Carley Fortune’s This Summer Will Be Different is the latest bestselling novel to land an exciting new adaptation on Netflix – and it sounds perfect for those who loved The Summer I Turned Pretty and Every Summer After.
Heated Rivalry fans, listen up. While we may have fallen for Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams’s on-screen chemistry as Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander in the hit Canadian series earlier this year, another member of the cast has just secured their next big role – and it sounds like the perfect watch for romance fans who devoured shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty and Every Summer After.
Netflix has announced that Sophie Nélisse, the actor who played Rose Landry, Shane’s girlfriend (albeit briefly) and trusted confidante in Heated Rivalry, is set to lead her own romance series, and it’s based on Carley Fortune’s bestselling romance novel This Summer Will Be Different. The news follows shortly after the Prime Video adaptation of Fortune’s 2022 novel, Every Summer After, which has also been greenlit for a season two.
In the 10-part series set and filmed in Canada, This Summer Will Be Different follows Lucy (Nélisse), a young woman navigating her 20s and her first real love with her best friend’s brother over a series of simmering, sun-soaked summers. White sandy dunes, red cliffs, warm water and salty air await at Canada’s Prince Edward Island, where Lucy grapples with her feelings for the one person she was never supposed to fall for.
Fortune’s 2024 novel became a New York Times bestseller, selling more than 4 million copies worldwide and translated into 30 languages.
Speaking to Netflix about the new adaptation, the author said: “I fell in love with Prince Edward Island first in the pages of LM Montgomery’s Anne Of Green Gables and again when I visited with my best friend in my early 20s. 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.”
Filmed in Toronto and on PEI, the show is being created and executive produced by Dane Clark (Suze) and Linsey Stewart (Workin’ Moms), alongside Fortune (Every Summer After), Jennifer Kawaja (Sort Of) and Elise Cousineau (Cardinal).
Who stars in This Summer Will Be Different?
Joining Nélisse, who stars as Lucy, are Francesca Reale (Stranger Things) as Bridget, Lucy’s best friend, and Roby Attal (The Haunting Of Bly Manor) as Felix “Wolf” Clark.
When will This Summer Will Be Different be released?
As the show is currently in pre-production, there is no firm release date that we know of yet – but we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop as soon as we know so we can start counting down the days.