Forbidden Love and Loyalty in This Summer Will Be Different
Defining the Thematic Claim
The central tension in This Summer Will Be Different arises from a single promise: Lucy Ashby swears to her best friend Bridget Clark that she will never fall in love with Bridget’s brother, Felix. What begins as a lighthearted travel rule hardens into a cage of guilt, desire, and self-denial. The theme of forbidden love and loyalty asks whether a devotion to friendship can coexist with romantic attraction when the two collide. Carley Fortune traces this conflict across multiple summers, showing that the heart’s demands rarely respect the boundaries we set.
Three Stages of the Conflict
1. The Initial Encounter: Forbidden Beginnings
In the prologue, Lucy arrives alone on Prince Edward Island after Bridget misses their flight. At Shack Malpeque, she meets an oyster shucker—Felix—and shares an intense, anonymous night. The next morning, when Felix asks where she’s staying, Lucy gives Bridget’s family address. He reveals he is Bridget’s brother, known as Wolf. Lucy realizes she has just broken Bridget’s only rule: don’t fall in love with her brother. This moment establishes the forbidden nature of their attraction. The rule itself was simple, but the emotional entanglement is immediate and complex. Lucy’s loyalty to Bridget is not yet tested, but the seed of betrayal is planted.
2. The Second Summer: Rules Reinforced
Four years later, as shown in chapter 11, Lucy returns to PEI with Bridget. She intends to keep her distance from Felix, but the attraction remains. Bridget, aware of her brother’s past with Joy and his subsequent playboy phase, reinforces the third rule: “Don’t fall in love with my brother.” Lucy and Felix even joke about three rules: not telling Bridget, not sleeping together again, and not falling in love. Yet the flirtation continues—shared grocery trips, cooking together, stolen glances. The rules become a fragile wall that both characters try to maintain while their feelings grow. This section shows that loyalty is an active choice, not a passive state. Lucy repeatedly chooses her friendship with Bridget over her desires, but each choice leaves a scar.
3. The Present Summer: Loyalty Fractures
In the present timeline, Bridget calls Lucy in distress, and Lucy rushes to PEI despite having a secret reason never to return—her unresolved feelings for Felix. In chapters 27 and beyond, Lucy’s internal conflict peaks. During a stay at Felix’s home, she sees the books she gave him and realizes her feelings have deepened into love. She panics, lies about a work emergency, and flees. The scene crystallizes the theme: Lucy must choose between the two pillars of her life—In Bloom (her aunt’s flower shop) and her friendship with Bridget. Felix, she believes, is an impossibility. This climax shows that loyalty is not simply about avoiding betrayal; it is about the painful sacrifice of personal happiness for another’s peace of mind.
Character and Symbol Connections
Characters
- Lucy Ashby: The protagonist embodies the tension between desire and duty. Her loyalty to Bridget is rooted in gratitude—Bridget has been her anchor, especially after her aunt’s death. Yet her attraction to Felix is genuine and deepening. She represents the person who tries to follow the rules but finds her heart writing its own.
- Felix Clark: Felix is not merely the object of forbidden desire. He respects Lucy’s boundaries, never pressuring her, yet his own feelings are clear. His past with Joy (once Bridget’s best friend) complicates matters; Bridget’s trauma over that breakup fuels her protective rule. Felix’s quiet ambition and kindness make him a worthy partner, which only heightens the tragedy of the prohibition.
- Bridget Clark: Bridget is the guardian of the rule. Her loyalty to Lucy is fierce, born from a shared history and her own experience of losing Joy. She wants to protect Lucy from the pain she herself endured. But her rule also stems from fear: losing her best friend to her brother would repeat the pattern. Bridget’s character shows that loyalty can also be possessive and controlling.
- Joy: Though a minor presence, Joy is the shadow that haunts the Clark family. Her breakup with Felix after a seven-year relationship and engagement taught Bridget that love within the family circle can shatter friendships. Joy’s existence reinforces why the third rule exists—and why breaking it feels catastrophic.
Symbols
- Sea glass (see sea-glass symbol page): Sea glass is formed from broken bottles, tumbled smooth by waves. It represents how Lucy and Felix’s love is shaped from the shards of their secrets and guilt. Beautiful but still fragile, it mirrors the delicate balance between loyalty and forbidden desire.
- Oyster shucking (see oyster-shucking symbol page): Felix’s skill with oysters—opening something hard to reach the tender interior—parallels Lucy’s gradual unveiling of her true feelings. The act also evokes vulnerability: the shucker must be both precise and gentle, much like the care needed to navigate forbidden love.
- Flower farm / In Bloom (see flower-farm symbol page): Lucy’s aunt’s flower shop represents her independent life and her roots. It is the non-negotiable pillar of her identity. The theme of loyalty extends to her commitment to the shop after her aunt’s death. Love with Felix threatens that stability because he lives far away.
- Visitor card from Green Gables (see visitor-card-from-green-gables symbol page): The nod to Anne of Green Gables evokes an idealized, chaste romance. Fortune wrote her “steamiest romance” in the same setting, subverting expectations. The visitor card symbolizes the tension between Lucy’s rational, rule-bound self and her longing for a love story as pure as Anne’s—but complicated by adult reality.
Complexity and Contradiction
The theme avoids a simple “forbidden love versus loyalty” binary. Lucy’s loyalty to Bridget is genuine, not merely a duty. She loves Bridget deeply and profits from that friendship. Yet the rule also protects Lucy from her own vulnerability. By forbidding love for Felix, Bridget inadvertently keeps Lucy safe from the risk of heartbreak. The contradiction lies in the fact that the rule, intended to preserve their bond, actually creates distance and secrecy. Lucy’s lies—omissions about the initial hookup, the ongoing feelings—weaken the very trust she wants to protect. Meanwhile, Felix’s respect for the rule shows that he, too, values Bridget’s happiness over his own. The ending (as discussed in chapter 45) suggests that after Bridget’s wedding, Lucy and Felix postpone their relationship. This choice reinforces that loyalty sometimes means waiting, not abandoning. The theme does not resolve easily; it asks whether some loves are worth the cost to a friendship.
Study Questions and Answers
1. In what ways does Lucy’s loyalty to Bridget conflict with her feelings for Felix? Provide two specific examples from the text.
Lucy’s loyalty compels her to hide the truth about her night with Felix to avoid hurting Bridget. When Felix reveals he is Bridget’s brother, Lucy’s immediate thought is that she has already broken the rule. Later, during the summer four years ago, Lucy deliberately keeps distance from Felix, even though she feels intense attraction. She prioritizes Bridget’s comfort over her own desires.
2. Why does Bridget create “rule three” for their trips to Prince Edward Island? What does this reveal about her character?
Bridget creates the rule because she witnessed the painful fallout from Felix’s relationship with Joy, who was her best friend before becoming his fiancée. The rule reflects Bridget’s fear of losing Lucy in the same way she lost Joy. It reveals her protective nature but also her inability to separate her past trauma from Lucy’s present choices.
3. How does the symbol of sea glass relate to Lucy and Felix’s relationship?
Sea glass is formed from broken glass tumbled smooth by the ocean. Similarly, Lucy and Felix’s relationship emerges from the broken pieces of secrets, guilt, and forbidden boundaries. It is beautiful but still fragile, much like the delicate balance they maintain between their attraction and their loyalty to Bridget.
4. At what point in the story does Lucy realize she has fallen in love with Felix? How does she react?
Lucy realizes she loves Felix in chapter 27, when she sees the books she gave him on his shelf and feels the accumulated weight of all her observations about him—his kindness, his ambition, his care. She panics, lies about a work emergency, and flees his home. Her reaction shows that acknowledging love feels like a betrayal of Bridget and a threat to her own stability.
5. The characters decide not to begin a relationship immediately after Bridget’s wedding. Does this choice reflect loyalty or avoidance? Support your answer.
The choice can be seen as both. On one hand, it demonstrates loyalty to Bridget by not rushing into a relationship that might reopen old wounds during wedding festivities. On the other hand, it may be avoidance—a way for Lucy to delay confronting the full consequences of her feelings. The text suggests that timing matters, and that genuine loyalty sometimes requires patience.