Themes This Summer Will Be Different Carley Fortune

Belonging and Home in This Summer Will Be Different: Lucy’s Journey to Prince Edward Island

Thematic Claim: Home Is Not a Place but a Feeling of Being Seen

In This Summer Will Be Different, Carley Fortune argues that true belonging arises not from a fixed location or inherited tradition, but from the people and practices that allow us to be our whole selves. The novel traces protagonist Lucy Ashby’s slow, hard-won movement from a life of emotional restraint in Toronto toward the unpredictable, salt‑soaked world of Prince Edward Island. Lucy does not simply visit PEI; she is remade by it. By the story’s close, she chooses to build a permanent home on the island—not because it is picturesque, but because it has become the place where she can love openly, tend what matters, and let go of the self‑surveillance her upbringing demanded.

Tracing the Theme Across Three Key Plot Moments

1. The Prologue: A Secret Meeting That Seeds Belonging

Lucy’s first arrival on PEI, described in the Prologue, is shadowed by guilt. She has come alone after Bridget missed their flight, and at Shack Malpeque she meets oyster shucker Felix. Their flirtation and intense encounter feel spontaneous, but the morning after reveals the complication: Felix is Bridget’s brother Wolf. Bridget’s single, unbreakable rule was “don’t fall in love with her brother.” Already, belonging is tangled with betrayal.

Yet even in this charged beginning, the island exerts a gravitational pull. Lucy later recalls that when she first visited PEI with Bridget, she experienced “the place that calls to me more than anywhere else” (Chapter 6 evidence). The prologue sets up the central tension: Lucy feels at home here, but that feeling threatens her most important friendship. The thematic question is posed: can belonging coexist with the weight of a secret?

2. Returning for Bridget: Summer Wind as a Sanctuary

When Bridget calls Lucy in distress, only nine days before her wedding, Lucy agrees to fly to PEI “even though there’s one very good reason why I should never set foot on Prince Edward Island again” (Chapter 1). She arrives at Summer Wind, the Clark family house, and the description of the house radiates warmth and welcome:

“The house stands as it always has, in all her sturdy glory. Just seeing it feels like taking a deep breath. I’m here. The place that calls to me more than anywhere else.” (Chapter 6)

Lucy contrasts Summer Wind’s “wholly loved” disorder with her parents’ formal St. Catharines house, with its “colonial furniture and formal sitting room. I never really felt at home there” (Chapter 6). Instead, she first tasted belonging in her Aunt Stacy’s messy yard and at her flower shop, In Bloom. Stacy taught her to “start seeds and deadhead petunias” and let her “ransack her beds” for bouquets. That early permission to be messy and creative is the emotional blueprint for the home Lucy eventually builds.

Later, when Lucy stays alone at Felix’s cottage (Chapter 26), she experiences a different kind of comfort. Felix shops for her favorite foods, cooks breakfast, and stays by her side. She falls asleep with her head on his lap while watching The Great British Baking Show—an image of vulnerability accepted. The cottage becomes a temporary sanctuary, and Lucy texts Bridget, “I’m not sure I want to come home” (Chapter 26). The phrase “want to come home” signals that PEI is no longer just a vacation spot; it is beginning to hold the meaning of home.

3. The Final Choice: “I Want to Build Our House”

The climax of Lucy’s thematic arc occurs in Australia (Chapter 40), where she and Felix stand on a beach, looking out at the Pacific. She turns to him and says:

“I want to build our house. … I want cold February nights with him reading me books. I want July mornings in a blossoming garden. Felix will be my home, and I will be a place for him to return to.” (Chapter 40)

This speech crystalizes the book’s definition of home: not a fixed address, but a mutual commitment to create a life together. Lucy explicitly chooses PEI as the location for that life. She has moved from secret keeper to open-hearted partner, from guest to builder. The line “Felix will be my home” echoes the author’s own note in the “Behind the Book” section, where Carley Fortune writes that an oyster shucker once told her, “Welcome home” (Chapter 44). That phrase resonates across the novel: home is the place, and the person, who says you are welcomed back without judgment.

Character and Symbol Connections

Characters Who Embody Home

  • Aunt Stacy (mentioned in Chapter 6): She represents the first unguarded experience of home for Lucy—a yard where she could get messy, a shop where she learned to arrange flowers. Stacy’s advice, “live your life for yourself and no one else” (Discussion Questions, Chapter 45), becomes the permission Lucy needs to choose PEI.
  • Bridget Clark: As the keeper of the “only rule,” Bridget initially seems like an obstacle to Lucy’s belonging. Yet Bridget’s own crisis—her impulsive flight to PEI and her later move to Australia—reveals that even the most rooted person can feel unmoored. Bridget and Lucy’s friendship is the through‑line; home is also about being known by a best friend.
  • Felix Clark: Felix is the emotional anchor. He does not pressure Lucy; he simply provides consistency—cooking for her, sketching house plans, waiting. In Chapter 34, when Bridget announces her move to Australia, Felix races to Lucy, picks her up, and let her cry in his neck. He says, “We’ll get through it together, Lucy.” That “together” is the architecture of home.

Symbols That Carry Thematic Weight

  • Summer Wind (the Clark house): The house is described as “sturdy,” with a yellow door, red dirt road, and a view of the Gulf. It is the opposite of Lucy’s “formal” childhood home. Its “higgledy‑piggledy” braided rugs and “wholly loved” disorder signal that belonging does not require perfection.
  • The Flower Farm (Aunt Stacy’s legacy): Lucy inherited In Bloom, the flower shop. Flowers represent creativity, care, and the cycle of growth. Lucy’s plan to build a greenhouse on PEI (Chapter 40) extends Stacy’s gift. The flower farm becomes a symbol of putting down roots through labor and beauty.
  • Oyster Shucking: In the Prologue and in the author’s note, oysters are linked to the island’s hospitality. The oyster shucker’s “Welcome home” in Chapter 44 is said directly to Carley Fortune, but the novel absorbs that phrase. Oysters—rough on the outside, containing something precious—mirror Lucy’s own journey: she must open herself to the risk of love to find the pearl of belonging.
  • The Visitor Card from Green Gables: Though only mentioned in the Discussion Questions, the Anne of Green Gables reference ties PEI to a literary tradition of orphan‑girls finding home. Lucy, like Anne, is an emotionally orphaned character who must be chosen and must choose. The visitor card symbolizes the tourist‑to‑resident transformation.

Complexity and Contradiction

The theme of belonging is not presented as simple or painless. Lucy’s sense of home on PEI is shadowed by the secret she keeps from Bridget for years. In the Discussion Questions (Chapter 45), readers are invited to debate: “If you were in Lucy’s shoes, would you have told Bridget that Lucy had slept with Felix that first time?” The secret creates a tension between the comfort Lucy finds on the island and the guilt she carries. Home, for Lucy, is soiled by the very thing that brought her there.

Additionally, Lucy must reckon with the fact that her belonging is contingent on another person’s forgiveness. The novel does not let her off the hook easily. Bridget eventually learns the truth, and while she is angry, she ultimately chooses to preserve their friendship. That reconciliation suggests that home is not a static state but an ongoing negotiation. Lucy cannot simply claim PEI; she must earn the right to stay by being honest.

Another contradiction: Lucy’s choice to live on PEI means leaving Toronto, where her business In Bloom is rooted. She must confront that building a home requires sacrifice. The author’s own note (Chapter 44) reveals that writing the book was difficult due to illness and family stress, yet the book was still a “love letter to Prince Edward Island.” That creative act—writing joy through pain—mirrors Lucy’s choice: she must build her home even while acknowledging loss.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Lucy says, “The place that calls to me more than anywhere else” about Summer Wind. What specific details in the novel make that house feel like home to her, and how do they contrast with her childhood home in St. Catharines?
    Answer: Summer Wind is described with “cedar shingles,” a “yellow door,” and an interior of “braided rugs” and “wide knotted floorboards.” It smells like “wood and damp wool” (Chapter 6). Importantly, it is “wholly loved” rather than tidy. In contrast, Lucy’s parents’ house has “colonial furniture” and a “formal sitting room” where she never felt “at home.” The difference is not about luxury but about warmth and permission to be messy.

  2. In the Discussion Questions, readers are asked if Lucy should have told Bridget about the first hookup earlier. How does keeping this secret affect Lucy’s sense of belonging on PEI?
    Answer: The secret creates an undercurrent of anxiety. Lucy feels she cannot fully relax into her love for Felix or her connection to the island because she fears discovery. Her guilt makes her hyper‑vigilant, as when she avoids saying Felix’s name to Bridget in Chapter 1. Home requires honesty; until the secret is out, her belonging is fragile.

  3. Aunt Stacy’s advice to “live your life for yourself and no one else” (Discussion Questions) is central to Lucy’s decision to stay on PEI. How does Felix embody that advice while also offering partnership?
    Answer: Felix never demands that Lucy choose him. He sketches house plans in secret, waits for her to be ready, and says, “I want to do this together” (Chapter 40). His partnership is not possessive; it leaves space for Lucy’s own agency. He lives for himself (his oyster shucking, his reading) but creates room for her to join him.

  4. The author writes in Chapter 44 that an oyster shucker told her “Welcome home.” How does the novel use the oyster‑shucking scene in the Prologue to anticipate Lucy’s eventual homecoming?
    Answer: In the Prologue, Lucy meets Felix while he is shucking oysters. Their flirtation is playful but charged. The act of shucking—opening something rough to find a pearl—foreshadows the way Lucy must open herself to vulnerability to find belonging. The “Welcome home” greeting from the author’s real life echoes in Lucy’s feeling that PEI calls to her; by the end, that welcome is literalized in Felix’s arms.

  5. In the final chapter, Lucy tells Felix, “Felix will be my home.” Does this mean she abandons her bond with Bridget? How does the novel balance romantic love with friendship as sources of home?
    Answer: Lucy does not abandon Bridget. The novel ends with Bridget in Australia but still firmly in Lucy’s life. In Chapter 34, when Bridget announces her move, Lucy is devastated; Felix comforts her by saying “We’ll get through it together.” That “together” includes the friendship. Home in this novel is plural: it includes romantic partnership with Felix, continued friendship with Bridget, and the physical island itself. Lucy’s choice to build a house on PEI with Felix actually brings her closer to Bridget’s childhood home, honoring the friendship that first brought her there.