Netflix announces series based on Toronto author’s bestselling romance novel

A new Netflix series will be based on a Toronto author’s bestselling romance novel.

Carley Fortune’s This Summer Will Be Different is set to be a 10-episode series, Netflix announced today.

The story, set on Prince Edward Island, follows Lucy through multiple summers as she falls for a local, Felix. But Lucy doesn’t know Felix is her best friend’s younger brother.

“I fell in love with Prince Edward Island first in the pages of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and again when I visited with my best friend in my early 20s,” Fortune told Netflix.

“That vacation, the beauty of the island, the warmth of its people, and the friendships that sustain us are the foundation of This Summer Will Be Different. I’m thrilled to bring this sweeping love story to the screen with Netflix and to transport audiences to the glittering shores and windswept beaches of PEI.”

The 10-episode series will be filmed in Toronto and on PEI, and it was created by Dane Clark (Suze, One More Time) and Linsey Stewart (Workin’ Moms, North of North).

Fortune is an award-winning journalist and worked as an editor for The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and Toronto Life. She oversaw the launch of Refinery29 Canada and led the team as its executive editor until she left journalism to write fiction in 2021.

This will be the third Fortune novel to be adapted for the screen.

Fortune’s first novel, Every Summer After, is coming to Amazon Prime Video, as a series titled Every Year After.

Meet Me At the Lake was optioned for film in 2023 by Netflix and Archewell Productions, which is owned by Prince Harry and his wife and former actress, Meghan (Markle) Sussex.