The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty (The Summer Trilogy)


Author: Jenny Han


Published by: Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers


Pages: 276


Release Date: May 5, 2009


Reviewed by: Pat


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.

My Thoughts

I never knew about this series until I watched a Sims 3 series of this (Sadly, it was only three episodes and I was looking forward to how it would go in a Sims movie) on YouTube. I decided to get the book after watching the Sims 3 version and I loved it.


It's an easy read and the chapters are a bit quick and short. It is an amazing read. It's good that the author added flashbacks, but some of them do tend to get in the way of the story. But the flashbacks were kept short and there weren't a lot so it wouldn't stray away from the plot. There were some parts that I felt weren't necessary or parts that kept me hanging. There were also cute moments in the books which I admit made me giddy and giggly. Towards the end, some parts drag a bit, but it quickly got me hooked back into the story.


The only problem I had with the book was the main character, Belly. I liked her in the first two chapters, but after that I started to not like her after that. I wasn't really fond of her personality and her attitude towards some things. I didn't like the way she treated her mother and her friend, Taylor Jewel. She treated Susannah like she was her mother and treated Laurel like she wasn't her mother at all. The way she treated her mother was disappointing and I felt bad for her because she did things so that she could be a mother to Belly. But towards the end, I did develop a soft spot for Belly since I started to understand her a bit more.


Since I had fun reading this one, I think I might read the next two books and I'm very excited to find out what's next. Since my birthday's coming up soon, I might as well get the last two books to read (Yay!).