'Every Year After' Review: A Love Story About Timing, Regret, and Second Chances
Prime Video's adaptation captures the beauty of young love and the uncertainty of finding your way back
Based on Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel “Every Summer After,”
“Every Year After is a romantic and nostalgic story about first loves, the people who shape us, and the choices that mark us forever.”
Starring Sadie Soverall (Saltburn) and Matt Cornett (Summer of 69) as Percy and Sam, the 8-episode series explores how split decisions impact a relationship, causing a rift that spans years, carrying the weight of words unsaid.
The series also stars Aurora Perrineau (KAOS, Westworld), Abigail Cowen (Fate: The Winx Saga), Michael Bradway (Chicago Fire), Joseph Chiu (Motorheads), and Elisha Cuthbert (Girl Next Door).
The Space Between Love and Action
What makes this series so compelling isn’t just the romance but the longing, passion, and desire that lie within.
Every Year After perfectly captures the purity of young love, the visceral and panicked feelings from the emotional fallout, and the regret that lingers when the truest feelings go unsaid for too long.
Something rare and beautiful that the series also captures—that many book adaptations struggle to translate—is the yearning that exists like an electric current between two people who are madly in love but hesitate to act.
This is what makes the series stand out.
From script to screen, Sadie Soverall and Matt Cornett deliver undeniable chemistry as Percy and Sam.
With every frame, you root for them.
With every glance, you ache for them.
And through every step of the journey, you’re proud of how far they’ve come.
But perhaps the greatest part of the love story is realizing that age, growth, and experience can reshape the future into something far greater than you can imagine.
As the characters examine old friendships—where they went right and where they went wrong—they must all ask themselves one question:
Is this person important enough to keep, or is it time to let them go?
Friendship, intimate relationships, and even that of parent and child are placed under the microscope of reflection as the characters attempt to reconcile the past in order to build a future that feels worthwhile.
Growing Into the Unknown
While many Young Adult adaptations released over the last few years focus on mystery, whodunnit, and high-concept drama, Every Year After feels poignantly different.
It’s intimate.
Vulnerable.
Hopeful.
Every Year After isn’t clean, polished, nor reminiscent of endings we’ve come to expect from stories of a similar theme.
Instead, it’s human.
It’s incomplete.
A story in progress built on the choices we make along the way that mirror the feeling of living in the present.
And sometimes the most honest choice we make isn’t one of clarity and certainty but a belief that something greater is on the other side.
All 8 episodes of Every Year After premiere Wednesday, June 10, on Prime Video. Check out the trailer below.
Kivonshe—founder of So There’s That—is a film & TV critic who explores compelling storytelling, fandom relationships, character psychology, and the impact of entertainment media through film reviews, episodic recaps, and in-depth theme analysis.