pickI‘m more Emily Henry than Hallmark, so this was a good romance pick for me. Not too sappy, not too sweet. It‘s a story about missed opportunities and second chances. Sometimes life doesn‘t go as planned and the detour eventually puts you where you need to be. I‘ll read another one by Carley Fortune.
pickI liked that this is set so close to me right now but I think I liked the first one better. I have the next one in the queue but maybe I need a longer break between them 🤷🏻♀️
Felt like I needed to read this at the cottage which is 20 minutes outside Huntsville. This book is set in Toronto and Smoke Lake which is about a 30 minute drive from where I am ( might need to go on an adventure)
pickI really liked the story and characters. Life isn‘t perfect or easy but how you treat yourself & others matters. Being kind to yourself while still moving forward may just get you where you‘ve wanted to be all along.
pickA heartfelt romance about missed connections and finding your way in the world even when things don‘t turn out the way you thought they would! I loved everything about this book and can‘t wait to read more from this author!
Something with gardens or lakes. But it gets so hot here in the summer that sometimes I read about snowy blizzards.
#SundayFunday
@BookmarkTavern
pickI love this author so much. Her books are sweet and fun and just a touch steamy. The atmosphere is always so perfect for a summer read. I really enjoy the characters and the overall ambiance of her writing. This book was just a lot of fun. I loved the main characters and their story and really genuinely wanted more by the end. Loved this one!
pickThe only Canada Reads book I got to this year and late, but I really enjoyed it. I‘m not surprised it was eliminated first; it was light for that program. However, it is being made into a film! I liked that the b-story was Ferns relationship with her mother and the grief from losing her. I also liked the theme of trying to figure out where you want to be and where you belong that was featured along side the steamy complex love story. Which was 😍
pickI liked the way the book was written, from different places in time and different locations, and the journal entries from Maggie to give some background on her. I was a little frustrated by the end and how quick Fern forgave Will - he didn‘t deserve that gift of how fast she was right back to normal after how he treated her…more than once.
pick3.5⭐️ Thought the book was ok. The book started out slow, but seemed to hit its stride about 1/3 of the way through. While I‘m not a huge #romance reader, I thought it hit the right spot after some heavy reading. #2024 #fiction #canadareads #canadian #contemporary #bookclub
https://bookshop.org/p/books/meet-me-at-the-lake-carley-fortune/18702555?ean=978...
so-soI have to say, this wasn‘t my favorite. I couldn‘t connect with the two main characters, and they just weren‘t the perfect “fit” for me. The description of the lake was beautiful though, and now I kind of want to own my own lakeside resort 🐟⛵️ #bookspin #februarybookspin
so-soThe ending was satisfying and the mother-daughter relationship was bittersweet. However, the bouncing timeline was inefficient and jarring.#CanadaReads2024
I planned to finish MEET ME AT THE LAKE yesterday, but I ended up building a tiny railway station instead. As you do.
I‘m enjoying the book so far, despite a bit of Americanized school language (my nemesis). It‘s got a lot to say about grief, communal responsibility vs personal wishes, and love of place. That said, I expect it‘ll have an uphill battle in the Canada Reads debates, since so many people refuse to engage with romances on principle.
My little guy has a play date at a friends house today, so I‘m trying to get a little reading time in before that. And can you believe, this is the first we‘ve seen the sunshine in weeks here in my little corner of PA! From December until March it‘s usually nothing but gray skies and overcast, so this is a beautiful little treat 🌞
pickI read it in a day.
A heartfelt missed connection romance, set in two of my favourite places: Toronto and cottage country. I liked Fern and Will, and I liked that Fortune played with the genre's tropes without falling into its traps. It was an enjoyable read, with depth and heart that keep it from being too fluffy.
Thoughts on #CanadaReads in the comments...
There‘s always that one title on the Canada Reads longlist with 100+ holds, and I always hope it doesn‘t make the shortlist, and it almost always does. Sigh. This year I haunted MEET ME AT THE LAKE‘s catalogue page in the hopes of an Express copy at a branch I could reasonably travel to. One went up on Saturday night so I made sure I was there first thing this morning.
I also grabbed an enticing cozy mystery because hey, I was there anyways.
We are having a snow day. I have already shoveled all the things twice. It‘s so quiet. Snow quiet is the best quiet. And knit pjs are everything. I‘m halfway through this most surprising Canada Reads choice. And my verdict so far is: vapid. I‘m not even sure how this fits. It‘s a boring and extremely predictable hallmark movie. Some people must like these things. Read what you love. But I am not those people. I am going to try finish it.
pick4 ⭐
My first of #CanadaReads2024. I'm surprised at this inclusion in #CanadaReads, being a romance with no political or cultural agenda. But nonetheless it was hard to put down.
so-soI read this in the context of the Canada Reads shortlist. I‘m not sure it brings much (anything?) to the discussion and am curious about what arguments its champion brings forward. The ending was very rushed IMHO, but I adored the description of place and Dirty Dancing vibes.
pickA lush, rich, beautiful story. set against the vibrant, backdrop of Ontario, Canada.
pickIt‘s nice to read a light romance book every once in a while. This one was nice. I really liked the Fern and Will characters and the setting was picture perfect.
Our relationship wasn‘t traditional. We were best friends, and sometimes we were…partners. I always wanted more than Maggie could give, but I figure I‘m lucky I got as much of her as I did 🌅
pickVery sweet story but I was hoping for a little more depth. There were hints of more but it never really came to fruition. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickAnd another one! This was sweet but not I thought as good as her first. Fern returns to her home resort after her mothers death trying to come to terms with whether what she thought she wanted out do life is true. I thought there was opportunity for this to be a bit more ‘real‘ but instead read a bit hallmark movie. I read that Meghan markle had optioned this for Netflix - not at all what I thought she‘d pick! I am claiming this for #pantone3023
pickThis book gave me ALL the feels, literally. I felt every emotion the characters felt; I laughed out loud, tears, warm fuzzies, gut wrenching heartache, and grief. Those are the signs of a great read, IMO. Carly Fortune gets 4.5 stars on both of her books; I‘m def a fan and hope she writes more! Book #47 in 2023
so-soA 2nd-chance love story between Fern & Will who spent one day together exploring Toronto & vowed to meet one year later. I'm a sucker for a single-day wandering story (The Sun Is Also a Star, Nick & Norah). We flip back & forth between that 1st day together & their reunion 10 yrs later. I love the subplot of figuring out what you want vs. what your family expects from you. Very readable, though there were a few points that felt out-of-character.
pickOof! This was a heartbreaker of a book! This love story was heard to put down, the split timeline kept me reading to figure out why they were so broken. But they got where they needed to be, on their own and with each other. Enjoyed the settings in Toronto and in a small lakeside resort. Just lovely, great summertime read. And this cover? Gorgeous!
pickAnd my more recent read! This was really emotionally resonant, even if I got frustrated with Will's unending reticence. His motivations were ultimately understandable, though, and I did love his and Fern's dynamic (and the lake resort!!!), so it's really all good. #contemporaryromance #womensfiction
About half way through with this book. I have had a lot of people recommend this book to me! Though h am finding it a bit hard to get sucked into the story line like books normally do for me. I am loving the time switches though!!
pickJune 26, 2023 FINISHED THIS BOOK FINALLY! It took me some time to finish it but I sort of knew what was going to take place at the end so it was no surprise. Hint: It ends on a good note. Majority of the book is focused on Fern and Will's relationship and whether they are going to come back together after ten years. I would give this a 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 14, 2023 Psst... I am a little more than halfway through the book and I stopped at a steamy part between Fern and Will Baxter. Fern and Will met ten years ago but come across each other again ten years later and Fern had always wondered why he never returned sooner. The book goes back and forth from past to present. Imo, the book kind of starts out slow. I still feel like it is on the slow side however okay if you want to get out of a slump!
pickAnother sweet as sugar #guiltypleasure read for #titlesandtunes @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB It takes place primarily at a lovely lake resort in Canada but it is filled with talk of music and playlists, so a perfect choice for the month‘s theme. The music mee mentioned was often grunge, so I‘ll say the tune for this read is Monkeywrench by the Foo Fighters. Always a monkey wrench in these rom coms.
June 6, 2023 Oh boy!!! Carly Fortune is bliss. Her reading is very simple yet keeps one on their toes. I found myself flipping theough the pages. Some of the characters that appear in the book are: Fern, her mom (who passed away in a car accident), Jamie (Fern's ex), Will Baxter (a guy that Fern liked ten years ago at the age of 22 and happens to meet again ten years later), and Whitney (her best friend). Still reading of course...
panWhat…was this?? I think that Carley Fortune is talented with her prose, but this storyline felt formulaic and far-fetched. The characters weren‘t believable, nor was the relationship between them. The audio version was hard for me to follow at times between the past and present tenses. I ended up zipping through at a high speed and continued to roll my eyes through the end.
pickIt has been WAY too long since I have been able to sit down and read, but with summer finally here I am diving back in. This was the perfect book for it, such a cute and enjoyable read! The setting of this book created such a lovely picture 4/5 ⭐️
Went to a really fun Q&A with Carley Fortune at Bolen Books last night. It was interesting to hear that she grew up in the small Ontario community she writes about. She also talked about her process. So far she‘s doing only stand alone romances. She used to be an editor for Refinery 29 until she decided to write a novel. I haven‘t read her books but I‘ve got a hold on her first book - it will be awhile 📚💚🐉
Squeezing in one last Book Club pick before baby #2 joins us!
This one is neat to read because it takes place in Toronto and the Muskokas which is not too far away from my city…
pickThis is a soft pick because I had the same problems with this one as I had with Every Summer After. Loved the Canadian setting and references, loved the stuff in the past, loved some of the characters and the Dirty Dancing vibes. But some of it was clunky, especially the ending. I didn‘t quite buy the whole thing and I felt the reasons for the misconnect were kinda lame. Probably 50 pages too long. But a perfectly fine book for your beach bag.
pickCarley‘s now an auto read for me. I love the characters she creates and the setting of the greater Toronto area. Was it a stretch that a person pines 10 years for someone they knew for only a day - sure. But that did not lessen my enjoyment in reading this story.
And Canadian Littens, I‘m at last aware of your beloved artist, Emily Carr, and her beautiful work!
Meet Me at the Lake | 
