54 pages • 1 hour read
Carley FortuneThis Summer Will be Different
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Belonging and Found Family
Early on in This Summer Will Be Different, Fortune establishes Lucy’s strained relationship with her family. Through Lucy’s journey to find love and belonging, Fortune posits that blood relationships do not necessarily define family. Lucy ultimately finds a place where she belongs outside her biological family, creating a “found family” comprised of her friends and partner.
Lucy is a creative and design-oriented person in a family of “practical, stern” people. Her mother is a dentist, and her father is a mortgage broker. As a child, her parents devoted most of their time to her older brother, Lyle, a budding hockey star who was “promising enough to capture their attention” (48). Lucy is not close with Lyle, whom she loves but finds “a little boring” (109). What little attention was given to Lucy was stifling; her parents discouraged her from seeking independence, even paying her to put off getting her license under the guise of protecting her. They continue to micro-manage her into adulthood. At the start of the novel, Lucy has recently quit her job at a public relations firm, much to her parents’ disappointment. It is implied that they pushed her into the job, wanting her to follow a conventional path to financial stability. Throughout the narrative, Lucy’s mother vocally doubts her life decisions, including taking over In Bloom and eventually dating Felix.
The only member of her family who makes Lucy feel like she belongs is her aunt Stacy, a free-spirited woman who encourages Lucy’s creative ambitions. Lucy’s relationship with Stacy is both a friendship and a close familial bond.
The key member of Lucy’s found family is her best friend, Bridget. Lucy says of Bridget, “I love her like family—better than most of my family, if I’m being honest” (40). Lucy and Bridget are “like sisters,” spending as much time together as possible and supporting each other through good and bad times. Lucy is also close with Bridget’s family, the Clarks. Bridget’s parents, Christine and Ken, welcome Lucy with open arms, and she feels more at home in messy, sprawling Summer Wind than she ever did in her neat family home. When Stacy’s premature death from cancer sends Lucy spiraling into grief, the Clarks are there to comfort her and provide her with a place to stay while she gets back on her feet.
As Lucy’s relationship with Felix develops, she sometimes dreams of a life among the Clarks. One night, as she plays a game with Zach, Bridget, and Felix, she imagines “what it might be like to spend all [her] nights like this, here with these people” (111). She quickly shakes herself out of the daydream, telling herself that the roadblocks between her and Felix make a relationship impossible. As the narrative progresses, however, Lucy knocks down these roadblocks one by one. Eventually, she enters an exclusive relationship with Felix and comes clean to Bridget.
Bridget and Felix help Lucy find the strength to cast off her parents’ expectations. Though she signs the Cena deal, she turns In Bloom over to Farah to pursue her dream of opening a flower farm. When her parents express doubt, Lucy sets a firm boundary, stating that she no longer needs their approval. With nothing standing in her way, she moves to PEI to live in the community where she is accepted and loved.
When Lucy opens Primfield House, she hosts a party attended by both her biological family and her closest friends. She has achieved her goal, surrounded by a found family of people who love her and make her feel like she belongs. Bridget’s statement during her celebratory speech captures the nexus of this theme, and This Summer Will Be Different proves that “the families we make are as significant as the ones we’re born into” (327).
Miscommunication and the Folly of Assumption
This Summer Will Be Different utilizes the common romance-novel trope of miscommunication. Several characters withhold information from one another or misread each other’s intentions, complicating situations that could otherwise have been easily resolved. Using the trope of miscommunication, Fortune highlights the importance of clear, honest communication in all relationships and cautions against making assumptions.
Early on, Lucy recounts a conversation with Bridget where Bridget cautioned her not to fall in love with Felix. Lucy takes this request extremely seriously, not wanting to risk hurting Bridget like Felix’s ex-fiancée, Joy, did. She is therefore horrified to discover that she has accidentally had sex with Felix. Even as their encounter develops from a one-night stand into a romantic connection, Lucy conceals the truth from Bridget. Bridget directly asks her several times whether anything is going on between her and Felix, and Lucy lies, denying everything.
Bridget is also keeping a secret from Lucy. For much of the novel, she refuses to tell Lucy why she fled to PEI so close to her wedding date. Bridget and Lucy are used to telling each other everything, so this new, secretive dynamic contrasts with the “uncomplicated intimacy” they usually enjoy. Their mutual refusal to communicate eventually causes a rift in their friendship. Lucy takes Bridget’s refusal to reveal her secret as a lack of trust, and her own secret makes her irritable and anxious. Lucy realizes that “everything [she’s] hidden has put a wedge in [their] relationship” (180). Keeping secrets builds resentment and mistrust. To repair their friendship, both women need to be honest with one another.
Lucy’s relationship with Felix is also complicated by miscommunication. As her feelings for him grow, she becomes anxious about hurting Bridget and the possibility that he will not reciprocate her growing affection. Rather than asking him how he feels about her, Lucy attempts to read an answer in Felix’s actions. Her anxiety about their relationship makes her cut short an intimate date and misread an offhand statement he makes as a rejection. Based on her actions, Felix believes that she is uninterested in a relationship with him. Fortune utilizes dramatic irony, making it clear to the reader that Lucy and Felix are in love with each other, but both believe that they have been rejected by the other. When they finally get past their fear of communicating openly, they confess their mutual feelings and move forward with their relationship. Their improved ability to tell one another the truth indicates character growth on both of their parts.
When Lucy finally tells Bridget that she and Felix are dating, Bridget replies that she already suspected as much. The shocked and angry reaction that Lucy built up in her head does not match reality. Bridget came clean shortly before this, revealing that she is moving to Australia. With both of their secrets out in the open, the women repair their relationship and regain their closeness.
Lucy’s happiness at the end of This Summer Will Be Different is a function of her improved communication ability. Being open, vulnerable, and honest with her feelings makes her achieve her dream life, surrounded by loved ones in PEI.
Accepting Life’s Changes
A major theme of This Summer Will Be Different is the changes that come with growing older, which are both joyful and painful. All the novel’s major characters must contend with the changes brought on by their adult lives. Fortune illustrates that change is inevitable through the character arcs of Lucy, Bridget, and Felix. Though change can be painful, accepting it as a natural part of life ultimately leads to growth.
The novel spans six years of Lucy’s life. At the start, she is 24 and has recently undergone her first major life change, quitting her job at a public relations firm. Lucy’s decision to quit vexes her parents, and she struggles with doubts over the validity of her choice. In the ensuing six years, Lucy encounters several more life changes, both positive and negative. She becomes the manager of In Bloom, a job that brings her more fulfillment than her work at the public relations firm. Bridget moves out to live with her fiancé, a bittersweet change for Lucy, who is happy for her friend but misses their previous closeness. The most painful change is the death of Lucy’s beloved aunt Stacy from cancer.
The landscape of PEI reflects the changes in Lucy’s life. Each time she visits the island, she is a year older, and things are slightly different. New houses are built, signs on businesses change, and Hurricane Fiona devastates parts of the island, changing the landscape. The physical disappearance of several PEI landmarks symbolizes the losses that Lucy endures.
Lucy struggles to process her changing life. She grieves her aunt and the sense of safety and belonging she found in their relationship. While living alone in Toronto, she often longs to be roommates with Bridget again. When Lucy thinks of happy memories from her past, she longs “to grasp onto those moments, to wrap [herself] up in them” (283). It’s hard for her to come to terms with the fact that the past cannot be repeated.
In addition to grieving people, Lucy mourns how she changes as she grows up. She was once full of creative ambitions but finds herself increasingly stuck behind a desk as an adult with bills to pay. She worries that she has “shrunk [her] world instead of making it bigger” (124).
Lucy is not the only character to confront change. As Bridget prepares for her wedding and move to Australia, her excitement for the future is tinged with grief for the past that she is moving away from. In Chapter 7, she laments, “[I]t feels like things are slipping away” (58). Growing into her adult life means leaving behind her childhood home and her youthful friendship with Lucy.
In Chapter 11, Christine says that “setbacks can be chances if you look at them from the right angle” (88). This statement proves true in This Summer Will Be Different. Throughout the novel, Lucy learns to adapt to life’s changes with support from Bridget and Felix. Felix helps her realize that growing up doesn’t have to mean giving up on her dreams by helping her start her cut-flower business. Lucy and Bridget’s relationship grows with them as they “[become] adults together” (327), learning how to communicate, compromise, and bolster one another through challenges. When Lucy finds out that Bridget is moving to Australia, she has the tools to process the change healthily. Though she will miss her best friend dearly, Lucy is genuinely excited for the new opportunity in Bridget’s life.
At the end of the novel, Lucy is newly 30 years old, and her life is nearly unrecognizable from what it was at 24. She has loved, lost, gained perspective, and found a new home in PEI. Change no longer terrifies her. As Lucy says in Chapter 7, “Things change […] It’s not all bad. It just is” (58). Fortune posits that while change can be painful, it is not inherently negative. Even changes that hurt in the moment can lead to opportunities for greater happiness.
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