One Golden Summer

One Golden Summer is a work of contemporary romantic fiction. The novel also falls under the summer romance subgenre. Titles in this classification are set during this season, and take their atmospheric and tonal cues from the warmth, light, and freedom that summertime often allows.

Like many works of romantic fiction, One Golden Summer employs genre tropes to inspire its primary conflicts, stakes, and plot trajectory. Fortune particularly uses the friends-to-lovers plot trajectory: Alice Everly and Charlie Florek meet and become fast friends, but over time, their platonic connection develops into romantic and sexual feelings. Fortune uses this trope to show how vulnerability, connection, and care of friendship can blossom into deeper, more complex love.

Forced proximity, secrets, and allergic-to-commitment tropes also play a part in the novel. The forced proximity trope effectively tugs Alice and Charlie into the same sphere for the same period of time: Alice is in Barry’s Bay to care for her grandmother, and Charlie is in town to take time off of work. Because both characters are committed to being on the lake all summer, they have concentrated time to develop their relationship. The forced proximity trope eliminates logistical barriers that might otherwise impede the love interests’ dynamic.

The secrets and allergic-to-commitment tropes characterize Charlie’s and explain his motivations. Charlie hides his heart condition from Alice to protect her. He also hesitates to commit to her because of his relationship history and tenuous health. Both of these tropes are used to intensify the narrative conflict and test Alice and Charlie’s love for each other.

Fortune’s novels are in conversation with other works of contemporary romantic fiction, including Annabel Monaghan’s Same Time Next Summer and Christina Lauren’s Love and Other Words.