This is a spoiler-free review!
As a preface, I have seen both seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video before reading this book, so I knew what I was getting myself into from the start. I still cannot get over the fact that our main character's nickname is Belly -- if that was me and someone decided that Isabel needed to be shortened to Belly, I would go insane.
I am a Team Conrad girlie for life -- no amount of convincing could ever make me change my mind and end up rooting for Jeremiah. That boy is always up to something and only became interested in Belly when he realized that Conrad was into her, because he has this weird urge to one up Conrad on getting into a relationship with Belly, even though it is obvious that Conrad has been in love with her for years.
Jeremiah is one of the most pick-me boys I have read in fiction, neck in neck with Mal from Shadow and Bone, and continued to annoy me throughout the entire book. He never really looked after Belly, he would only become protective after Conrad would protect her. He and Belly may have had one or two semi-cute moments, but they were brief and I spent the entire time begging them to end. He was more oblivious and not present in the book compared to season one of the show in my opinion -- I actually enjoyed him more in the show.
Taylor throughout her time in the book was something so incredibly agitating to me and it was solely because she was giving me whiplash every other page. One minute she is telling Belly that she likes Conrad, and then two chapters later she is completely over that and now is interested in Jeremiah. It felt irrelevant to have her mention to Belly that she was interested in both of the boys, especially when it was obvious that Belly was definitely struggling with her feelings.
I high-key felt bad for Cam throughout the entire book -- he could tell that Belly was not really into him as much as she was into Conrad, and the way that she treated him was more like a placeholder than a boyfriend. Belly may have been battling her emotions over Conrad and Jeremiah, but she basically used Cam as a pawn during the summer to make them jealous and then continued to deny it for nearly three months.
The "flashback" chapters definitely aided the story's development regarding helping readers understand how Belly felt about the boys since she was younger, but I found myself getting bored of essentially reading the same scenario of how she would feel left out when Steven, Jeremiah, and Conrad would exclude her from things, only to have Jeremiah or Conrad find her later and "make up" for it with a two minute conversation. I wish we got to see more summer romance in the second half of the book with either of the boys (preferably Conrad) rather than Cam, but I can imagine that will be in store for the rest of the series.
It was incredibly obvious that Conrad was really going through something, and even though Belly acknowledges to herself multiple times, she still treated him horribly when she did not get her way. She basically expects him to confess his undying love for her just because she finally decided that she was ready to acknowledge her feelings after nearly six years of falling for him.
Belly seemed to exchange all of her brain cells to get tan over the summer, because that girl was not using a drop of common sense the entire book, and she sounded very self-centered for the majority of the story, making her as a main character insufferable at times. There was so much back and forth with Belly on who she liked... Jeremiah in one chapter and then Conrad two pages later because he glanced at her for two seconds... back to Jeremiah because he wanted to go to the boardwalk too... Belly girl, stand up!!!
This is a super quick read that is perfect to get you back into that summer mindset as we make our way further into fall. It certainly was a good choice to read over a rainy weekend, and it was a light read that can pull you out of a reading slump. I was a big fan of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy back in high school, so it was nice to revisit a fun little romance.
You can add The Summer I Turned Pretty on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.
No comments:
Post a Comment