This year I got to immerse myself back into the world of reading and I’ve been loving it so far. For book recommendations, my go-to has been the book content on Instagram referred to as “Bookstagram” by avid readers. This source has helped me discover my new favorite books ever and books that I probably wouldn’t read again. One of my favorite books that I’ve read this year is the Young Adult novel, Every Summer After by award-winning Canadian journalist, Carley Fortune which is unique in its own rights but has many similarities to one book in particular.
Every Summer After is a riveting second chance, friends to strangers to lovers novel that contains an amalgamation of confiding friendships, summers at the lake, and ever-lasting love. This book gradually unfolds the long-winded, complicated love story of Persephone Fraser and Sam Florek through the alternating past six summers since they met at age thirteen and one present-day weekend at age thirty.
If you have ever read or heard the premise of the book People We Meet On Vacation by New York Times best-selling author Emily Henry, these plots sound extremely familiar, which is something I noticed when reading Every Summer After. Both novels tell a story through reminiscing on past summer vacations and living in the moment of one weekend years later. Each book also details how two best friends’ relationships turn into something more but crash and burn just as quickly. They’re all given the chance to mend their relationships in one weekend. Can it be done?
With the uncanny resemblance in plots between the two books, it would be safe to say that I would like both of the books the same amount, but I found that I enjoyed reading Every Summer After a lot more than People We Meet on Vacation. I am not really sure why. They both have friends-to-lovers tropes, settings during the summertime, and the female main characters both have careers centered around writing which I personally admired. So how is it that I loved one book so much that I basically read it in one day whereas the other one felt like such a drag that after I finally completed it I never opened it again?
I think that it may come down to a couple of key components, the first one being that the friendship between Sam and Percy in Every Summer After had a dynamic that just made more sense than the dynamic between Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen in People We Meet On Vacation. Sam and Percy made their feelings for each other known and communicated that to one another, in contrast to Poppy and Alex who have liked one another for the longest time but never actually talked to each other about it. Both books also hint towards a major plot twist, one that breaks the two main characters’ relationships apart. Every Summer After included a plot twist that was unexpected, stupefying, and provoking. Honestly, it was everything I would look for a plot twist because it pulled a combination of emotions out of me. People We Meet On Vacation had a plot twist too, but to me, it was underwhelming and wasn’t worth reading thirty chapters to find out.
I respect and applaud both of these authors for creating stories that many readers are able to resonate with and fall in love with. Even though I enjoyed one book over the other, I’m still glad I was able to read them both because I got to delve into the realities of different characters which I love to do regardless of whether or not the story ends up being a favorite. Emily Henry and Carley Fortune are both brilliant authors with beautiful, simplistic writing styles and each deserve their flowers for the amazing work that they do for all readers.