Summer Romance #4: One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

Where yes, I have more feelings about POV

Welcome back to my summer romance series! This summer, I’ll be writing about the buzzy romances of the season, including a review, read-alikes for the author, and where they fit in the landscape of romance today. I’ve previously written about Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry, Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez, and Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan.

The author: Fortune’s debut, Every Summer After, was an absolute sensation during the summer of 2022. I remember watching it slowly and then rapidly take over the bookish Internet, from my Instagram feed to an array of book-centered podcasts and from dedicated to occasional romance readers. Since then, Fortune has written three more contemporary romances: all set during the summer, in Canada, and near a body of water. (Her novels sometimes feel to me like a more modern, romance-inflected take on the women’s fiction writers who release a book each year set in the same place, like Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket novels.) Both Every Summer After and her sophomore novel Meet Me at the Lake are being developed for the screen and I’m excited to see how her emotional, atmospheric style translates to film.

The premise: Photographer Alice Everly is reeling in the wake of a breakup, trying to bury herself with work, and feeling increasingly disconnected from her art. But when her beloved grandmother suffers a fall, she hits upon the idea of a summer together at the lake where she spent one consequential summer. And at the lake, she meets Charlie Florek: shameless flirt, whirlwind of charisma, and maybe the first man to see her completely.

My thoughts: I’ve read all four of Fortune’s novels and this one is probably my favorite. The lakeside setting is downright idyllic and Fortune’s prose just exudes summer, especially her wonderfully sensual and sweeping descriptions. I can practically feel the summer sun on my skin and lake water lapping at my feet when I read her prose. Alice’s grandmother’s refrain is that “good things happen at the lake” and in Fortune’s hands, I absolutely believed in its power. She’s also very good at building attraction between her main characters. There’s a real heat and a certain crackle in the air every time Alice and Charlie look at each other, as well as a strong foundation of friendship that they build before they give into their attraction.

I liked a lot about this one but I didn’t love it and ultimately, for me, it boils down to the POV choices Fortune makes here. One Golden Summer is first person and told entirely from Alice’s perspective but it’s also a follow-up to Every Summer After, where Charlie is a key secondary character. For a lot of readers, he’s our entry point into this world and the draw for this book. People were clamoring for Charlie’s story after Every Summer After but we only ever get to see him from Alice’s eyes. He also happens to be the most compelling and fully formed hero Fortune has written so far, a whirlwind of charm masking deep-seated insecurities, and I was dying for a peek inside his head. What’s tearing him up inside? How does Charlie feel about the mistakes he’s made? I’m trying to avoid spoilers for Every Summer After—be aware that this book will spoil it, if you haven’t already read it—but what happens in that book is so seismic that it almost feels unfair not to get Charlie’s POV here.

I think Alice is a compelling heroine, to be clear. Fortune’s heroines usually have a juicy subplot besides the central romance and that holds true here. I was especially invested in her relationship with her grandmother and her quest to redefine her relationship with photography after years of having to bend to someone else’s artistic vision as a freelance photographer. We also get a really lovely sense of what it’s like to see the world through a camera lens. I am a tiny bit burnt out on the quiet, retiring, insecure heroines that seem to be popular lately, satisfying as it can be to watch them come into their own, and one of the other big reasons that I think this could have benefited from a dual POV is that Charlie almost immediately sees things in Alice that she doesn’t see in herself. I so wanted to see what initially sparks Charlie’s interest in her and to fall for her as our heroine just as Charlie does. However, I will definitely keep on reading Fortune’s novels and I have a feeling that someday she’ll write a book that I’m head-over-heels for.

Let me know if you’re a Fortune fan and if you’ve read this one!

Read-alikes:

• If you want a lovingly described setting and a hint of magic: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams, a contemporary fairytale set in Harlem where free spirit florist Ricki Wilde and mysterious musician Ezra find themselves irresistibly drawn together over the course of a leap year February.

• If you want a beautifully written enemies to lovers romance: Luck of the Draw by Kate Clayborn, about a woman on a quest to make amends for how her former law firm treated a family in a wrongful death case that leads to a fake engagement.

• If you want to try another Canadian romance author: The Stand-In by Lily Chu, about a down-on-her-luck designer who winds up being the stand-in for a famous Chinese actress that she bears a surprising resemblance to.

• If you want a seaside romance that overflows with charm: Under Your Spell by Laura Wood, about the daughter of an aging rock star who finds herself working for a gorgeous and off-limits musician…who she also happens to have had a one-night stand with.

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Currently reading: Love in Focus by Lyla Lee, a sapphic second-chance romance set in San Francisco.

And a few of my favorite Madrid spots from my trip to Spain last week!

• Los Porfiados, the Spanish-South American restaurant that was so good we went there our first and last nights in Spain. Get the empanadas and the lemon tart.

• Shopping on Calle del Leon in the Barrio de las Letras, which is filled with a remarkable number of cute boutiques in a very short stretch.

• The Thyssen-Bornemisza, my favorite of the three major Madrid museums. Its late nineteenth and early 20th-century collection is especially nice.

• Gioelia Cremeria, which my boyfriend proclaimed his number one of the many gelato places we visited on our trip. We’d both recommend the Nutella.