Title: The Answer is No Author: Fredrik Backman Publisher: Amazon Original Stories Publication date: December 1, 2024 Length: 68 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Purchased Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?
Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.
A new story from Fredrik Backman is practically guaranteed to be a joy to read… so does The Answer is No succeed? The answer is yes!
This funny, quirky tale is about a man who wants the world to leave him alone, but the world doesn’t seem to get the message. He’s perfectly happy, until the frying pan incident spirals out of control, bringing visitor after visitor to his door.
It’s a cute, clever story with a simple plot. What makes it a gem is Backman’s writing, of course. Here are a few choice snippets:
Lucas is happy. This is a very provoking thing to the world. Because people aren’t supposed to be happy, they’re only supposed to want to be happy, because how otherwise are you supposed to be able to sell things to them?
Just to be clear: It’s not that Lucas hates other people. He just really enjoys being where other people aren’t. He works well in groups as long as it’s groups of fewer than two people.
“During the night someone left an old frying pan on the ground outside the recycling room!” the first head explains, as if this were the beginning of a detective novel where a dead body’s been found in a lake, and a divorced police officer from the big city who has just returned to her childhood home is drawn into an investigation that forces her to confront her past, but which may or may not also give her the chance to fall in love with a man in a flannel shirt who has a golden retriever and a charming down-to-earth view of life.
Lucas opens the door with the defeated manner of a sausage that dressed itself up as a carrot to avoid being eaten by a bear, only to be found by a rabbit.
The Answer is No is available now as a First Reads pick for Amazon Prime subscribers, and will be released officially as of December 1st. It’s a sweet, cheery treat — and obviously, a must-read for Fredrik Backman fans!
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR.
At first, I went to my Goodreads to-read shelf to sort by publication year and look for the earliest, but then realized that I was missing many of the classics I want to get to. So… I went to my handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet (yes, I’m an Excel nerd!) dedicated to my future classics reading, and then did a little mixing and matching.
The results originally showed a few instances of multiple books by the same author, and I made the executive decision to limit it to one book each. In the end, it was very hard to whittle the list down, so…
Here is my list of 10 12 of the oldest books on my to-read shelf!
Belinda by Maria Edgeworth (1801)
Waverley by Sir Walter Scott (1814)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (1826)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (1848)
Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (1860)
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1872)
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (1875)
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (1877)
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (1878)
Note: I’ve read Frankenstein, but it was so long ago that I feel a reread is needed!
Have you read any of the books on my list? Any thoughts or recommendations?
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
I had a super busy day on Saturday, starting with an early-morning book group Zoom with an author, then a mid-day outdoor dance session, and then even more dancing in the evening! Luckily, I had an unstructured Sunday to just chill, go for a walk, read, and do lots of nothing.
Our kitty had the right idea…
What did I read during the last week?
Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse: What fun! My book group’s classic read wrapped up this past week. This book is silly and adorable, and I look forward to reading more of the Jeeves books.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See: Excellent historical fiction — 5 stars! My review is here.
The Beach Trap by Ali Brady: Really enjoyable audiobook about long-lost half-sisters getting a second chance to build a relationship. My review is here.
Pop culture & TV:
I was at a bit of loose ends, and decided to watch a movie I’d been meaning to get to — Damsel (Netflix). It was… okay. A bit too much time devoted to Millie Bobby Brown running around in a cave in increasingly shredded clothing, but overall, entertaining enough.
Fresh Catch:
I didn’t buy any books this week!
Little Free Library updates:
I thought it might be fun to share updates on books people leave in my Little Free Library.
New this week:
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (funny, since I just finished reading my own copy last week)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The Circle by Dave Eggers
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Strider by Beverly Cleary
Looks like someone must have been offloading their literary fiction! And it’s sweet to see a children’s classic in the mix as well. A few unwanted books showed up that I’ve already removed, including a couple of super flimsy guides to real estate deals. Why leave those in a LFL???
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott: My current Classics Club Spin book!
Now playing via audiobook:
Coming Home by Brittney Griner: I’ve been waiting for my library hold for this audiobook for months now, and it’s finally available! I started it yesterday — it’s really personal and powerful to listen to.
Ongoing reads:
None right now! My book group’s next classic read starts early December — and meanwhile, it’s kind of nice to have no “obligation” books to worry about.
Title: The Beach Trap Author: Ali Brady Publisher: Berkley Publication date: June 14, 2022 Length: 384 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction / romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Two best friends torn apart by a life-altering secret. They have one summer to set the record straight.
When twelve-year-olds Kat Steiner and Blake O’Neill meet at Camp Chickawah, they have an instant connection. But everything falls apart when they learn they’re not just best friends—they’re also half-sisters. Confused and betrayed, their friendship instantly crumbles.
Fifteen years later when their father dies suddenly, Kat and Blake discover he’s left them a joint inheritance: the family beach house in Destin, Florida. The two sisters are instantly at odds. Blake, who has recently been demoted from regular nanny to dog nanny, wants to sell the house, while social media influencer Kat is desperate to keep the place where she had so many happy childhood memories.
Kat and Blake reluctantly join forces to renovate the dilapidated house with the understanding that Kat will try to buy Blake out at the end of the summer. The women clash as Blake’s renovation plans conflict with Kat’s creative vision, and each sister finds herself drawn into a summer romance. As the weeks pass, the two women realize the most difficult project they face this summer will be coming to grips with their shared past, and learning how to become sisters.
I’m a sucker for books with a connection to summer camps… and from the opening chapter, when twelve-year-old besties spend a glorious summer at camp together, only to have their friendship end disastrously, I knew The Beach Trap would be a book for me.
When Blake and Kat meet at Camp Chickawah**, they become best friends right away — but when Kat’s father comes to pick her up early due to a death in the family, the girls make a shattering discovery: Kat’s dad is Blake’s dad too. Blake’s mom had been “the other woman”, and while Blake has happy childhood memories of time with her dad, that all ended when her mother died in a tragic accident, and her father never came for her. Rather than bringing the girls closer, the discovery of their half-sister status permanently drives them apart, and Kat refuses to respond to any of the letters Blake sends her in the months following camp.
**If the name Camp Chickawah seems familiar, then perhaps you’ve read the authors’ most recent book, Until Next Summer, in which the camp and its staff members take center stage. (It’s a lot of fun!)
Fifteen years later, their father has died, and his will reveals a startling bequest: He’s left the family’s Florida beach house to both his daughters, to share 50/50.
Blake is a stressed-out nanny for a wealthy family, working long hours to pay for her grandfather’s assisted living facility. Kat is a social media influencer (ugh), making enough to support herself, but not quite at a point where she can count on financial security. Blake assumes they’ll sell the beach house, or Kat can buy her out — but either way, the proceeds will help ensure that she can continue to care for her grandfather. Kat sees the beach house as a reminder of rare happy childhood memories, and wants to keep it — and also, it might make a great home reno project to enhance her feeds and help her nab a coveted corporate sponsorship.
When Blake and Kat meet at the beach house, they’re dismayed to find the place in shambles. The only way to turn it around and make it at all viable for sale is to repair, renovate, and redecorate. Kat has the funds; Blake has the time (since the family she nannies for is spending the summer in France) and the skills, thanks to the years she spent learning at her grandfather’s side. While there’s palpable tension and animosity between the two women, they know neither can move forward without the other’s cooperation, and they work out a deal. They’ll alternate weeks at the house, Blake will handle most of the actual work, and Kat will have final say on all decor decisions.
After achieving a tense détente of sorts, they move forward. As the summer progresses, and they start having to communicate and spend together, tentative connections are rebuilt. They once loved each other — who will they be to one another now?
I really enjoyed seeing Kat and Blake work their way back toward friendship, and more. Both grew up lonely; both grew up hungry for the love and attention of a distant father, who cause each one intense emotional pain in the aftermath of the big revelation years earlier. While having very different backgrounds and upbringings, Kat and Blake connect on a deeper level. It’s lovely seeing them work through the hurt and misunderstandings, and start to realize how much time they both spent blaming one another for things outside of their control.
Each woman also finds romance over the course of the summer, but one thing I really appreciate in this book (and in the other Ali Brady book I’ve read, Until Next Summer) is that romance is secondary to friendship. The romantic relationships and storylines are great, but it’s the friendship and sisterhood between Kat and Blake that drive this book and give it its emotional impact and joy.
Where The Beach Trap falls a little short for me has mainly to do with Kat’s character. Bluntly put, she’s hard to like. First off, having a social media influencer as a main character is an instant turn-off for me. (Side note — I feel like contemporary romances have a higher proportion of influencers as characters than is representative of the demographic in real life…) Kat’s whole shtick for most of the book is summed up by her tagline, “life is a fashion show”. She eventually learns to appreciate the messiness of life and what it means to connect, and revises her philosophy — but it’s a fairly quick turnaround, not entirely believable. I’m glad she ended up in a better place, but her attitude for much of the book is very hard to take.
Overall, however, I liked The Beach Trap a lot. The story moves quickly, the setting is terrific, and I loved the dynamic of these sisters finding a way to salvage the defining pain of their separate lives and find a way forward together.
I’ve now read two books by this author duo, and look forward to more! There’s one more book I haven’t read that’s currently available (The Comeback Summer), and an upcoming new book to be released in 2025 (Battle of the Bookstores). I plan to read them both!
About the authors: Ali Brady is the pen name of writing BFFs Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. The Beach Trap is their first book together. Alison lives in Chicago and works as a VP creative director at an advertising agency. She’s the author of You and Me and Us and Little Pieces of Me. Bradeigh lives with her family in Utah, where she works as a physician. She’s the author of the psychological thriller, Imposter.
Title: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women Author: Lisa See Publisher: Scribner Publication date: June 6, 2023 Print length: 352 pages Genre: Historical fiction Source: Purchased Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th-century China.
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.
From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.
But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.
How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? A captivating story of women helping each other, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a triumphant reimagining of the life of one person who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.
Lisa See’s books are consistent hits for me, and Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is no exception. I was hesitant about getting started, not sure if I was ready to go quite that far back in time. It should not have surprised me that this book was a compelling, excellent reading experience that pulled me in right from the start.
As the book opens, main character Yunxian is an eight-year-old girl, already learning from her mother about how to be a proper wife and fulfill her role as a woman in 15th-century noble Chinese society. When her mother, always referred to as Respectful Lady, dies of infection stemming from her bound feet, Yunxian is sent away to live with her grandparents, who begin training her as a doctor.
As Yunxian matures and then marries, her skills as doctor grow, but she’s limited in her ability to practice by the strict rules surrounding the family’s household, as dictated by society’s norms for the upper class and enforced by the iron rule of Yunxian’s mother-in-law. Her friendship with the midwife Meiling is frowned upon, as midwives are considered practically taboo — they’re necessary, yet because of their dealing with blood, are considered improper for a lady to associate with.
Without delving too deeply into plot, I’ll just say that Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is both an eye-opening exploration of the roles of women in that time and place, and a personal story of one particularly brave and talented woman, the effect she had on those around her, and the struggles with friendship, marriage, and motherhood she endured and overcame. While some of the details of individual encounters and scenes are purely fiction, Yunxian was a real person whose published works on medicine are considered groundbreaking — especially considering that they were written by a woman and focused on treating women, a field male doctors of that time had little interest or experience with.
The book sheds lights on customs that, to modern and Western eyes, seem not only archaic but cruel. In particular, the subject of foot-binding is covered extensively (as in the author’s earlier novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan). Some scenes can be hard to read, and it’s especially heartbreaking to read about a woman binding her own daughters’ feet, and to accept that in that society, it was an expected ritual of girlhood, crucial to being marriageable and viewed as a decent, honorable young woman.
Other elements are fascinating from a more historical/sociological perspective — learning about family structure, the running of a household, and of course, the practice of medicine at that time, especially since many of the basic tenets of Yunxian’s medical practice are still considered important elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The friendship between Yunxian and Meiling is especially moving. It’s not without conflict, as the two women’s very different stations in life lead to barriers that cause resentments and sorrows. Ultimately, though, it’s this relationship that provides one of the core emotional threads of the story.
Friendship is a contract between two hearts. With hearts united, women can laugh and cry, live and die together.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a beautifully written look into the life of a fascinating woman, while also presenting an immersive reading experience about a time and place that’s so very different from our modern lives. I enjoyed every moment, and simply couldn’t put the book down once I started. Highly recommended — this book should not be missed!
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Destination Titles, and the prompt is titles with name of places in them. These places can be real or fiction!
I’m going with real place names, and have found more than expected on my shelves!
Here is my selection of 10 destination titles:
Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi (review)
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
What can I say about last week? Words fail me. Locally, I’m fairly pleased with our election results, especially a proposition about turning an oceanside roadway into a park. (Want to know what I’m talking about? Check out this article — I voted yes!!)
Other than that… it hasn’t actually been a terrible week. Busy at work, nice family time, and some beautiful sunny days!
What did I read during the last week?
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: FINISHED! After two different reading attempts years ago ended in DNFs, I was determined to finally make it all the way through this book, and I did it! I’m still digesting, to be honest. I can’t say I loved the reading experience, but I can see why this is considered such a huge literary achievement. I’m glad to have seen it through, but don’t feel up for writing an actual review. Still… it’s done!!
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune: I loved this story of former teen sweethearts reuniting years later as adults. Touching and nostalgic, and very engaging. My review is here.
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong: Sweet, cozy fantasy — a light and delicious read. My review is here.
Pop culture & TV:
Season 2 of The Diplomat was fantastic! Both season are available on Netflix. Terrific plot, dialogue, and acting — not that amazing acting is a surprise, with Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell in the lead roles.
Next up: The final season of Yellowstone — the first episode of the new/last season just dropped! It’s a little odd picking up the story again after almost two years… but it pulled me right back in, and I’m dying to see where the season goes.
Fresh Catch:
No new books this week.
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See: My book group’s pick for November — and for once, I’m getting an early start! I’m only a few chapters in, but it’s great so far.
Now playing via audiobook:
The Beach Trap by Ali Brady: After reading my first Ali Brady book a couple of months ago, I jumped at the chance to borrow this audiobook when I randomly saw it marked as available on the Libby app! I’ve listened to about 10% so far, and it’s good!
Coming soon:
An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott: My newest Classics Club Spin book! The deadline to finish is December 18th, and since this is a relatively short book, I may hold off another week or two before starting.
Ongoing reads:
Just one at the moment, and it’s almost done:
Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse: My book group’s classic read — one chapter to go! Progress: 96%. Coming up this week: Chapter 23.
We’ll be starting our next group classic read in early December.
Title: The Teller of Small Fortunes Author: Julie Leong Publisher: Ace Publication date: November 5, 2024 Length: 336 pages Genre: Fantasy Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy, perfect for readers of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna.
Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells “small” fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…
Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.
Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.
Cozy fantasy is having a moment — and I’m here for it! What’s not to love about tales of friendship and magic, usually with baked goods, cats, and other comfort symbols in the mix?
The Teller of Small Fortunes fits wonderfully into this cozy trend, with its emphasis on being true to those you love, being kind, and looking for good outcomes for as many people as possible.
As the book opens, Tao is a traveling fortune-teller — but as she makes clear, she only tells small fortunes. She provides simple, plain truths to the people who seek her advice; nothing life or death, just small visions of a person’s next steps, something to help them along their way.
We also learn that Tao is on the run. A Shinn (an ethnicity standing in for Chinese-born) in the land of Eshtera (essentially, a Caucasian-dominant kingdom), Tao stands out wherever she goes, and is often eyed with suspicion. When Tao was a child, her mother married an Eshteran nobleman and left Shinara behind. Tao has grown up with wealth and comfort, but never love or acceptance, and as her magical powers became apparent, was about to be forced into servitude in the Guild of mages. She fled before that could happen, and spends her time alone, on the road, always moving from village to village, fearful of the Guild catching up to her.
Tao’s life changes when she meets two travelers she initially takes for highwaymen. Instead, she learns that Mash and Silt are, respectively, a mercenary and a (mostly) reformed thief, searching for Mash’s young daughter who’s been missing for six months. When Tao reads Mash’s fortune, she sees a vision of father and daughter together, which gives Mash a much-needed infusion of hope. The trio decide to journey on together for a little while, and soon, a baker named Kina joins the traveling band.
… [H]er voice rose through the great room like the scent of fresh-baked pie, explaining the various intricacies of Lindisian baking, as the four of them finished a hearty and thoroughly warming supper, awash in the glow of a good day and the hopes of what tomorrow might bring.
Much of the story is about the group’s adventures on the road, as they search for Mash’s daughter, encounter kind and not-so-kind people during their travels, and ultimately, return to the kingdom’s capital where Tao must confront her fate.
The Teller of Small Fortunes is a quick, light read. There are some moments of danger, but the overall vibe is so warm and gentle that we never truly have to fear a bad outcome. The characters are given room to shine and to grow as individuals. Their companionship allows them to understand themselves, reflect, and to find ways to do and be better.
Plenty of small details stand out and add fun and warmth. Kina’s baking is absolutely delicious… but for whatever reason, anything she bakes looks terrible. The ongoing descriptions of her misshapen scones are really funny, but also, hearing about the smells of cinnamon and sugar made me ready to eat anything that comes out of her oven (regardless of how it looks).
Tao’s approach to fortune-telling is also lovely — her approach is gentle and honest, without hocus-pocus or showmanship. She has a gift, uses it to support herself, and helps people whenever she can.
The emphasis on found family and true friendship lends the book a deeper message beyond the fantasy story — while the fantasy elements are nicely established as well. Even the elements that are set up at the start as terrible or fear-inducing or threatening end up being not quite so bad, all in all.
“A troll,” repeated Mash grimly, hefting his mace out of its belt loop. “Did it attack you? Threaten violence; seize your goods?”
“Eh? No, of course not. It’s worse than that,” said the farmer. “It went and philosophized at us!”
The Teller of Small Fortunes has relatively low stakes, but a very big heart. It’s cozy and gentle, through and through, and makes for a sweet read. I was drawn to this book because of its beautiful, colorful cover, but stayed for the warmth of the story itself. If you’re looking for a bookish antidote to stress and gloom, The Teller of Small Fortunes is a great choice.
Title: Every Summer After Author: Carley Fortune Narrators: AJ Bridel Publisher: Berkley Publication date: May 10, 2022 Print length: 320 pages Audio length: 9 hours 38 minutes Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
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.
Book friends! I have a new romance author on my must-read list! Thanks to my recent audiobook experience with Every Summer After, I can safely say that I need to read ALL of Carley Fortune’s books.
In Every Summer After — the author’s debut — 30-year-old Persephone (Percy) Fraser is called back to the small town where she once spent ever summer, to attend the funeral of the mother of the boy she thought would always be by her side and in her life.
As a 13-year-old, Percy began spending summers in her family cabin at Barry’s Bay, next door to the Florek family, whose 13-year-old son Sam quickly became her best friend. As the years passed, Percy and Sam moved from friendship into romance, realizing that they’d had the good fortune to fall in with their soulmates at such an early age. While on different paths as their college years approached — Sam moving away for an intense premed program, Percy remaining in Toronto to study writing — they always expected to spend their lives together. Until something went very, very wrong.
Now adults, it’s been 12 years since Percy and Sam last saw one another or even spoke. Something terrible happened all those years ago — but what? As Percy arrives back in Barry’s Bay for the funeral, she’s both fearful and excited at the thought of seeing Sam again. But will he even want to see her? Can old wounds ever heal?
The book takes us back to Percy and Sam’s teen years, as chapters alternate between then and now. The “then” chapters are charming. The author’s depiction of 13-year-old friendship is sparkling and authentic, and as the two teens grow closer and begin to acknowledge deeper feelings, their dialogue, actions, and flirtation feel sweet and real. These chapters gave me The Summer I Turned Pretty vibes — not identical plotwise by any means, but just a really sweet portrait of young love, insecurities, playfulness, and teen conflict and pressure.
Meanwhile, the “now” chapters show how little Percy has gotten over Sam, despite all the years that have passed. She’s built a life and a career that seem fulfilling on the surface, but has never let anyone even close to her heart. Seeing Sam again brings all the old emotions flooding back, and he seems just as drawn to Percy as she is to him. But there are old hurts and secrets still to be unpacked, and Percy is afraid that it’s all much too late.
What can I say? I loved Every Summer After. The descriptions of the summers on the lake are so evocative of the beauty of being young and free and full of joy at everything life has to offer. There are ice cream cones and swimming, pizza parties and movies on DVD… the teen chapters are so full of nostalgia and warmth, and give off such happy vibes, even though we know that, eventually, something is going to ruin it all.
The adult chapters are harder emotionally, because Percy is clearly not okay, and whatever happened — which is only revealed in the book’s final chapters — must have been a doozy. We spend so much time seeing how much Sam and Percy love each other, so there’s a sense of dread as we get closer to the end, realizing that the bad thing, whatever it is, is coming soon.
Unlike many romance novels, the catastrophe between Sam and Percy feels believable. They’re teens, and yes, some of it has to do with poor communications, but those errors and mistaken assumptions and hurt feelings feel realistic for characters at that age. It made me very sad to realize where their relationship was heading, and we know from the start of the book that twelve years go by with no contact… but none of this feels like a contrivance for the sake of romance tropes.
Every Summer After packs an emotional punch, but includes so much joy and hope that the heartbreaking elements don’t weigh it all down. And of course, there’s the requisite HEA, but even knowing it will work out, it’s still a roller coaster until we get there.
The audiobook narration is terrific. I really appreciated how the narrator modulates her voice to reflect Percy’s age. Young Percy really does sound like a young teen, and her delivery, voice, and speech patterns are spot-on. As Percy grows up, summer after summer, her voice changes subtly as well. It’s all just so well done.
I truly enjoyed every moment of listening to Every Summer After, and immediately put myself on the hold list for the author’s other two available novels. Based on Every Summer After, I expect them to be great!
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Covers with [Item] on the Cover (You choose the item! It can be anything at all.)
Last time this topic came up for a TTT post, I went with books on the cover… and this time I’m doing books with bookstores on the cover. So, yeah, I’m not particularly thinking outside the box here!
Without further ado, my bookstore book covers are:
Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (review)
The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser (review)
The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan (review)
Bookshelf Fantasies 