I am no stranger to Jenny Han’s books. I truly believed that falling in love with the All The Boys I’ve Loved Before series (my reviews for all the books and the movies can be found here, here, and here) was just a phase. I didn’t necessarily planned on reading any other of her books – and not because I was trying to avoid them, but purely because I didn’t have anything from her on my to be read list yet. And so it happens that I’ve stumbled upon the first two books from The Summer I Turned Pretty series in a local WHSmith store that was closing down sometime last year. In the midst of moving houses, being organized with my reading and my books was not top priority, so these were just added to my pile and sat there until earlier this month.
The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first volume in the trilogy, written by Jenny Han and published in 2009. This was followed-up by It’s Not Summer Without You in 2010 and We’ll Always Have Summer in 2011. I just realized that this trilogy is as old as my relationship with my husband. And the main character is 16 years old which is how old I was when we met, too. The trilogy is the first written piece that Jenny Han released after college, becoming very quickly a New York Times bestseller. The Summer I Turned Pretty is a coming of age story that revolves around Isabel “Belly” Conklin and her family’s Summer tradition. Since she was a baby, she spent every Summer at her family friends’ beautiful house in Cousins, the perfect location for beach and waves, cocktails and music, but most importantly – crushes. Belly has a crush on both her friends, Conrad and Jeremiah, but who does she truly love? An extremely light read, maybe almost too light at times, this book is the perfect companion if you spend your Summer days on the beach or by the pool. The entire trilogy was published in Romania by Trei under the Fiction Connection collection.
Adaptated into a TV series by Amazon Prime Studios, The Summe I Turned Pretty was released in June last year, and it consists of 7 episodes, created and co-written by Jenny Han. I must say I did not have any expectations, but it was surprisingly very cute, summery, and fun. Where to add that it has an amazing soundtrack with songs mostly signed by Taylor Swift. I found myself grinning like an idiot at the final scene at the end of the last episode. It was so innocent and sweet! And it’s a really good adaptation when it comes to respecting the way things are presented in the book (you can feel the author’s involvement), the storyline is almost identical and the few small changes did not bother me at all. I would even say the TV series was better than the book.
The show was renewed for a second season even before the first one premiered, so if that’s not a good sign, I don’t know what is. Lola Tung is starring as the main character, alongside Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Sean Kaufman, Jackie Chung, and Rachel Blanchard. The first season has 7 episodes, and Jenny Han makes a cameo in one of them, but I will let you discover that on your own. The second season will have 8 episodes and is set to premiere on the 14th July on Amazon Prime Video.
It’s the imperfections that make things beautiful.
Trailer:
