Some of them I liked - but I didn't find my space in reading,' Fortune said.īy reading voraciously with an editor’s eye for story beats, Fortune said, she had given herself 'a crash course in writing books.” Her literary diet is apparent in “Every Summer After.” With its dual timelines, “Every Summer After” reads like a YA novel and its sequel, in which adults deal with and make up for their adolescent mistakes. It became this thing where there were these big important books that you're supposed to read. 'I didn't know books like this were out there. This prompted a YA kick, later transitioning into romance and rom-coms. After years of not reading as an adult, Fortune fell in love with books again in 2019, thanks to Jenny Han’s “To All the Boys I Loved Before” series. When she sat down to write, Fortune found the beats of plotting came naturally. She decided to explore those feelings through a story, giving Sam and Persephone the “person” in each other that she always wanted at that age.

“In many ways, it is a love letter to where I grew up,” Fortune told TODAY. “Every Summer After,” out May 10, is a moving, redemptive, and undeniably sexy story of second chances at love, set in the lakeside town.

She built a career in journalism, and is currently Refinery29 Canada’s executive editor.īut for her first novel, Fortune returned to Barry’s Bay. In the winter, it’s cold and sleepy in the summer, the town swells with cottagers at their vacation homes.įortune grew up working in the restaurant her family owned - and plotting her escape. When Carley Fortune was in fourth grade, her family moved from Australia to a tiny town on a lake two hours west of Ottawa, four hours north of Toronto, Barry’s Bay has a year round population of 1,200. Pricing and availability are accurate as of publish time. If you purchase something through our links, we may earn a commission. Our editors selected these deals and items because we think you will enjoy them at these prices.

Every summer after about