This article contains major spoilers for season 1 of Every Year After. Like many buzzy romance shows, Prime Video's Every Year After started as a book. More specifically, the first season is an adaptation of author Carley Fortune's 2022 debut novel, Every Summer After.
Both versions follow Percy Fraser (Sadie Soverall) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett) across two timelines. One tracks how the childhood best friends became each other's first loves over several summers. The other takes place a decade later, as the two reunite after a mysterious period of estrangement has derailed their relationship.
Although many of the story's major plot beats are the same, Every Year After also makes some adaptive changes to flesh out Barry's Bay, the picturesque lake town that Percy and Sam call home. Read on as we break down the major differences between Every Year After and the original book.
Why is the title of 'Every Year After' different from the book, 'Every Summer After?'
Although Every Year After adapts Fortune’s 2022 novel Every Summer After, the show title is obviously different.
During a recent Variety interview, Fortune shared that there were “a lot of conversations” about the decision. “There were a lot of conversations about it,” she said. “The feeling was that Every Year After opened it up to live beyond the book. And it was one of those things that in an adaptation, things just change when other people come into the mix.”
Although it's too soon to say, here's to hoping that means many more seasons could be in store.
Barry's Bay is a real place, but the location has been fictionalized in the series.
How does Barry's Bay from 'Every Summer After' to 'Every Year After?'
Both the show and movie are set in the idyllic Canadian lake town of Barry's Bay, although the setting differs slightly from the page to screen. Fortune famously writes her love stories in her native Canada, and in the book, Barry's Bay is supposed to be in Ontario's cottage country—and is, in fact, a real place. However, in the Prime Video series, it's been fictionalized to be on the opposite side of the country in British Columbia. To account for the switch-up, Percy also hails from Seattle, Washington, not Toronto. (In real life, the show was shot on Bowen Island, an island outside of Vancouver.)
Every Year After expands the friendship between chantal (Aurora Perrineau) and Percy (Sadie Soverall).
How does Percy's job in 'Every Year After' differ from the book?
In the book, adult Percy works alongside her best friend, Chantal (Aurora Perrineau), as a senior editor at a home decor magazine. However, in the show, she finds herself writing local obituaries.
“[It’s] one of the few things newspapers still need writers for,” she says in the series premiere. “It pays the bills.”
Percy’s death-centered job takes on a more personal note when she discovers that her former parental figure, Sue Florek (Elisha Cuthbert), has died.
Matt Cornett and Sadie Soverall lead the cast as Sam and Percy.
How was Percy and Sam's first kiss changed from the book in 'Every Year After?'
In Every Year After, Percy and Sam’s first kiss is a little later in the story’s timeline. The book characters kiss in summer 2013 after watching The Blair Witch Project during a sleepover, prompting a terrified Percy to open up about her crush on Sam.
Meanwhile, in the show, the duo don’t kiss until the next summer, while Sam is teaching Percy a steamy anatomy lesson.
Jodie (Joseph Chiu) and Chantal's love triangle is original to the series.
Is the love triangle between Jordie, Chantal, and Delilah in 'Every Year After' in the book?
Chantal barely appears on the page in Every Summer After, since the book's Percy returns to Barry’s Bay solo. However, in the show, a recently engaged Chantal accompanies Percy to the lake town for Sue’s memorial. There, she finds herself falling for Sam’s best friend Jordie (Joseph Chiu). At the same time, Percy’s childhood BFF Delilah (Abigail Cowen) is also harboring feelings for him (while in a less-than-happy marriage with Sam's brother Charlie).
No matter which couple you’re rooting for, we’re in uncharted territory, since Jordie, Chantal, and Delilah’s love triangle is entirely a show invention.
Delilah (Abigal Cowen) is among the most expanded characters on-screen.
How does Delilah change from 'Every Summer After' to 'Every Year After?'
Many of the book characters are expanded on-screen, including Percy's childhood best friend Delilah who's changed extensively. In the book, she attends the same college as Sam but is not a part of the present timeline, as she and Percy have drifted apart. In the show, however, she's changed to wound up in an unhappy marriage (resulting in a show-original affair with Charlie). Her being a wealthy, local fixture is also unique to the series, and leads to her want for The Tavern—none of which happens on the page because it doesn't continue her storyline into adulthood.
Her character is changed in the past, as well. The arc about her becoming pregnant and having an abortion as a teenager is only in the show and comes up as Percy reflects upon their youth.
In the book and show, Percy has a close relationship with Sam and Charlie's mom, Sue (Elisha Cuthbert).
Why were flashbacks involving Sue added to 'Every Year After?'
Although Sue’s death is the inciting incident that sends Percy back to Barry’s Bay in the adult timeline, she’s not a present character in Every Summer After. Yet in Every Year After, she’s a major character in the flashback timeline, playing a major role in Percy’s adolescence.
Showrunner Amy B. Harris told Deadline that casting Canadian actress and '00s icon Elisha Cuthbert as Sue inspired her and the other writers to expand the character’s role in the series. “We weren’t sure how much we would use [Sue] until Elisha signed on,” Harris said. “At first it was going to be touches, and then once I knew we could get her, I was like, ‘Oh, good, I get to write really meaty material,’ because she’s here for it and can do it.”
The Tavern is a pinnacle location in both the series and book.
Why was Percy inheriting The Tavern added to 'Every Year After?'
Once Percy arrives back in Barry’s Bay, she’s given a reason to stay when she discovers that Sue has left her local business, The Tavern, to her. Harris told Deadline that this show invention came from Every Year After’s writers fleshing out Percy and Sue’s relationship.
“I added the stuff about The Tavern, and what I kept thinking about when we were coming up with that storyline was that Sue really understood Percy,” she said. “That scene with the tiara and the tutu, when Percy says, ‘I don’t know if I can handle the crown,’ and Sue says, ‘You’re going to need to learn, because my boys aren’t going to want to'—to me, that was as much about the tavern and this life in Barry’s Bay that her boys weren’t necessarily going to hold on to. She knew that, but I think she also understood Percy really needed that.”
In the present timeline, Sam works as a cardiologist.
What did Percy do to hurt Sam in 'Every Summer After' vs. the show?
It's eventually revealed that Percy and Sam became estranged after Sam discovered that Percy slept with Charlie (Michael Bradway) during a tumultuous period of their relationship. In the book, Charlie tells Sam and Sue about his hook-up with Percy mere months after it happened.
That’s not the case in the show, in which Sam doesn’t learn the truth until years later. During episode 5, Sam attempts to rekindle his relationship with Percy in the adult timeline—and only then does he discover what went down between her and his brother.
How does the 'Every Summer After' book end in comparison to 'Every Year After?'
As it turns out, Every Year After doesn't necessarily adapt all of Every Summer After. It leaves fans swooning just enough and seems to tease that there's more to come from Percy and Sam's story—which is what's left on the page at the end of the book. Both the novel and drama pick up a year after Sue's memorial. The show hints that the former flame has spent months apart, but now they're both in better places, and may be open to exploring a new chapter. Whereas on the page, the time jump has led the two to being in a relationship and living together in Toronto. With Percy and Sam's will-they-won't-they wide open, we definitely have reason to believe there's more to come between them.
Not only that, the final cliffhanger involving Charlie—in which he has such a strong reaction to looking at an old photograph that he appears to have a medical emergency—isn't in Every Summer After. The incident occurs in One Golden Summer, the sequel, which follows his romance. The show certainly implies it hopes to adapt that love story next, but we'll let you pick up the book in the meantime to know Charlie's fate before then.