The Summer I Turned Pretty Review – UPDATED 2019 – By Jenny Han
Jenny Han takes you to carnivals, midnight swimming, broken hearts and first kisses. Best friends meddling, brothers and sand that just won’t settle. You can jump ahead to the book here if you’d like.
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The Summer I Turned Pretty Review – UPDATED 2019
Summer. The one season every girl wishes for, for her secret romances to come true. Jenny Han places all of our longings and crushing desires into a beautiful trilogy starting with The Summer I Turned Pretty. Idyllic coastlines, a thousand memories and a conflicted heart. The Summer I Turned Pretty will be your new obsession; even you will be torn between the Fisher boys.
The book always told in the main character’s, Belly’s, point of view, but some chapters are from when she was younger. Those chapters were out of place at all because it gave us background by showing and not telling. Belly was a likeable main character. She was used to always being considered the baby, the “little sister”. But this year, its different. She can feel Conrad and Jeremiah seeing her in a new light, and she doesn’t know how to handle that.
The two main love interests were intriguing. They were, for one, both brothers, that had grown up with Belly, therefore treating and thinking of her as a little sister. We really got to comprehend their relationship with each other, as every few chapters it would flip to one of the previous, more memorable summers and see how they use to leave her out and not include her. The summers consisted of first love, first crushes, first kisses and first fights. Followed by lots of heartbreak.
Jeremiah was such a lovely, happy, friendly guy and even when Belly yet again rejected him for Conrad, the boy she could never have, he went on pretending it was fine and still joking around and being her best friend. And that’s what Belly viewed him as.
Conrad, Belly’s first love. She has never forgotten about him, never stopped thinking about him. He stole a piece of her heart and she will never get that back, he consumes her mind, and heart, too much.
Conrad was always quiet and moody towards Belly and not acting like the boy she once knew. He never spent time with them, never realized she was old enough to make her own decisions Susannah is such a lovely person. She’s sweet and gentle and didn’t deserve to be going through what she did.
The ending to me, was heart-breaking. Everyone was growing up; everyone might not return to the beach house the next summer; with Conrad going to summer school, Jeremiah going to football camp, Belly starting college. When you read the entries of the previous summers, you feel like you experienced those summers right next to them.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Summary
The trilogy follows a teenage girl named Isabel “Belly” Conklin and the summers she spends at a residence known as Cousin’s Beach, with her mother and older brother, Steven. Also staying on the island is her mother’s lifelong best friend, Susannah, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah.
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 wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
Isabel is the shy girl who has been in love with the boy-next-door, Conrad, for the whole of her life. Every summer, being the only girl, she competes for her place among the boys’ antics, fighting to get in a little trouble and be a little naughty. She lives for every summer to be reunited with Susannah Fisher, her mother’s long-time best friend and her two sons at Cousins Beach. The only thing is, this year couldn’t be more different.
Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher always regarded Isabel with brotherly affection but this year it turns to flirtation and the affection may just turn into love. The constant reflections into the past reveal the dynamics between the trio and Susannah’s deep secrets that will without a doubt bring a tear to your eye. Jenny Han takes you to carnivals, midnight swimming, broken hearts and first kisses. Best friends meddling, brothers and sand that just won’t settle. Isabel is the innocent girl caught between the bad boy and the golden guy. Then the boyfriend comes along.
Summer I Turned Pretty Movie on Netflix
The Summer I turned Pretty novel was made into a movie in August 2013. The author, Jenny Han, wrote on her tumblr page, “NYT bestselling author Jenny Han’s book trilogy THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, optioned to LIONSGATE Television (Weeds, Mad Men) and Allison Shearmur Productions and will be developed for a TV series, by Holly McGhee of Pippin Properties and Jason Dravis of Montiero-Rose-Dravis.”
The plot is almost exactly the same as the novel but with some few additions. Belly had an older brother called Steven. However, the series is no longer being made into a television series. It could be made into a show if it gets enough publicity and popularity.
Some of the cast of the movie are:
• Phoebie Tonkin who played Belly Conklin
• Alex Pettyfer as Jeremiah Fisher
• Colton Haynes played Conrad Fisher
• Penn Badgley played Steven Conklin
• Kelly Rowan as Susannah Fisher
• Robert John Burke played Mr Fisher
• Sela Ward as Laurel
Other Jenny Han Books
Jenny Han has written more novels, some of which have been made into movies. She has two series novels: Burn for Burn and Summer. The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first novel in the Summer series. It is followed by It’s Not Summer Without You and We’ll Always Have Summer.
There are three novels under the Burn for Burn series: Burn for Burn, Fire with Fire and Ashes to Ashes, which she co-authored with Siobhan Vivian. Other books she’s written are:
• Shug
• Demigods and Monsters
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
• Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream
• P.S. I Still Love You
• My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
• Always and Forever, Lara Jean
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