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 glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping, nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.

I adored this book. It was really good. I loved the summer vibes that I got from it. I really felt like I was in Canada by the lake. I wish I had grown up going to a cottage by the lake every summer. It definitely felt like a childhood that you dream about. This novel definitely felt like an escape from real life every time I picked it up. 

I also really, really enjoyed the 80s and 90s pop culture references. It was the perfect amount of nostalgia, which I appreciated as someone being older and grew up in that time period. It was very addictive to read. It has a then/now plot, and I found myself wanting to read more of the past than the present because I just loved it so much. 

But what I enjoyed the most was the close relationship and chemistry between Percy and Sam. I loved seeing them meet for the first time and then watching their friendship evolve as they grew up and went through puberty and their teenage years. They really were a perfect fit together, and I loved how they interacted with each other and their overall dynamic together. However, they both had some growing up to do, especially Percy. There were some bad decisions made, and she had to learn her lesson. I appreciated that the grown-up version was able to see her mistakes and try to rectify them. Again, it was all about communication, and we finally got that at the end. 

I would say this is both a friends-to-lovers story and a second-chance love story. I enjoyed both of them. 

I also liked the side characters. Sam has a brother, Charlie, who was a bit obnoxious but offered some humor. Their mom was very cool and caring. Then Percy has a sassy best friend, who is a little annoying but fun. I felt all the characters were relatable. 

The writing style was easy to read and easy to get fully immersed in the story. There are some language and spicy scenes, but it wasn’t as bad as some other books that I have read. 

I was really close to giving this five stars, but the ending really turned me off, as well as the spice and language. I had an idea of what happened a few chapters before the big reveal, but it was disappointing that it took that turn. But I still recommend it.