Told through alternating timelines, Meet Me at the Lake is the perfect summer romance for fans of second chance love, finding family amongst friends, and happy endings with a little bit of longing. 

The book opens with Fern Brookbanks reeling over the sudden death of her mother while trying her best to manage the resort that her mother left behind, one Fern never wanted in the first place. Brooksbanks resort is barely afloat, struggling to make ends meet, and the last thing that Fern needs is the one thing that ends up in her lobby: Will Baxter. 

Fern and Will spent just one night together over a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t forgotten him. After all, he is the reason she chose to stay in Toronto, where they met, instead of returning home after college to run the resort. 

Carley Fortune is a master at writing romances, and this work is no different. My favorite part of the entire work is the juxtaposition between who Fern and Will are in the past and who they are in the present, because it demonstrates the ways that time changes people. I think throughout literature there is this belief that time passing is not always good, or that characters try to hold onto their youth a little too much, but this work embraces how aging apart from people you deeply care about can ultimately lead you in the right direction later on.

The passage of time is done in a way that is both eloquent and satisfying, because readers will see the ins and outs of how each character impacted one another, even though their time together was extremely brief. This work also holds a lot of life lessons, and you’re woven into the storyline, and it seems purposeful in the way that Fortune goes about exploring the infinite possibilities regarding both Fern and Will if they had continued to keep in touch throughout the decade they were apart. We get a deeper look into how our actions and words can stay with people long after we’re gone as well, seen through the relationship between Fern and her mother, Maggie that is explored throughout both timelines.

There is so much to take away from this book. At first glance, one would most likely think that this is sort of a whimsical summer romance, but it ultimately deals with so much more than just a connection between two people that began when they didn’t exactly know their place in the world. The romance aspect was great, but the part that’s stuck with me the most has to be the examination of the mother/daughter relationship that seems strained throughout, only two be revealed as the most loving relationship in the entire work. Not only that, but there is also an element of familial love, even when it is not your responsibility, because whether she likes it or not, Fern built a family at the resort where she grew up. 

I would give this work a 4/5 stars, and the loss of a star is due to the way that Fortune went about exploring the relationship between Fern and her biological father, because I thought it was a little rushed. I would’ve liked to have seen more of the background between her mother and her biological father to get a better understanding about why his absence impacted her so much, but I still think this book is well worth the read.