It’s Not Summer Without You

April 7, 2011 Heidi Uncategorized 3

It’s Not Summer Without You

Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: April 2010
Pages: 277
Source: Gift from Shanyn @ chick loves lit

*** NOTE: This is the second book in a series. The summary, review, and comments may be somewhat spoilery***

About the Book: Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach? It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started–at Cousins Beach.

My Thoughts: This book takes place the summer after The Summer I Turned Pretty (my review here.) It’s the first summer that Belly isn’t going to Cousins Beach. The first summer without Susannah and her boys. I can’t imagine what that must be like. Belly has ALWAYS spent summers at the beach house. Over the past year so much has changed in her life. It seems like it contained the happiest moments and the saddest. To have so much occur in such a brief period of time (especially as a teenager) would just leave me reeling. Poor Belly!

Still, as much as my heart broke for her she REALLY made me angry. She just made so many choices that made me want to shake her. Some of the things she said/did seemed so selfish. I had to keep reminding myself that she was sixteen and going through horrible, awful, confusing things in her life.

The first book was told by Belly mostly in the present with chapters that focused on summers when she was younger. This book is told mostly by Belly with a few chapters from Jeremiah’s point of view thrown in. I really enjoyed getting his perspective. It was nice to get a “break” from Belly and see things through someone else’s eyes. Also, there is a scene at the end of book one that you know takes place months later. Book two takes place after that scene. I liked the way it was worked in to the story. It kept me wondering about what happened. The end of this book does the same thing for book three (We’ll Always Have Summer) so you’re gonna want to have that one ready! Warning: it doesn’t come out until later this month!

Overall I enjoyed this story. Belly has some growing up to do before I can really like her and Conrad needs to get his head on straight. Jeremiah is the character I feel for the most. Considering what they’ve all been through it’s understandable but still… get it together!