The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty - Trilogy
by Jenny Han 

Do you like summer as much as I do? Well I have a great recommendation for you! The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han should be on your to-be-read list. Han is also known for another series called To All the Boys I Loved Before, which is now a popular Netflix movie series.

Summary
This three-book series is about a young girl named Belly who goes on a trip every summer to a family friends’ beach house. All year she dreams of reuniting with two of her friends, Jeremy & Conrad, and spending the perfect summer with them. She finds herself in a bit of a love triangle between the two of them and develops feelings for both over time. This is a great story representing her first love, first heart break, and exposure to some hard life decisions. The main themes represented by Han are friendship, love, growing up, and moving forward.

What I Liked
What I enjoyed about this series is the writing style as well as it being an easy read. I love when authors write from each character's perspective. I believe it gives a different viewpoint of situations and it allows you to feel you are getting to know the characters on a more personal level. I could picture the beach house in my mind as well as Cousins Beach. I was able to watch Belly grow from a young teen with a bit of innocence into a teenager who faced some difficult things in her life. I can also say that during portions of the books I loved and hated characters at any given moment. The fact that I felt those feelings signals to me that it is a well-written book. It brought me back to when I was a teenager and experienced some of the same feelings when in young love. Without giving details and spoiling it for other readers, I will only say that I was satisfied with the ending. These books are a good representation of a “coming of age” series. I honestly did not want this series to end!

What I Didn't Like
I did not like how rushed the ending seemed to be. I felt that there was more to the story that could have been added. I would have liked a bit more detail about the couple that prospers in the end. There were parts of the third book I found a bit unbelievable and far-fetched.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall, I rated this series 4 stars on Goodreads! I think it is worth the hype it has received. I do not typically gravitate toward reading young-adult books, however with it being so popular I felt I needed to give it a chance and I am so glad I did! For those of you who are interested, it is now a series on Netflix. If you are looking for a light-hearted romance/young-adult book, than look no further!

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