I owe you all an apology—and more importantly, I owe Carley Fortune (and NetGalley) one too, because this review is very, very late. Life since going back to work has been a bit of a tornado. Between a new schedule that leaves approximately zero minutes for leisure reading and what feels like a never-ending two-week sick cycle rotating through my kids, sitting down to actually write about what I’ve been reading has felt like a luxury I can’t quite afford. But here we are, and I’m determined to catch up. So let’s talk about Our Perfect Storm.

By now you probably know that I’ve read everything Carley Fortune has written—Every Summer After was one of my favourite reads of 2022, Meet Me At The Lake followed, and most recently One Golden Summer cemented her as one of my favourite Canadian authors working right now. So when Our Perfect Storm landed on my ARC list, I didn’t hesitate for a second.

Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong—they’ve always clashed…and come back together. Until now. It’s the eve of Frankie’s wedding weekend, and she doesn’t know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man.

Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie’s life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation.

Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family’s home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie’s broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino.

Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long-buried feelings, neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.

What I liked

The setting: Tofino is a dream, and I say that as someone who has actually been there. Fortune does what she always does—she makes the location feel like a character in its own right, and it works beautifully here. The rugged, West Coast atmosphere is a departure from the Ontario cottage country she usually writes in, and it was a genuinely refreshing change of scenery.

George: He is not without his flaws—and honestly, the fact that his feelings for Frankie are a contributing factor in her relationship with Nate falling apart makes him a complicated figure to root for. But I found myself rooting for him anyway. There’s something compelling about a man who has clearly been in love with his best friend for years and can’t quite keep it contained, even when he’s trying. Fortune lets him be messy about it rather than saintly, and that actually made him more interesting to me, not less.

The whale element: Without getting too into it, there’s a thread involving whales that ties into Frankie’s relationship with her mother, and it was a genuinely sweet touch. It added an emotional layer to the story that felt earned.

What didn’t work for me

Frankie: I wanted to root for her—I really did. But her complete inability to read the room when it came to George was genuinely frustrating. This is a woman who is supposedly sharp and quick on her feet, and yet the signals he was sending could not have been clearer. The obliviousness stopped feeling charming pretty quickly and started feeling like an artificial device to stretch out the slow burn.

The “I need time” moment: When Frankie finally does realize how she feels—after we have all been waiting patiently—she decides she needs time to process before actually telling him anything. I understand that growth takes time and that characters should feel real, but at a certain point I wanted to reach through the pages and give her a gentle shake.

The brothers: I kept confusing them. I couldn’t tell you their names with confidence right now, and they didn’t add enough to the story to justify how difficult they were to keep straight. They felt like background noise more than actual characters.

The “men and women can’t just be friends” implication: This one nagged at me. I understand it’s baked into the premise—childhood best friends, one secretly in love, eventual romantic resolution—but the way it played out leaned a little too hard into the idea that a close male-female friendship is just a romance waiting to happen. It’s a trope I’ve grown less patient with over time.

Final thoughts

Our Perfect Storm isn’t a bad book—Fortune is too good a writer for that. But it’s my least favourite of hers so far, held back by a female lead I struggled to connect with and a few structural choices that kept taking me out of the story. Tofino and George alone make it worth picking up, but if you’re new to Carley Fortune, I’d start with One Golden Summer or Every Summer After first.

3 STARS

“I think of what he said earlier: No one is going to give me a trophy for how I live my life. There’s no winning—there’s only life.” —Carley Fortune, Our Perfect Storm

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada (Viking) for an advance copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.