Characters This Summer Will Be Different Carley Fortune

Lucy Ashby: A Floral Designer's Journey of Secrets, Love, and Belonging

Overview

Lucy Beth Ashby is the protagonist and first-person narrator of Carley Fortune's 2024 romance This Summer Will Be Different. She is a Toronto-based floral designer who runs the shop In Bloom, inherited from her aunt Stacy. At the story's opening, Lucy is balancing the pressures of running her business while serving as maid of honor for her best friend Bridget Clark's wedding. Her carefully compartmentalized life unravels when she must return to Prince Edward Island—the place where she shared a secret, incendiary night with Bridget's brother, Felix Clark, a year earlier. Lucy's journey throughout the novel is one of reconciling her loyalty to Bridget with her growing feelings for Felix, ultimately learning to claim her own desires and a sense of home.

Plot Role

Lucy is the emotional and narrative center of the novel. As the narrator, every event is filtered through her perspective. Her plot role is that of a woman caught between two irreconcilable commitments: the unspoken rule not to fall for her best friend's brother and her own magnetic attraction to Felix. Her secret affair with Felix, which begins in the prologue, sets the central conflict in motion. The story follows Lucy as she returns to PEI at Bridget's urgent request, confronts the consequences of her secret, and eventually chooses both love and honest self-expression.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Lucy's deepest motivation is to protect her friendship with Bridget. The text shows that Bridget has been Lucy's anchor since a party seven years earlier, when Bridget offered her a ride home on her handlebars. Lucy repeatedly sacrifices her own comfort and business obligations to be there for Bridget. In Chapter 1, despite a critical business meeting and a flower auction, she agrees to fly to PEI because Bridget sounds broken on the phone.

Another key motivation is Lucy's desire to build a meaningful career. She is devoted to In Bloom, the shop she took over from her aunt. When she feels creatively reconnected while arranging flowers from Felix's mother's garden (Chapter 30), it marks a turning point in her emotional recovery. She later dreams of starting a flower farm on PEI, a goal she achieves by the epilogue.

Lucy's traits include loyalty, anxiety, and a tendency to put others first. She frets over details (the gown fitting, the bouquet) and carries guilt about her secret. She is also introspective, frequently analyzing her own feelings and past mistakes. Her actions show a woman who is brave enough to fly across the country on a friend's whim, yet scared of the emotional risk Felix represents.

Chronological Arc

Lucy's arc spans roughly one year, from June of Bridget's wedding summer to the following spring and beyond.

The Secret Night (Prologue): Lucy arrives alone in PEI, meets oyster shucker Felix, and after flirtation and an injury, they have a sexual encounter. The next morning she learns he is Bridget's brother. She leaves hurriedly, having broken Bridget's only rule.

The Return (Chapters 1–3): Eight days before the wedding, Bridget impulsively flees to PEI. Lucy follows, terrified of seeing Felix again. At the airport, she spots him and has a visceral reaction. The tension of being near Felix while keeping the secret defines the first third of the novel.

Reconnection and Confession (Chapters 7–33): Lucy and Felix spend time together in group settings and on their own. In Chapter 22, Felix writes "This is Lucy's happy ending" on a card at a lighthouse display, hinting at his feelings. They grow closer during wedding preparations. At the wedding (Chapter 33), Lucy gives an emotional speech calling Bridget the love of her life. That night, she and Felix exchange "I relish you."

Separation and Growth (Chapters 34–38): After the wedding, Felix rejects Lucy's impulsive proposal to move to PEI, arguing it is too soon and that she would be using him as an escape (Chapter 34). They part. Lucy takes his feedback to heart: she reads about flower farming, reduces work hours, reconnects with friends, and sends Felix seeds. They begin a long-distance correspondence via books and phone calls.

Climax and Commitment (Chapters 39–40): In March, Lucy buys land on PEI without seeing it and brings Felix there. She gives him an annotated copy of Anne of the Island and declares that he is in all her dreams. Felix responds with a detailed love confession. Their relationship deepens across seasons, and by the epilogue, Lucy is living on the island with Felix, running her flower farm, and hosting Bridget and Miles.

Relationships

Bridget Clark: Lucy's best friend and the person she loves most. Their friendship is tested by the secret. Lucy's fear of hurting Bridget drives much of her hesitation. However, Bridget's own secret—that she is moving to Australia—echoes Lucy's; both women have been hiding major life changes. By the end, Bridget accepts the relationship, and Lucy declares Bridget the love of her life at the wedding.

Felix Clark: Lucy's love interest and Bridget's brother. Their connection is immediate and intense. Felix is patient, perceptive, and emotionally honest. He sees Lucy's potential and challenges her to grow. Their relationship evolves from forbidden attraction to a mature partnership founded on mutual respect and communication.

Aunt Stacy: A guiding influence. Stacy advises Lucy to live for herself and to stop keeping secrets from Bridget. She recognizes Lucy's need for a partner, even as she herself values independence. Stacy's death (referenced in passing) deepens Lucy's grief and her desire to take risks.

Parents: Lucy's parents are overprotective and dismissive of her career. She feels their disapproval and works to assert her independence, eventually defending her shop at Christmas.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Keeping the night with Felix a secret from Bridget: This decision creates the central tension. It forces Lucy to lie by omission for a year, and when the truth comes out, it strains her friendship. However, it also allows her to confront her feelings on her own timeline.

  2. Returning to PEI at Bridget's call: Lucy chooses loyalty over her own fear. This decision puts her back in Felix's orbit and catalyzes the romance.

  3. Revealing her feelings to Felix at the lighthouse card: In Chapter 22, Felix writes "This is Lucy's happy ending," and Lucy allows herself to believe it. This moment opens the door to emotional intimacy.

  4. Proposing a move to PEI after the wedding: Felix rejects this proposal because he sees it as an escape from burnout, not a genuine choice. The conversation forces Lucy to become honest with herself.

  5. Buying the PEI land alone: In Chapter 38, Lucy purchases property unseen, committing to a future on the island on her own terms. This act of agency paves the way for her reunion with Felix.

  6. Choosing slow and steady commitment: By the epilogue, Lucy and Felix have built a life together with a shared house, flower farm, and plans for the future, demonstrating growth from impulsive secrecy to intentional partnership.

Theme/Symbol Connections

  • Secrets and Honesty: Lucy's secret relationship with Felix is the primary driver of conflict. The novel argues that secrets corrode intimacy and that honesty, however painful, is necessary for growth.

  • Belonging and Home: Lucy feels an immediate sense of belonging on PEI, a contrast to her strained relationship with Toronto and her parents. The island becomes a symbol of freedom and self-acceptance. Her flower farm is the physical manifestation of that belonging.

  • Self-Discovery and Growth: Lucy's arc is one of learning to listen to her own desires. Felix tells her she doesn't need Bridget to be strong, and she eventually learns to assert her independence—buying land, defending her career, and choosing love without apology.

  • Forbidden Love and Loyalty: The central romance challenges Lucy's loyalty to Bridget. The novel asks whether love can be worth the betrayal of a friendship, and ultimately suggests that authentic love, when confessed honestly, can coexist with loyalty.

  • Symbolism of flowers and growth: Lucy's profession as a floral designer mirrors her personal development. She arranges beauty from living things, and her final farm on PEI represents her rootedness and flourishing.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. If you were in Lucy’s shoes, would you have told Bridget that she slept with Felix that first time? If not, is there a point where you think Lucy should have fessed up?

Early in the story, Lucy believes keeping the secret spares Bridget unnecessary hurt. However, given that Felix is Bridget's brother and that the night meant something significant, telling Bridget before returning to PEI would have been more honest. The ideal time to confess would have been after Bridget's wedding, when Lucy and Felix were clearly serious, rather than allowing the secret to hang over the wedding week.

2. Who do you think "caught feelings" first: Lucy or Felix? What do you think that moment was for each of them?

Felix appears to have caught feelings first. The evidence shows that after their first night, he was the one to open up emotionally during their year apart. A key moment for Felix is when he writes "This is Lucy's happy ending" at the lighthouse (Chapter 22)—an early declaration. For Lucy, the feelings solidify during the wedding (Chapter 33), when she thinks "Mine, my heart says. Felix. More." and exchanges the "I relish you" lines.

3. Lucy feels a sense of belonging when she’s in Prince Edward Island. Have you ever traveled to a place that felt like home?

Lucy's connection to PEI is immediate and visceral. She feels small "in the best possible way" standing on the beach. The island offers an escape from the pressure of Toronto and her parents' disapproval. This sense of belonging is a key driver of her decision to eventually move there permanently.

4. Aunt Stacy advises Lucy to live her life for herself and no one else. Do you agree with this advice? Why or why not?

The novel ultimately endorses Stacy's advice, but with nuance. Lucy cannot honor her own desires until she stops prioritizing everyone else's expectations. However, the story also shows that living for oneself does not mean rejecting connection—Lucy's happiness comes from choosing to build a life with Felix and Bridget still in it, but on her own terms.

5. After Bridget’s wedding, Felix and Lucy decide that it’s not the right time for them to begin a relationship. What did you make of this choice?

This choice is mature and necessary. Felix recognizes that Lucy's proposal to move to PEI was an impulsive escape, not a considered commitment. By stepping back, he forces her to confront her own burnout and loneliness. The time apart allows Lucy to grow independently and to later come to Felix from a place of strength, leading to a healthier, more equal partnership.

Conclusion

Lucy Ashby begins her journey as a woman defined by her loyalty to others and a secret that isolates her. Through her experiences on Prince Edward Island—the landscapes, the community, and her love for Felix—she learns to claim her own desires. By the epilogue, Lucy is a fully realized character: a floral farmer, a partner, and a friend who has learned that honesty and self-trust are the foundations of a lasting home. Her story is a testament to the idea that sometimes what makes a summer different is not a new place, but the courage to change within it.