OH. MY. HEART.  I am absolutely swooning over this book, and most of all - over Charlie Florek.  I never anticipated how much I would love him and how his banter reminded me of my own husband.  I'm utterly smitten, you guys!!  This story swept me up!!

Alice's return to Barry's Bay with her sweet, wise Nan is everything I adore in a summer novel.  Small town, golden lake days, the magic of a single summer shaping a lifetime.  

The nostalgia is perfection - transporting me straight to those dreamy summers on the lake.  I will be taking this book to my cabin this summer for a reread to fall in love with lake life (and Charlie) all over again.  

This book isn't just a romance, it's a feeling in the best possible way.  It's about finding your way back to what matters, about second chances - not just at love, but at rediscovering yourself.

Cheers to lake life, golden summers and Charlie Florek sealing your heart and never giving it back!

All the stars!!

New book crush unlocked with Charlie Florek!! The nostalgia Carley Fortune is able to create with each of her books makes me long for a summer at the lake, and I've never even been to a lake. Great summer read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for this e-arc!

I just finished this beautiful, perfect book and feel lost for words. how can I begin to describe the book of the summer? I urge you to dive right in.

Down from a recent break up and life lately (relatable), photographer Alice Everly makes her way with her grandma to the wonderful Barry’s Bay where she meets none other than our very own Charlie Florek. They flirt, they have a time at the lake, they just might fall in love!!!

Wow, I mean literally WHOA!!!!! I cried, I SOBBED, I had a sick grin on my face almost the entire time - I felt everything reading this masterpiece. It’s not everyday you get to experience a 100/10 knock out of a book. Charlie Florek is everything ever and my girl Alice is his perfect match. I giggled and kicked my feet, I blushed, I had to tell myself to slow down and appreciate this book for what it is in real time. I knew as I read I’d yearn for the first time I ever read this book. God what a ROMANCE!!!

One Golden Summer is packed with everything I ever want when reading about two people falling in love. It was mega tender, the side characters are full bodied and everyone is fleshed out. I had chills! I rooted for literally everyone. I fell back in love with Sam and Percy (my BABIES!). I knew I missed Barry’s Bay and this corner of the world Carley Fortune has carved out for us, but man this exceeded all my expectations. SO. GOOD! I want to hug and thank Carley for this, seriously.

Okay, I’ll shut up now - RUN to buy this 5/6 I know I will be.

6 stars, you heard it here first. I am in love with One Golden Summer. .

Another great one by Carley Fortune! I really enjoyed reading this book from Charlie's perspective. So much more to him thank you originally think. It's a great beach read!

carley fortunes writing is pure magic.

this feels so full circle. every summer after was the book that made me start my bookstagram. i devoured that book in one evening and honestly, it changed my life. to have an arc of one golden summer, which follows up with charlie, the mmc’s brother in every summer after, is unreal. this book was truly just an incredible reading experience from beginning to end. i was engrossed in it from page one.

No surprise, but this was a 5 star read for me. As someone who grew up on the lake, Carly Fortune’s books always bring back so many memories for me.

There is nothing better to me than a summer romance, and this had everything I loved in it.
I instantly fell in love with Charlie and Alice— the banter, the slowwww burn, I ate it up! What I loved the most was seeing the true friendship between Alice and Charlie develop before there was any romance. This is one I didn’t want the story to end, I needed more of Charlie!

I do think it’s important to read ‘Every Summer After’ first, in order to really appreciate Charlie and Alice’s story.

Carly Fortune has easily become an auto buy author and I highly recommend reading all her books!

"Good things happen at the lake."

I don't know if I'll be able to review this without crying but here we go!!

I loved this book with every fiber of my being. There is something so special, enthralling, and downright captivating about Alice & Charlie's love story. It's tender, vulnerable, magical, open, soft and slow all at the same time.

Alice my girl. You have my heart. I love her so much. Her relationship with Nan reminded me so much of my own relationship with my grandma. Their bond was a joy to read about. I love how, even in her older era, Nan showed Alice how you can still grow past your regrets and still have adventures and moments that make life worth living. Alice's growth and journey into finding her joy again had me so emotional. More of this please! It makes me want to go and find joy in my art again in a way I haven't been inspired to do so in a long time. While her and I are very different in many ways, I loved seeing a fmc who is around my age doing things for herself. To heal parts of her she couldn't and to just find joy and create special moments again.

Charlie Florek. Charlie Florek. CHARLIE FLOREK. From the moment he showed up I was just so down bad for him. Like that is my man and I'm gonna stick beside him! He is such a layered character in the best way. I loved how slowly but surely he peeled away and opened up to Alice, even if it took a little extra push for him to fully open himself. I love how strong, yet tender he was. How vulnerable he allowed himself to be, while also finding ways to keep his joy.

The ending gutted me. It tore me apart and then put me back together. What a perfect, vulnerable, and utterly romantic story.

Thank you forever Berkley for the ARC!!! Gonna go cry some more now!

Welcome back to the lake! This book is set a few years after "Every Summer After". We finally have our hands on Charlie's story! We left him as a big flirty Casanova type in "Every Summer After" and find ourselves with a slightly mellowed out version. Don't let that fool you, he is just as flirty and infuriating as ever, but maybe with a little too much self control?

Enter Alice Everly, recently dumped by her longtime boyfriend, she is trudging through life feeling burnt out and unfulfilled. When the opportunity arises to spend time at her grandma's old lakehouse, she reluctantly takes time off of work to spend time with her grandma at the lake. And of course, Charlie is the man preparing said lakehouse for their arrival and he may or may not live just across the way.

As Alice spends time at the lake her creativity and fire for life slowly come back as she takes photographs and creates a bucket list for the summer. From reading a smutty novel to doing a backflip into the lake she is ready to move life forward. But Alice sure didn't anticipate Charlie crashing into her life and Charlie can say the same for Alice. Get ready to giggle, kick your feet, and cry as you delve into their story.

I loved the writing, the setting was amazing. It was so easy to sink into this story. The characters were great and I absolutely loved Nan.

This might be my favorite book in 2025! It's so good! There are waves splashing on the beach and speed boats zooming across the lake. Charlie Fenwick (from Every Summer After) and Alice Every, a photographer, get a summer of fun when they return to the lake they love.

When Alice was seventeen, she spent the summer at Barry’s Bay with her grandmother (Nan). She took a breathtaking photo of two boys and a girl riding in a yellow boat and it started her career as a photographer. She has become successful in Toronto but is feeling burned out at work plus she recently went through a bad break-up. When Nan takes a fall and has her hip replaced, they decide to go back to Barry’s Bay for a summer of fun while Nan heals. Alice looks forward to doing all of the things she remembers enjoying when she was seventeen and she makes a bucket list of things she would like to do.

Charlie is taking care of the cabin they’re staying at. He is handsome and charming and Alice recognizes him as the driver in the boat photo she took when she was young. Nan invites him for dinner and when he catches a glimpse of Alice’s bucket list, he asks if he can join her with it. It’s fun when they jump off cliffs, float in innertubes and go for rides in his boat. Alice begins to feel more relaxed than she ever has and the photos she's taking now are her best work yet. Alice meets Charlie’s brother Sam and Sam’s wife Percy (Every Summer After) who are getting ready to have a baby and Charlie is building a treehouse for them.

As their summer of fun continues, she and Charlie become very close but he he tells her he’s not in a place where he can get involved with anyone and they need to just remain friends. He is on a sabbatical from his high-powered job in the city - we aren’t sure what happened, but he thinks being with Alice and Nan feels like family (his parents have both died). This is a slow burn romance and they don’t want the summer to end, but something happens to cause a third act break up. It's pretty dramatic, but it's short. I think this is a perfect beach read and I loved it. (The Canadian Lake setting is fantastic.) I think it's the author's best book yet! Thank you to the author, Berkley and Netgalley for the ARC. My full review will be at All About Romance closer to the release date.

I loved this book. It was fun to be back in Barry’s Bay. Loved seeing Alice grow over the summer. I’m so glad we got Charlie’s story.

Carley Fortune returns to Barry's Bay in a lose spin off to "Every Summer After". This book follows Alice, a Toronto-based photographer, and her grandmother, who's recovering from surgery. The two decide to relieve the summer that they spent at Barry's Bay, when Alice was 17. During that summer, Alice took a photograph of three teenagers (Charlie, Sam and Percy), that made photography a true job for her, and symbolized a type of teenage experience that she didn't have. As they return, they meet Charlie, who has grown a lot from the events of "Every Summer After". There's an inevitable pull between Charlie and Percy, as they have to grapple with the idea of a long summer away from Toronto, and what that could mean for their future. This book is Carley Fortune at her best, the romance and yearning is truly golden.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for an early review copy.

This book had me laughing and crying within minutes of starting it. I have never felt more connected, seen, or understood by a character in a book as I did Alice Everly. And Charlie - woah! I am so glad we got to go back to Barry's Bay and get his story. This is brimming with summer nostalgia and perfect for fans of Jessica Joyce or Emily Henry! A romance that is grounded in reality but has you kicking your legs with giddiness and laughing with joy.

It's summertime on the lake, where nothing but good things happen. Alice is a reserved photographer who needs a new outlook on life and may find that spending the summer with her grandmother at the cottage she hasn't seen since she was seventeen. Alice has high hopes for this summer because this the place where it started it all, she took a picture that changed her life. However, she wasn't expecting to meet her annoyingly cute neighbor, Charlie Florek, or realizing he was in the life-changing photo. Alice is used to seeing people, it's her job, but she's not sure what to do when she's the one being seen.

I read this book having never read Every Summer After, but I will be doing so immediately. I loved reading Alice and Charlie's story. This book gave me all the witty banter and tension, and was a very well done slow burn.

Overall, I gave this book 4 stars.

Before I get to the nitty gritty of this review I want to point out how dumb I am so you can learn from my mistakes. I’m going to be honest I did no research going into this book I was just excited to read Carley Fortune’s new book early. While reading I started noticing some of the characters and their back stories sounded really familiar and it kept driving me up a wall. Well finally I went to Goodreads and happened to look up Carley’s first book “Every Summer After” and then it clicked. OMG “One Golden Summer” is a spin off of “Every Summer After”. See dumb moment 😉 Now some of you might be thinking, but do I have to go back and read that book first? yes but also no. I’ll explain, I 100% believe you can read this book without the first one because Carley does a great job of explaining everything and the characters are easy to flow and relate to. But if you are like me and want a better understanding, appreciation and depth to the story. Then read “Every Summer After” first before tackling Carley’s newest release.

Now onto my thoughts and feelings regarding “One Golden Summer”. I freaking loved this book. Hands down this is the best Carley Fortune book I’ve ever read. I had zero expectations going into this book and it blew me away. For starters the setting is a perfect cozy summer vibes. The imagery was beautifully conceptualized and many of the scenes left me feeling nostalgic of my own summer lake trips. The romance between Charlie & Alice was the best kind of slow burn. I loved watching them go from butting heads as neighbors, to best friends, lovers and then to more. Their journey kept me on the edge of my seat and their chemistry was off the charts. I also loved Charlie & Alice as individuals they both had their own insecurities and demons to battle. Watching them work together to overcome them was heartwarmingly relatable.

Overall, this is a perfect book for the upcoming summer season. I will 100% believe re-reading this every summer after (catch what I did there 😉) . I can’t recommend this book enough and ai can’t wait to own my trophy copy when it releases May 6th.

Lastly big thank you to Berkley Publishing& NetGalley for the e-arc! The thoughts and feelings in this review are my own.

Carley writes another beautiful love story that makes me want to visit Canada in the summer! The Canadian Tourism Board should be sponsoring her!

Good things happen at the lake.

I'm struggling to put my feelings into words for One Golden Summer, all I can say is how much I loved this book.

Alice and Charlie were perfection.

I'm so glad we finally got Charlie's story. I loved the link to the photo and just everything.

Another absolutely beautiful book from Carley.

Carley Fortune gets better with every book and One Golden Summer is no exception. Whether you've read Every Summer After or not, it's impossible not to fall in love with Barry's Bay and the characters that reside on it. With more emotional heft than your average romance, readers will connect more deeply with Alice and Charlie, rooting for them through all of their ups and downs.

This is a Canadian author that I will continue to recommend to anyone coming into the store whether they are a fan of romance or need a little convincing ;)

I really enjoyed this book!!! My favourite thing about Carley Fortune’s writing has always been the settings, and that remains true here. She writes descriptions so vividly and familiarly that it feels like I have been exactly where she is describing even though I haven’t!! It’s so nostalgic and lovely and summer feels so magical in this book.

I really liked Alice and her journey of self (re)discovery and how we got to see the world through her eyes and I liked the nods to her photography throughout!! I also liked Charlie a lot and I am so glad he got his happy ending!!

I will say for me the miscommunication dragged on a little bit too much and felt like it didn’t need to be stretched out so much, and I also would have liked to get a glimpse at Charlie’s thoughts, but otherwise such a great read!!!

Carley Fortune… say no more. I will read everything she writes and I’m never disappointed. Thank you Berkley and NetGalley.