In 2022, Carley Fortune debuted with the best beach read of the year. Since then, all of her books have hit The New York Times bestseller list, and two are being adapted into television series, with Every Summer After hitting Amazon Prime as Every Year After on June 8 and This Summer Will Be Different picked up by Netflix.
With such an impressive track record, it’s no surprise that Fortune’s fifth novel, Our Perfect Storm, debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. And it’s well-deserved. Carley Fortune has written yet another unputdownable romance, solidifying herself as a must-read of the genre. With a return to the trope of Fortune’s debut, yet another gorgeous Canadian setting, and a career journey we can all learn from, Our Perfect Storm deserves a spot at the top of your TBR list. Here’s my full review:
What is Our Perfect Storm about?
Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. But their relationship has been challenged by the struggles of adulthood. And now, on the eve of Frankie’s wedding weekend, she isn’t even sure if George will show up to be her best man.
But he does. And for one glorious evening, Frankie’s life is perfect. Until she wakes up to a note from her fiancé saying he loves her but can’t marry her. Frankie is devastated, but George has a plan to heal her broken heart: he wants Frankie to go on her honeymoon with him. Frankie agrees, hoping to repair their relationship.
My review of Our Perfect Storm
It shows the friends-to-lovers trope at its best
I first read Our Perfect Storm as an advanced reader’s copy in January. Having just completed a reread of what may be my favorite of Fortune’s, This Summer Will Be Different, I picked up Our Perfect Storm after dinner one night and proceeded to read the entire book before I went to bed. The story captured me so completely that I couldn’t read it fast enough. On my second read, this time of the gorgeous just-released hardcover, I savored Fortune’s writing, full of lines that tug at your heart, beautiful descriptions of setting, and sentences that feel like lines in a song.
What I enjoyed the most on both reads is Fortune’s return to the childhood friends-to-lover trope of her debut. Every Summer After captured readers’ hearts with Percy and Sam, and Our Perfect Storm brings Frankie and George into each other’s lives at an even younger age. Frankie and George meet as eight-year-olds, spending their childhood years desperately searching for adventure in the fields between their houses. They remain inseparable through young adulthood, living together after high school while George attends college for journalism and Frankie goes to culinary school and starts her career as a chef. When George’s writing takes him all over the world, Frankie and George go months without seeing each other for the first time.
The flashback scenes and present-day chapters are perfectly balanced
At Fortune’s event with Tia Williams at The Strand in New York City, she said the parts of Our Perfect Storm she enjoyed writing the most were the flashback scenes between her two main characters. And their friendship absolutely shines in these scenes. We see Frankie and George comfort each other when they cry, get covered in flour as they make pasta from scratch, and hold a wedding in which they pronounce themselves best friends forever.
“The story captured me so completely that I couldn’t read it fast enough.”
These moments in the past are perfectly balanced with scenes in the present. As Frankie and George enjoy a natural spa, share delicious meals, and take surfing lessons, we see their friendship come back to life as something more. And when the two finally ruin the friendship, we know they were destined to all along.
My favorite part of Frankie and George’s scenes in the present was, of course, the setting. In her first four novels, Carley Fortune took us to Barry’s Bay, Muskoka, and Prince Edward Island. In Our Perfect Storm, she transports us to Tofino, a remote strip on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Throughout the novel, Fortune treats readers to gorgeous descriptions of Tofino, from hot springs that cascade into steaming waterfalls to the rainforest that crashes into the beach to monstrous evergreens that bow to stormy winds.
It showed the realities of finding passion in your career
But Tofino is not the only Canada we get in Our Perfect Storm. Fortune also takes us to the opposite coast through Frankie’s mother, Rebecca. Rebecca grew up on the East Coast of Canada and dreamed of being a marine biologist. Which leads me to another element of Our Perfect Storm that I really appreciated: the career journeys. After discovering a love of cooking as a teenager, Frankie attended culinary school and worked as a chef for several years. But by the time we meet her, Frankie has burned out from the long hours restaurants require and is now working as a recipe developer for a food influencer. While the hours are better, Frankie misses the creativity that restaurant work allowed her. As Frankie rediscovers her love of cooking in Tofino, she learns what she really wants out of her career. Her path reminds us that it’s possible to be passionate about what you do without letting it be the only thing you have time for.
Similarly, while Frankie’s mom returns after 18 months back in New Brunswick—for reasons beyond wanting to be with her family—her love of whales never leaves her. She stays informed on conservation efforts and shares her findings with George. Rebecca doesn’t become the marine biologist she once dreamed of being, but that doesn’t prevent her from making her passion a part of her life.
It’s a love story that rivals the classics
In Fortune’s third novel, we learned that one of her passions is the classics. L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables was the perfect book for This Summer Will Be Different’s Prince Edward Island setting, and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is the right match for Our Perfect Storm’s romance.
In the first chapter, Frankie is preparing to marry Nate, a man she met only one year ago, but who offers the maturity and stability she’s interested in. Even so, Frankie spends the majority of the rehearsal dinner thinking about George, first worried he won’t show and then wishing she could spend time alone with him. By the fourth chapter, Frankie has woken up to a note from her fiancé saying he can’t marry her. In the moment, Frankie is rightfully devastated. But Nate is Frankie’s Professor Bhaer. And George is Frankie’s Laurie. Our Perfect Storm is for everyone who thinks Jo should have picked Laurie.
So, should you read Our Perfect Storm?
If you enjoy friends-to-lovers romances, gorgeous depictions of settings, and explorations of the role work plays in life, then Our Perfect Storm is absolutely for you. Like all of Fortune’s novels, it will tug at your heartstrings and have you looking up flights. Plus, its leveled-up sentence-level writing style will have you picking it up again and again.
Stephanie McKinley, contributing entertainment writer
Stephanie is a freelance writer and product designer living in Charlotte, NC. She has been a Contributing Entertainment Writer for The Everygirl since 2021.
