It's Not Summer Without You

I loved this book! The characters have developed quite a lot since the first book and new sides of each comes out and the plot had great surprises. The emotions that the characters went through were so real that I felt their hurt.

I loved the writing style and how Jenny Han was able to capture the emotions of being a teen and in love. I'm sure we all know how painful and confusing it is. She wrote it perfectly making my heart ache. I also loved the feeling of nostalgia she put into her writing that after reading made me remember some parts or when I listened to a song it would remind me of a certain scene.

Belly's character showed a little more maturity in this book but sure she still made mistakes. I don't really mind love triangles in show more general if they're good written and surprisingly I really liked this one that I was rooting for both of the guys.
Conrad is more moody and sometimes selfish, given the circumstances of course but unpredictable when it came to Belly. I loved how his character slowly unravelled and we got a glimmer of who he really is.
Ad for Jeremiah, he made me swoon. I mean how could anybody not adore him especially since in this book we got to see snippets of his P.O.V. allowing us to get to know him on a deeper level.

I also had a lot of mixed feelings about each of them and I kinda loved that. They're all flawed like a normal human and that what made them perfect. Also, although super heartbreaking, I loved the theme of being supportive of people through trying times. The ending was a little abrupt though and it left me wanting to read the next one as soon as possible so I got the conclusion that the series is better binge read. show less

The most culturally relevant piece of incest fiction since, I don't know, game of thrones? The second book in the summer I turned pretty series pulls out all of the stops as the last book in entertaining ways that eclipse the show in terms of overall nuance and enjoyability. The actual romance of this novel only plays out in about 5% of it, the rest is belly's internal monologue, coping with loss of love and romance, and those same themes of wanting to be wanted, wanting to be old enough, wanting to be mature. The book plays into this innocence much stronger than in the show, every aspect of sex that is implied in the show is replaced with making out. Taylor plays the more important and pivotal place here, symbolizing belly's growth show more away from this friendship and overall obsession with these boys that are basically her brothers. I like this angle, they are bad for each other, she should not be friends with her, she needs to work out whatever desire she has here.

Overall, its well written and honestly worth the effort, Jenny Han does a great job at portraying desire. At times it feels like a teenage "Call Me By Your Name".

Freudian Postscript: "Taylor wanted me to forget about Conrad, to just erase him from my mind and memory. She kept saying things like, “Everybody has to get over a first love, it’s a
rite of passage.” But Conrad wasn’t just my first love. He wasn’t some rite of passage. He was so much more than that. He and Jeremiah and Susannah were my family. In my memory, the three of them would always be entwined, forever linked. There couldn’t be one without the others. If I forgot Conrad, if I evicted him from my heart, pretended like he was never there, it would be like doing those things to Susannah. And that, I couldn’t do" show less

I wasn't sure if the first book was the kind of book that could deal with a sequel, but I was riveted by this book and enjoyed seeing the characters growing.

The loss of an important character proves very telling for the rest. Everyone deals with grief in different ways and it's intriguing to see how they all change and how their relationships between each other evolve following this loss. It all feels very real, not at all faked.

I loved Belly in this book a lot more than the previous. She's immature, but she can see this, and I could really see her struggling to grow up and to deal with the circumstances. Her more rash actions were plausible and I loved the way she thought about things later and grew from them. As a YA character, she show more was quite plausible.

Belly doesn't feel quite content with her school friends and with being at home for summer--she's always felt like she really lives at the beach house. The moments that made this clear were the most powerful to me because I understand what it's like to have different worlds and to miss one profusely. Han did a great job of capturing this sentiment.

I'm entirely unsure what I want to happen in the third book, but I'm excited to read it. This book captivated me more than the first and I recommend it. show less

Great sequel! I love the characters in these books! Jeremiah and his earnest, puppy dog happiness, but also his sensitivity and emotional vulnerability. Conrad with his strong and silent, angsty, complicated but deeply passionate feelings about everything. And Belly (still hate that name), confused and kind of lost and ready to be utterly in love with a Fisher boy, if they could all only make up their minds and stick to it. I personally have an incredibly hard time choosing between Conrad and Jeremiah. Like, a harder time choosing between them than I have ever had. They are both so different and attractive in their own ways I sometimes can't imagine how Belly picked Conrad over Jeremiah in the first place. But regardless of how the two show more boys handled the death of their mother--one with open devastation and the other with stony distance and withdrawal--my heart was broken for both of them. Completely. On a negative note, Belly did some things in this book that I'm not sure I agree with. Most notably, I did not approve of Belly confronting Conrad AT HIS MOTHER'S FUNERAL at all. So insensitive and selfish! On the one hand, I too would have been confused by Conrad's back and forth, and, for that matter, by feeling pulled towards both brothers at the same time. So I can understand Belly's seeming to bounce back and forth between the two of them, and her being flustered with Conrad's distancing himself from her. But still, the one thing that always seemed constant with Belly was her implicit understanding of how the two brothers operated and the deep empathy that she felt for them always, even when the hard things they were dealing with were less traumatizing than the death of their mother, and so in that way, her losing it at the funeral seemed an odd departure for her. On the flip side, though, Belly does have a tendency to be a little immature and selfish at times, and so I guess it seemed both out of character and a little bit typical for her to freak out at Conrad that way. Still, really bad choice, Bells! You can't yell at someone at their mother's funeral!! It was nice to see Belly interact more with Jeremiah. Sometimes Conrad's broodiness is too intense, and Jeremiah's exuberance is warm and welcome. The beach house was still fantastic and I'm glad that Laurel swooped in to save it. I can't even imagine these people not having the beach house! It would be like the Kennedy's not having the compound in Hyannis! And in the end, despite Conrad's best efforts to steal away with my heart forever, I can't say that I'm unhappy that Belly seemed to wind up with Jeremiah for the time being because I love both of the boys so much that I can't really pick one over the other! Although, Conrad really does break my heart with how deeply and strongly and quietly he feels things. I can't wait to read the next book to see where things end up with these characters! show less

Second time reading this one, holds up as a good choice for warm weather reading.

If you enjoyed the dynamics of the love triangle in the first book, you’ll find them just as entertaining and exasperating here as they indulge in a lot of the same behavior, Conrad with his insistence on pushing Belly away, Belly refusing to be pushed away, and Jeremiah seemingly well aware that Belly will always prefer Conrad yet pursuing her anyway. This takes a turn I don’t love, whether you’ll love or hate it depends on your boy of choice.

Also much like the first book, the deeper emotional moments stem from parental drama. The boys relationship with their dad isn’t explored a ton but the scenes in both present day and flashback have great show more intensity and tension. And Belly’s mom emerged as my favorite character in this one, although she doesn’t have her finest hour ever with her daughter, the high points of the book for me pretty much all belonged to Laurel, telling it like it is and taking charge. show less

Jenny Han’s It’s Not Summer Without You is the sort of lovely, atmospheric book in which I love to get lost for hours. Han’s Cousins Beach reminds me so much of my own summers sharing a beach house with my extended family, and that’s exactly why I waited to read this one on our annual vacation in the Outer Banks.

I wasn’t disappointed. Though It’s Not Summer Without You is really a quiet sort of novel, it’s impossible not to get absorbed in Belly’s world. I related to her intense feelings of first love that is tinged with grief — and that pain is only broadened by the loss of Conrad (as a boyfriend) and Susannah (completely, irrevocably — dead after battling cancer). Though Belly is so young, she has to deal with so show more much heartbreak. Though I wished more than anything she wouldn’t treat her own mother so poorly, I didn’t fault her for her behavior.

Not a lot happens in these books, but that’s really not a problem for me. Han wastes no words in setting her scenes, giving us flashbacks of Belly and Conrad’s doomed relationship while still staying rooted in the present. The evolution of our narrator’s feelings was very well-drawn and moving, and I felt like I’d really gotten inside Belly’s heart by the close of the story. And was I overjoyed with the resolution? Yes.

These books are about first love and family — the one we’re born into and the one we choose. Though romance is a key part of Belly’s life and the narrative arc, it’s not the sole focus of Han’s novels. The characters are dimensional, interesting and very flawed — and I could almost see a prequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty telling the story Susannah and Laurel’s friendship. Their bond, even after death, is irrevocably strong.

Han’s Summer series is almost universally beloved — and I can see why. Eloquent, heart wrenching and perfect for the summer season, It’s Not Summer Without You is another win by a talented author. show less

The second book about Belly, following The Summer I Turned Pretty, picks up a year after she finally got Conrad to notice her the way she wanted him to, but everything is not so great. Susannah died two months before the summer, Conrad sort-of broke up with her before that at her prom, and Belly hasn't moved on from any of it, despite her friend Taylor's attempts. And when Jeremiah calls to say that Conrad took off from summer school without a word to anyone and asks her to help him look for his brother, Belly finds herself back at Cousins Beach again. Here, at the beach house, maybe things can turn out right.

I like the second book a lot better than the first, and I really liked the first book! I think this one has more to the plot, and show more the characters get more fully fleshed out. The technique of going back and forth in time is still here, and it's executed more skillfully in It's Not Summer Without You, also including some chapters from Jeremiah's point of view. It's great how seamlessly it all fits together and every bit adds to the complexity of the story.

Now here's a part that I like that's hard to explain why without giving away the ending, but I'll try. Throughout the first book and most of the second book, I felt like Belly had no reason to love Conrad. I never got a full picture of his character, though it didn't bother me because the focus was on Belly's feelings, not on the person she had those feelings for. By the middle of the second book, though, I started getting annoyed at Belly for not getting over him. He did seem to be a bit of a jerk at that point. But the ending of the book clears all of that up and ends it just the way I was hoping for! show less