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kaitlinmarks's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Death of parent
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Drug use
docrobreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I really enjoyed Carley Fortune's first book, which is not always the case for a debut author. Imagine my surprise when I actually liked the second one better! I rate books based on vibes...if they make me feel all the things, higher rating. If I don't give a crap or it's boring to me, lower rating. I was concerned this was gonna have a more Colleen Hoover type of "gotcha" (which I love, for the record), but was very satisfied that it tackled more nuanced generational trauma and included some neurospicy representation.
And hey - this ended up being the last book I needed to complete my Reading Challenge for the year. Happy surprise!
And hey - this ended up being the last book I needed to complete my Reading Challenge for the year. Happy surprise!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Grief and Suicidal thoughts
katelynnelawson's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Loved this one, but I just didn’t feel it was near as good as Fortune’s debut. While I was engaged in the story, I sort of fell off towards the last 50 pages until the third act break up, which had me wondering how Will and Fern would make it work. I did feel frustrated by the break up, though. But inevitably I liked how both Fern and Will helped the other really find themselves and at different points in their life. I love how Fortune writes second chance romance so authentically and healthily. She has such big YA crossover appeal and makes both my teenage (or in this case, college) and 30’s heart feel all the feels.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy
kelly_e's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Title: Meet Me at the Lake
Author: Carley Fortune
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: May 2, 2023
T H R E E • W O R D S
Warm • Wistful • Pleasant
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.
At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin.
She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern’s going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern’s not sure she wants to know what it is.
💭 T H O U G H T S
After reading (and absolutely adoring) Every Summer After last year, Meet Me at the Lake easily became one of my 2023 most anticipated releases. Carley's quintessential Canadian summer settings are unlike anything else, and I could easily read her books all day long.
Carley Fortune has a unique gift of transporting me into her rustic settings and into her characters lives. Well-written in a dual timeline format, it follows Fern and Will in both Toronto and Canadian cottage country known as Muskoka. Throughout the narrative there are some comical quips about Toronto that felt like inside jokes, and the many Canadian references made this book feel like home. The resort setting came across so welcoming and idyllic, possibly because I could envision it so well.
While I didn't necessarily enjoy the lack of communication and thought there was going to be more of a love-triangle angle, I connected with Fern is a variety of ways. Will and Fern's second chance love story was riddled with past traumas and at times it detracted from the narrative. Yes, I loved the inclusion of Will's journey with post-partum OCD/anxiety and depression and Carley's explanation as to why she included it. But there were other aspects that felt overly drawn out.
And then there was the supporting cast - Jamie, Maggie, Peter, Whitney- I loved them all (more than the main characters)! I'd love for any of them to get their own book sometime down the road. The underlying theme of love between mother and daughter held my interest, as did reading about Peter and Maggie's unique love story. And parts of me were secretly hoping Fern and Jamie would end up together.
While I didn't love this one as much as this author's debut, mainly due to personal preferences, I am still glad to have read it, and will continue to pick up everything Carley Fortune writes in the future. This is sure to be a summer hit!
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for a summer read
• fans of the second-chance romance trope
• anyone needing an escape
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Let me tell you something about me: I am extremely picky about people. Most of them, I don't particularly like. I have very high standards for the ones I let into my life these days. And you, Will Baxter, are my favorite of all of them."
Author: Carley Fortune
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: May 2, 2023
T H R E E • W O R D S
Warm • Wistful • Pleasant
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.
At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin.
She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern’s going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern’s not sure she wants to know what it is.
💭 T H O U G H T S
After reading (and absolutely adoring) Every Summer After last year, Meet Me at the Lake easily became one of my 2023 most anticipated releases. Carley's quintessential Canadian summer settings are unlike anything else, and I could easily read her books all day long.
Carley Fortune has a unique gift of transporting me into her rustic settings and into her characters lives. Well-written in a dual timeline format, it follows Fern and Will in both Toronto and Canadian cottage country known as Muskoka. Throughout the narrative there are some comical quips about Toronto that felt like inside jokes, and the many Canadian references made this book feel like home. The resort setting came across so welcoming and idyllic, possibly because I could envision it so well.
While I didn't necessarily enjoy the lack of communication and thought there was going to be more of a love-triangle angle, I connected with Fern is a variety of ways. Will and Fern's second chance love story was riddled with past traumas and at times it detracted from the narrative. Yes, I loved the inclusion of Will's journey with post-partum OCD/anxiety and depression and Carley's explanation as to why she included it. But there were other aspects that felt overly drawn out.
And then there was the supporting cast - Jamie, Maggie, Peter, Whitney- I loved them all (more than the main characters)! I'd love for any of them to get their own book sometime down the road. The underlying theme of love between mother and daughter held my interest, as did reading about Peter and Maggie's unique love story. And parts of me were secretly hoping Fern and Jamie would end up together.
While I didn't love this one as much as this author's debut, mainly due to personal preferences, I am still glad to have read it, and will continue to pick up everything Carley Fortune writes in the future. This is sure to be a summer hit!
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for a summer read
• fans of the second-chance romance trope
• anyone needing an escape
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Let me tell you something about me: I am extremely picky about people. Most of them, I don't particularly like. I have very high standards for the ones I let into my life these days. And you, Will Baxter, are my favorite of all of them."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual content, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Car accident
Minor: Drug use, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Alcohol, Grief, and Cursing
OCD, depression, divorcebrazenbookbabe's review
medium-paced
2.5
I struggled with this one. I felt like the characters were very flat and didn’t have a lot of chemistry. I feel that the romance part of the story was forced.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders
jilljemmett's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
4.0
On June 14, ten years ago, Fern Brookbanks spent twenty-four hours with Will Baxter. He was an artist who took her on a tour of Toronto for one of her final days in the city. They hadn’t met before that day, but they made plans to meet exactly one year later at Fern’s family’s resort in Huntsville. The following year, Fern waited for Will but he didn’t show up. Now, thirty-two year old Fern is returning to her family’s resort because her mother died in a sudden accident. Fern is trying to take over the resort with no experience or desire to work there. Then, Will shows up at the resort with an offer to help her figure it out. Fern needs the help and she has been waiting for Will for ten years, but she must decide if she’s willing to open herself up to possibly getting hurt again.
It is very hard not to compare this book to Every Summer After. It’s by the same author and has a similar storyline: a woman who grew up in Ontario’s cottage country, moves to Toronto as an adult but must return home after a death in the family and face the love of her life who she hasn’t seen in years. Probably if I hadn’t read these books back to back and if they hadn’t come out a year apart they wouldn’t have seemed as similar. Every Summer After was relatable and had a lot of strong emotions. Meet Me at the Lake didn’t evoke the same emotions in me but I liked the ending. I appreciated how much the author said in the acknowledgments that writing this one was more difficult than her first book. Every Summer After would be a hard book to follow up due to its huge success, but this one is a good summer beach read.
Meet Me at the Lake is a great second chance summer romance!
Thank you Tandem Collective and Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy!
Content warnings: death of parent, anxiety, marijuana use, death by car accident, parental abandonment, teen pregnancy
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Abandonment, Car accident, and Death of parent
thatswhatshanread's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Aw Carley Fortune, making me cry again!! This book was so sweet. And familiar somehow. I’m not a lake person, but this story made me feel like I was, like I’m the type of person who spends hours on end at the lake or the surrounding parts, always on summer time. Like I’ve lived all my summers at a family-run resort (Dirty Dancing vibes are off the chart), eating the best sourdough bread and people-watching the other regulars over tea and dancing.
I’ve decided that dual timelines are one of my favorite things for a romance novel. I loved reading about Fern and Will’s meet-cute ten years ago alongside the present of meeting again and all the secrets and feelings between then and now. While Will really frustrated me at times with his mystery, I also found him soft and gentle, a safe balance to Fern’s fire and passion. I really liked the side characters as well, especially Fern’s surrogate father figure Peter.
Ultimately, the love story was a little lacking for me. I kept waiting for more. More history there or more angst, maybe. The resolve seemed a tad flat, like more needed to be said. Still, I really related to the anxiety/depression/OCD rep and the need to be perfect for others above yourself. Both Fern and Will felt like real adults with real problems.
This was a great summer read. Fortune’s writing is breezy and comforting, sweet and coaxing, sexy when it needs to be but not overly so. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next :)
I’ve decided that dual timelines are one of my favorite things for a romance novel. I loved reading about Fern and Will’s meet-cute ten years ago alongside the present of meeting again and all the secrets and feelings between then and now. While Will really frustrated me at times with his mystery, I also found him soft and gentle, a safe balance to Fern’s fire and passion. I really liked the side characters as well, especially Fern’s surrogate father figure Peter.
Ultimately, the love story was a little lacking for me. I kept waiting for more. More history there or more angst, maybe. The resolve seemed a tad flat, like more needed to be said. Still, I really related to the anxiety/depression/OCD rep and the need to be perfect for others above yourself. Both Fern and Will felt like real adults with real problems.
This was a great summer read. Fortune’s writing is breezy and comforting, sweet and coaxing, sexy when it needs to be but not overly so. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, and Death of parent
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Abortion, Blood, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Alcohol, and Medical content
bringmybooks's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
oh man, this one hurts
B̷R̷I̷N̷G̷ ✨ 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ✨ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷
I loved Every Summer After. Like, LOVED. And while this book was okay (and I really did like some parts of it), it did not have that magical summer feeling of youth that Every Summer After did.
I never really connected with either of the MCs, I didn’t really care about the major present day arc of the story, and a lot of the past stuff seemed to be presented as more dramatic than it actually was - or at least out of proportion with the reasons behind it.
Super bummed because I absolutely could not get enough of Every Summer After and how nostalgic and wonderful that book was. Some of this might be having my expectations too high, but after looking at some of the reviews I feel like I’m not alone in this.
THAT BEING SAID, I will for sure be reading her third book - no questions asked. If there’s even a chance of experiencing the magic of her debut again, I’m going for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Grief
Moderate: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, and Sexual content
Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Mental illness
meaghancook's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This would be an absolutely perfect book if I wasn’t so convinced that it’s missing a very important chapter or two. Somewhere between chapters nine and eleven I feel like we could have used a bit more tension building, at least to show the time passing, rather than just telling us it did.
However that is my only critique of an otherwise perfect book. Carley Fortune has done it again and I already can’t wait for next summer.
However that is my only critique of an otherwise perfect book. Carley Fortune has done it again and I already can’t wait for next summer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Pregnancy
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Abandonment
Minor: Drug abuse and Sexual content
100_pages_hr's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This sophomore novel was amazing. The dual time and past journal entries all flowed together and gave this second chance romance the perfect timeline.
I loved the meet cute in this story. The day that Will and Fern spend together is perfect and made me want to visit Toronto again. I just loved how they clicked.
But I also loved a the resort she grew up at. The Dirty Dancing nods and vibes were everything I didn't know I needed.
Just like her debut novel Fortune handles the topics of grief in such a special way. She doesn't overly dwell on it but it isn't glossed over either. I loved how organically the conversations came up and how maturely most things were handled.
I loved the romance between Will and Fern too. It wasn't an easy one. They both had a lot of personal issues to work through but I loved how they eventually processed through everything. I really do love the relationships where work is put in to make them work.
I loved the overarching themes of the importance of family in this book and also that family doesn't have to be strictly traditional.
I will warn you that I needed Kleenex handy for this book - but in a good way since in my experience only 5 star books make me cry.
I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This is my honest review.
I loved the meet cute in this story. The day that Will and Fern spend together is perfect and made me want to visit Toronto again. I just loved how they clicked.
But I also loved a the resort she grew up at. The Dirty Dancing nods and vibes were everything I didn't know I needed.
Just like her debut novel Fortune handles the topics of grief in such a special way. She doesn't overly dwell on it but it isn't glossed over either. I loved how organically the conversations came up and how maturely most things were handled.
I loved the romance between Will and Fern too. It wasn't an easy one. They both had a lot of personal issues to work through but I loved how they eventually processed through everything. I really do love the relationships where work is put in to make them work.
I loved the overarching themes of the importance of family in this book and also that family doesn't have to be strictly traditional.
I will warn you that I needed Kleenex handy for this book - but in a good way since in my experience only 5 star books make me cry.
I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This is my honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, and Car accident