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The weather is warming up, which means we’re officially due for an all new Carley Fortune romance! The bestselling author of Every Summer After, Meet Me at the Lake, This Summer Will Be Different and One Golden Summer is back with her new release (out today): Our Perfect Storm.
And it not only introduces us to two new beloved characters, Frankie and George, it also features an epic setting (one of the things Fortune’s writers have come to recognize and appreciate in her other novels): Tofino.
These two childhood best friends (both stubborn and headstrong) have felt themselves growing apart, but after Frankie’s fiancé dumps her right before their wedding, George takes her on the honeymoon to Tofino instead. Throughout this week, in between rainforest hikes, surfboard lessons, discovering sea anemones and more, their friendship begins to repair—and maybe even transform into something else entirely.
Parade caught up with Fortune ahead of this book’s release to learn more about the inspiration behind this passionate pair of characters, the Little WomenEaster eggs sprinkled throughout the story and if she thinks she’d ever write a holiday romance. Plus, Fortune reveals her favorite romance tropes and the celebrity crushes she had posters of in her childhood bedroom (relatable!).
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Berkley
Parade: As a huge fan of Little Women—both the book and the 1994 movie version—this was such a treat to read. Can you share a little about the backstory of what inspired this story and what made you decide to have the Little Women references throughout the book as well?
CF: It started with the setting, Tofino. I lived on Vancouver Island for a year after I graduated from university and visited Tofino twice while I lived there and it is just like nowhere else, honestly. It’s so otherworldly.
When I started writing, I knew there were a couple settings that I wanted to visit in books. One of them was Prince Edward Island, which I did with This Summer Will Be Different, and the other was Tofino. And I was just waiting for the right story for the setting, because Tofino is so epic in its landscape, and the story needed to kind of feel right for that.
And then, at the same time, I had these two characters who I had been thinking about for a number of years. I’d seen, we live on a ravine in Toronto, and there’s a lot of wildlife, and my boys had chased a rabbit through the backyard, and we have a cedar hedge, it went under the hedge. And I pictured these two characters, two children meeting this way, and the girl being, like, confronted with this pair of blue eyes.
And I was like, “Who are these people?” I thought about them for a long, long time and had different kind of ideas about who they could be, until they slowly became George and Frankie. And I thought, you know, these two best friends, Tofino is a honeymoon location…like, as a week in Tofino, that could work.
And then I wanted to write characters who were very similar, because I had not done that before, and I wanted to write a protagonist who was quite fiery, because in my previous book, One Golden Summer, Alice is very soft, and I always want to do something a bit different.
Then I was thinking about Frankie, and I was, like, fiery, similar, and then I was like, Jo and Laurie—that’s Jo and Laurie! I always wanted Jo and Laurie to get together. When I watched that film, we had it on VHS growing up, I would sometimes turn it off when Jo refused Laurie. She is told and she believes that they are too stubborn, too hot-headed, that they would kill each other. And I thought, “Well, what if, what if it works out?” That’s kind of where the dynamic came from. It’s not a retelling of Little Women whatsoever, but there are, of course, references to the book, to the film. There is little Easter eggs in there. And I find that just so delightful. It’s a way to kind of tribute that book, and Louisa May Alcott, in a similar way to This Summer Will Be Different, but that book pays a lot of tribute to Anne of Green Gables. Those two pieces of literature, and also their adaptations, have made a huge impact on me.
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I saw in a previous interview that you did for Every Summer After, you described the characters as being a little bit blurry for you while you were writing and that the setting was a lot clearer for you. Is that the way that you felt while writing Our Perfect Storm?
It is the way I feel with every book, yes. It feels very cinematic for me, the way that I move characters around spaces and places. Sometimes, I will draw out properties—like I drew out the resort property for Our Perfect Storm—because I just really need to situate people in a physical space, but their faces are just… a blur.
Tofino is obviously such a big part of this story—readers truly feel transported to this location, which is how we felt reading other books with settings like Barry’s Bay and Prince Edward Island. Are there any other settings or specific locations that are on your list for future projects?
Oh yeah. Yes. I keep a list and people pitch me places, readers pitch me places. I also did an event last year or the year before in Uxbridge, Ontario, which is just north of Toronto, it’s very, very beautiful. It’s known as, like, the trail capital of Ontario [“Canada’s Trail Capital”]. And the mayor came to the event and had redesigned the cover of one of my books to: Meet Me at the Trail, and he was like, “You should be setting a book in Uxbridge.”
But yes, I keep lists of places that I want to visit. And I have one spot where I know what story happens there. I know, like, I’m determined, for sure. It’s definitely in there.
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Cannot wait to see! You’re the queen of summer romance books, but what would you say to the fans who are asking for you to write a full book with a winter setting?
My brother and my husband are also telling me to do that so I can give myself a bit more time off! But I don’t know! There are bits throughout different seasons in the books, but because I write in the fall and the winter, I love being in the summer. And there are so many readers who only read in the summer, you know, they get a chance to read one book, they can read it on their vacation in the summer, and I love being an author for them.
So, it’s not a no, it’s just, I have no desire to write, like, a holiday romance. I’m just not interested.
Our Perfect Storm uses nostalgia in such a powerful way, for the characters individually and obviously throughout their nearly-lifelong friendship. I especially loved the quote “I’ve found that going back to the beginning is sometimes the only way to move forward.”
One of the scenes that stuck out to me was when Frankie was in her old bedroom and it says “I find that time collapses” before describing a Katniss Everdeen poster, track and field ribbons, and clips of magazine recipes in the room. Did writing that scene make you think of your own childhood room? Did you have any specific posters or special mementos displayed?
I so did. My childhood bedroom does not exist anymore—my parents sold our house gosh, maybe 15 years ago. But I find when I’m in certain places, I feel like that, and certainly, I think people often feel like this when they’re with their family. You’re with your family or your siblings, and you’re like, “Suddenly, I am 12.” And time just kind of collapses depending on who you’re with or where you are.
My bedroom was covered in magazines—one wall was an entire collage of magazine pages, advertisements, things I thought looked really cool. I loved, loved magazines. That was at the end of high school, but before that, when I was a bit younger, my door was just my celebrity crushes, who were Brad Pitt and Brad Renfro, who was my love when I was younger. My room was dark red and I had black and white photography on the walls that I bought from IKEA that I thought was very sophisticated.
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So artsy, I love it! There are also a couple of popular romance tropes in the book, like childhood friends to lovers, and the “only one bed.” Is there any romance trope that you feel like, “I will absolutely never have this in one of my books” or do you have a favorite romance trope that you love using?
I think my favorite is either “friends to lovers” or “second chance romance.” I don’t think about the tropes when I’m writing. Like every romance, any kind of genre of fiction, any song, you can pick out the tropes from it, but when I’m brainstorming, I’m not thinking about, “Oh, I should, I haven’t done this,” “I should try this,” or “I love writing this.” It’s not in my toolkit anyway. And for that reason, I probably can’t say that there are certain things I wouldn’t do. I’m sure there are, but I don’t have a list.
Right. It’s one of those things I never really thought about until following different BookTok accounts and things like that, and seeing them as part of their reviews.
Yes, for sure. I didn’t know about them when I was writing my first novel. I wasn’t aware of “trope culture,” I think we could call it. And of course, if you’re a reader, you identify these thematic buckets for sure. But then once I was exposed to Bookstagram and the way that we talk about books online, tropes are such a huge part of that.
Absolutely. Are there any plans already in the works for a TV show or movie for Our Perfect Storm?
I personally see it as a movie. Those conversations are all kind of happening now!
Related: Which Carley Fortune Books Are Being Adapted Into Movies and TV Shows—and What We Know So Far
And obviously we’ve talked about Our Perfect Storm having references to Little Women. Can you share some of your all-time favorite love stories, whether it’s, you know, romanticcomedies, contemporary romance books or classic literature with a love story?
Definitely Anne of Green Gables, 100%, and obviously, Little Women, and the Little Women adaptations. One of my favorite romance novels is Seven Days in June, by Tia Williams. And romcom? 13 Going on 30. I adore that movie. Those are the ones that are top of mind for me.
Those are great ones. Oh, Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo… I went through a Mark Ruffalo obsession after that movie.
Me too. Me too. Also, just like the magazine of it all. “Take apart the FOB, overhaul the BOB”—the use of “FOB” and “BOB” made me so happy in that in that film.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity
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Source:
- Carley Fortune, best-selling author of Every Summer After, Meet Me at the Lake, This Summer Will Be Different, One Golden Summer and Our Perfect Storm
