It's Not Summer Without You : a review

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han (2010)

In this follow-up to The Summer I Turned Pretty, we skip ahead to the following summer. Much has happened in between – Belly had a disastrous relationship with Conrad, culminating in a prom night break-up, and Susannah has died of cancer. A couple of months later Jeremiah calls Belly in a panic because Conrad has gone missing from summer school. All three end up at the summer house in Cousins in a desperate attempt to right everything that has gone horribly terribly wrong.

There are a lot of flashbacks to the things that have happened, like Susannah’s funeral and Belly’s quasi-relationship with Conrad, but the focus here is on the future. All the characters are hurting because of Susannah’s death, and the relationships are all strained because of it. I thought Han did a good job of this actually. Sequels are tough, and this one surely couldn’t be anything like the first simply because of what has happened, and she deftly handled the developments and aftermath.

It’s not a happily ever after and she leaves some question marks at the end. I think her point – at least this is what I take from it – is that it doesn’t matter because nothing really, truly ends. Our lives are changing all the time, and regardless of who Belly ends up in a relationship with at the end of the book, she hasn’t “ended up” at all because she’s only 16. Many more things will happen to her and there is no way to predict them this early. (No Harry Potter/Hunger Games epilogues here!)

If you really just want a feel-good summer novel, maybe just stick to the first book. But for further insight and character development (or if, like me, you always need to know what happens next) I do recommend reading this book as well. Let me know what you think of it!

The Summer I Turned Pretty : a review

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (2009)

Belly absolutely lives for her summers at the beach house in Cousins. Every summer she’s gone with her mom, brother, mom’s best friend Susannah, and Susannah’s sons Jeremiah and Conrad. She doesn’t miss her school friends at all, or regret that she can’t attend their summer parties and Fourth of July get-togethers. In fact, the one time she brought her best friend, she regretted it. Summers are meant to be spent with only these particular people. Jeremiah is her best friend, Susannah like her second mother. And ever since she can remember, Belly has been in love with Conrad. Moody, elusive Conrad who has never given her a second look. Until this summer, when both boys notice that Belly isn’t a little girl anymore.

There is a coming-of-age feel to the novel, because this is the first summer that Belly is invited out to parties with the boys which creates friction with her brother Steven. And while I wouldn’t call her relationships with Conrad and Jeremiah a romantic triangle, there is plenty of tension.

There is another shadow cast over this summer as well. Susannah has been spending more and more time napping or out on alleged shopping trips with Belly’s mom Laurel. There is mention of an impending divorce, but we learned in the beginning of the novel that Susannah once had cancer, and every astute reader knows there’s a reason we are given this backstory. Belly has to grow up in many ways during this novel, and accept that the summers she loves are changing forever.

This is a great summer YA novel, completely free of high school related drama, which I appreciated, but there is plenty of romantic tension and adolescent angst. I liked Belly’s changing relationships with Conrad and Jeremiah, and her confusion and outbursts felt genuine. I hated that her name was Belly (short for Isabel – such a better name!) but she is a character you can root for.