The Summer I Turned Pretty

I've been meaning to read the Summer series (or the Summer I Turned Pretty series) by Jenny Han for literal decades. Or just over a decade. I told myself 10+ summers ago that as soon as I finished X series, this one would be next. I told myself a few years ago, after I finished the To All The Boys series, I would finally read this (same fabulous author). When I saw they were making this book into a series, when the series had a trailer, when the series debuted, I said I'd finally read it. Well, I finally did it.

["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."]

The summer, beach-house, first-love tropes were beautiful. The in-love-with-both-brothers thing was angsty as fuck (and familiar in a way I can't place my finger on). I loved the back and forth. I loved not knowing which brother she'd pick or what cringey circumstance she'd get herself into next.

In my opinion, I loved the series as a whole. It was cute and fun and full of teenage-second-hand-embarrassment. I missed how easy ya reads are and how quick it was and how there's just so much less drama (I mean, still a shit ton of drama, but not scary, all-to-real adulthood stuff). 

However, I thought that the end of book one was a little too vague, and overall, didn't have nearly as much romance as I had expected. Book two was just as quick and just as should-have-had-more. Book three felt full and well-rounded, but there just wasn't, overall, much character development (I didn't know what was missing, but I saw this comment on several Goodreads reviews and whole-heartedly agree).

Overall, I was a little disappointed. I'm not sure if I needed more overall from the series, if I'm used to more from new-adult/adult romance books, or if I just kept comparing this series to the To All The Boys series.

Amazon Prime review to come shortly.

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