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!). 

Torn by Dean Murray

Title: Torn (Reflections #1)

Author: Dean Murray

Release Date: 10/17/11 (ebook)

Reviewed by Sabrina

Shape shifter Alec Graves has spent nearly a decade trying to keep his family from being drawn into open warfare with a larger pack. The new girl at school shouldn't matter, but the more he gets to know her, the more mysterious she becomes. Worse, she seems to know things she shouldn't about his shadowy world.

Is she an unfortunate victim or bait designed to draw him into a fatal misstep? If she's a victim, then he's running out of time to save her. If she's bait, then his attraction to her will pull him into a fight that'll cost him everything.

My Thoughts

I'm starting to think I am not a reader for the YA paranormal anymore.

What I can say about Torn is that its most aspect is Alec's struggles with his pack and how he tries to put them under control. The characters were fleshed-out well enough. There were some awkward words here and there. There are somethings that could have been improved.  

Adri could have more action in the later part of the novel. She greatly felt like she was weighing Alec's pack down. I would have preferred if more was revealed about her in Torn. I was confused about her complete trust for Alec and Alec's full-blown affection for her that developed halfway through. There were not enough scenes before to support, well, why. Initially, whenever they were around each other, there was hatred and anger.

Alec could be really frightening at times. I understand that he has a lot of pressure on him (since he is the pack leader and shifter instincts make everything intense, after all) but there is only so much I can tolerate.

There is a companion novel, Broken, which is told in Adri's point-of-view that is said to fill up a lot of missing/needed parts of this story. If so, I think that it would have been much better if those two were just put together.