The Summer I turned Pretty

Jenny Han

Published 2009

276 Pages

Rating: B

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 all along.

(taken from inside flap)

Belly, her brother Steven and her mother always go to Susannah’s beach house every summer. Susannah has two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. Susannah and Belly’s mother, Laurel have been friends forever, and every summer they spend at this beach house, in Cousin’s. Belly was always the one that was left out. The only girl out of the four kids, she was used to having to hang out with herself. But this summer is different. She’s pretty.

Belly has always been pretty, but for some reason this summer people actually see her beauty. Her brother Steven is going to be a senior, and later in the summer he leaves with his dad to go on a road trip to look at colleges. Conrad is going to be a freshman in college, and he has been acting strange all summer and Belly wants to know why. Jeremiah is still the same, Belly’s true friend, they always stick together. There’s a secret that Susannah is keeping from Belly, and she doesn’t find out until it’s too late. And she also enjoys a summer romance with a boy named Cam.

Belly has to learn that as she gets older, and the summers creep past her, she has to grow up and be a mature, young woman. She battles boys, love, family issues, and her maturity.

The book was a tad confusing at first because there are flashbacks to her previous summers at the beach house, yet I enjoyed this book very much. I am sorry if my review was a little confusing but I am writing this before I leave for my trip, so I am a little excited! Ha. I would recommend this book to every teenage girl who loves romance books with a little something else added to them.

I’ll see/talk to you guys in 2 weeks!!! And maybe I will even have some pictures to show you of my travels! :)

-Arielle.