It's Not Summer Without You

Jenny Han

Summer #2

Summary:

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 any more...

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?

Plot:

I thought this was a very good sequel to ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’, it had less of that summery, fun feel to it and was a little darker. The first one didn’t touch me as much as this one did. I really felt for the characters in this installment and I couldn’t put the book down. I also think this love triangle is one of the better ones out there, it never feels forced. Like with the previous book the story is pretty generic, but it’s never predictable. The romance can be a little overly dramatic, but I think it’s very relatable if you’re a teenage girl.

Characters:

In the first one I liked the characters, in this one I didn’t always like them, but I felt more emotionally connected to them, if that makes sense. I’m not the hugest fan of Belly, but the boys develop and grow in this installment and it was great to see. Belly started annoying me a bit in the first couple of chapters, but she too changed and I liked her much more when the book ended.

Who should read this:

13+, the themes in this novel are a bit darker, there are some references to sex as well as alcohol use. The language was also more frequent. If you enjoyed the first one, but thought it was lacking a bit in character depth this is definitely going to surprise you in a good way. If you like easy reads that will tug at your heartstrings and keep you interested without taking up too much of your time, this might just be the one for you. This whole series was definitely written with girls in mind.

My rating:

In my opinion this was a better book that the first in the series, while I really liked the first one I couldn’t put this one down and I really felt for the characters. 5/5

Quote:

“We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything.”

Read my review for 'The Summer I Turned Pretty'.