Tales & Tea: “Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune

You’re about to be booked

Welcome to Tales & Tea—the very first Bazaar Book Club. Think of it as your monthly invitation to slow down, steep a cup, and lose yourself in a story worth talking about. Each month, we’ll be choosing a book that moves us: reading it together, unpacking its themes and going well beyond the final page—because the best books deserve more than a five-star rating and a shelf.

This month, we’re starting somewhere special. Our debut pick is Every Summer After by Carley Fortune—a novel about first love, the summers that shape us, and whether some people are ever truly behind us. And the timing? Couldn’t be better. The series adaptation arrives on your screens on Prime Video on 10 June. So settle in, pour something warm, and read the book first. You’ll thank yourself later.

All you need to know about our book of the month, “Every Summer After”:

Who is Carley Fortune?

Before she became a novelist, Carley Fortune built a career telling other people’s stories. An award-winning Canadian journalist, she edited at some of the country’s most influential publications—The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Toronto Life—before eventually debuting her novel, Every Summer After, in 2022. She promptly became a sensation, landing Fortune at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Since then, she has released four other books, and have sold more than four million copies, has been translated into 30 languages, and has found their way to screens. She writes from Toronto, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

What is the book about?

Based on the book “Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune, the series will centre on a nostalgic, second-chance romance. Told over six years and one pivotal weekend timeline, the series sees Persephone Fraser going back to Barry’s Bay after a phone call changes everything, and reuniting with Sam Florek—the person she’d convinced herself she could survive losing.

What themes are in the book?

Second chances, summer nostalgia, first love, forgiveness, grief and found family.

Who is the book for?

This one’s for the reader who wants romance that means something. A friends-to-lovers story soaked in summer nostalgia—emotional, unhurried, and the kind that stays with you long after the last page.

What’s a quote from the book that’ll make you read it?

“The way I felt about you was always so clear to me—even when we were young, I knew you and I were meant for each other. Two halves of a whole. I loved you so much that the word ‘love’ didn’t seem big enough for how I felt.”

Is there a book adaptation?

Yes, the eight-episode series will be premiering on Prime Video on 10 June.

What other Carley Fortune books are coming to the screen?

Every Summer After won’t be Fortune’s sole book-to-screen project. Her 2023 release, Meet Me at the Lake, is in development as a feature film through Archewell Productions—the company founded by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. On the other hand, Fortune’s book, This Summer Will Be Different, got picked up by Netflix, so we can anticipate this in the future soon, since filming will commence in the summer.

With One Golden Summer being released this year and the TV adaptation expanding beyond the original book’s title to allow for a broader narrative scope, there’s room for speculation about what might come next. Could we eventually see Charlie’s brother’s story—the companion novel, adapted as well? It’s purely hopeful thinking at this point, but given how Fortune’s romances are resonating with producers, we’re keeping our fingers crossed.