'We'll Always Have Summer' Summer #3 by Jenny Han

From the BLURB

It's been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college-- only, their relationship hasn't exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It's time for Belly to decide, once and for all, who has her heart forever.

** MAJOR SPOILERS of ‘We’ll Always Have Summer’ **

Belly made her choice, and she chose Jeremiah. Conrad didn’t want her, may never have loved her, despite her ages-old devotion to him. But Jeremiah – he was always there, and Belly finally realized that. They have been together for two years now. Two perfect years of contentment and love, spent at the same university and heading in the same, permanent, direction.

But when that love is tested by a hurtful mistake, Jeremiah takes drastic measures to keep Belly. A proposal on the back of an apology, and suddenly Belly finds herself growing up faster than she may be ready . . .

‘We’ll Always Have Summer’ is the final book in Jenny Han’s wonderful ‘Summer’ trilogy.

I wanted this finale to go out on an explosive BANG – instead I got lukewarm and slight disgruntlement with this, the final installment to a wonderful contemporary romance series . . .

The book kicks off with a betrayal. Jeremiah does something not unusual, but still heartbreaking and disappointing. What follows is an appalling marriage proposal (on the back of an apology over a meaningless and regrettable one-night-stand). And Belly accepts. At the tender age of eighteen, Belly decides to marry Jeremiah Fisher and start a life with him. But her mother’s adamant disappointment in the whole affair is a tragedy, and Belly escape to Susannah’s summer house to finish planning her wedding (with just two months preparation before the big day!). But when she arrives at the summer house, she discovers a live-in resident in the form of Conrad, home from California and his premed studies. Belly has managed to run from her torn-in-two love for the Fisher boys, but an impending marriage to one of them stirs up old feelings for the boy she always thought she’d end up with . . .

I had a few grumbles with this finale. The first, and most annoying, was Belly’s seemingly stilted personal growth. When she discovers Jeremiah’s infidelity (via an overheard confession from the scarlet woman) she initially assumes his ‘hook-up’ was a kiss. Oh, dear. When she learns that ‘hook-up’ is college-speak for ‘sex’, Belly’s heartache is ten-fold. She is adamant on leaving him, and disgusted at their tainted love.

But when Jeremiah apologizes and proposes marriage (practically in the same breath) Belly is quick to forgive and put the past behind them . . . and, really, Jeremiah’s infidelity is hardly touched upon again. Belly doesn’t even think about his betrayal, nor discuss it with her friends . . . once that ring is on her finger, all is forgotten.

Sorry, but I wasn’t buying that. Forgiven, but not forgotten – and not when the boy in question is your first serious, *serious* boyfriend whom you picked colleges with and have known your whole life. Belly’s determined silence about Jeremiah’s hurtful mistake spoke volumes and turned into a character flaw on her part – making Belly into a child, content in her blissful ignorance. I would have at least liked a proper confrontation with the ‘other’ woman.

My second complaint about ‘Always’ was Jenny Han’s absolute character assassination of Jeremiah. The book begins with his unfaithfulness, and he only gets worse from there . . . devolving into a parody frat-boy whose glaring childishness made me cringe at every turn. The highlight was when he requested a Quentin Tarantino themed wedding (I’m still not sure if he was kidding. . . ?)

The ‘Summer’ series hinged on Belly’s growing into a young woman, and being torn between the brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah. In the beginning there was only ever Conrad for Belly . . . until he eviscerated her heart and forced her to question if he ever had feelings for her. Jeremiah, by contrast, was Belly’s loyal and stead-fast friend, the boy waiting in the wings hoping for the day when Belly would look away from Conrad long enough to notice him. . . this was a brilliantly complex love triangle. And Han started out by complicating matters further when she made both Conrad and Jeremiah true contenders for Belly’s heart.

I would always have Conrad in my heart. He would inhabit just that tiny piece of it, the little-girl part that still believed in musicals, but that was it. That was all he got. Jeremiah would have everything else – the present me and the future me. That was what was important. Not the past.
Maybe that was how it was with all first loves. They own a little piece of your heart, always. Conrad at twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen even seventeen years old. For the rest of my life, I would think of him fondly, the way you do your first pet, the first car you drove. Firsts were important. But I was pretty sure lasts were even more important. And Jeremiah, he was going to be my last and my every and my always.

In ‘Always’, there is no competition and no real conflict of love. Jeremiah bears no resemblance to himself from two books previous, and can therefore never be taken seriously as a contender for Belly’s love. By default, it has to be Conrad. Although, I wasn’t even overly thrilled with the choice of him. . .

In ‘Always’ we get Conrad’s POV alongside Belly’s. We come to understand his conflicted love for Belly, which came at the inconvenient time during his mother’s final months. We learn that Conrad decided to pretend he never wanted her, never loved her – thereby pushing Belly into Jeremiah’s arms. But now that his brother is marrying ‘his girl’, Conrad wants her back – for good and forever.

At one point in ‘Always’, Belly’s previously air-head friend, Taylor, makes the astute observation that Conrad is like a child. A little boy who put his toy down and walked away, but is now upset that someone else is playing with it. He’s like the dog in the manger. Throughout ‘Always’ Han tries to reconnect Conrad and Belly (via wedding preparations for her and Jeremiah’s wedding. Awkward!) but it feels forced and there’s a severely missing spark between them. I was inordinately annoyed when Conrad proclaimed his love for Belly, and asked her not to marry his brother. Big talk. But that’s all it was – talk. In my opinion, Conrad never did anything to earn Belly’s love. It was always her, chasing after him . . .

And that leads to my final complaint about ‘We’ll Always Have Summer’. We needed more. We needed at least another 250-pages to read Belly grow up and Conrad earn her love. Han rushes the ending, leaving present-time Belly on a sour note and dumped at the altar, only to summarize in the epilogue that she spent two years doing a lot of growing (student exchange to Spain!) and falling back in love with Conrad – enough to marry him. Skip to – happily-ever-after. But it’s too fast. By the end of ‘Always’ I still wasn’t convinced that Conrad was the guy for her. I needed to read him fight to regain her trust and fight for her, for them – I needed to read Conrad’s long, outpouring love letters to Belly while she was away in Spain . . . I needed to read the brother’s reconciliation since Jeremiah and Belly’s disastrous break-up. I needed more. Not this rushed amalgamation of a happily-ever-after tied up with a neat little bow.

2/5

'It's Not Summer Without You' Summer #2 by Jenny Han

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

When something is perfect, you hope it never ends . . .

Isabel's lazy, long hot summers at her family friends' beach house are over.

Conrad – sexy and unavailable - is the only boy she's ever loved. He's left for college, taking her heart with him. Jeremiah, his gorgeous brother, is still Isabel's best friend – but maybe friendship isn't enough for him anymore . . .

Isabel just wants everything to stay the same, because change means moving on. But if she stops looking back, will she find a future she never knew she wanted?

** Contains MAJOR spoilers of Book #1 ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ **

Susannah is gone and Belly’s heart with her. There will never again be a summer with Susannah at the house in Cousins – no more singing along to Aretha Franklin, no more blueberry muffins and no more heart-to-hearts with Belly’s pretend-mother. Susannah is dead, and Belly’s sadness engulfs the summer season . . .

Belly is seventeen and spending her first summer without Susannah and her summer boys, Jeremiah and Conrad . . . and maybe that’s for the best.

Following the explosive last summer vacation, Belly finally admitted her feelings to Conrad. Heart on sleeve, Belly revealed all – every ounce of love in her heart – and Conrad wanted her right back. For six whole months they dated long-distance while he was away at college. Speaking on the phone every night and even sneaking out to the summer house for one memorable evening. While his mother was slowly dying, Belly was Conrad’s constant in a suddenly turbulent life.

. . . So it’s pathetically sad how they ended. With Belly crying at her Prom and Conrad walking away, not even looking back.

Then Susannah died and Conrad slipped even further away. In the process, Belly cut herself off from Jeremiah, right when he needed her most.

Now Conrad has run away. Jeremiah and Belly know where he has taken refuge, but not why. Belly lost her best friend and first love when Conrad rejected her months ago, but her summer boys need her now and she won’t turn her back on either of them.

‘It’s Not Summer Without You’ is the second book in Jenny Han’s YA contemporary romance ‘Summer’ trilogy.

I was crying from the first page of this book. Susannah’s death was inevitable since the tragic reveal of her worsening condition in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’. Still, I was blubbering like a fool for the first half of this book.

Susannah’s passing is the carrying tragedy of the follow-up book. Her death impacts everyone – Belly’s mother, Laurel, is withdrawn and distant since losing her best friend. Conrad has become self-destructive, and Belly is heartsick at losing her pretend-mother. Susannah’s loss is felt by all, even the reader. She was just a lovely presence in the first book, and clearly an impact on Belly’s young life. The sorrow of her death reverberates throughout this second novel.

But Han’s trilogy is focused on young love. And for that reason I found myself crying for the romantic heartbreaks in Belly’s young life as for the more saddening and maddening death of Susannah.

When ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ ended, Belly and Conrad were embarking on a tentative and tender new romance. When ‘Without You’ begins, Belly speaks haltingly about her and Conrad’s disastrous break-up, and a fall-out that has yet to be fixed. This second book doesn’t have the same year-leaping flashbacks as ‘Turned Pretty’ did, instead Han slowly revisits Belly and Conrad’s crumbling relationship bit by bit. And it is a disaster; of epic proportions (at least it is for a sixteen-year-old girl). The height of Belly’s heartbreak comes at her prom, where she is left crying and bedraggled, watching Conrad stride away and knowing that they are over (if they were ever even together?).

Now, in the grand scheme of plot Susannah’s death is far more gut-wrenching than Conrad and Belly’s collapsed puppy love. But I absolutely bawled my eyes out during Belly’s recount of her prom-date heartbreak. I think it’s because Han is so evilly and wonderfully good at recounting the disasters of youth. You feel Belly’s crushed hopes with visceral tenderness as Han forces you to remember your own first love, and the inevitable first heartbreak. She deftly conjures those feelings of crushed dreams and tormented love – all of it felt deeper and was heightened for being your first. But it’s even worse for Belly – for most people first loves are classroom disasters and playground fancy – but Belly had known Conrad her whole life, and loved him for almost as long. His rejection of her is a tragedy from a much greater height.

We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything. In his eyes, there was no trace of what had happened between us earlier, and I could feel something inside me break.
So that was that. We were finally, finally over.
I looked at him, and I felt so sad, because this thought occurred to me: I will never look at you in the same way ever again. I’ll never be that girl. The girl who comes running back every time you push her away, the girl who loves you anyway.

I really didn’t like Conrad in this book. Objectively, I can see his appeal (and understand his crush-worthiness for a young Belly). Conrad is smart and reclusive; he keeps to himself and doesn’t trust easily. But when he loves you, he protects you viciously and gives so much of himself. There’s an addictive quality to him – this unattainable, gentle soul. But he’s also somewhat selfish, and cowardly in his love for Belly. I couldn’t get past his prom debacle, nor his subsequent ill-treatment of the heart-wounded Belly. I understand his appeal, but as far as I can tell, he has done nothing to earn Belly’s devotion.

Now, Jeremiah is a different story all together. Jeremiah is a goofball who is never happier than when he’s making other people laugh. Part of ‘Without You’ is told from Jeremiah’s perspective – and for the first time we get to understand his angst at being Conrad’s shadow (to their father, and now Belly). We read his changing feelings of protective love towards the girl who is his best friend. I loved Jeremiah! He is such a sweetheart, and I hate that he feels second-best in all things to Conrad (especially Belly). I can’t wait to read how that all changes in the final book . . .

‘It’s Not Summer Without You’ continues Jenny Han’s ludicrously addictive ‘Summer’ trilogy. In this instalment Belly deals with loss and heartbreak in one disastrous year, devoid of summer. She learns the perils of loving and starts to understand that a person’s first may not necessarily by their last.

5/5

'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Summer #1 by Jenny Han

From the BLURB:

Everything that happened this past summer, and every summer before it, has all led up to this. To now.

Every year Isabel spends a perfect summer at her family friends' house. There's the swimming pool at night, the private stretch of sandy beach . . . and the two boys. Unavailable, aloof Conrad – who she's been in love with forever – and friendly, relaxed Jeremiah, the only one who's ever really paid her any attention.

But this year something is different. They seem to have noticed her for the first time. It's going to be an amazing summer – and one she'll never forget . . .

Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin measures her life in summers. Each year it’s a countdown to the glorious months spent in Cousins, at Susannah’s summer house. Belly’s mother and Susannah are childhood friends, as close as sisters. Belly and her brother Steven have been visiting the summer house since infancy, and spending long, lazy summer days in the company of Susannah’s boys, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher.

As much as Belly loves the summer house and visiting her pretend-mother Susannah, she always feels out of step with her childhood friends. She is the youngest of the summer kids, and the only girl in this close-knit boys club. She was always pleading to tag along or being left out – desperate to be a part of the group, but always out of sync.

Things became even more complicated for Belly when she developed her first real crush on Conrad, the elder of the Fisher boys. Jeremiah was always funny and smiling, he is Belly’s best friend in the whole world. But Conrad, he’s different. The eldest of the kids, he is quiet and aloof, full of pride and quiet intensity and Belly hero-worshipped him throughout her younger years. As a young teenager her crush turned to love of the first and permanent kind . . . but as much as Belly pined after Conrad, he remained oblivious to her devotion . . . Until this summer.

This summer, Belly is turning sixteen, and Jeremiah and Conrad are both noticing her in a whole new light.

The summer house is where Belly did most of her growing up, and experienced the majority of her first’s. First kiss. First crush. First love. First heartbreak.

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ is the first book in the contemporary romance YA ‘Summer’ trilogy from Jenny Han.

I have had all three ‘Summer’ books sitting in my TBR pile since April. I impulsively bought them when the final book in the trilogy was released, and ‘Summer’ fandom seemed to reach a fever-pitch. I was pretty sure I'd love these books – they sounded like a good, juicy bit of contemporary romance fun and I adored the whimsical front covers. Still, I was a little taken aback by just how much I loved these books . . . consuming all three in one weekend and devouring a box of Kleenex in the process!

The same way that other children measure the year according to Christmas’s approach, Belly measures by summers. Every year for as long as she can remember she, her mother and brother would leave their father behind and venture to Cousins and the summer house. It was here that Belly took comfort in the nurturing home of Susannah, her mother’s dearest friend and Belly’s confidante (whom she often felt closer to than her own biological mother). But the summer house was most special for Belly’s boys – Jeremiah and Conrad. These are two people she has grown up with – from bullying kids to surly young adults and finally turning into intriguing young men . . .

Belly’s story is that of young love. Because as much as her calendar is a countdown to summer, Belly’s life has been marked by these two boys and their impact on her. . .

Jeremiah owns her first kiss. Conrad taught her to dance. They have, in turn, been her best friends and worst enemies. Jenny Han marks the up’s and down’s of Belly’s tumultuous friendship with the boys – from young buddies to blossoming crushes – through flashbacks of various other summers. As Belly lives out the summer of her sweet sixteen, she is in turns astounded and curious at the impact her changing self is having on Jeremiah and Conrad . . . as their dynamic alters, she thinks back to the summer’s when she was 11, 12, 13 and nothing but an annoying tag-along to their big boys club.

I’m not always a huge fan of the flashback, but Han utilizes it superbly – equal parts informative and whimsical. It’s the retrospect of a young girl; so Belly swings between being outraged by the boy’s bad behaviour, to heart sick with love for the older and elusive Conrad. Her flashbacks are tragic because they’re so relatable, never more so than when she’s 13 and watching from the sidelines as Conrad starts to take an interest in the opposite sex (except for her) and when he starts treating her more like a little sister than an equal. I loved Belly’s younger voice, particularly because Han’s deft pen does give Belly a different echo between her rewinding younger self, and current sixteen-year-old bewildered by her newfound magnetism.

“You’ve always been lovely, but oh honey, look at you.” She shook her head like she was in awe of me. “You’re so pretty. So pretty. You’re going to have an amazing, amazing summer. It’ll be a summer you’ll never forget.” Susannah always spoke in absolutes like that – and when she did, it sounded like a proclamation, like it would come true because she said so.

The thing is, Susannah was right. It was a summer I'd never, ever forget. It was the summer everything began. It was the summer I turned pretty. Because for the first time, I felt it. Pretty, I mean. Every summer up to this one, I believed it’d be different. Life would be different. And that summer, it finally was. I was.

When these books were initially released and creating a furore, I was a little sceptical of the title. ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ sounded sickeningly egotistical, and I worried that this would be a book about a girl realizing her body’s new effect on the opposite sex. Let’s face it, as women we’ve all known girls like that . . . those who were so sweet in their younger years, but became boy-crazy in puberty and saw fellow female as ‘the enemy’. Thankfully, Han’s title is a little misleading . . . It’s clear from Conrad and Jeremiah’s reactions to her that Belly has grown from a child into a young woman in the span of one year. To read their responses to her, we can tell that Belly has even turned into quite the beautiful young woman. But Belly herself remains none the wiser. She still prefers oversized T-shirts to dresses. She hates heels and lives in sneakers. And she marks herself as wanting when she compares her looks to the girl’s Conrad is interested in. Han also discounts Belly’s vanity by comparing her to her best friend, Taylor, who visited the summer house at age 14 and was indeed one of those girls who was pretty, and knew it.

I loved Belly. I loved that she was oblivious to herself, yet acutely aware of those around her. She is a very observant young girl, especially when it comes to Jeremiah and Conrad. She wisely observes the fact that she feels a twinge of jealousy when Jeremiah takes an interest in Taylor (when he has never noticed Belly in such a way). And she can read Conrad like an open book, even when his actions belie his true feelings . . . . Belly is just like so many young girls. Awkward and blossoming, unknowing of herself and unbelieving of people’s interest in her.

I loved Belly and her evolving relationship with the summer boys. But I also think that ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ is a rather impressive character exploration. Conrad and Jeremiah are not boy-crush-prototypes. They’re both complicated and messy young men – Conrad in his surly anger and quiet pride, and Jeremiah’s hidden feelings of inferiority against his older brother, beloved by their father. And it’s not just that boys who get deep back story – the adults in Han’s novel are as important as their children. Susannah is keeping secrets, and it’s more than just her crumbling marriage. Belly can’t figure out why her parents divorced, but believes it’s because her mother is an enigma. . . I love any YA book that puts parents in the spotlight and doesn’t just sweep them under the rug. Han writes an excellent intertwining story of young and old, heartbreak and romance by including stories that concern the young characters and their parents.

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ is a great little slice of contemporary romance. It’s a very tame romance, since Belly is just starting out in womanhood . . . but the book is full of wanting. Belly’s heartache bleeds on the page and every girl reading (and a few women too!) will completely and utterly live Belly’s soaring crush and devastating heartbreak. It’s young love, in all its up and down glory.

5/5