This Summer Will Be Different

Fortune (Meet Me at the Lake) transports readers to beautiful Prince Edward Island in this emotional love story. Toronto florist Lucy Ashby didn’t realize that her vacation affair with island native Felix Clark was forbidden. Then they discovered that he’s the brother of her best friend, Bridget, who would not approve. After agreeing to keep their relationship on the down low, Lucy is mostly content to see Felix periodically over the next five years, hooking up with no strings attached when she and Bridget visit from Toronto every summer. However, stronger feelings begin to percolate when Felix and Lucy reunite to figure out why Bridget ran away to the island two weeks before her wedding. Fortune builds engrossing tension between Lucy and Felix, who is fully immersed in his local community as a holiday home renovator, by flashing back to their previous rendezvous on wind-swept beaches. The leads have undeniable magnetism, and Fortune avoids the pitfalls of a typical Hallmark ending, instead delivering a truly satisfying happily ever after. Romance fans will devour this. Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary. (May)