It's Not Summer Without You Review

Title: It's Not Summer Without You
Sequel: The Summer I Turned Pretty 

Author: Jenny Han

Pages: 275
 Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: April 27, 2010

My Edition: Hardback

Reading Level: Young Adult

Bought from: Borders

Summary from Amazon:
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.

Review:

It's Not Summer Without You was an amazing sequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty but also very different. The mood in INSWY was very gloomy and not as exciting and happy as the first but was beautifully written, sad, but really great. Also, you will finally find out Belly's real first name which I've been wondering for a long time...Belly is a cute name, but her name is actually Isabel which I see where the nickname comes from now.

Belly, her family, and her family friends all experience a great loss and all are affected greatly. Belly is down all the time and her best friend keeps bugging her about Conrad. Belly's mom is busy all the time and really sad. Jeremiah and Conrad are each affected differently, and their dad is acting selfish and fake. The whole relationship between Belly and Conrad was fun to read about at first, but the more and more I read about him, he just seemed distant and cold. I really liked the alternating perspectives in this sequel compared to the first. Reading about the past made it easier to understand what Belly and everyone was experiencing. Also, reading from Jeremiah's perspective was very, very interesting. I never knew his true feelings or how he really felt about Belly.

The ending was the best possible ending, very surprising and not expected at all! The last page is also very cute. I just found out that there will be a third and final book to the Summer series which will come out next summer. I'm very excited to see how things are going for the two families and how Belly's relationship is working out. If you haven't read The Summer I Turned Pretty, I highly recommend reading it now because the whole series is well written and great!

Rating: