By Morgane Hue
A girl and two boys who meet up every summer in a paradise cut off from the world, does that ring a bell?
No, this isn’t a new remake of The Summer I Turned Pretty that Amazon Prime Video released on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, but a brand-new series inspired by the book of the same name: Every Year After.
There’s a fine line between friendship and love. Sam and Percy are childhood friends who used to meet up every summer in Barry’s Bay. Everything changes the summer they turn 17, when Persephone Fraser commits an irreversible act she will regret for the rest of her life. A decade later, she finds herself back in Barry’s Bay and reunites with the man she has never been able to forget.
This sappy romantic drama by Amy B. Harris and Leila Gerstein follows Prime Video’s usual formula: a dreamy setting, an impossible summer romance, the heroine’s best friend who’s secretly involved with one of the main characters, flashbacks to their past, and so on.
But is this a common trope in modern series, or is it simply a reflection of contemporary romances crafted today for purely commercial purposes ? I’ll leave you to judge for yourselves. Here, I will focus solely on the series.
Every Year After does, however, differ in a few ways from what we’ve seen before on the streaming platform. The main difference is the lake, which replaces the crystal-clear sea we saw in We Were Liars and The Summer I Turned Pretty.
It’s tough to follow on from the adaptation of Off Campus released few weeks ago, which was a massive hit, scoring 8/10 on IMDb and causing quite a stir on TikTok with the now-iconic scene of Allie and Dean dancing. In comparison, the series released this week quickly feels boring because, spoiler alert, if you’re looking for SMUT, you won’t find any in Every Year After.
As the title suggests, Every Year After follows a narrative structure involving numerous flashbacks, and to be honest, they aren’t really well executed. Although there are a few clues about the years here and there, when the characters turn 14 (the point at which the adult actors take over from the teenage actors), the viewer quickly finds themselves lost in the timeline and has to look for distinctive features, such as the plait in Percy’s hair, to keep their bearings.
Finally, we should mention the acting. I really liked Sadie Soverall in Destin : The Winx Saga, but here the character’s development is very hard to see; this ties in with the point about the flashbacks: Percy acts like a 14-year-old throughout the series, trying to make Sam jealous at every opportunity. Sam isn’t any better and runs away at the slightest sign of trouble; he has the emotional intelligence of an oyster. Together, they form the quintessential toxic couple. On the other hand, other characters such as Charlie and Delilah are very well written and show real development, helping to restore the balance.
This series isn’t inherently bad, and if you’re looking for something in the same vein as The Summer I Turned Pretty, I’d still recommend giving it a go (just don’t set your expectations too high).
6/10
(Credit image: Justine Yeung/Prime Video)
