Review: One Golden Summer

I know I’m not alone when I say that it just doesn’t feel like summer until Carley Fortune publishes a new book. I know it’s only May but between the release of One Golden Summer, the Victoria Day long weekend, and my birthday at the end of the month, well, it all signals the start of summer to me. Whether you read Fortune’s latest now or in the height of summer, just make sure you read it. One Golden Summer was wonderful.

Here’s the book’s description:

I never anticipated Charlie Florek.

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.

Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.

Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.

Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

What makes Fortune’s books so magical is how she perfectly captures the settings of her novels. Of course, Fortune did grow up in Barry’s Bay, where One Golden Summer and her debut, Every Summer After, are set, so she know that area well. Even though I’ve never been there, I now feel like I have. That’s a rarer talent than you’d expect. It’s also rare to find romance novels set in Canada (though it’s getting better) and I’m so glad no one made Fortune change the locations of her books. Publishers, take note. Readers in Canada want to see Canada and readers elsewhere in the world are also clearly on board!

While Charlie, the male main character in One Golden Summer, is also in Every Summer After, this is not a sequel. You don’t have to read ESA before OGS - though I do recommend it simply because I think every romance reader should read Fortune’s books. I, like many, many others, liked Charlie in ESA. I understood how and why everything went down the way it did so being able to really get to know him as an adult and read as he got his own love story was wonderful.

Alice was such an interesting - and great - heroine. She was a little bit flawed, like all of us are, and we meet her just as she’s finally being forced to take a break from her go-go-go life. Her situation could also be a bit of a reminder to take those breaks when they’re presented before it’s too late. Burnout is real and I don’t think any of us know how to deal with it. Or maybe I’m projecting. ANYWAY. I loved Alice. I loved seeing her let go of the day to day and really get back in touch with what matters to her. I was rooting for her to find that balance she desperately needed and deserved.

The idea of a summer bucket list is so sweet and fun and I love that Fortune included one for Alice. And I especially love that Alice made a list that her 17 year old self would have wanted to complete. There’s something about those late teen summers that are so impactful and Fortune was able to nail both the nostalgia and the emotions perfectly. (Perhaps too perfectly at times…oof. So many emotions.) I spent my teen years reading (and loving) Sarah Dessen’s novels and Fortune’s are exactly what my adult self needs now. Summers, love, finding yourself. Just perfection.

One Golden Summer is the perfect summer read for romance fans. In her latest novel, Carley Fortune has given us just the right setting and couple for us to fall head over heels in love - in love with Barry’s Bay, with Charlie, with Alice, and maybe, with ourselves, too.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*