Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Title: Meet Me at the Lake
Author: Carley Fortune
Publication: Penguin Random House audiobook / Berkley, hardcover, 2023
Narrator: A.J. Bridel
Genre: Fiction/Romance
Setting: Ontario, Canada

Description: Fern Brookbanks loves the Muskoka resort she grew up in but she also enjoys Toronto, where she went to college, and the big city experience. Just before graduation, when she is reluctant to tell her mother she doesn’t want to return home to help manage the resort, she meets an artist her age, Will Baxter. They spend a memorable day together and agree to meet at the lake in exactly one year – but Will doesn’t show up. Fern is crushed but moves on with her life. Nine years later, she finally returns to the resort when her mother dies. She has the same ambivalence about living in a small town but now she also has to worry about the resort’s finances and whether she should sell it. Amazingly, Will Baxter arrives to help, now a fancy consultant who can help get the resort back on its feet, but is unwilling to explain why he didn’t show up nine years ago. It doesn’t take long before Fern is head over heels again but she knows Will has secrets and wonders if he will disappoint her again or if he needs and cares for her as much as she does him.

My Impression: This is an enjoyable summer read that briefly hit the New York Times bestseller list when it came out in June.  Muskoka is a very popular vacation destination two hours north of Toronto; close enough for easy weekend access to family cottages and more lavish homes like my friend Terry’s lakeside house (and, apparently, homes of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg). Having visited Terry there, boated on Lake Muskoka, and returned for his wedding, I was intrigued when I read an early review of this book and put the audiobook on reserve. Then, when I was in Toronto in June, I saw big displays of Meet Me at the Lake at the local Indigo bookstore, and I was tempted because I wanted to support Canadian publishing. However, I also wanted to buy something I couldn’t get at home, so I purchased something else and waited for this to turn up from the library.

The story is told in flashbacks, starting with Fern’s return to the resort after her mother dies, then returning to the day Fern and Will met, and also includes excerpts from Fern’s mother's diary during the summer she fell in love with someone who left her. Practically everyone can relate to a sense of hurt or frustration about a relationship that did not work out, which I think is why I found it appealing.  Here, Fern and Will met at a time when both were involved with other people. But they spent a memorable 24 hours together, were attracted to each other but did not act on it, shared their biggest worries, and made a lasting impression. Talking candidly to Will gives Fern the strength to tell her mother she wants to stay in Toronto.  When the day is over, she suggests they stay in touch but Will proposes instead that they meet at her family’s resort in exactly a year.

“Will?” I said, waiting for him to face me. “I am going to miss you – more than a smidge.”

Over the next twelve months, I’d remember the smile that took over Will’s face. I’d close my eyes and picture that very moment. The bend of his lips, the surprise in his eyes, the faint lines at their corners. It was electric.

“You and me in one year, Fern Brookbanks,” he said. “Don’t let me down.”

And then Will Baxter turned around and walked out of my life.

Fern spends that year falling in love with the memory of her day with Will and eagerly awaits their reunion but he does not show up. When he arrives at the resort nine years later, she is both furious and curious but he says only that he came because promised her mother consulting advice. Fern is reluctant but knows she needs his expertise to save the resort after bad Covid years and rising costs. Will is still handsome but he is no longer an artist and seems cold and uptight to Fern. The author takes us back and forth between the past and the present-day summer, revealing the backstory very gradually. Will starts to unbend a little as they become reacquainted in the present but it’s hard to understand how one could trust someone so unwilling to share his thoughts and whose mood swings are unpredictable. Few of the secondary characters are memorable but I liked Fern’s loyal friend Whitney who warns Will she will kill him if he breaks Fern’s heart again and Peter, her mother’s long-time boyfriend.

Muskoka reminded me of the Adirondacks

Overall, I liked the book and setting and wanted to know how it would be resolved.  The two big questions were: why did Will fail to show up and can he be trusted now? I guessed part of Will’s problem but not all of it, and while I get annoyed by books where the protagonists are kept apart by a stupid misunderstanding, I thought the author took a fairly common second-chance romance trope and added some original elements.  Often, the characters need to mature before they could take advantage of a second chance.  For those who have read this book, could you forgive Will?

The narration was good but my audiobook expired slightly before I was done! Luckily, I was able to find a copy of the book so I could finish the last chapter. Quibble: I definitely could have done without the casual drug use; it added nothing to the book except to make me like the characters less.

Source: Library