This review contains spoilers for “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “It’s Not Summer Without You” and “We’ll Always Have Summer.”
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a trilogy by Jenny Han that was made into an Amazon Prime TV series, with the final episode airing on Sept 17. Both the TV series and book series gained a lot of popularity on social media, which is what initially drew me into both of them.
The series follows Isabel (Belly) Conklin who has been going to the same summer house for as long as she can remember. However, this summer is different because she has “turned pretty.”
This transformation catches the eye of Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, who are two brothers she grew up with. For years they have been coming to the same summer house, due to their moms being best friends.
However, things aren’t just different because Belly is. There are secrets hiding behind the surface, and once they are revealed, nothing is the same anymore.
The books for the most part weren’t bad, but they were not great either. To start off with a critique for the series overall: I didn’t like how most of the story was told through flashbacks, rather than happening as the story progressed. It caused the book to not flow as smoothly as other books I’ve read where, though they have flashbacks, they are few and far between.
As for the plotline itself, the part about Susannah, who is Jeremiah and Conrad’s mom, having cancer was very emotional and moving. It explored how grief can impact people, but it was not the focus of the story. Instead, the focus is on the relationship Belly has with the Fisher brothers.
Ultimately, the plotline isn’t bad. It is full of drama and plot twists that kept me hooked. However, it was annoying how most of the moments between Conrad and Belly either only happen in flashback or are only mentioned slightly by Belly. They don’t really happen while the story is taking place, which creates a feeling of disconnection in both of the couples.
The second book, “It’s Not Summer Without You,” was the most interesting and fun to read out of the three. The second book really delves into the aftermath of Susannah’s death. Belly and Jeremiah also work together to find Conrad, who disappeared.
The best part about “It’s Not Summer Without You” was how there were romantic scenes between Belly and each brother, but the relationship between the two brothers hadn’t been impacted by their feelings for her yet.
The worst book in the series is the third book, “We’ll Always Have Summer,” for multiple reasons. Firstly, Jeremiah cheating on Belly, who still agrees to marry him, will always be irritating. This is true even though they were broken up for a week when the affair happened.
It is simply crazy how she wasn’t able to forgive Conrad for being distant and not being the best boyfriend while his mother was dying, yet she could forgive Jeremiah for cheating on her.
Lastly, the ending of the last book felt extremely rushed. It went from Belly calling off her wedding with Jeremiah to a time skip where Belly and Conrad are getting married in the epilogue. If there was just a little more included of what happened in between, the ending would have been better.
Overall, despite everything, it wasn’t an awful book series. The books simply have issues that truly stick out. The TV series did end up being much better than the books. However, the books still did have a few positive aspects.
One of those aspects is that, unlike the show, the books provided insight into Belly’s thoughts and emotions. This extra layer even made the show more enjoyable. This is because, without knowing some of her thoughts, Belly’s actions can be irrational and confusing.
For example, when Belly left Conrad on the beach after he confessed his love to her, many people who only watched the show didn’t realize that Belly lied to Conrad to make him let her go forever because it didn’t have her inner monologue. Therefore, her thoughts and inner monologue are a great aspect that the book had, and the show lacked.
