Trilogy Review: "Summer"

NOTE: This is a review of a trilogy I re-read over the summer, and originally read like 3 years ago or something but I figured this series deserved a blog post.

So this is a review of the "Summer" trilogy by Jenny Han, and the books include The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You, and We'll Always Have Summer.

Now my feelings vary on each book, so I'm just going to divide the review into the three parts. But I'm going to start with the overall praise.

Han. Can. Write. She captured this voice so elegantly, of this girl with a long-time crush on a family friend while struggling with death, adolescence and puberty. While, as an author and a book reviewer, I liked the story... my fangirl side struggled with it.

*PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR SPOILERS AND ALL-CAPS EMOTIONS*

The Summer I Turned Pretty

This one is definitely my favorite. Han wove this story really well, and I was instantly enrapt with the characters and felt for them. I wanted Susannah to live, I wanted Belly to date Jeremiah because I considered him better for her, and I just wanted everything to work out for the characters. You know when books do that and you just care for the characters so much you just want everything to be okay for them? I definitely felt that in the is book. Plus, she did this great thing where she wrote it in the present but then interspersed flashbacks during the different times she lived in the house. I found them really fun to read because it provided such amazing context to the people in the book. I loved it.

350 Jingle Bells out of 355.

This book attacking me with its emotion-causing things

It's Not Summer Without You

I'm going to be completely honest, I didn't exactly like this one as much as the first one. But I did still enjoy it. There was sexual tension and drama and angst and I think Han did a great job again writing it. And it had smatterings of another POV, and that POV happened to be Jeremiah's, which made me very happy. I was really happy when Belly started dating him instead of Conrad. Because Conrad was annoying. I may be the only one, but I was totally fed up with Conrad's bullshit. And I really wanted her to be with Jeremiah... but I'll get to that... I will say, I liked the book a lot.

340 Jingle Bells out of 355

Me with Conrad

We'll Always Have Summer

Okay this book bothered me. Not because it was poorly written or something like (just the opposite, but I'll get to that) but because of the ENDGAME SHIP. Endgame is the couple that "wins" in the end, and that couple happens to be Belly and Conrad. I never wanted them together. But at the same time, and this is why I find myself frustrated with the book, HAN MAKES JEREMIAH CHEAT ON BELLY. I automatically hate it when that happens and no longer ship the ship. So I really wish that hadn't happened. At the same time, I was really annoyed with the fact that Conrad refused to see Belly as a potential girlfriend until she started seeing other people because I find that pretentious. If I can be completely honest, I hoped that she ended up with someone completely different. But that wouldn't be as satisfying as her choosing between the love angle of the Fisher brothers so I AM VERY CONFLICTED AND CONFUSED ALSO NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED YET I DON'T HATE IT DAMMIT.
320 out of 355

Accurately describes my emotions: Confused and Majestic ;)

TL;DR I actually really recommend just reading the entire series in one sitting because it's really well-written and very realistic and tells a good story.

So yeah.

Have a lovely day!

Owyn