The Carley Fortune Cinematic Universe Is Just Beginning

Recently Carley Fortune’s life has been a whirlwind. In March, Netflix began production on the TV adaptation of her 2024 novel This Summer Will Be Different, which she will executive-produce. In May, she published Our Perfect Storm, a friends-to-lovers tale that instantly debuted atop the New York Times bestseller list. Throughout the spring, she traveled across the U.S. and Canada for a 10-stop tour to promote the book. And now, she’s wrapping up a brief but hectic press run for Every Year After, the Prime Video adaptation of her best-selling debut, Every Summer After.

Since hitting shelves in 2022, the romance novel has captured the hearts and minds of BookTok and beyond. Every Year After (out June 10) follows Percy (Sadie Soverall), a Toronto teen who spends a summer at her family’s new lakeside cottage in Barry’s Bay, a rural township in Ontario. It’s there that she befriends her next-door neighbors, brothers Sam (Matt Cornett) and Charlie (Michael Bradway). As the story moves through six successive summers, viewers follow a romance that briefly blooms between Sam and Percy in their teens before they reconnect as adults.

Like Sam and Charlie, Fortune grew up in Barry’s Bay. Her parents owned a restaurant, as does the boys’ mother, Sue (Elisha Cuthbert). The 42-year-old author says, “Writing the book was very nostalgic for me, but with the show, seeing this new take and point of view of the book brought to life by an enormous team of artists and craftspeople, that was surreal and also humbling.”

Fortune was not involved with choosing Every Year After’s actors. “Casting is an art, and [it’s] not mine,” she says. But when she was presented with a tape of Cornett reading a eulogy, it brought her to tears. Later, when he did a chemistry read with Soverall, the vision clicked into place.

“The chemistry read between Matt and Sadie was done virtually, which is pretty common,” she says. “If you could feel it through the screen, when you put two people together, it was pretty clear that it was going to be a great, great match.”

Below, Fortune opens up about the beloved “you came home” scene, Off Campus’ viral success, and whether there will be a Season 2.

Showrunner Amy Harris, who produced Sex and the City, is such a force. What has it been like to work with her?

I had read versions of scripts before she came on board, and it was Amy who brought the heart and soul into this show. In our first conversation, she had described reading the book overnight and telling me how she saw the first scene in the show playing out. And it definitely felt like the book, but it was a little bit different. It gave me goose bumps.

If you’re a fan of the novel, you get the moments that you really want to see come to life on-screen, but then you get so much more. She’s taken secondary characters and given them new life for the screen. You get to see Charlie and Sam in moments you would never have access to in the book.

Is there a particular scene from the book that you’re excited for readers to see on-screen?

It’s the one you’re already seeing in the trailer, the scene I was most nervous and excited about: when Percy and Sam see each other for the first time as adults, which I call the “you came home” scene. It’s such a pivotal moment in the book, and you really want it to land on-screen, and it’s played really beautifully by both Matt and Sadie.

What struck me most was that many of the characters who only appear in flashbacks or only on the phone (Jordie, Delilah, and Chantal) get to be more front and center. What was it like bringing this ensemble to life and building out their worlds?

I loved seeing what Amy did with those characters. I’ve always loved Delilah as a character, and she’s a character I had thought about writing a book for, so I love that she has this new life. It’s different from the book, but she is still so Delilah, and Abby [Cowen] plays her so well.

And then Aurora [Perrineau] as Chantal. Bringing Chantal to the lake with Percy is such a smart and necessary move. In the book, you have access to the inner workings of Percy’s mind, and you don’t have that in a TV show. So Chantal really helps us understand Percy and what’s going on with her. Sadie and Aurora are so great together, but then Aurora and Joseph Chiu, who plays Jordie, are unreal. They are so funny.

Speaking of Delilah, Chantal, and Jordie, who are you rooting for in this love triangle?

I do not know who I’m rooting for. I kind of like Delilah single, but it feels like when we find her at the end, she maybe feels like she’s had enough time being alone. I love them all, so I’m not on a team. I’m eager to see how it plays out.

At the very end, Charlie stumbles upon the photo of Sam and Percy in his boss’ office and has a panic attack. The photo is an allusion to One Golden Summer, your second novel in this universe. Can we expect Season 2 to tell Charlie and Alice’s love story?

First, we need Season 2 [to get a green light], so we’re going to keep our fingers crossed on that one. The idea would be to weave [One Golden Summer] into a second season. And if you’re a very close viewer of the first season, the moment where Alice takes a photo of Percy, Sam, and Charlie when she’s 17 is in the show, and it’s this wonderful “if you know, you know” moment.

Off Campus, also based on a popular book series, is having a huge moment. What was your reaction to its success, and how do you think it could affect Every Year After?

I hope it just makes [fans] so excited for our show. I’m so happy for that cast and Elle Kennedy, who’s a fellow Canadian author. I am very much a person who believes high tides raise all ships, and it’s also a wonderful thing for romance and stories about connection in general. Elle and I both live in Toronto, so we need to find a time to have a good in-person gab.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.