‘Every Year After’: How Does Percy & Sam’s Story End in the Book?
What To Know
- Every Year After is based on Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After.
- In the novel, Percy has a major secret looming over her relationship with Sam.
- Swooon breaks down the ending of the original novel ahead of the adaptation.
Every Year After hits Prime Video on June 10, and there’s a lot to unpack. Since Every Year After is about to consume our lives, we’re headed back through the pages of Carley Fortune‘s beloved novel, Every Summer After, to give you a debrief about how Percy and Sam’s love story ends.
Every Summer After follows Percy Fraser (played by Sadie Soverall in the adaptation) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett), estranged best friends (and each other’s first love) who used to spend every summer together in neighboring cottages on Barry’s Bay. Now it’s been 12 years, and Percy is returning to the lake town at Sam’s brother Charlie‘s request (Michael Bradway). Along the way, readers find out that Percy has been keeping a massive secret from Sam, which is why the two haven’t spoken since they were teens.
While the adaptation is worth the wait, we understand if you’re eager to get to the punch. After all, when you find out someone has a secret so big that it destroyed their entire social life, you’re going to want to hear the tea as soon as humanly possible. It’s a classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie situation.
Whether you’re looking for a recap ahead of the premiere or you’re simply dying to know what happens at the end of the book, scroll for a complete breakdown of Every Summer After. Note: This is just what happens in the book. The adaptation could make some changes to the material à la Off Campus! (Warning: Book spoilers ahead!)
Do Sam and Percy end up together in Every Summer After?
Yes, Sam and Percy end up together in Every Summer After. At the end of the novel, the two look back at their choices in high school, recognizing that both of them hurt the other. Sam tells Percy, “Betrayals don’t cancel each other out. They just hurt more.” Ultimately, Percy tells Sam, “I fell in love with you when I was 13, and I never stopped. You’re it for me.”
The epilogue finds Sam and Percy together one year later. Now, they live together in Toronto, but they’re visiting Barry’s Bay to spread Sue’s ashes with Charlie. Percy tells readers that later that night, she and Sam will watch a movie in the basement of his cottage. With a ring “made from twisted threads of embroidery floss that match the faded bracelet on [her wrist],” Percy will get down on one knee and ask Sam to “be with me. To be my family. Forever.”
Prime Video
What is Percy’s secret in Every Summer After?
Are you sitting down? Good.
At the end of Every Summer After, Percy reveals that she slept with Charlie during the summer before college. In the book, Sam, who is already at a summer college program, asks for “a break” from Percy over email. He writes, “What I’m proposing is a break from constant communication.” When she calls him, a woman named Jo picks up, causing her to spiral.
That summer, with Sam away, Percy and Charlie get really close. She reaches out to him after everything goes down with Sam, and after a beer, the two find themselves in each other’s arms. In the morning, Percy has a panic attack after waking up to “the wrong eyes. The wrong brother.”
Prime Video
Do Percy and Sam get engaged?
While Percy proposes to Sam at the end of Every Summer After, it’s not the first proposal of their relationship. After Sam asks for a break and Percy sleeps with Charlie, she’s consumed with guilty. When Thanksgiving comes around, she wants to tell Sam what happened, but during his three updates, he asks her to marry him — at 18.
Unable to admit to what she did, Percy tells him, “I think we should take a break for a while.” How about 12 years?
Does Sam find out about Percy and Charlie?
Ultimately, in the present day, Percy tells Sam what happened with Charlie, only to find out that he’s known about it for years. He explains, “Charlie told me about the two of you over Christmas break when we came home from school… He told me that you did still love me, that you had immediately regretted it and completely freaked out.” While he couldn’t handle that reveal then, nearly a decade gives a guy a lot of time to make peace with the love of his life sleeping with his brother.
Every Year After, Season 1, Wednesday, June 10, Prime Video
