Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han 
Published: May 5th, 2009 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 288 (paperback)
Challenge: 100+ Reading Challenge, YA Series Challenge,
Other: First book in the Summer series. There are three books in the series, all of which are published. The last book, We'll Always Have Summer, was published on April 26th, 2011.
Buy the book: Bookdepository


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.

A fabulous book. Really, a great book. When I picked up The Summer I Turned Pretty, I thought it would be one of those summer reads with a cute romance and that's it. But Han touches on so many more subjects in this book.

In this book, we follow Belly around, who spends her summers at the beach house, together with her mom, her mom's best friend and her two sons; Jeremiah and Conrad. I found Belly easy to follow around. She's a sweet girl and has had a crush on one of the boys for as long as she can remember. While she is trying to get noticed, all kinds of things play in the background, making it not a typical fluffy read.

Even though I was rooting for the 'wrong team', I found this a great book. Her writing is easy to read and I finished this book in a couple of hours because I couldn't put it down. I just got the second book in and I can't wait what happens next in Belly's story.

My overall rating:

Four fabulous sunny stars for Belly and the boys. Really looking forward to see where the story takes her next!