The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

I´ve read just too many summer beach romances in my life that I always feel like I have read everything that I need to read in that category, but once again, I was swept off my feet by a gorgeous teenager. I have read To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before by the same author and I absolutely loved Peter! So, I was a little bit excited to start reading this series, but at the same time, I felt a little nervous because I tend to enjoy summer books, but never really love them as others.
The Summer I Turned Pretty tells the story of Belly, a soon-to-be sixteen-year-old that has been visiting Cousins every year of her life during summer. Her family always goes and stays with Sussanah, her mother´s best friend´s family, and they are like a big family. Belly is sure that this summer is probably going to be the same, but when she gets there, she realizes that there may be something different this time.
Belly has always had a crush on Conrad, one of Sussanah´s sons, and when she sees him again, she tries to convince herself that her feelings for him are over, but that may not be the case.
On the other hand, Belly and Jeremiah, Conrad´s brother, may have left some things unclear last year.
When summer starts with people mentioning that she is different now and with guys actually checking her out, she realizes that this summer is going to be completely different to others.
Eventually, she meets Cam, a very good-looking guy that seems to be Belly´s age, they eventually end up spending a lot of time together.  
Who is going to steal Belly´s heart this summer? Is this going to be the summer that changes everything for her? Will there even be more summers after this one?
I think what I liked the most about this novel was the way its story. Okay, the plot is not that interesting and the things that happen aren´t that story-changing, but what I really liked was the story about their beach house, Conrad, Jeremiah, Steven, and Susannah, I just fell in love with the way Mr. Fisher always visits during summer and barbecues, I guess I just loved the way this novel gave us a look at what having traditions like this feels like. I think that almost everybody wants to be able to just leave the life that they are living for a couple of months and go to a small bubble with the people that you love being with and The Summer I Turned Pretty did that.
On the other hand, I really liked the characters and their relationships. I just loved the way Steven, Conrad, Jeremiah, and Belly had a unique bond that made them friends and almost siblings. I adored the way they had things that only they understood because that made them part of something that they were very emotionally attached to. I liked Steven, although he wasn´t part of the story a lot because he was just like the typical older brother that every sister should have and it was adorable to see how he protected her and how the other guys just automatically did the same when he left. 
Furthermore, I believe that having a love triangle with two brothers was just so dramatic and intense, which I absolutely loved! I fell in love with Jeremiah almost immediately and although I liked him so much, I did believe that Jeremiah and Belly weren´t that compatible, so I actually found myself rooting for Belly and Conrad, so yes, I absolutely hated Cam and although I do love his name, I thought that he was a character that wasn´t that useful, he appeared through most of the novel, but he didn´t really impact Belly in any way and he seemed to be almost like her second plate, something that she only wanted when Conrad wasn´t talking to her. 
On the other hand, I didn´t really like how Belly is always focusing on Conrad, I mean, yes, I adored them, but she was always talking about him that it got a little bit stressful. I wanted more of the story, I expected more character development from other characters as well, such as Jeremiah, who is a love interest in this novel. 
Similarly, The Summer I Turned Pretty did have a pretty interesting story that kept me reading until the end, but nothing very essential seemed to happen, almost as if we were actually living that summer with her completely instead of only getting the juicy parts of it. I believe that the only story that I did like was the drama about Taylor, the girl that used to be Belly´s best friend. I liked how the author built an anticipation that made the readers eager to find out what Taylor, a 14-year-old had done, and honestly, I did enjoy the outcome of that. 
Similarly, I really liked how the story had chapters from different time periods from Belly´s point of view because we are able to follow Belly´s family and friends throughout the summers and understand how summers always tend to be for these families. 
Overall, The Summer I Turned Pretty is a very enjoyable summer tale of growing up and trying to continue traditions and a story that you will not want to see the end.

4 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before, Jenny Han

To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

This is the second time I read this book and surprisingly, I enjoyed this reading better than last time, which was like three years ago, and I was able to notice different things that made this story very unique and different than others.
So, the story is about Lara Jean, who has had five crushes throughout her life and every time she falls in love with someone and she wants to get over them, she writes love letters about how much she likes them or just some simple confessions she has or thoughts about them. Being a rising junior, she has to say goodbye to Margot, her older sister, who is going to Scotland to study and she eventually breaks up with their neighbor, Josh, the guy that Lara Jean has a crush on and has had for many years.
But that´s not the only problem Lara Jean has to face being a junior, suddenly all of her letters have been sent, including Josh´s.
So, while trying to get away from him since he´s Margot´s ex-boyfriend, she kisses Peter Kavinsky, one of her older crushes to get Josh to forget about the letter, and suddenly, Peter has the fantastic idea of them pretending to be dating because he has just broken up with Genevive, the girl he has been dating since seventh grade, and surprisingly, Lara Jean accepts.
But Margot being gone, Lara Jean has to take care of the house, including her father and her little sister, Kitty, and things that were usually under Margot´s responsibility.
Lara Jean´s junior year is all about trying to take care of her family and surviving a crazy love life with the school´s most popular guy.
I loved this novel because it tells so many different sides of a story that I truly felt like I always got the whole picture of the things that were happening in the lives of the characters.
First, I want to talk about the relationships that the characters had with each other. I loved seeing romantic relationships, family relationships, and friendships. My favorite was probably the family relationships that we could see because they felt more natural in a way because they seemed much closer to our reality. The Song sisters (Margot, Lara Jean, and Kitty) lost their mother when they were very young, so they are under the care of their father, who is a very busy doctor, and Margot is in charge of the family and the household, she literally takes care of everything, from packing lunches to Thanksgiving cooking. And what stayed with me the most within this family was that when Margot and Lara Jean were supposed to be having fun with their friends, they still took the time to care about their family, try to create a cozy atmosphere for Kitty and also take care of their father. So, in a way, they matured quicker than others. Also, the manner in which the sisters were almost pushed to take responsibilities seemed very natural under their circumstances and they seemed very real and humane to me.
On the other hand, it was heartbreaking to read about Lara Jean´s childhood friendships because I think that we all have those kinds of friendships that we move on from throughout the years and at some point they are just kept inside of us as little memories or moments that may have brought us happiness sometime in our lifetime, but we never really do a lot to keep them alive, so reading about little Lara Jean with her little friends was a way of realizing that there are so many things we forget about in our lives, including people that may have changed our points of views or our realities. I truly believe that although it was expressed as a very unimportant topic, it really touched me because I personally have friendships that have been lost and I don´t really cherish them because I have moved on, yet I still have a part inside that wonders if things could´ve been different.
Now, I want to talk about the characters because they are very special to me.
First of all, her family members. I love her father because he really tries to keep an ideal family and tries to act both as a father and mother figure to the three daughters. Margot was a character that I liked to read about because she is like the typical older sister you want to have with you, you could always look up to her since she is always right and knows how to keep everything under control. Lastly, Kitty is the little sister we all need, she is funny and can create the best atmosphere for the other characters, and I think that she played a crucial part in the improvement in Lara Jean and Peter´s relationship.
Moving on to love interests, I loved both Josh and Peter. I have to admit that the first time I read the novel, I was swept off the ground by Josh and his boy-next-door charm because I just loved simple and sweet guys, but now that I had given Peter a chance after having read the second book a couple of years ago, it was easier for me to like him and adore him because let´s admit it, Peter is adorable! I loved Peter´s sense of humor and the way he brings out a new side of Lara Jean after saying goodbye to her older sister. Also, Lara Jean gets to experience new adventures in her junior year with Peter.
We could say that Peter and Josh are the exact opposite. Josh is sweet, while Peter is arrogant and cocky, but they are both definitely charming and lovely. Oh, and they hate each other because Josh called Peter out during a Spanish test in seventh grade because Kavinsky was copying.
On the other hand, I want to talk about how much I LOVED Lara Jean. She was the character that I could identify myself with the most because I just realized that we have the same age and that she had a crush on Peter at the same age that I fell in love with him too, but I believe that besides the age similarity, it was the culture. After all, she´s half-Korean and I am Korean, so it was very interesting to notice part of my culture in a YA book, but I would like to explain that later on. Now, going back to the whole age similarity thing, I loved how I could relate to being eager to get an activity done, be part of a club or nailing your ACT and SAT scores for college, so seeing a girl that was so similar to me was amazing. Not only we had a similar cultural background, we were both stranded in high expectations from someone we look up to because of college.
Now, going back to the whole Korean culture part, I loved reading about it because it made me feel like I belonged. Being able to read about Korean festivities, like how we wear hanboks in New Year´s Eve and we get money from our elders, or all the amazing dishes, like bo ssam, made me so so happy.  I think to see a part of my culture so nicely portraited in our media platform today was the best part of the novel because it is very easy for someone to mess it up or say something that could not be right, but Jenny Han did it just right! 
Though, there was this one part that´s really going to stay with me. So, Lara Jean is going to celebrate Halloween at her high school and she is choosing her costume and at the end, she has to go dressed up as Cho Chang from Harry Potter because if she decides to wear some thing else, people think that she´s just dressed up as a manga character and being an Asian myself, I know that feeling very well. It´s as if you feel different when other people are able to dress up as something as simple as a princess or a very well-known character costume because you don´t look the part and when people notice that you are far too different from the character that you were trying to be, they immediately think that you are another character that you may not even know about! Noticing the real struggles that were portraited in the story for being from a different ethnicity was something that the novel took lightly, but I will cherish it because it was the best way to show the media how different we feel at simple times as Halloween.
Another thing that I absolutely loved about the novel was how Lara Jean feels pressured by the society into being part of a relationship and being like everyone else because Lara Jean and I are so alike in the sense that we prefer being with our family and we don´t really like going to parties, so actually reading about peer pressure in our society today was something that I really liked. Also, I  liked how Lara Jean was still herself after she was Peter for too long and after going to all those parties and being in the spotlight at her high school, she still preferred being with her family and I really admired that because I believe that if I was in her position, I would do the same thing. 
In conclusion, To All the Boys I´ve Loved Before by Jenny Han is a fun and refreshing story that portrays a lot the different topics in our society today. Also, it will keep you up all night thinking about Peter and Josh because of all their adorable flaws. You will love the characters that surround Lara Jean as much as you will like her, although she sometimes frustrated me with her decisions. I recommend this book a lot if you want something very funny to read, yet with a little drama. 

4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua