Every Year After: The Differences Between Book & TV Show

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Be warned: This article reveals significant plot details from the first season of both Every Summer After and Every Year After.

This summer will be different for Carley Fortune fans. 

Prime Video will release a new series, Every Year After, on June 10th. Based on the novel Every Summer After, the show promises a story filled with heartbreak, friendship, love, and a heartwarming second chance at romance.

For six summers, Percy Fraser (Sadie Soverall) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett) shared a close bond in the charming town of Barry’s Bay, a friendship that gradually blossomed into something more. Ten years after leaving, a 28-year-old and recently single Percy returns home to say goodbye to Sam’s mother, Sue Florek (Elisha Cuthbert), who has passed away from cancer, and must also confront her own past and an old relationship.

While the TV series Every Year After stays true to the heart of Every Summer After, some things had to change to work on screen. Author Fortune made both small tweaks, like altering a character’s job, and larger adjustments to Percy and Sam’s story, believing these changes ultimately improved the adaptation.

She explained to TopMob News that this project is a new way to share the story. She doesn’t see any of the changes as negative, saying everything feels natural and logical.

But there was one aspect the author wouldn’t budge on: the town’s location up north.

As someone who really focuses on capturing a sense of place in storytelling, I knew Barry’s Bay had to be set in Canada. It’s more than just a location; it’s almost a character in itself! That cottage country lifestyle is so deeply ingrained in the Canadian experience, and I wanted to authentically portray that feeling in the book. It was absolutely essential to me.

For showrunner Amy B. Harris‘ part, she was more than happy to keep the same setting.

I enjoy creating shows where the setting feels like a character itself,” she explained to TopMob. “It was important to us to stay faithful to the source material to make that connection really work.”

For a closer look at all of the changes between Every Summer After and Every Year After, keep reading.

In the series Every Summer After, Percy, played by Sadie Soverall, is a 30-year-old living in Toronto. She’s a successful senior editor at an interior design magazine and works with her best friend, Chantal, who is played by Aurora Perrineau.

As a lifestyle expert, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to shape the visual landscape of one of the country’s leading decor magazines. I’m responsible for assigning stories and directing photoshoots, which I absolutely love! It’s incredibly rewarding to use my skills to elevate the brand, and I was deeply honored when Brenda, the editor-in-chief of Shelter, publicly acknowledged my role in successfully transitioning the magazine into the digital world at their 40th anniversary celebration.

In the show Every Year After, Percy used to be obsessed with horror, but now she works as an obituary writer. It’s not her dream job, but as she puts it, it’s a stable career – newspapers still need people to write obituaries, and it helps her make a living.

Through her work in media, Percy meets Chantal, who becomes a close friend. They initially connect only through phone conversations while Percy is visiting.

She mentioned that she and Chantal first connected as interns at the city magazine, where Chantal is currently the entertainment editor. They became friends while working together to verify the details in restaurant reviews.

On the show, Chantal is a busy lawyer who’s planning her wedding while traveling with Percy. Spending a week in Barry’s Bay allows viewers to see the complexities of her relationship with her fiancé, Drew, and how she interacts with people from Percy’s history.

The story takes place entirely in Canada, specifically in the province of Ontario. The main character, Percy, is originally from Toronto and continues to live there as an adult, a city roughly 198 miles away from Barry’s Bay.

The TV series differs from the book in a couple of ways. While the main characters are still best friends, they’re American and live in Seattle. This creates a problem for Chantal in episode three when her passport expires right before her flight home. Also, though Sam (Matt Cornett) and Charlie Florek (Michael Bradway) are Canadian, just like in the book, the show moved the story’s location from Ontario, Canada, to British Columbia.

This change enhances Seattle’s established image as a major city. As showrunner Amy Harris previously explained to Teen Vogue, once they found the ideal West Coast location, they wanted to be truthful and avoid pretending it was somewhere else, like Ontario.

The challenges of distance also play a role in Sam and Percy’s developing relationship. Once Sam gets her driver’s license, she jokingly asks Percy if she’d be willing to travel to the lake on her own, and Percy responds with playful skepticism, saying, “Drive to another country? I doubt it.”

When Charlie Florek (played by Michael Bradway) informs Percy about Sue’s passing and her memorial service on the show, Drew encourages her to spend the week with her closest friend in Barry’s Bay.

This change in the show develops Chantal, who is now a successful lawyer, from simply being Percy’s friend on the phone to joining him on a road trip, allowing Barry’s Bay to impact her life as well.

In the TV series, Chantal agrees to go with her, but in the book, Percy travels to Barry’s Bay alone, without letting her friend know, and rents a car to get there.

In chapter three, she confessed that she almost didn’t tell Chantal her plans. But then she imagined getting into a car accident and no one understanding why she was so far from the city. So, while still at the rental car lot, she quickly texted Chantal, adding a few extra ‘I’m totally fine!’ exclamation points before sending it.

Percy and Sam had their first kiss after a scary movie night in the summer of 2013. Percy, feeling protective after Sam got frightened by The Blair Witch Project, asked to stay over. They ended up sharing Sam’s bed, where they confessed their feelings and kissed.

Even though they had a sleepover with a similar setup on the show, their first kiss doesn’t happen until the next episode, during a playfully romantic anatomy lesson the following year.

Percy decided to cut his trip to Barry’s Bay short when he found out Taylor Curtis, Sam’s girlfriend and the person handling Sue’s estate, needed her present for the reading of Sue’s will. During the meeting, everyone was surprised to learn that Taylor had inherited The Tavern.

Charlie is negotiating to sell the restaurant to Delilah Mason (Abigail Cowen), Percy’s old friend, which causes friction between the brothers and Percy himself. In the book, The Tavern is ultimately purchased by Julien, a long-time employee, who gets a good deal from Charlie and Sam as a ‘family discount’.

Similar to the book, Delilah first goes to Barry’s Bay with Percy on his annual visit. But in the TV series, Percy discovers that Delilah has become a regular in town—and a big part of the Florek brothers’ lives—now that she and her husband, Whit, own a beautiful summer home there.

Both the book and TV series reveal that Sam and Charlie’s father passed away from a heart attack. The show, however, delves deeper into how Sue copes with the loss.

When our dad passed away, Mom really struggled,” Charlie, who was fourteen then, started to explain. “It was a tough first year, and you were only eleven, so you probably don’t recall it, or maybe you didn’t notice how much she was hurting. I tried to protect you from it.

My mom was really sad for a while. Maybe a therapist would say she was depressed. She’d sometimes stay in her pajamas all day. I remember coming home from school and finding her just sitting at the kitchen table, staring into space. It was frightening as a kid.

That period marked a significant turning point for old man Florek. Charlie explains that he also started helping out with chores, like grocery shopping, during this time.

He says that as she recovered, things improved overall. However, he admits he’s still angry with her for leaving them to cope on their own that year.

Throughout the story, both Percy and Charlie feel deeply guilty about something that happened, causing Percy to permanently leave Barry’s Bay.

After Charlie announced he wouldn’t be spending the summer at Barry’s Bay because he was starting college early, Percy found herself spending a lot of time with him. One night, while both were feeling emotionally exposed, they ended up having sex. Charlie had secretly been attracted to his brother’s girlfriend, Percy.

Following Sam’s decision not to propose to Taylor in episode five, he seeks confirmation from Percy that she’s also single and open to a relationship. This conversation leads Percy to confess a past encounter with Charlie – they slept together after ending their relationship ten years ago, and she feels guilty about it.

Hearing the news for the first time, Sam was heartbroken and turned away, even as Percy desperately tried to explain how sorry she was.

Percy kept calling Charlie, and finally texted him to reveal that Charlie’s younger brother had found out about their disastrous plan. Charlie then confronted Sam, but Sam responded by completely cutting him out of his life, especially after their mother’s memorial service.

Oh my gosh, it’s just… it kills me that Percy didn’t tell Sam for years! Can you believe it? Meanwhile, Charlie, bless his heart, spilled the beans to Sam and Sue practically right after it happened! It’s so unfair that Percy held onto it for so long when everyone else already knew! I just… I need everyone to understand how huge this is!

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2026-06-10 10:18