Welcome to The Scroll, a new column that checks in with your favorite writers, asking them to exclusively reveal and annotate the best moments from their brand-new books. We also get them to dish on their writing process and divulge a few plot secrets along the way.
This round, we chatted with Carley Fortune, the Canadian author whose books take us to stunning parts around her home country while giving us complex and emotional love stories filled with longing and hope. Her latest novel, Our Perfect Storm, takes things to a whole new level as she releases an honest and eye-opening tale featuring two friends who reunite for a dream trip that could change everything. From yearning to grounded conversations, Frankie and George’s story completely transports you to their oasis as we get a glimpse into how one person can change your entire life. Below, Carley chats with us about the real-life inspirations behind the book, creating chemistry and history between Frankie and George, and how different ideas came together to create this story.
Main characters Frankie and George have been friends for decades, but this doesn’t read like a classic friends-to-lovers romance. We most often see their kind of banter in enemies-to-lovers stories, so you’re going against trope expectations here, which some authors might be afraid of doing.
I don’t think in tropes. The trick is trying to make it believable, and the banter feels like clashing because Frankie and George are both very hotheaded. I had this idea about them coming together after she’d been left before her wedding, and I couldn’t quite get my head around their dynamic. Then I thought about Little Women. I grew up with the ’90s movie version and would often stop watching when Jo decides not to accept Laurie’s proposal. The idea is that they’re too fiery to get along. I thought, What would their relationship look like as a friendship and then as adults?
There’s this sort of intimacy that you see between them that’s been built over the years, like when Frankie cleans George’s glasses. What was building that?
Whenever I’m writing about friends or couples, I ask, What is their kind of secret language? Whether that’s something that is, like, rooted in the past or if that’s something they’re developing now, when you’re making friends with somebody, you’re like, Oh, I know that. Something that came in in a later draft for me was Frankie, when they first meet when they’re 8 years old, says that she’s “utterly desperate for an adventure.” It’s such a callback line. I love it. It’s really fun to play with, but it also feels real, because it feels like how you speak with your friends.
As George’s literal glasses come off, it’s Frankie who finally sees things differently between them.
It’s very, very fun to write the “When did you get hot?” moment. But Frankie has tried really, really, really hard not to pay attention because that just makes things easier in a friendship. Now she’s not sure why she’s noticing. It is so fun as the reader to be like, “Of course, he’s hot!” It was important for me to make sure you were there with her. That you believe that she is letting herself see this for the first time in a long time. It’s such a fun moment.
It really elevates the physical tension that is so obviously growing!
George purposefully tried to put distance between himself and Frankie, and Frankie is trying to repair their friendship. But they’re also physically together for a week in close quarters in a way that they haven’t been in a long time. I think the trick with them—and it being a romance and not just a platonic story of friends—is that I wanted to make sure they weren’t physically buddy-buddy. They’re not hugging all the time. They’re not touching all the time. There’s tension there. So when there’s a brush of an arm or a hug, it feels loaded.
The setting, Tofino on Vancouver Island, really pops. What was so special to you about this location?
I had been looking to set a story in Tofino for a long time. I was in my early 20s when I first visited and it’s very magical. I had these characters I was thinking about for a year or so, and I was like, Oh, if it’s a honeymoon, I can set this here, and then it all kind of like came together eventually.
When I announced this was being set in Tofino, someone booked her trip to Tofino so she could read the book there. I feel like I cannot do it justice with the written word. It’s so surreal—the rainforests and the beach and the mist. It’s nice to get to give people a taste of it, whether they’re ever going to make it there or not.
One crucial part of the story is that George is a journalist who covered the 2023 Canadian wildfires. Why was it important for you to include that?
I was in a bookstore in Montreal and came across a book called The Summer Canada Burned by Monica Zurowski. As soon as I saw it, everything about George started to come together. My books are so much about nature, and the fires are something I’m always thinking about now. I come up to the lake in Ontario, and for the past few summers, the sky has been different than it used to be. I didn’t want to ignore that.
Excerpt and annotations: Copyright © 2026 by Carley Fortune.
Our Perfect Storm, by Carley Fortune, is available now. To preorder the book, click on the retailer of your choice:
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