June BOTM 1: Every Summer After

"Some people are lucky like that. They meet their best friend, the love of their life, and are wise enough to never let go."

Every Summer After

Carley Fortune

Description:

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

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.

Rating: ★★★★⋆ (4.5)

but I rate it as 4★ in Goodreads.

I can't believe that I just read a debut novel released less than a month ago. I'm glad I broke my reading rule of not reading new releases. I blindly dove into this book since I've been craving romance reads for some time now and it's just that I recently joined a book group focused on the Romance genre.

This book is totally worth the read and with the author's beautiful style of writing, you will also be surprised that this is her first novel. It's already said in the book description so it's safe for me to say the tropes here are childhood friends-to-lovers and second chance romance - definitely giving you playful, innocent, and nostalgic vibes. It's narrated in alternating past and present, so you won't really be confused. 

Most of the romance books I read recently, they are either spicy or kilig lang, but this one is different. The author's words and the mood set were able to connect the characters' thoughts and feelings to me (the readers). And mga mare, I hope you also feel the different emotions I felt once you decided to read the book. Ibang klase for me. Did you ever feel like your heart is melting? Because I did. Even the little details gave a different impact on me. It's the kind of book I want to read if I want to feel something, but nothing specific. But it gave me more. 

My name passes from his lips and straight to my bloodstream, a sudden injection of desire and shame and a thousand memories.

The temptation to lean into him, to show him what he means to me with my hands and my mouth and my tongue, is almost impossible to ignore. But I know that wouldn’t be fair. My heart is a stampede of animals escaping the zoo, but I sit still, waiting for his response.

 It’s like I’ve woken from a twelve-year coma, and my head throbs in anticipation and terror.

Why not perfect though? I feel like the first parts really caught me emotionally but in the later parts, it somehow faded. I'd prefer if it's the other way around or consistent. Also because of things I'll mention in the spoiler part of this review. Well, I believe my reasons are more from my personal reading experience preference so don't mind the star rating. 

✹ This part of the review is a big spoiler. Read at your own risk.

I kind of predicted correctly na Charlie has something to do with Sam and Percy's conflict. I am more surprised dun sa part na Sam asked her to marry him and she said no. Akala ko yun na yung reason bakit sila nagkalabuan. Akala ko yun na yung big revelation. Nadivert nung author yung attention ko from Charlie to that reason, and late ko rin napagtanto na - oo nga, bakit hindi inaccept ni Percy if she loved him truly naman? So ayon. Though I am glad pa rin kasi may surprise factor pa rin ako. Hahaha. Also, kahit na I am fine with the book as it is, I am kind of hoping for Sam's POV, kahit isa lang. I wanna know his thoughts/feelings during his katorpehan years. Again, this is for my reading experience na lang din since medyo nasanay ako na 3rd person POV yung mga nabasa ko recently - so somehow aware ako sa thoughts and feelings ng iba pang characters. 

✹ End of spoiler. 

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4)

Spicy level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (4)

Characters: 💥💥💥💥💥 (4.5)

Writing: 📝📝📝📝📝 (5)

To be clear, this is not a spicy romance but I had to rate the spicy level a bit higher because I love the main characters' moments. So pure and innocent and real. :) :) :)

I'll definitely add this to my "To Buy Books" despite not rating it 5 stars and definitely recommending it to you all 100%.

Lol. Ang funny. When I talked to Ate C-Anne after reading this, I was so sure to personally rate it 3.5 stars; but after our conversation, I decided to close it to 4, regardless if for Goodreads or my personal book logs. And then, after drafting this review, I decided to have my personal rating as 4.5 at the last minute - just before I publish this blog. Mehe.