Books › The Summer I Turned Pretty
The Summer I Turned Pretty
358 pages
A sun-drenched, bittersweet exploration of first love and the exact moment childhood gives way to the complexities of growing up.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a sun-warmed memory of your own adolescence. It captures the exact, fleeting texture of a beachside summer, evoking the smell of chlorine, the taste of salt water, and the heavy, humid weight of unspoken crushes. The narrative moves at a brisk, breezy pace, pulling you through the giddy highs of first love and the sudden, sharp pangs of growing up. Beneath the surface-level romance and the classic love triangle lies a tender, bittersweet exploration of shifting family dynamics and the looming shadow of grief. The prose is conversational and deeply earnest, perfectly mirroring the intense, all-consuming emotions of being fifteen. It is an absolute delight for anyone who craves a nostalgic, emotionally resonant story about the messy, beautiful transition from childhood to whatever comes next.
- Mood
- sun-drenched
- bittersweet
- breezy
- yearning
- Tone
- earnest
- nostalgic
- romantic
- angsty
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- first love · loss of innocence · shifting family dynamics · the fleeting nature of summer · messy love triangles
- The writing
- Accessible, conversational, and deeply rooted in the sensory details of teenage memory and summer days.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from the giddy anticipation of a familiar childhood summer into the confusing, bittersweet reality of growing up and facing grief.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love messy love triangles, beachside nostalgia, and the intense, all-consuming feelings of teenage romance.
Content notes
- cancer
- grief
- underage drinking
About the book
This book is fresh fun and exciting. 15 year Belly Conklin is enjoying another summer with the people that she loves in Cousins, a place she's been going to since she was a baby! The fishers, Aka Jerimiah and Conrad, are finally grown up, and Belly feels like she can fit in aswell. Belly would be turning 16 this year, as now she feels as if she can fit in with the boys. She thinks the summer will be fun, Hanging out on the beach and Playing with the people she loves, Belly is looking foward to her summer vacation. But that's when she finds out that Susannah Fisher is diagnosed with Cancer, which changes everything. Things are different in the Summer house. Her first love, Conrad is different, he's distant. While the stay in the house was supposed to be enjoying, they need to focus on things that matter the most. Sussanah. Belly decides that it's time she acts like the adult that she is. Choosing between her 2 lovers Jerimiah and Conrad Fisher. Will either of them like her? Because this...Is the Summer I turned Pretty.
Description from Open Library.
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