One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

Stats

Format: Paperback (plain edges)

Pages: 400

Published: May 6, 2025

Estimated spice: Spicy 

Goodreads rating: 4.2+

Fable rating: 4+

Libro.fm audiobook

Publisher description

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! ∙ A radiant escape to the lake from #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and This Summer Will Be Different

As featured in The New York Times ∙ People ∙ Good Morning America ∙ The Washington Post ∙ Cosmopolitan ∙ TODAY ∙ USA Today ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ Glamour ∙ E! News ∙ Buzzfeed ∙ ELLE ∙ Us Weekly ∙ The New York Post ∙ FIRST for Women ∙ Woman's World ∙ Katie Couric Media ∙ SheReads ∙ and more!

I never anticipated Charlie Florek.

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer there at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.

Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.

Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.

Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.