember one thing from this episode, it’s that the book is much better than the show. The producers did not do Sam justice. As the internet put it very well, he is supposed to be Conrad from The Summer I Turned Pretty but unfortunately ended up with Jeremiah’s personality in season 3.

Ok so that was a long episode! But honestly we were due for one. Every Summer After gave me a lot to talk about. Conclusion, the book is a yes, the show is a no. If you also want to keep reading about Barry’s Bay, Fortune came out with a story for Charlie, Percy’s brother called One Golden Summer. This second novel was not as good, but it’s a satisfying ending for the Florek boys. It also has some mentions of Percy and Sam so you can see how their lives unfold after the events in Every Summer After.

Thank you for listening, I really hope you gained some insight into this book. July is the perfect month to give this a read, and even better if you can do it by the side of a lake. Next month, we’re going to be switching genres and doing a thriller, 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard.

Until next time, keep exploring those pages!