It's Not Summer Without You: Book 2 in the Summer I Turned Pretty Series

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The scenes and stories that Jenny Han create are beautiful and literally make me smile like an idiot whilst reading them. They walked up the steps, cracking up over how Steven had lost his shorts after a particularly ferocious wave. She refuses to see how Conrad is not the "perfect" guy and that he is struggling with the death of his mother, the potential loss of their beach house, and anger at his father. I'd never once minded missing out, not even when Taylor told me about the cotton candy machine his parents had rented one year, or the fancy fireworks they shot off over the lake at midnight.

Maybe it's the fact that I grew up with 2 brothers as good friends and I can't see dating both, or even one for that matter. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I was friends with Marcy, but the rest, Katie and Evelyn and those girls, they were more Taylor's friends. Like he and Belly were together the entire time and I hate both of them so I kinda wanted them to disappear, which makes no sense but that's alright.In the book it was much more about Belly’s ongoing love for Conrad, which did make Jere and Belly getting together at the end feel very sudden.

The author did a great job depicting the ups and downs of navigating through emotions and feelings about liking and loving and learning about one’s self as we go through teen years . The book ends with Jeremiah bringing Belly home, and the two holding hands after Jeremiah confesses he wants to be with her. Conrad and Belly kept in touch throughout the school year and even spent some time together as Conrad drove to visit her, but their romance ended in May.When Belly and Jeremiah later arrive to the beach house, Conrad is there and unhappy to see them both. Conrad is moody and sometimes selfish and is definitely unpredictable when it comes to his interactions with Belly. Second-hand embarrassment is not enough as a feeling to describe what I've been through reading this book. The answer is quite a lot and the book feels pretty lightweight compared to the show, where the main characters are so much more deeply developed and believable.

I don’t see the appeal other than the fantasies she has of his younger self (who she definitely over romanticized).

The novel begins one year after "The Summer I Turned Pretty" ends, with Belly having a daydream about being back at Cousins Beach with the Fishers. I just absolutely hate how much she plays with the brothers' feelings, like girl, please, just choose one and go, neither of them are even good choices, grab Cam Cameron and LEAVE. As I said in my review of book 1, Jenny Han was involved with the TV series and I feel she saw it as an opportunity to modify things she felt were lacking in the book. I don't know if it's because Belly is one year older or if Janny Han re-read her book and was like “What have I written?

If I forgot Conrad, if I evicted him from my heart, pretended like he was never there, it would be like doing those things to Susannah. I have just finished my re-read of the second book in the Summer I Turned Pretty series, seven years on from my initial read.

The back and forth in this one didn't work as well as the first book and I didn't think the two person point of view added anything.