By Alana Pires – Staff Reporter

“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a book written by Jenny Han that is a part of a three-book series and is about a girl named Isabel Conklin, who is nicknamed Belly, and her summer in a town named Cousins.

The book starts off with Belly first arriving at Cousins, the town that she goes to every year to spend her summers with the Fischer family, and stay at their home. Belly loves summer, and only lives during the months of June, July, and August, where she gets to spend time with the people she loves.

Susannah Fischer is the woman in the Fischer family, and is a mom to two sons Jeremiah and Conrad, who is best friend’s with Belly’s mom Laurel, who is also a mom to Belly’s brother Steven. Susannah and Laurel have been best friends since forever, and Belly has visited the summer house ever since she was little. Both families have had a hard past few months, with Susannah previously battling cancer, and Laurel being recently divorced with Belly and Steven’s father. 

Belly is 15 in the summer, and is happy to be back at the place where she loves to spend her summers. She is mostly happy to see Conrad however, the oldest Fischer boy, who she has had a crush on for years. She had always tried to grab his attention ever since they were little but Conrad had always thought of her as no more than a little sister.

But this summer Belly has changed since the last time the boys have seen her, physically and personality wise. Conrad is one to notice anything, and this summer he’s noticing Belly. But Conrad isn’t the only boy who notices Belly, Jeremiah does too, which leaves Belly even more confused with her emotions.

But Conrad is different this summer, Belly notices, since he has quit football, broke up with his previous girlfriend, and even smokes now, she can’t seem to think why he is acting differently. This leaves Belly with trying to forget about Conrad, and focusing on other people, like Jeremiah. 

Confused about her new and old feelings for the brothers, Belly struggles with a major decision to make, whether she should pick Conrad or Jeremiah? To complicate things even more for Belly, a major family secret emerges that causes new emotions and explains what is so unusual about this summer, and would change the two families forever.

Some strong points in this book would definitely be character development, and plot twists throughout the story. Over the course of the book you can see how Belly grows into maturity, along with how she interacts with the rest of the characters and grows to be more confident in herself. Conrad’s character developed throughout the story emotionally and his character was opened up to readers more. Overall, this book was really good and is a perfect read for summer. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars