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Book club questions for This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune takes an in-depth look at this addicting romance. There will be spoilers so for more context about the book, check out my spoiler-free review first.
I absolutely loved this novel! I did not want to put it down and read it so fast. But at the same time, I didn’t want it to end. It’s one of those compelling and readable novels.
So good! Let me know your thoughts about the book.
The Synopsis
Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn’t know he’s her best friend’s younger brother. Lucy and Felix’s chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.
It’s easier said than done.
Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed. Again.
If Lucy can’t help being drawn to Felix, at least she’s always kept her heart out of it.
When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she’s never been able to. But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.
Book Club Questions for This Summer Will Be Different
- Have you read Carley Fortune’s other novels? Where does this one rank?
- When Lucy and Felix meet, their chemistry is off the charts. What did you think about their initial meeting?
- When Lucy finds out Felix is actually the brother of Bridget, her best friend, she’s horrified. One of Bridget’s rules about the island is do not fall in love with her brother. Why did Bridget establish that rule with Lucy?
- This novel covers the forbidden love trope—what are your thoughts about this trope? Do you a favorite trope?
- Why are Lucy and Felix so drawn to each other? Do you think they are a good fit?
- Lucy decides to keep what’s happened between her and Felix a secret from Bridget. Should Lucy have been forthcoming about it or do you see why she kept it a secret?
- As much as this novel covers the romance, it’s about very much about friendships and the ones who become like family to us. Let’s talk about Lucy and Bridget’s friendship. Do you have a friendship like theirs?
- What were your thoughts about the setting on Prince Edward Island? Have you ever been there?
- A week before her wedding, Bridget goes back to the Island and is in distress but won’t tell Lucy what’s going on. What did you suspect was the issue?
- When did Lucy and Felix’s relationship shift from casual to something more real?
- Lucy took over her aunt’s flower shop and while she does love it, she’s also quite stressed and overwhelmed. What was behind her stress with the shop? Have you ever experienced something similar with work?
- Eventually, Lucy and Felix tell the truth to Bridget. And it turns out Bridget suspected something was going on between them and is totally fine with relationship. Were you surprised by her reaction?
- But despite finally having their relationship out in the open, it’s not an easy journey with Lucy’s life in Toronto and Felix’s at the island. The big conflict is that Felix wants to be sure the island, and of course, him is what Lucy truly wants. He doesn’t want to be seen as just a long vacation. What were your thoughts about this? Why did they need to separate at that time?
- What brought them back together?
- What did you think about the ending? What’s next for Lucy and Felix?
- If they turn the book into a film adaptation, who should play the main roles?
Additional Recommendations
Hope you enjoyed book club question for This Summer Will Be Different! Here are some more recommendations along with links to book club questions.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Be sure to add Funny Story by Emily Henry to your list! It’s a very enjoyable romance. Check out my book club questions here.
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
Another great romance I’ve read this year is Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle. Check out my book club questions here.
Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.
But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.
Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.
Happy reading!
