Best Carley Fortune Books, Ranked Before Our Perfect Storm

I've spent the last week down a Carley Fortune rabbit hole, and I'm convinced this woman is about to take over every screen in your house. Her novels have sold over four million copies. Her fifth, Our Perfect Storm, hit shelves May 5, a Prime Video series based on her debut premieres next month, and Netflix just greenlit a separate adaptation.

If you've never picked up a Fortune novel, you're going to hear her name constantly this summer. If you have read her, you probably have opinions. Strong ones.

The internet's romance community is split over which Fortune novel deserves the top spot, and a fifth book dropping into the conversation means the rankings are shifting again. All five are contemporary romances set against Canadian landscapes, and every novel works as a standalone, though One Golden Summer revisits characters from the debut. Here's where they rank, from good to best.

#4: Meet Me at the Lake (2023)

Fern and Will meet by chance in Toronto and spend a single perfect day together, a daylong adventure that spirals into something neither of them expected. They make a pact to meet one year later. Will never shows up.

I get why this one splits the room. Asking the reader to believe a single day together can anchor an entire love story is a bigger leap than Fortune usually asks for, and Fern's decision-making in the middle stretch tests your patience. It sits at #4 because what saves it isn't the romance; it's the grief thread underneath. Fern inheriting her mother's lakeside resort and trying not to drown in the responsibility is the part of this book that sticks.

Its Goodreads rating (3.68), the lowest of Fortune's novels, reflects that tug-of-war.

I kept digging into this one because Archewell, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's production company, reportedly acquired the film rights for several million dollars as part of their Netflix deal. Even readers who bounced off the book are tracking the screen version, though the adaptation's future is uncertain.

#3: This Summer Will Be Different (2024)

Fortune has called this her steamiest book yet.

Lucy falls for her best friend Bridget's younger brother Felix during a vacation on Prince Edward Island. Every summer she swears she won't end up with him again. Every summer, she breaks that promise.

The forbidden-love tension runs the whole book, and it doesn't ease up. Where Meet Me at the Lake took its time, this one has a momentum that makes it a single-sitting read. The PEI setting, all coastal villages and red sand beaches, has spawned an entire sub-genre of readers googling cottage rentals at midnight.

On Fortune's own chili scale, she rates it around a three out of five, though she suspects some readers would say four. Its Goodreads rating (~3.95) is her second-lowest on the platform, but the 3.95 doesn't account for the readers who rated it five stars and immediately told everyone they know to read it. Netflix greenlit a ten-episode series adaptation in March 2026, with filming on Prince Edward Island.

#2: One Golden Summer (2025)

The earlier Fortune novels run on the heat of first love and second chances. This one slows down.

One Golden Summer returns to Barry's Bay, Ontario, the lakeside setting of her debut Every Summer After. Photographer Alice Everly comes back to the lake after her grandmother breaks her hip, arriving fresh off a breakup of her own. Charlie Florek, Sam's older brother from the first book and one of three teenagers Alice once photographed on a yellow speedboat, is now the man next door.

Instagram ranking reels and Reddit threads consistently place this at #1 or #2. The split usually falls along where you are in life.

If you read Every Summer After and wished the characters had grown-up problems, Fortune wrote this book for you. Alice came to the lake to take photos and help her grandmother recover. Charlie made that plan last about three days.

No TV adaptation announced yet. Give it time.

#1: Every Summer After (2022)

The debut. The one that sold over a million copies, launched a franchise, and turned Fortune into the name you see stacked in every airport bookshop from May through August.

Percy and Sam are childhood friends whose bond deepens over summers at a lake in Barry's Bay, Ontario. A painful falling-out separates them for a decade, but when Percy comes back for Sam's mother's funeral, the feelings haven't gone anywhere. The question is whether they can survive what broke everything in the first place.

ESA regularly tops community ranking threads on Reddit and Instagram.

The friends-to-lovers slow burn here is patient in a way Fortune's later novels haven't matched. You get six summers of Sam and Percy working side by side in his mother's restaurant, curling up with books (medical textbooks for him, work-in-progress horror short stories for her), and circling each other while neither says the obvious thing. By the time the central conflict hits, it lands because you've been invested since they were thirteen.

The Prime Video adaptation, titled Every Year After, premieres June 10, 2026. Eight episodes. Sadie Soverall plays Percy, Matt Cornett plays Sam, and Elisha Cuthbert plays Sam's mother.

If you're going to read one Fortune novel before the show drops, this is the one.

The Incoming Wildcard: Our Perfect Storm (2026)

Released May 5.

Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight. On the eve of Frankie's wedding, she doesn't know if George, her best man, will even show up. He does.

Then her fiancé dumps her the next morning with nothing but a note. George convinces Frankie to take the honeymoon anyway, a week in Tofino, British Columbia, surrounded by lush rainforests, misty beaches, and hot springs.

Early Goodreads ratings sit at 4.43, the highest of any Fortune novel. Country Living called it "one of the best romance books I've ever read." Kirkus gave it a starred review, praising the romance as "powerfully strong" with "torment and passion."

More than 20 years of friendship without ever crossing the line, and then a cancelled wedding drops them alone on a beach in Tofino for a week. Good luck pretending you're just friends after that.

Could it take the #1 spot? The early numbers say it has a real shot, and this list will need revisiting.

What's Coming to Screen

Three out of five Fortune novels are heading to screen. Every Year After (Prime Video, June 10) drops first.

This Summer Will Be Different (Netflix, no release date yet) is in development. Meet Me at the Lake has been in development under Archewell since 2023, but with no director or cast attached after nearly three years, industry sources have questioned its future.

If you want to read before you watch, start Every Summer After now. You have about five weeks before the premiere.

FAQ

What order should I read them in?

Every novel can be read independently. The one exception: Every Summer After and One Golden Summer share the Barry's Bay setting and characters, so reading ESA first is widely recommended. The other three are completely standalone.

Which book should I start with?

Depends on what you're looking for.

• Slow-burn friends-to-lovers: Every Summer After

• Forbidden attraction, faster pacing: This Summer Will Be Different

• Emotionally mature adult love story: One Golden Summer

• Second-chance romance, gorgeous lake setting: Meet Me at the Lake

• Best friends navigating unspoken feelings: Our Perfect Storm

  
  

Are her books spicy?

Open-door romance with explicit scenes, but nothing extreme. This Summer Will Be Different is the spiciest. Every Summer After and One Golden Summer land on the milder end.

What are Carley Fortune's common tropes?

Summer romance. Friends-to-lovers. Second chances. Small-town Canadian settings. Forced proximity. Each book runs a slightly different combination, but if you like one, you'll probably like them all.

Readers don't debate whether Fortune's books are worth reading. They debate the ranking order.

Our Perfect Storm just made that argument harder to settle. Every summer, Fortune's readers find a new reason to rearrange the list.