Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune Book Review

“His smile widened. ‘So is that a yes? You’ll meet me up there in a year?’

‘Yeah, I can do that.’ My heart had ramped up to double time. ‘Maybe in a year . . .’ I drifted off. I couldn’t finish that sentence. I’m not sure how to.”

(pg. 245)

About

Author: Carley Fortune

Genre: New Adult Romance

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Every Summer After

Synopsis

Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.

At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s Muskoka lakeside resort–something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin.

She needs a plan–a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern’s going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern’s not sure she wants to know what it is.

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To our lost connections,

Any book that is giving summer, is a book that I am going to read in the summer.

Meet Me at the Lake gave me summer vibes with such a gorgeous pink-purple watercolor cover, a lake resort, and second-chance love.

I enjoyed Meet Me at the Lake with its prose and then and now perspective to better understand Fern and Will’s relationship and what led them to where they were today. I also enjoyed the complex relationships with family members who were not really characters in the book, but presences that absolutely effected the main characters. Truly, the way our parents treated us or our experiences with our parents shape who we become or what we believe when we are older. I will say that I loved Every Summer After more than I did Meet Me at the Lake, and that’s not to say Meet Me at the Lake was not a good book, there was just something about Every Summer After that hit different to me. But Meet Me at the Lake was a great summer read that gave me more relaxed, end of summer vibes compared to Every Summer After that gave me in the middle of summer vibes.

Let’s start with what happened and did not happen ten years ago.

Gosh, we love a HUGE time gap where characters could have reached out to each other sooner or something 🤪.

Joking.

The then perspective of what Will and Fern experienced together gave me Just One Day by Gayle Forman vibes and then what happened now was Just One Year by Gayle Forman vibes—like Meet me at the Lake combined both Gayle Forman books into a intricate summer read.

Fern grew up at the Brookbanks Resort, the resort her mother ran. The Brookbanks Resort was passed down generationally and it was always Fern’s mother, Margaret/Maggie’s dream to one day run the resort. And Fern’s mother did. Because Maggie was in charge of her family’s legacy, she spent most of her time running the resort than being home with her daughter. When Fern talked about her childhood, Fern’s voice always felt resentful and angry that her mother was never around as much as she would have liked. Fern also felt like her mom chose the resort over her. I understood how Fern must have felt because that had to suck to feel like she had to raise herself at such a young age—to grow up so quickly. Also, there are certain things kids need to feel growing up—safe, stable, and loved. Fern wanted her mother’s love and time—to have more moments where she would walk downstairs to her mother in her apple apron, making pancakes, or more moments canoeing or sitting on the dock. I felt like Fern just missed her mom. But the more time the mom never spent with her, the more Fern kind of resented her mom, and by extension the resort.

I understood why Fern wanted to get as far from Brookbanks Resort as humanely possible. She grew up there and didn’t want to remember how hurt she felt by her mother choosing the resort over her. But Fern also didn’t want to be tied to the resort for the rest of her life. In this way, I thought Fern didn’t want to become like her mom where her work overtook so much of her life that she didn’t make time for loving other aspects of her life. So that’s why Fern went to Toronto for university and why Fern wanted to stay in Toronto. However, at the end of her time at university, there was an unspoken tacit that Fern would return to Muskoka to be with her mom at the resort.

I had the feeling that Fern absolutely dreaded the idea of going back to Muskoka. I think it just said a lot about how much she wanted to soak up life in Toronto almost like a bucket list of knowing she would never go back once she was tied to Brookbanks Resort. You know, I felt for Fern in the way that feeling like your whole life is already planned out for you before you even have a say to what you want for your life is hard. Fern always knew that she would have to one day run the resort because the resort was a family business—the resort felt like her future before she could even fathom choosing what her future looked like. I mean, what if Fern did want her own dream? What if she didn’t want to run the resort one day? I don’t think it was fair of anyone to expect that Fern would run the resort one day if she didn’t want to because this was her life.

However, I did feel like Fern being so resistant to running the resort was because she was basically destined to run the resort since she was little. So her running away or wanting to chose different was her way of having some agency or say in her life, which I could respect and understand. She wanted to one day open her own coffee shop and call it Ferns.

When Fern met Will, Fern was enjoying her last few days before having to move back home to Muskoka where her life would be set in stone. I loved the sort of sarcastic, moody, you-irritate-me vibe of Fern and Will’s first meeting. Fern worked at a coffee shop where Will was painting a mural of the Toronto skyline and she called his painting basic. After their sarcastically awkward meet, I liked how they slowly opened up to each other through music and then natural conversation to get to know each other. There truly is a certain candor you have with people you don’t know because there is less expectation.

“‘You gave me a fern on a coffee, so I gave you one on a plane.'”

(pg. 41)

From the minute Fern expressed interest in exploring more of Toronto, I knew that Will would want to show her around the city. I loved how they had a natural ease and cadence around each other after having just met. They went to see Graffiti Alley or an alley with artwork, which was on brand for Will. After, they went to a bar where they danced before heading to Fern’s small apartment where the power went off. When the power went off, there was a new sort of intimacy in Fern and Will’s honesty. I laughed with how Will drew Fern like one of his French girls 😉, kidding. But what a beautiful moment where he did draw Fern they way he saw her; no one really saw her and she didn’t want to be seen.

I liked when they opened up with stories they wouldn’t have told anyone else.

Fern went through a rebellious phase where she was angry at her birth father and felt like she wasn’t good enough. So she would drink, smoke, and party. One night she had a party in the sunroom in her house, and there was a smoke accident where her mother and Peter came just in time to save Fern in the bathroom. Fern was too drunk or hit her head and wouldn’t have made it out of the fire if her mom and Peter weren’t there. So Fern felt like she owed her mom a lot for saving her life; Fern felt like she had to go to Muskok and that she had to complete her business degree. I don’t think Maggie wanted Fern to feel like Fern owed her anything for saving her life, but I could understand Fern’s guilt in knowing she messed up as a teenager and wanted to make up for it by going with what he mom wanted of her. But teenagers mess up. They are supposed to mess up.

Will also went through a similar angsty phase.

Will’s mother left when Will and his sister, Annabelle, were young. Will was furious at his mother for leaving their family, which caused him to fall down a tense adolescence of getting into fights and getting into trouble. He got into a fight with two people one day, earning his scar beneath his lower lip. Because Will fell into a destructive and troublesome path, he and his sister went to live with his grandmother who kind of knocked some sense into Will to straighten him out. I loved that Will’s grandmother gave Will the grandfather’s ring as a symbol of responsibility to look after his sister because Will was the older sibling and he had a certain level of responsibility to be there for his sister because they were all each other had. Will wore the ring as a reminder of the person he wanted to be and who he had to care for.

Will’s anger came from a place of being so similar to his mom that he didn’t want to become her—someone who just left. The mom left to live in Italy for her creative pursuits. He believed his mother to be selfish, which I understood because here was the woman who was supposed to raise and take care of them, but instead she just left. But also, from the mother’s perspective, she wanted to follow her dream and passion and sometimes we have to realize that our parents are human. They have their own dreams and hopes still even if they do have a family. Sure, the mom shouldn’t have just left her kids and her family, and could have moved with them or compromised and had summer or some time in Italy to pursue her creativity—not leaving entirely. I just understood both perspectives. There was something said later on about how maybe Fern’s mom worked so much because Maggie felt like working was the only thing she was successful at. I thought a lot about this sentiment in how sometimes mothers don’t feel like they are doing good enough for their child—like they are failing their child–and instead of facing their child, they hide behind work because that is something they know how to navigate/do. I mean, no one teaches you how to be a mom. Yes, there are books and videos and people will tell you everything about how to be a mother, but everyone’s experiences differ greatly with motherhood, that nothing really prepares you for what being a mother is actually like. I am not a mother at the moment, but I could understand how being a mother is like walking on strange land—new territory—not knowing what you are doing or where you are going, but having to trust that everything will be okay. I had a lot of sympathy for Maggie and Will’s mom in knowing that they were two mothers who felt like they weren’t measuring up as good moms. And that’s so hard.

I truly think at the end of the day, all a child wants is to be loved.

I loved how Fern and Will made this little list of what each other’s one year plans would be. When making the one year plans, I found it kind of comical and bittersweet with how their lives turned our exactly the opposite of their one year plan. But that’s just life sometimes—we make plans for what we hope or expect, and naturally plans change or what we want changes with it. I think that it is more than okay if our plan look different than what we thought it would be, and there is no shame in not being where we thought or being where we thought we would be. I just think of the lyric from Nothing New by Taylor Swift ft. Phoebe Bridgers, “How can a person know everything at 18 and nothing at 22.”

There truly isn’t a more relatable lyric that slapped me in the face 😅.

When I was eighteen, I thought I had my whole life figured out; I thought I knew the plan. Some eighteen-year-olds also feel this way in how when you graduate high school, you suddenly feel like you know where you’re going and what you want to do. Some eighteen-year-olds are the complete opposite and have not idea where they are going and what they want to do. Both are okay. I was the former, but then now I’m twenty-two, and it’s like I know nothing 😅. If I’m being quite honest, nothing turned out how I thought it would, but also some things did turn out how I hoped they would and that I am grateful they did. I mean, I am living my childhood dream of being a teacher at my alma mater elementary school. But as a human-being, as a twenty-two-year-old, I have no clue what I am doing or what my next step or adventure is. Sometimes I don’t even know what I am doing the next day or the next week. I don’t know if I should be traveling, putting myself out there more, moving out already, saving up to move out, etc. I don’t know. And it’s so weird how I felt like I knew what I wanted when I was younger, but now that I’m slightly older, it’s like everything I thought I knew went out the window because being an adult is a lot harder to navigate then I thought it would be. And there’s a part of me that feels like I should have accomplished certain things already, but then I think about how everyone is on their own timeline and chapter.

Being an adult in your twenties, is so confusing and complicated because you don’t know. You don’t know what you’re doing entirely and, honestly, that’s what being in your twenties is. Or so I am learning.

Because when you grow up, plans change because you change. Life changes. You really can’t plan for things and you really don’t know as much as you think you do, not in a bad or condescending sense. But sometimes there is excitement in not knowing and in hoping that things work out. I mean, I dreamed that I would be an elementary teacher at my alma mater, but the grade I got was a grade that was probably one of my absolute last choices. But the grade I got also turned out to be the biggest blessing in what I needed, so sometimes life has a way of working out better than you thought or just differently.

Anyway, part of Fern and WIll’s plan was to meet at the lake a year from when they met—July 14.

How ironic that Will told Fern to not let her down and he was the one who let her down 🙈.

HOW RUDE.

I liked the idea that they wanted to see each other again and how they were doing with their plans. Fern waited all day on that freaking dock with her bathing suit to teach him how to canoe, her floppy hat, her picnic bag and mixtape, and her hope. Sis, sat there until the sun set 😩!!! And Will didn’t have the courage to show his face!!!

I loved when the mom walked down the dock to Fern on that day and sat with her. I loved how the mom didn’t judge Fern for obviously waiting for a guy who didn’t show up, instead Fern’s mom gave Fern a motherly shoulder to cry on—to feel comforted by. I loved the tenderness of this moment given how tense Fern and Maggie’s relationship was.

Will gave Fern the courage to tell her mom she didn’t want to return to Muskoka and run the family business. As Maggie, I could understand how hurt she felt because Maggie probably thought Fern didn’t want to be with her and that Fern didn’t love her enough to want to be there. I also felt like Maggie was disappointed by the fact that her daughter didn’t love the resort and now Maggie didn’t know what was going to happen to the resort in the future. I don’t think Fern didn’t love the resort, I think she just didn’t like feeling like she came second to the resort and like she couldn’t fully chose her fate. As Fern, I would have felt relief that I spoke my truth because why go through with going back to Muskoka when I would only be miserable. I was also proud of Fern because telling someone what you want when it is not something they want, is difficult. You don’t want to hurt that person’s feelings, but you also want to be honest with yourself.

I just hurt for Fern who had this tense relationship with her mom because her mom wasn’t around as much, and now her mom was furious at her for not choosing Brookbanks. I also hurt for Fern in how she really liked this guy she met and who didn’t bother to keep his promise.

I would feel heartbroken if Will hadn’t shown up. She thought of him everyday and waited until the sun freaking set. I would have gave up after an hour, heck, half an hour.

I felt heartbroken for Fern in how she also lost her mom.

Her mom—who put so much passion and dedication into Brookbanks—who got into an accident. The mom was driving at night to get ice because an ice machine or something broke and customers were complaining. As the mom drove, a deer crashed into her windshield.

Fern’s grief intertwined its way through the book in how heavy Fern felt with losing her mom so soon. But I felt like Fern found healing by being at Brookbanks because Brookbanks was not only her home, Brookbanks was her mom. I loved this sense of reconnecting to where she grew up and finding new pieces of herself in Brookbanks or seeing old pieces in new lights.

There were the diaries Maggie wrote when she was a teenager up until she got pregnant with Fern. I couldn’t help but smile at knowing that Maggie wrote diaries because it felt like every little girl my age grew up wanting to write a diary. I remember the lock-it or secret ink diaries they would commercialize and I would beg to buy the secret diary. You know, those pink ones, the Mattel password protected diary or something. Those were the days. But I liked the idea of Fern being the daughter and having all her mom’s innermost thoughts and feelings she could connect with. I think that’s so special and cool that she could get to know her mom again or feel like her mom was there through these diaries. The diaries were mostly short entries about Maggie’s not-so-great relationships and then finding out she was pregnant with Fern. Fern’s father was a guy named Eric, who was a lifeguard at the resort.

I loved Peter 💗.

Peter was such a mellow, loyal, honest, caring man, and everyone deserves a Peter in their corner.

I loved Peter’s relationship with Maggie and how Maggie was Peter’s best friend and Peter would berate any guy she dated because any guy wasn’t good enough for her, which amen 😂. Obviously, he liked her as more than a friend but respected her as a friend by beaching his feelings so Maggie could date and be happy. Peter struck me as the kind of guy who just wanted the people around him to be happy. I loved that. I was SOOOO upset when Peter was going to tell Maggie how much he wanted more with her/liked her as more than a friend, but then Maggie blurted out how she was pregnant first. Gosh knows Maggie knew that Peter was going to confess his feelings but she didn’t want him to vocalize his crush when she knew it wouldn’t be right to start something with him when she had a baby on the way. I respected why Maggie blurted out that she was pregnant, but I still hurt for Peter. He loved her 🥺. I loved the way Peter collected pamphlets and information about the pregnancy process and health services for Maggie without Maggie even having to ask! I mean, what a supportive best friend 🥺!!! And this wasn’t even his child, and he still wanted to help his best friend out of love. What a sweetie!

I loved the way Peter was always there for her and became the closest thing Fern had to a dad. I loved the way Fern thought about Peter and all their happy memories from Peter having tea parties with her, teaching her how to bake, or whenever he would sneak her food to taste. I loved how they bonded over music and sarcastic humor.

I loved the way Peter treated Fern as his own 💗.

Better than Eric who was a LOSER! Disappointed, but expected was the mood when I read about how Maggie told Eric she was pregnant and how Eric wrote her a message that he didn’t want to do anything with the baby because he couldn’t be a good dad. Okay, he was young, I get it. But when Fern found Eric when she was older and he said he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her, I was APPALLED. What a JERK ☹️. Fern was still his daughter.

I still loved the way Peter treated Fern as his own—checking in on her, making sure she was eating well, being honest with her. He was truly the bestest. My heart broke a bit for Peter and how he no longer played music while he baked because he didn’t want to play music until Maggie came back yelling at him to turn it down 😭.

The intimate and honest conversations with Peter and Fern were my favorite.

“‘Our relationship wasn’t traditional. We were best friends, and sometimes we were . . . partners. I always wanted more than Maggie could give, but I figured I’m lucky I got as much of her as I did.'”

(pg. 227)

Peter just loved being part of Maggie’s life as much as possible 💗.

I would have loved for Peter to have had more with Maggie given how much he loved her, but I loved how he time and time again respected Maggie to love her with how she wanted to be loved at the time. Also, I do believe that sometimes if you love someone so much, you don’t necessarily have to be married to that person to be considered as a real relationship. Sometimes being with each other is enough.

Kind of going back to the diaries, there was one diary entry that really burst the tears for me.

Fern was reading the last diary entry from her mom about how much her mom would love her enough for ten dads and how excited she was for Fern to meet the Roses and Peter and how much Fern would never be alone. During their tense years, their relationship was strained, but not strained enough where they wouldn’t speak to each other. They were even good to a point where the mom helped her and comforted her, but there was still some tautness from how the mom probably felt like she failed her daughter by not being there. They had such a complicated relationship, but the love they had for each other was unquestionable. It broke my heart the way Fern cried while reading that last entry because she realized how much she did love her mom and how much time she wasted not showing her mom she loved her and not saying she loved her mom. I wanted to hug Fern because that’s hard. I bet her mom knew she loved her. They did everything for each other out of love even if they never said they loved each other, love was there. I loved that little moment where Will held her and told her Maggie knew. I also loved when he said that he told Maggie how much he knew Fern loved the resort and how that thought probably brought so much healing to Maggie.

Love doesn’t need to be seen to be known.

But what a beautiful moment of love that Maggie and Fern had for each other.

Ever since the mom saw that this Will guy didn’t show up for her daughter, I had a hunch that maybe the mom found Will for her after all these years as a gesture of love to her daughter 🥺. Maggie didn’t know it would be the last thing she would do out of love.

Will showed up at Brookbanks resort nine years too late.

Someone want to buy him a calendar or something because he had no concept of time or decorum showing up after all this time and acting like he didn’t just break Fern’s heart.

“I think about Will and the past, and how different signs look after so much time.”

(pg. 216)

I wanted to hug Fern when she literally fell on the pavement after freaking out about recognizing Will’s dark eyes. She was so shaken. I would be too.

I appreciated that Carley Fortune didn’t make Fern and Will ignore each other for so long until one of them finally got the nerve to talk to each other—we just went straight into having them interact after all these years.

I liked how Will was there for Fern for whatever she decided to do with the resort—to keep it or sell it. I will say (haha, pun unintended, but I like it 😂). I loved the moment when Fern realized she was going to keep the resort; it was her home. Again, I never thought she hated the resort, I just think she didn’t like the idea of not choosing what her future looked like. But now, she kind of had to choose—sell and open up a coffee shop or keep the resort and stay. I was glad she chose to stay—-to keep the legacy going.

I would have enjoyed more cuter moments between Fern and Will in the now so that they could relearn who each other were now. They had some cute moments like when he got he gifted her her favorite artists record in the middle of the night and their conversation on the lake, but I still thought after all these years they must be a bit different and could get to know each other better. I would have liked a date where they didn’t talk about the resort or work. I just wanted to see their chemistry without work or their past—like if they would click now. I mean, they did click, but I just wanted to see more of how they clicked as adults.

I also liked how Will helped Fern with Whitney’s baby, Owen, when Fern volunteered to watch him. Who knew Will was the baby whisperer and good with kids. Will was great with kids because he helped raise his sister Annabelle’s daughter, Sophia.

I respect Will in how he provided for his sister and helped take care of Sophia when Will and Annabelle’s dad weren’t supportive. Will let them live with her and he cooked for them and everything; just what an amazing big brother. But providing for Annabel and Sophia required a lot of sacrifice. Will let go of his artistic pursuits and worked at a firm with his friend, Matty, hence why Will was now wore ties and suits and worked as a consultant. The job paid better than an up and coming artist. He also had rocky relationships because not all women liked how he thought of Annabel and Sophia as his family. I mean, they were his family, but it was like Will was the dad or the breadwinner in this situation. He just gave up so much of his happiness for his sister.

I felt like Will giving up his dreams was unfair because he always felt like he had to look after Annabelle. I also felt like it was unfair of the dad to not support his own daughter for keeping the baby even if she was pregnant young. Heck, pregnant at nineteen wasn’t the same as her pregnant at sixteen. I think that it was about time that Annabelle and Sophia moved out. Not that I’m saying that they should have moved out if they were financially not at a place to do so, but Annabel was old enough and she had a good job, I felt like she could have moved out. Will wasn’t ready for them to move out because they were his family and Sophia felt like his own, but he had to let them go because it was time. Annabelle needed to live her own life with her daughter and Will needed to live his life and finally put this happiness first. I think he was just scared of not knowing who he would be if he wasn’t taking care of his family. I also think he was scared of being alone until he reconnected with Fern; he didn’t want to live by himself because that would feel foreign.

So this fantasy bubble he created with Fern felt too good to be true as much as Will wanted it to be true. He loved Fern from how he obviously was always there for her and cooked for her. I loved loved loved how the morning after they got together, he was up in the kitchen making her coffee and breakfast like Fern was already his wife 🥺. The apron and everything? Sold. I loved how he gave her space during the day to work and he too had time to work with his meetings. I would have liked to see more of their interactions or things they did together to save the resort because I felt like we didn’t really get to see them past these details.

I also loved Whitney’s, Fern’s best friends, protectiveness in saying she would find where Will lived if he hurt her again. I mean, he hurt her once.

When he left without saying goodbye, I was like, no. Dude didn’t just leave her again after they had an intimate night and moment together. As someone who didn’t want to be his mom, he sure did leave a lot 🤪. Sorry, I had to go there because I’m feeling a bit savage. I mean, he had a good reason when he finally answered his darn phone—Sophia was in the hospital for meningitis. I understood that to Will his family would always come first, and I respect that, but still a note or a text later about why he left would have been helpful. I just thought that it was rude he left Fern with no explanation and then ghosted her until he finally picked up. He had to give her something if he wanted her in his life.

One of my favorite tropes in a romance book is a sad I-love-you moment. There’s just something about the utterly heartbreaking, but captivating about the tone of a main character saying I love you in a moment of sorrow. I don’t know, I love yous are supposed to be said in a time of happiness and joy about loving someone, but to say it with such a plea, pulls at the heartstrings. Will didn’t say I love you back to Fern. I knew he loved her, but I also knew he didn’t feel like he could have a life with her when he had his family to focus on. However, he could still lead a life with his family while also being happy with the woman he loved.

I would have been furious at Will too for not only ruining his happiness but mines.

I liked when Annabelle visited Fern. I wanted to meet the significant woman in Will’s life.

Annabelle voiced her side of the story with how Will was in a dark place after their mom left because Will was close to the mom. I got the sense that Will felt abandoned and betrayed that his mom didn’t love him enough to stay, so he was hurt. He was angry. Will was also someone who cared deeply about those he loved and why he sacrificed everything for his sister and her daughter. I liked that Annabelle recognized that Will wasn’t happy with his black-collared job and that he lost part of himself. I truly did feel like Will at 22 was vastly different from Will at 32. Not in a bad way, but I just felt like Will felt less free and less like himself because he had to grow up and be the provider and protector. That’s hard too, you know. The more I get older, the more it does feel like life becomes about working because you have all these bills and responsibilities it’s kind of like where does your dreams come into play? When do we have time to go after our dreams or even think about them when we have to work? Sometimes I feel like it’s so sad how adults lose our youthful creativity or aspirations because we are labored down by life.

I still think that Will should have been the one to reach out to Fern first because he was the one who constantly left her.

However, I understood Will was battling his own demons and that he wasn’t in a place to reach out. Also, he respected Fern’s words not to talk to her again. But if he truly did love her, some part of him should have fought for her, right?

When Fern found the drawing of her in a floppy hat, waiting at the dock, I had to stop.

HE DID GO TO THE DOCK ALL THOSE YEARS AGO!!!

But why didn’t he go see her?

Chicken 🤪🐥🐥🐥.

I am a child.

He could have saved her the heartbreak if he went up to her that day, so why didn’t he?

He didn’t meet her on the lake all those years ago because he feared disappointing Fern that his life turned out to be exactly what his one year plan didn’t entail; that he failed the plan they made together. I mean, at the end of the day I had no doubt in my mind that Fern couldn’t care less if Will achieved or did not achieve his one year plan, and that she just wanted him to be there—to meet her at the lake. Will disappointed Fern more by not showing up, heck, showing up and not showing face. I understood his nerves and fears because yea, that’s scary to feel like you failed and you don’t want someone to see you differently, but he should have been honest and sat with her. I don’t think Fern would have judged him for it. Not at all.

The end conversation between Fern and Will was very honest and intimate about where they both were at and what they were willing to give to this relationship. I loved how Fern created her own make-it-up-to-me-list because gosh knows he needed to make it up to her and she deserved that. But I also liked learning how they were figuring out their relationship—taking baby steps. I didn’t think they would be the kind of people to do long distance, but I guess that was a great way to ease Will into a relationship where ehe could still be with his sister and be with the woman he loved. I loved how he took that first step to move out though because he needed to. It was time. I hoped Will was drawing more and doing more creative things because that was what made him happy. I hope that he publishes his comic Roommates one day. If he doesn’t, that’s okay.

Dreams change, sometimes we sketch our dream one way and sometimes we have to start over and draw new dream.

The way Will proposed was hilarious and I laughed when Fern was like, “I don’t give a rats a** about the ring.” I loved how the ring was his grandfather’s ring because now he was going to protect and watch over her ! I loved that. I would have liked to feel more connected to the end in the sense that the proposal and dialogue felt very succinct and like I was being told what was happening rather than living it. I would have wanted to actually hear the dialogue speech of Will’s proposal rather than a block paragraph of what he said. I would have loved the intimacy there. The last chapter also felt a lot like an epilogue with tying everything up. But I loved loved loved the actual epilogue with how Fern was writing her own diary entry about the resort and the memories she hopes to make with her child there—an ode to her mother’s diaries.

I loved that.

I loved how at the end, Fern chose her home again, a place where she could build more memories for her family and for other families like Annabelle and Sophia—that the resort wasn’t just some place, it was truly a legacy and a memory. I loved the prospect of Fern hopefully sitting on the dock like her mother, and sharing the beauty of their home with her child.

Overall, I thought Meet me at the Lake was beautifully written and interwove the then and now perspectives nicely. I do feel like some parts of the story were passively written or missed some spark or magic. I don’t know, I wanted something a bit more that made me really fall in love with Fern and Will because I liked them together, but I wasn’t obsessed with their relationship. I thought it also would have been cool if maybe Will had more closure with his mom like if he went to visit his mom and they talked through how he felt as a child. Or maybe closure with his dad and Annabelle where they went to see the dad and had a conversation about how the dad never stepped up as a dad. I don’t expect a big heart-to-heart-everything-is-healed moment, but a conversation would have been nice because I think Will and Annabelle needed that. I also felt like Annabelle needed to stop letting Will coddle her after a while. I mean, she was a grown woman, I think she needed to let Will live his life sooner so he could be happy.

I also wanted more detail about how Whitney and Fern became friends again. I know they were friends since grade school and then had a falling out when Fern was in her rebellious phase, but what brought them back together? I would have liked to have known more about their friendship? I also felt like the resort was a big part of the book, but I felt like we glossed over the details of how we were going to save the resort or what they were doing to update the resort against its competitors. I would have liked to know more about that because this was her family’s legacy, so what kind of changes were we making? I liked how they did call the restaurant Maggie now in honor of the mom, and how Peter wanted to honor Fern stepping up as manger by having a new bread.

Also, I never talked about Jamie, but I wanted to know if he truly was over Fern? I mean, they dated for four years, he probably will always love her in his own way. I was feeling something something between Jamie and maybe Annabelle? I wouldn’t be mad at that.

Anyway, I think it’s always important to remember that dreams can change and plans can change. Your life doesn’t need to look a certain way a year from now, two years, five years, or ten years. We never know what happens, so enjoy the now and appreciate the now. Trust that the process and the journey is working out. Sometimes we don’t know It or see it, but it’s happening. Believe in the good and the joy. Allow yourself to accept the changes and trust that things will be okay.

What was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? What did you think of the book? 

What are the best places to visit in Canada? I have never been to Canada, but Canada sounds so beautiful, let me know where I should go!

Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.

And as always, with love,

Rating

4.22 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: I liked Fern and Will with how they were both relatable and honest adolescents whose dreams changed as they grew up. I also liked how their personalities kind of changed too to reflect how we are not the same people at twenty-two and thirty-two.

Plot: Summer vibes with the magic of what meeting someone on a magical day feels like and that magic years later.

Writing: Like when the sun hits the water in a slow-descent—beautiful and just right. There were some parts I would have liked to see more dialogue or detail.

Romance: I liked Fern and Will’s romance from being 22 and seeing each other after all these years. They had a nice relationship, but I would have liked to have seen more cute moments of getting to relearn each other now.