Every Year After Review: Prime Video’s New Summer Romance Had Us Hooked From the First Episode

Welcome to Barry’s Bay!

This article contains spoilers

Summer is just around the corner, and what better place to spend it than Barry’s Bay? Prime’s newest summer romance series has arrived, and I am completely obsessed. Based on the bestselling romance Every Summer After, Every Year After follows the love story of Percy Frazier and Sam Florek.

Flashing back and forth across six summers and the present day, the series tells the story of how two best friends fell in love and what led them to become so estranged a decade later. Percy has been avoiding Barry’s Bay ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life ten years ago. But when she receives a call that Sue Florek, the woman who was like a second mother to her, has passed away, she finds herself returning to the place she never thought she’d face again. Forced to confront her past, including her former soulmate, Sam, we watch Percy rediscover herself through old friends, old memories, and of course, the lake.

Prime has been on a roll with romance book adaptations, and following Off Campus, Every Year After does not disappoint. Fortune’s bestselling summer romance captured the hearts of many readers, including mine. Seeing one of my favorite beach reads come to life had me feeling all the emotions. Barry’s Bay was exactly as I imagined it: a charming lakeside town where everyone knows everyone.

While we didn’t get much insight into the filming process ahead of the show’s release, the moment the trailer dropped in May, I knew fans would be excited. Viewers can look forward to seeing beloved moments from the book, including the anatomy lesson and the iconic “You came home” line. There’s always something magical about watching those fan favorite scenes come to life on screen.

Fans of the book will notice a few changes to the story, with one of the biggest involving Delilah. In the novel, Delilah is a major part of Percy’s childhood flashbacks but never appears in the present timeline. In the series, however, she not only still lives in Barry’s Bay but is also involved in a secret affair with Charlie Florek, Sam’s older brother. While the change may surprise some viewers, I absolutely loved what it did for her character. Though Delilah can come across as abrasive and cold, we gradually learn just how much she has endured, and continues to struggle with. I loved seeing a more in depth portrayal of her character and watching her reconnect with Percy.

Another notable change involves Chantelle, Percy’s adult best friend, who joins her in Barry’s Bay. Chantelle is a headstrong, work obsessed lawyer who never seems to stop moving long enough to catch her breath. I loved the decision to bring a piece of Percy’s present life into her past, creating even more emotional complexity and chaos. In fact, one of my favorite scenes in the entire series involved all three women together. The standout was their boozy brunch, which somehow resulted in them breaking into Percy’s childhood home. In that moment, you really understood what each woman was carrying and what they could offer one another. It felt like such a genuine portrayal of female friendship and girlhood. While some fans may view these changes as significant departures from the book, I felt they ultimately strengthened Percy’s story and added some entertaining side plots that enhanced the overall series.

So why should you watch this show? One of Carley Fortune’s greatest strengths as a writer is her ability to create nostalgia. The way she captures memories and flashbacks makes readers feel as though they are living them alongside her characters, and the series accomplishes the same thing. I loved watching young Sam, Percy, Charlie, and Delilah on screen and seeing how they evolved over time or, in some cases, how they stayed exactly the same. We also get more time with Sue Florek, allowing viewers to better understand the profound impact she had on Percy through some of her most formative memories. Flashbacks can sometimes pull me out of a story. Often the visuals feel overly stylized, or actors are awkwardly aged down in ways that don't quite work. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case here.

Since the flashbacks are such an essential part of the narrative, it was important to me that they felt authentic, and the transitions between past and present were beautifully executed. One of my favorite moments came during Episode 8, which cuts back and forth between Percy’s present day love confession and Sam’s confession years earlier. The emotion, longing, and tension between the characters were palpable, and it offered a fresh take on the classic rom-com declaration of love.

So what’s next? The season ends on a major cliffhanger, and even as someone who loves Fortune’s books and knows the world well, I was left staring at my screen with my jaw on the floor. In Episode 8, we learn that Charlie’s boss has a photograph hanging in his office, one that captures Percy, Sam, and Charlie in their iconic yellow boat.

Fans of the books will immediately recognize this as a nod to One Golden Summer, the second novel in the Barry’s Bay series. The story follows Alice Everly, a photographer returning to Barry’s Bay with her spunky grandmother, only to find herself drawn to the subject of her most famous photograph: Charlie Florek. The ending of Season 1 perfectly sets the stage for a return to Barry’s Bay. If the series is renewed for a second season, viewers can expect to spend a lot more time with Charlie Florek. If the books are any indication, he’s about to win over a whole new group of fans.

WHAT DID YOU THINK?

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