Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune

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.

Why I Picked It Up

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I've loved Carley Fortune books (most of them.) I also spend a few weeks every summer in rural Canada, making her cottage spotlight so gorgeous to me. Her books feel like that time of year, and I'll pick up each one without question.

About the Book

Friends and readers were rather eager to hear my take on this one; before I picked it up, I knew it had been polarizing. Someone told me they wanted to know my thoughts considering my reaction to People We Meet on Vacation, which is a reference point I understand in hindsight. Similarly to that book, the ending is obvious here, and you just have to decide if you like how Fortune gets there.

The book begins with Frankie, our bride, anxious that her best friend George hasn't shown up to the rehearsal dinner. Despite being about to marry Nate, she can't sink into the evening because she's too preoccupied by George's absence. When he finally does show up, she feels profound relief. (Tonally, the atmosphere also feels somewhat decadently wealthy—which is an interesting departure for Fortune.)

So are we really surprised Nate leaves her in the morning? He's clearly torn up about it, but leaves a note saying he can't go through with it. And Frankie is baffled.

Flash forward a few months. Frankie's moping, having cleaned up the mess and moved back into her family's place. She and George grew up neighbors (literal boy and girl next door) and she's still mourning her almost-marriage. So when George finally shows up, deciding to take her on the prepaid honeymoon, she agrees. You can put together the pieces from there.

The Plot & Execution

Now, I don't love this plot because—for me—there's very little believable tension built into it for me, which was my exact beef with People We Meet on Vacation. Having also recently picked up a Katherine Center book with a similar premise, I don't think I like "abandoned at the altar" stories either.

What I did not like was that Frankie's feelings for George were immediate. I wanted to give Carley Fortune more credit for the opening—what questions could she possibly subvert—but the George obsession was both constant and willfully oblivious. It required a lot of suspension of disbelief, which just didn't lead to much payoff for me. The whole point of romantic tension is that there's tension.

What I said to my sisters is that I do have strong thoughts on friends-to-lovers book arcs. I love them, but I think they have to be crafted in a way that's almost similar to unreliable narration. The stakes, for me, often have to involve a goal other than awareness being the issue keeping them from being together. The author withholding awareness reads obtuse to me rather than natural.

So I wish their obstacles had been something more grounded in reality—how they handle conflict, what they want from life, something beyond the frankly ridiculous statements Frankie made about a supposedly platonic relationship that was so obviously anything but. There are so many reasons why friends might not act on being in love beyond not knowing they were attracted to each other.

(Also, Frankie basing her entire assumption off of George's refusal to take her virginity as a teenager—neglecting all of his reasons he may not want to randomly sleep with his girl best friend?—was just ridiculous. What a weird, entitled setup.)

I don't think you can have it both ways. Either George was her soulmate, so blazingly obvious to everyone, cut from the same cloth, etc. etc. Or Nate is a soulless wretch who left her grieving. To treat it like both—clearly idolizing George and obsessing over him at every turn, but simultaneously claiming the ex-fiancé was a terrible person for pulling one over on Frankie—just made me not like them.

Like—I loved the way the ex-fiancé, Nate, was clearly grieving their relationship, so I hated the way Frankie spoke about him and treated him. He offered to pay for the full honeymoon for her; he bought her a present to help her write her recipes again, and Frankie only critiqued how it wasn't to her preferences. Each choice that the narrative made about Nate was supposed to paint him as a villain, as someone who never quite understood Frankie enough, but instead I saw someone who maybe wasn't the perfect fit but never stopped trying to make it work and was clearly devastated that it didn't. What could this man possibly have done other than married a girl who was obsessed with someone else?

Frankie frolicking with George, constantly singing his praises, and then being rude about Nate's cancellation of the wedding—I understand the ego sting, but I almost think Carley Fortune went too hard on the George love for me to see Frankie as anything other than pointlessly sour or even self-absorbed. She never discussed loving Nate, really, only her being upset that he ended it. It almost would have felt more realistic if there'd been more of a balance here, even if it was just him embodying more values she mentally wanted from a partner or something. Having Frankie deconstruct her checkboxes or something would have even felt more like a conflict.

The way Frankie and George got together even felt unkind. I would have loved to see someone, like a friend, even calling Frankie out for how she approached the wedding. Instead, everyone always deferred to her even when I thought she was in the wrong, which wasn't as satisfying as a reader. Sometimes, you might be behaving like a brat! And your loved ones should point that out!

The book felt more similar to Fortune's sophomore novel, Meet Me at the Lake, which tends to be one of her least popular, for similar reasons. Everyone around them very much believes exactly what they do. ("It's so obvious he's your soulmate!" while simultaneously agreeing with her irrational dissonance.)

Similarly, her hurt over George's distance within their twenties as he built his career felt somewhat unrealistic. To expect a man who's not your partner to build you into every decision just felt silly—or would have landed better if she had considered the romantic what-if versus it being a shocking revelation. Again, I feel the plot wanted to have it both ways in many decisions, which had the effect of making certain dynamics feel unrealistic instead. The ending felt too long.

I spent a lot of the book frustrated with the characters, and feeling that the arc itself wasn't logically sound enough for what it was trying to do.

Writing & Style

I associate Carley Fortune with writing sensory books I can just sink into, which is still true. The beginning of Our Perfect Storm is much more summary than I'm used to from her, but c'est la vie. I appreciate when authors try to stretch their styles once they've made it big in a particular lane—like Fortune's Canadian romances.

While I didn't love the romance here, I love Carley Fortune's construction of escape. The book takes place at a resort in British Columbia. There are decadent meals. There are cold plunges and hot tubs, storm-whipped winds, a doting concierge. The backdrop is stunning and I wanted to stretch those bits out. Oddly enough, she's excellent with descriptions of food and temperature contrast, which makes each of her books feel visceral.

She painted a picture of luxury that I craved, and I loved reading the book because I love writing about boutique hotels within my journalism career. Sense of place in spades, still.

And Carley Fortune always shifts her lexicon just enough to make each deep dive a slightly different experience or aesthetic, making each of her books a treat to read. I'll read for the pleasure of the senses for sure. It made me want to visit the Pacific Northwest.

Overall Thoughts

I disliked how the romance unfolded, and I didn't respect Frankie much. I wished there'd been more friction—or more pushback against the main character wanting it to be both ways—and felt the plot required too much suspension of disbelief.

However, I adore Carley Fortune for her descriptions and escapism, and Our Perfect Storm is an indulgent book for that. Despite my many, many issues, I enjoyed reading it.

So—I'd read for a vacation, but not for the honeymoon. And I'll of course buy her next.

For fans of:

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune; In a Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander; People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry; Sunk in Love by Heather McBreen; etc.