Review by Kayla, In Love & Words Teen Reader
Overall Rating: 5 Stars
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (Summer Book 1)
[Kindle eBook]
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer–they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
Review
This book made me laugh, smile, and cry! It’s one of those books that is just so good and filled with emotion that you can’t put it down. Let’s just say, I LOVED this book!
Belly, a forever childhood nickname for Isabella, is 15 when the book begins. She is a girl who just wants to be noticed. Belly claims that she measures her life in summer because that’s the best time of the year.
She goes to Cousins Beach every single summer with her mom and older brother Steven. Once they finally arrive at Susannah’s beach house, Belly’s mother’s best friend since they were children.
Belly has become such good friends with Jeremiah, and has had a crush on Conrad, Jeremiah’s brother, both of whom are Susannah’s sons. But every single summer, Belly is left out and unnoticed. When Steven, Jeremiah, and Conrad all hang out, Belly stays behind, uninvited. When Belly is noticed, she usually is made fun of being a “baby” since she is younger than all of them.
This particular summer is different. Belly is miraculously perceived. Both boys look at her in a way the never did before. But things get complicated with relationships and when Belly finds out a tragic truth.
I really enjoyed this book and appreciated the emotion. It could make you cry, but the whole story didn’t revolve around sadness, it balanced perfectly between good and bad that made my heart beat faster because of the intensity that made it even more amazing! And not only did it give me emotion, it gave me some butterflies too!
Butterfly Rating: 4 Stars
Book Boyfriend Rating
This was very hard for me because there is not 1, not 2, but 3 boys in this book! But, not all of them were her boyfriend, I just had to include them all in here but each for a different reason. For Jeremiah, I would give him a ⅗, he wasn’t the the best even though some things he did were cute, but he just wasn’t my favorite. For Conrad I’d give him a ⅖, in this first book he did things that are in my definitely not list! And as for Cam I’d give him a ⅗ because although he was nice, he didn’t appeal to me as much as I would have liked for a book boyfriend.
Kayla’s Age Recommendation: 13+
There are a total of 3 books in this series:
- The summer I turned pretty
- It’s not summer without you
- We’ll always have summer
Grab a Copy of The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
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