It's Not Summer Without You (Summer, #2) by Jenny Han Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of The Summer I Turned Pretty on my blog now!

I decided to dabble in the world of audiobooks, and with It's Not Summer Without You being only six hours long, I figured now was as good a time as any to test out this format. From the very first chapter, Belly is going on and on about her love for Conrad and how much she thinks about him. It is so incredibly obvious that Belly clearly likes one brother more than the other, and despite what all of these Jeremiah girls say, I will be a Conrad defender until the day I die.

Once again I want to preface this review by noting that I have seen both seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty on Amazon Prime, so there were a few plot points in this book was a surprise to me. There are definitely a decent amount of changes comparing the book to the television series. A lot of chapters in this book were essentially Belly describing a number of parties that she and Taylor attended, and it became repetitive pretty fast.

While the flashback chapters were a nice reminder of the memories Belly and everyone has of the summer house, most of the stories were lowkey describing moments where Belly was getting in trouble or Jeremiah and Conrad were being yelled at by their annoying dad who seemed to care more about a blender than his own children.

Suffering through the Jeremiah perspective chapters... I feel like I have been held hostage. His chapters truly felt as though he was giving an exact play by play of even single interaction he had -- I could not feel the emotion behind his thoughts. For the majority of his chapters, he was throwing himself a pity party because every single time he looked at Belly, she was looking at Conrad, and vice versa. Jeremiah is so focused on the fact that Belly and Conrad are totally not over one another that he is completely blind to the fact that he will always be second place to his brother.

Belly is immature to say the least, and her constant whining about Conrad (though I would be crying over him too) was incredibly annoying. She was basically judging everyone's decisions in this book and did not see any issues with herself, always painting herself in the right. When she argues with a number of characters, she somehow always ends up as the victim and is angry with anyone who tries to make her see straight. I understand that she was going through a lot, but she definitely needs to have some more compassion for other characters.

There really was not too much side character involvement in this book compared to the first one -- we see Belly's mom and Mr. Fisher, and Taylor through a few interactions and phone calls, but it truly centers around Belly and to my dismay, Jeremiah. Belly's chapters are the majority perspective, with Jeremiah's making a few guest appearances throughout this installment. I do wish there was more of an ensemble feel to the story -- I found myself missing Steven, and as annoying as she was, it would have been nice to see Taylor more often if she got her attitude in check.

This series still holds true to me that it reads on the younger side of young adult -- Belly is definitely growing and learning to understand her feelings, but she continues to make me agitated when it comes to her decision making. Also, why do they not have cell phones? These books were definitely published when teenagers had cell phones, so the constant Conrad calling Belly on the house phone was not my favorite detail.

The weather has been getting nicer and now that flowers are starting to bloom, this was a great choice to get me into the spring and summer spirit. Overall, the general message of the story is prominent and the reader certainly does not forget why all of these characters are acting out of their normal personalities, and hopefully character growth is upon them all for the final book. Even with the qualms I have with the characters, this series is quick to move through and while this installment is certainly a little darker than the first, it has that nice summer feel to it that makes you want to go on a walk.

You can add It's Not Summer Without You on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

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The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1) by Jenny Han Review

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.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!