Start with Every Summer After if you want to meet Barry’s Bay before returning there in One Golden Summer. Start elsewhere if another premise calls to you: Meet Me at the Lake, This Summer Will Be Different and Our Perfect Storm offer different couples and different reasons to return to a place or a person. You do not need to treat Carley Fortune’s whole bibliography as one continuous relationship.
For readers who simply like following an author’s releases, the five published novels run from Every Summer After in 2022 to Our Perfect Storm in 2026. There is also an announced return to Barry’s Bay, Only in Summer, scheduled for 18 May 2027. That is a future release as of this guide’s check on 25 October 2026, rather than another novel you must already have read.
The most helpful decision is therefore not just which book comes first. It is whether you want the recognition of a shared world, the accumulation of a writer’s books, or a particular romantic starting situation. Here is a route through those choices without revealing the novels’ resolutions.
The publication route: five novels, not five compulsory steps
The original US publication sequence is straightforward:
- Every Summer After — 2022.
- Meet Me at the Lake — 2023.
- This Summer Will Be Different — 2024.
- One Golden Summer — 2025.
- Our Perfect Storm — 2026.
The dates can be checked in Penguin Random House’s records for the debut, the second novel, the third, One Golden Summer and Our Perfect Storm. These are publication years for those English originals, not a timetable for every translation or format.
Following that list gives you an easy personal project: one author, one next book, no need to compare every possible entry point. It can also leave a useful gap between two visits to the same fictional setting. You meet other couples before returning to Barry’s Bay. Choose this route if discovering the bibliography gradually is itself part of the pleasure.
However, publication order is a reading preference here, not evidence that each novel supplies missing chapters of the preceding one. If you have already read the third title, you have not ruined your ability to begin the first. Move to the distinction between the connected books and the separate novels, then decide how much familiarity you want to preserve.
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Barry’s Bay: begin with Percy and Sam, then choose Alice and Charlie
Fortune’s official books page groups Every Summer After, One Golden Summer and the forthcoming Only in Summer under the Barry’s Bay universe. It lists the other three published novels separately. That is a more useful map than assuming that similar summer covers identify a single numbered series.
For a first visit, Every Summer After is the natural opening choice. The author’s introduction presents Percy and Sam through earlier summers and an adult reunion. One Golden Summer instead centres Alice and Charlie, and its official page expressly says it can be read independently despite returning characters.
That leaves two legitimate pleasures. Reading the earlier book first lets you encounter the setting and its people before recognizing them again. Beginning with Alice and Charlie lets you follow the couple that interests you now. Independence answers whether the second book can be an entry point; it does not promise that meeting returning people will reveal nothing about their lives.
If you are especially protective of earlier discoveries, keep the publication sequence within this pair. You do not need to investigate detailed cameos to justify that choice. Searching for precisely who appears and how their life has changed can expose more than simply starting with the older book would. If you are relaxed about shared-world information, the author’s standalone statement gives you a clear alternative.
Our guide to romance series reading order explores that broader distinction. For Fortune, the practical application is small: keep these connected titles together in your notes, without forcing the three other novels between them.
Every Summer After: choose the history behind a reunion
The reason to choose Every Summer After is not merely that it is the debut. Its advertised structure makes the earlier relationship part of the reading experience. The attraction of such a starting point is watching how a remembered connection acquires detail while the adult situation asks what can happen now.
If your favourite question is “How did these two become important to each other?”, this is a more direct match than a story selected only for a holiday location. A relationship with history can make ordinary gestures feel charged: a familiar place or an unfinished conversation carries possibilities that a new meeting does not. That is the kind of anticipation to look for in the opening, rather than a promise that nostalgia will make everything gentle.
There is an important distinction between wanting a reunion and wanting reassurance. An earlier attachment can offer recognition, but it can also make regret more central to your reading mood. You may be curious about how affection survives a long interruption, or you may currently want a story less invested in revisiting mistakes. Choose according to that preference instead of letting the pleasant landscape decide for you.
As a starting point for the connected books, it also lets you establish your own first impressions before another novel adds its perspective. You need not decide immediately whether to continue through all five releases. Read this one, then ask whether you want another visit to Barry’s Bay or a change in the kind of relationship you are following.
Meet Me at the Lake: choose a missed possibility and an adult life to reconsider
In the official introduction to Meet Me at the Lake, Fern and Will reconnect after a missed appointment years earlier, while Fern faces responsibility for a family resort. That combination offers a different route into reunion: the tantalizing memory is a possibility, rather than a long completed relationship.
For choosing your next book, ask how you like history to matter. A person can be difficult to forget because of years spent together, or because a brief encounter left room for an imagined future. Those are not interchangeable attractions. If you enjoy wondering what might have happened, the second kind of setup can make a later meeting particularly inviting.
The resort responsibility gives the choice another dimension. You might want romance to sit beside a decision about work, inheritance and where an adult life belongs. In that mood, a location is interesting because staying there means taking something on. It is a different wish from wanting a holiday to suspend everyday obligations for a while.
Compare your own response to two questions: would you rather revisit a person who knows your earlier self, or meet someone again after your plans have changed? Both can suggest emotional closeness, but the second leaves considerable room between memory and present reality. That is a useful reason to choose Fern’s premise without treating this novel as required preparation for any other couple.
This Summer Will Be Different: choose attraction entangled with friendship
This Summer Will Be Different places Lucy and Felix on Prince Edward Island, with Felix identified as the younger brother of Lucy’s best friend. For a reader, the distinguishing attraction is not a different lake or a prettier shore. It is the presence of an important friendship around the romantic possibility.
If you like desire complicated by an existing social bond, this premise gives you a clear starting point. A new romance can affect more than the two people considering it. The reader’s interest may lie in how adults weigh what they want against a relationship they already value, rather than in whether a stranger will find them appealing.
That makes this a useful contrast with Meet Me at the Lake. In one selection, the past leaves an imagined path open; in the other, friendship makes the surrounding relationships immediately relevant. Choose according to which complication you want to spend time with. Neither question is answered by placing both books in a general summer-romance category.
An island setting can be part of the appeal without turning the novel into a travel itinerary. If you want atmosphere and a relationship to absorb your attention, let that be enough. You do not need to investigate every real location before beginning. Read the opening for Lucy’s voice and the way the social situation interests you, then leave the unfolding relationship to the book.
One Golden Summer: choose a new couple in a familiar place
Alice’s work as a photographer and her connection with Charlie give One Golden Summer a different focus from the reunion at the centre of Every Summer After. Its invitation is to follow another person’s way of noticing the world, while Barry’s Bay supplies a point of connection for readers returning there.
That can be particularly appealing if you enjoy creative work as part of a character’s perspective. The interesting reading question is not simply whether someone is attractive in a beautiful setting. It is what draws a person’s attention, and what it might mean to feel noticed in return. This is a reason to try Alice’s opening without borrowing assumptions about her personality from another character’s story.
For a returning reader, let familiarity be a pleasure rather than a checklist. You do not need to remember every earlier detail before opening a book the author identifies as independent. For a new reader, you can accept that some people have an earlier history without looking up that history immediately. Both approaches leave the present couple room to become the reason you keep reading.
If you are deciding between this and the debut, consider whether you want accumulated shared-world recognition or the immediate attraction of a particular perspective. Choose the debut for the former route. Choose Alice and Charlie if their premise is what made you look up Fortune in the first place. You can return for Percy and Sam later if that discovery interests you.
Our Perfect Storm: choose the risk of changing a long friendship
The author’s presentation of Our Perfect Storm introduces Frankie and George as childhood friends and sends them to Tofino after Frankie’s wedding plans collapse. This is a separate entry in the author’s catalogue, rather than a required continuation of Barry’s Bay.
The choice here is about closeness that already exists. A friend can be a source of comfort and still be someone with whom the relationship needs attention. If that tension interests you more than the mystery of a stranger, this is the premise to investigate first. You are choosing a bond that matters before any possible change in its label.
The interrupted wedding plans also make this a different holiday proposition from a carefree getaway. A reader might want the possibility of travel creating space around a difficult moment; another might prefer not to begin with disappointment at all. Neither response makes one book objectively more escapist. It tells you which emotional starting position suits the evening you have.
Compare this with This Summer Will Be Different. Both can appeal to readers interested in friendship, but the friend occupies a different place in the advertised romantic setup. With Lucy, an existing friendship surrounds the attraction. With Frankie, the central friendship is itself the relationship you are being invited to reconsider. That difference is more useful for choosing than simply asking which book has the most inviting coast.
What to do with Only in Summer and newer editions
The official Only in Summer page announces a release for 18 May 2027. On 25 October 2026, put it in a future-reading note rather than counting it among the five released novels above. An announced addition can make a shared world appealing without creating homework before you begin an already published book.
Do not read an upcoming description if you would rather discover every returning name through the earlier novels. Keeping only its title and announced date is enough to remember it. Release plans can change, so return to the official page when you are ready to make a purchase or borrowing decision. A saved date helps you remember a plan; it does not guarantee access in your country or chosen language.
Similarly, a later date on a deluxe or newly designed edition does not automatically indicate a new story. Match the work’s title before rearranging your list. A reader who encounters a 2025 edition of the 2022 debut should not place it after One Golden Summer merely because a product page displays a newer format date.
The English titles here identify the original works. When reading in translation, use the publisher’s original-title information to match your edition. There is no need to translate these titles yourself and hope a shop uses the same wording. Keep the story order separate from the release history of the local editions you can actually obtain.
Three concrete routes through Fortune’s novels
For a two-book visit to Barry’s Bay, pair Every Summer After with One Golden Summer. The first establishes Percy and Sam’s earlier connection and adult reunion; the second shifts the romantic centre to Alice and Charlie. Read in that sequence when recognizing people across books is part of the appeal. Keep Only in Summer separate, with its announced 2027 date, rather than counting an unreleased book as the immediate third step.
For a comparison of two different reunions with the past, pair Every Summer After with Meet Me at the Lake. The distinction to follow is shared years versus a missed possibility. You can be interested in both without expecting them to give the same emotional shape to memory. Our comparison of homecoming and second-chance romance helps separate the return to a place from the earlier bond with a person.
For friendship as the deciding factor, compare the premises of This Summer Will Be Different and Our Perfect Storm. Lucy’s attraction sits beside her bond with a best friend; Frankie’s longstanding friendship is itself the relationship being reconsidered. Choose the former for the surrounding social complication, the latter for the possibility of changing an already central bond. Neither requires a preparatory visit to Barry’s Bay.
These routes organize the five named novels around actual connections and distinct starting relationships. For another author after that particular comparison, the romance catalogue offers a wider range of couples and settings.
