You need to read Every Summer After

Summer is the perfect time to jump back into your reading list, and you need to add Every Summer After by Carley Fortune to it.

It's been hailed by readers, with many people giving it five-star reviews.

The novel follows Persephone Fraser as she returns to the place where she made the biggest mistake of her life ten years ago.

The official synopsis reads:

'They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually, that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.'

Readers claim Every Summer After is the best romance novel of 2025

One reader wrote, "This is my new favorite book of all time. I’ve been crying for the past 20 minutes. I can’t even put into words how much I loved this book. It has my whole heart."

One added, "I literally could not put it down. Perfect if you're looking for a summer romance."

"If I could give this book 10 stars I would!! This was hands down the best book I've read in what feels like months!" said another.

"What I wouldn’t give to be able to go back and read this one for the first time again. Every ounce of hype shown to this book is completely deserved," one reader wrote.