Name: Lauren Dale's review of The summer I turned pretty by Jenny Han
Item: The summer I turned pretty
Rating: 4
Author: Lauren Dale

Jenny Han

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.

Summer #1

The summer I turned pretty

This quote really made me happy. In this we see belly finally making things right and the kids all getting along for there most likely last summer together. I think him saying they will come back makes me think they will but it will never be the same without Susannah.

Fiona Sanchez 

"Conrad shook his head."It doesn't matter. We'll always come back." Briefly I wondered if he ment just him and Jeremiah, and then he said, "All of us."(Han 273)

Eva Marquant

‘Niemand kan je een gevoel geven, Belly. Niet zonder jouw toestemming.’ - Laurel

Kylie Robinson

I don't know that he was as good-looking as Susannah was beautiful, but that might've just been because I loved Susannah more than almost anyone, who could ever measure up to person like that? Sometimes it's like people are a million times more beautiful to you in your mind. lts ike you see them through a special lens-but maybe if it's how you see them, that’s how they really are. It's like the whole tree falling in the forest thing.

tianna

Susannah was dying, and I was kissing Conrad.

I stared at him. Wasn't he the one who was supposed to be convincing me? "Are you serious?" What I really wanted to say was, Are you gay?

Taylor pouted. "Don't be so gay'' she said. 

Jeremiah said, “You shouldn't use the word 'gay' like that."

Conrad looked at me and said, "What's with the perfume? It's giving me a headache. And why are you wearing all that makeup?”

tinica

The next day my mother didn’t mention anything, but she didn’t have to. She could make me feel guilty without saying a word.

Its the imperfections that make things beautiful.”

He made it so hard not to love him. When he was sweet like this, I remembered why I did. Used to love him, I mean. 

“Nice job,” he said, giving me one of his rare smiles. I felt like I had won the lottery from that one smile. 

“I play to win,” I told him. I knew he did too.

Steven still looked grumpy, and he said, “Con, take my spot.” 

“All right,” Conrad said, but his voice said he didn’t want to at all. 

When he swam over to me, I said defensively, “I’m not that heavy.” 

“I never said you were.” Then he stooped in front of me, and I climbed on top. His shoulders were more muscular than Jeremiah’s, more weighty. “You okay up there?” 

And of course Jeremiah had never looked at me that way before either. I was his pal. His movie-watching partner, the girl he shared a bathroom with, shared secrets with. I wasn’t the girl he kissed.

He pulled on my foot, drawing me closer. Being this close to him was making me feel dizzy and nervous. I said it again, one last time, even though I didn’t mean it. “Conrad, let go of me.” u

He did. And then he dunked me. It didn’t matter. I was already holding my breath.

Smirky mouths make you want to kiss them, to smooth them out and kiss the smirkiness away. Or maybe not away … but you want to control it somehow. Make it yours. It was exactly what I wanted to do with Conrad. Make him mine.

For me, it was almost like winter didn’t count. Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in summers. Like I don’t really begin living until June, until I’m at that beach, in that house.

Susannah told me that when I was born, she knew I was destined for one of her boys. She said it was fate.

Now a streaming series! Belly has an unforgettable summer in this stunning start to the Summer I Turned Pretty series from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han. Some summers are just destined to be pretty. 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.

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Valle Fernandez

For me, is almost like winter didn't count. Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in summers 

Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different.

Rachel Braithwaite

“I can’t believe he has to ask. I would go anywhere.

‘Yes,’ I tall him. It feels like nothing else exists outside of that word, this moment. There’s just us. Everything that happened this past summer, and every summer before it, has all led up to this. To now.”

“Even paradise could be suffocating.”

“I wondered if it was possible to take someone’s pain away with a kiss. Because that was what I wanted to do, take all of his sadness and pour it out of him, comfort him, make the boy I knew come back.”

“The old pull, the tide drawing me back in. I kept getting caught in this current—first love, I mean. First love kept making me come back to this, to him. He still took my breath away, just being near him. I had been lying to myself the night before, thinking I was free, thinking I had let him go. It didn’t matter what he said or did, I’d never let him go.”

“She’d know me my whole life. It’s hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.”

Jessica Koch

I wanted to watch the show before I read the books. In the book Belly’s so whiny and only felt like an opening. But it was a super fast read (literally could’ve read it in like a day)

Lauren Dale

It was a pretty good story, it was cute. Honestly it was short, sweet, and everything you could expect from a YA

Bushra Yenice

I am late to the game with this but I wanted to read the books first before diving in the series. 

Belly frustrated me a bit in this book, with all the push and pull with the boys but her moments with Cam were cute, I must say.

Thankfully when she found out about Sussanah knocked some sense into her.

Maui S.

I am late to the game with this but I wanted to read the books first before diving in the series. 

Belly frustrated me a bit in this book, with all the push and pull with the boys but her moments with Cam were cute, I must say.

Thankfully when she found out about Sussanah knocked some sense into her.

Jordan McLean

Dieses Buch hat mich wieder Teenager werden lassen. 

Ein quick read zum entspannen, träumen und sich Gedanken machen, in wessen Team man ist (Conrad oder Jeremiah) xd

Mariam Raji

Dieses Buch hat mich wieder Teenager werden lassen. 

Ein quick read zum entspannen, träumen und sich Gedanken machen, in wessen Team man ist (Conrad oder Jeremiah) xd

Liebs.

A quick easy read but so sad and so beautiful. Definitely a little different than the show but I love it. 

Brianna Hickey 

Not the kind of book for me. I can’t help but feel like I just wasted a day of my life listening to this…. It just feels really immature, even for a high school summer love. Felt pointless with no meaning. 

Jessy Tatum

The author's writing is beautiful but the plot feels confusing overall I don't like how the story jumps around in time instead of following a normal sequence moving from age 14 to 11 to 9, and so on. I do enjoy the breezy summer vibes in the book but it's not my favourite. Honestly I don't see the hype.

Aalaa

maggie sweeney

I don’t think I’ve ever been THAT pissed off while reading a book 

🥔

radhika dhawan

(i listened to the audiobook) i want to be clear that these stars are for lola tung’s voice and nothing else

I knew the whole plot from the first chapter.  Still fun, still cried. Belly is a huge simp, respectfully. I'm glad I can finally watch the amazon series. ♡

demeter <3

I knew the whole plot from the first chapter.  Still fun, still cried. Belly is a huge simp, respectfully. I'm glad I can finally watch the amazon series. ♡

Team Conrad fo shoo

I loved this book so much. I started reading it because I liked the show but the book was just 100% better. I couldn't stop reading it.

it was a cute book but also very mediocre. 

Haley Bucklin

lauren

ashamed i finished this very quickly 
very mediocre but 2 stars because it’s fun sometimes

Lauren R

it was cute i read it pretty damn fast. this the perfect book for my delulu ass

brooklyn leota

I loved the series so gave the book a try. 

I liked experiencing the flashbacks and the links they had to the present story. I love Conrad, but I hate him. Both Conrad and Jeremiah are toxic as hell. Taylor is a whole different story, she just isn't nice and I appreciate show Taylor WAY more now. 

I listened to this and Lola Tung read it. That made the experience so much better, she has such a beautiful voice.

Emily Wisnesky

guess I’ll just stick to the show, I can’t stand book belly

buny

Ahhhhh :) I loved this so much, surprisingly so. 

First of all, I'd like to say that all the people who hate Belly have either, never been 15 before or just outright refuse to accept that teenagers are, in fact, whiny and nosy and obnoxious and dramatic. It was so embarassing (not really) that this book that I started to read with no expectations, not a single spark of curiosity inside me attacked me with such a clear reflection of myself in Belly when I was her age, in her dramatics of I hate... and infatuation with this new species of boys that has been unlocked to her, who are wondrous and so  so  hateful, her desperation to fit in among her peers, her relationship with her mother and Suzannah, how they contrasted; her dislike for her mother stemming from being young and clueless of how much one's mother does for them and that you're blind to it because you're just so self-involved, so desperate to prove you're something other than your mother's little one. Oh, I can go on and on. You silly little book, you did not have the right to affect me the way you did. 

No opinion on Jeremiah but plenty of em on Conrad. I don't think whatever shit you are going through renders it impossible for you to be a decent human being, someone who has at least basic freaking decency to not be an ass all the time. He could've been better but in the end, rememering the actor who plays Conrad in the show made his interactions with Belly bearable for me and Belly's love for him, although doomed and stupid because it is a first love after all, no matter how rooted in infatuation and lack of cuter boys around her, made me smile at how innocent young love is. I definitely teared up in the end. The potrayal of familial love was so realistic and heartwarming and so. I loved everything about this, seriously. 

So looking forward to book #2! Hope it's as good as this one was. I still can't believe how true and real this book got from the very first page, like. Wow. 

Also was it just me who got  We Were Liars  vibes from this with the beach house and a group of kids and things slowly falling apart by the end? A bit different as this isn't a thriller but the resemblance was pretty hard to ignore.

Vicky  Nuñez 

I don't usually read contemporary YA & what I mean by that is that I barely read of the genre. As a matter of fact, I avoid it at all cost. What made me change my mind you might wonder? Well, this little book called Anna & the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, which if you haven't read please do, it's simply brilliant!

 Anyway, I've heard great things about this book, but I never even consider reading it. I even read the synopsis to see if maybe I changed my mind, but I found it atrocious & swore I wouldn't read it. But if you like books and I'm guessing you do if you are reading this, the you might find from time to time wondering wtf is wrong with some books today. Like, seriously lately there are so much clichés in books nowadays trying to imitate Twilight's success that it made me sad. Depress even. I didn't read a book for ALMOST TWO WEEKS! Because I didn't saw a book worth reading (YA of course).

Just when I thought I was a lost cause & I would have to conform with classic literature, I decided to give this book a chance & holy cow if I didn't did the right thing! 

The Summer I Turned Pretty restored my faith in YA. Here is a beautiful story which seems to be just another boy meets girl & boy has a brother story, but which is actually so sweet and so well written that it's actually kind of freaking awesome. 

What I'm trying to say is, if you haven't read this because it seems dubious & that it will be just another story, well, READ IT, because you my friend are in for a sweet, cotton-filled, smothering, brother-packed love story that will have you waiting for more.

Overall, The Summer I Turned Pretty is the perfect light story to make you feel better and it's all Jenny Han's labor.

Sarah T

Overall, a really enjoyable read. I started it, expecting it to be just like the adapted TV show, but it wasn't. The plot, the order of events, the details, and the characters were all a bit different. I liked how Belly's motivations and character were portrayed for the reader. One thing that the TV show did a bit better was show a deeper friendship between Belly and Taylor. Maybe the second book will do that. 
The Summer I Turned Pretty felt short and sweet and made me want to start the next book right away (especially after the very last chapter).

kayla 

Maybe I'm just too old for these types of reads, but I honestly think my 14-year-old sister would be too mature for this book. Sooooo take that as you will

Jessica Koch &
The summer I turned pretty by Jenny Han

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The summer I turned pretty by Jenny Han