Published by Berkley on May 5, 2026
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Rating:
Goodreads
Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.
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.
Do you know what I look forward to every year? A new release from Carley Fortune, and Our Perfect Storm is a perfect example of why.
This book was perfection from beginning to end. I started reading and just could NOT stop. I never fail to get swept away by her stories. But Fortune also sweeps me away with some breathtaking Canadian settings.
This was a tale of long friendship between Frankie and George. They grew up together and spent so many of their formative years relying on each other for love and support. After Frankie was more or less left at the alter, she and George took the already planned honeymoon to Tofino. There, Frankie hoped to repair any damage that their friendship suffered, while George was looking to repair Frankie.
She was blindsided by her fiancé, but George already recognized that parts of Frankie were damaged over the years. He hoped to help her restore those parts of herself with "The Plan". Each day of their adventure was designed to help Frankie reconnect with herself and rediscover her passion. Gosh, I loved this!
And I could not get enough of the setting. Fortune always does an incredible job transporting her readers to these locals, but she outdid herself with the food, fauna, and flora of Tofino. I could smell, taste and feel it all! I have only been to the west coast of Canada to catch a cruise, but I am now interested in seeing way more.
I am such trash for friends-to-lovers stories. And this one! George and Frankie shared so much history, and the flashbacks just supported the case for why these people were soulmates. Frankie really had those blinders on because George was wearing his heart on his sleeve. Every time I swooned, something else would be revealed that made me swoon more.
I could go on all day, but I won't. I will just say, I loved it! That's all.
Published by Random House on March 17, 2026
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Rating:
Goodreads
In this warm, intimate novel, a woman celebrates the joy she finds in the ordinary things in life and discovers it’s never too late to start new adventures. By the New York Times bestselling author of The Story of Arthur Truluv and Open House
Florence “Flo” Greene is nearing the end of her life, and she decides to leave her house and an account of her life for Ruthie, the younger woman who grew up next door, moved away, and still is like a surrogate daughter. As Flo writes to Ruthie about the meaning of beloved things in her home and about events in her past, she also tries new adventures of her own. She intervenes in the lives of friends in her neighborhood.
Flo's project has been to encourage Teresa, a wise but unconfident woman, to open her heart to romance. Flo goes to the library to get advice from Mimi, a librarian. She encourages Ruthie, who is contemplating divorce, to try again with her husband, by sharing a startling secret long buried about Flo’s own seemingly perfect husband and marriage.
In her final weeks, Flo leaves an indelible mark on others, as this moving novel celebrates life, change, and ways to discover new happiness, friendship, and love.
Recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, Flo knows her time is growing short and pens a very long letter to her former neighbor, Ruthie, to whom she intends to leave her home. Via this letter, Flo shares the highs and lows of her married life in a bid to encourage Ruthie to rethink divorcing her husband. In between her letter writing, Flo befriends a neighbor and death doula named Teresa who has given up on love, and Flo is determined to change her view before she leaves this mortal coil.
Let me dry my tears. This was such a lovely story. Flo might not have lived a remarkable life by today's standards, but she experienced all these beautiful moments that left a mark. And she left her mark, too. A big reminder to be grateful for those small miracles that happen in our life and happen to us.
I’ll miss the surprise of what each day might bring which we so often forget about, those surprises that can delight us.
I appreciated that Flo kept on living. She was 92, terminally ill, and left with no family. Her memories were filled with people who were gone, but she kept making new memories. Flo doled out the wisdom that comes with living many years, but her belief in love, forgiveness, and connection was something that stood out.
Overall: Life: A Love Story was filled with warmth and humor, and Florence Green won a place in my heart from this day forward.
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