Carley Fortune teases 'Every Year After' TV adaptation, debuts 'Our Perfect Storm'

Clare Mulroy, USA TODAYTue, May 5, 2026 at 9:54 PM UTC

0

It’s always summer in a Carley Fortune novel.

The bestselling romance author is approaching summer 2026 on the upswing, with her new novel “Our Perfect Storm” (out now from Berkley) publishing just a month before her first adaptation hits streaming.

“Every Year After,” based on “Every Summer After,” will star Matt Cornett (“High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”) and Sadie Soverall (“Saltburn”) as Sam and Percy, estranged childhood friends who reunite for one transformative summer. The series comes to Prime Video on June 10.

It’s fitting that “Our Perfect Storm” is also a childhood friends-to-lovers tale. Both relish in shared history and will-they-won’t-theys, inside jokes and meddling family members. But the moody Vancouver Island tourist town in “Our Perfect Storm” provides a far different atmosphere from lakeside community Barry’s Bay in “Every Summer After.” In fact, it’s a contrast to most of Fortune’s other work, which also includes “One Golden Summer,” “This Summer Will Be Different” and “Meet Me At the Lake.”

Her “lake books,” as she calls them, are coated in warm nostalgia. “Our Perfect Storm,” on the other hand, “is my most moody, dramatic, sweeping book yet,” Fortune says.

Carley Fortune pens an ode to ‘Little Women’ in new novel

“Our Perfect Storm” is an ode to one of Fortune’s favorite literary childhood friend pairings – Jo and Laurie from “Little Women.” Her protagonists are in on the joke, too. Their favorite adaptation, like Fortune, is the 1994 film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Bale. They leave each other letters in a mailbox between their houses. Happily ever after guaranteed (it is a romance novel, after all), “Our Perfect Storm” is for Alcott fans who wish Laurie and Jo ended up together. Both characters are "stubborn, fiery, hotheaded."

"It can never work, but what if it does?” Fortune says.

Carley Fortune's "Our Perfect Storm" is a sweeping summer romance to add to your vacation TBR.

Regardless of what tropes her protagonists fall into, there’s a connective tissue of shared history in all of Fortune’s work. It’s often eagerly anticipated lake summers or beach houses. Fleeting teen summers and stolen-glance crushes. But in “Our Perfect Storm,” like in “Every Summer After,” the inevitable romance blossoms from the fact that these two characters know each other better than anyone else.

Advertisement

“I really like to see how our friendships, whether that's between men and women or not, evolve as we evolve. I love being in the headspace of young people,” Fortune says. “Being in 8-year-old Frankie's head – and it was the first thing I wrote – I had such an understanding of who she was. I was like, ‘I know her. I know her now.’ And then getting to revisit them at different ages, you get such a great understanding of the characters, and I love that. I love history between people.”

What to expect from ‘Every Summer After’ adaptation ‘Every Year After’

Stepping back into Percy and Sam’s heads for “Every Year After” has been similarly “rewarding.” She’d already written a bit more of their story in “One Golden Summer,” the sequel that follows Sam’s brother Charlie.

“It's been so wonderful to see the characters come to life with the cast. The cast is fantastic and it's been a joy. It was really surreal to go to set and see that version of Barry's Bay, to see the characters, to watch a scene where people are referring to each other as Percy or Delilah,” Fortune says. “It's very surreal and a lot of fun.”

Every author approaches their adaptation differently. Some want to be producers, others prefer to be hands-off. Fortune felt her main responsibility was ensuring fans of the novel “will love it.”

“I remember in our first conversation, (showrunner Amy B. Harris) told me how she wanted the first scene to play out and I had goosebumps. I just felt the book was in really good hands with her,” Fortune says. “And some of my favorite parts are parts that are not in the book.”

Adapting “Every Summer After” means entrusting a crew to bring Barry’s Bay to life, the real lakeside community in Ontario where Fortune grew up. Summers in this town, population just over 1,000, are a bit different than what you’d see in the hydrangea-laden McMansions in “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” If you’re filling the “Cousins Beach” void this summer with “Every Summer After,” just be prepared for a more “down-to-earth” summer setting.

“Emotionally, because we’re dealing with adults ... it is a bit more emotional. I cried my eyes out many times,” Fortune says. “What I love about (the show) and what I try to do with the books is that you have so many emotions happening even within one scene. You might have a swoon and a laugh or a cry. It really runs the gamut emotionally and some things are really, really tender and some moments are so funny. I hope it feels like both familiar and it makes you feel nostalgic for something you didn't have.”

Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carley Fortune talks 'Every Year After' series and 'Our Perfect Storm'

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”