This is Kelsey Patterson with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I’m recommending journalist-turned-bestselling author Carley Fortune, a #BookTok favorite, and in my opinion, a writer well on her way to claiming the throne as one of the new queens of the beach read.
Fortune burst onto the scene with her first novel, Every Summer After. They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of spending summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she stays isolated in the city, until she receives the call that sends her racing back and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without. It took six summers for them to fall in love, one moment for it to spectacularly fall apart, and they have a weekend to get it right.
Nominated for the 2023 Goodreads Award for Best Romance, Fortune’s sophomore work, Meet Me at the Lake still reigns as my favorite of her books (at least so far). Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just 24 hours in her early 20s 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, and they made a pact to meet up one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t. Years later, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would and she desperately needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips.
Carley Fortune’s books always have these great undercurrents of nostalgia throughout. I think that’s because Summer and days spent swimming, camping, and reading on the beach really evoke that feeling for me.
Check out Carley Fortune’s books at the Sioux City Public Library.
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