Review: “The Summer I Turned Pretty” was recommended to me by a friend and I am so glad I decided to read it during my summer break!

I absolutely love Han’s writing! The content in the first book of the "Summer” trilogy is easy to relate to and humorous at times. Each chapter is short and breezy, alternating between the past and the present. A lot of the past memories were triggered by present moments, establishing connections. Han’s choice to write her chapters in this way allows the reader to feel as though they are growing up with Belly and experiencing her full range of emotions—the sadness she feels as a result of her parents’ divorce, the annoyance she feels when she is not noticed by others, the fear she feels for Susannah, and the love she feels for her childhood friend Conrad. 

Han really knows how to capture what a first love is like. She first establishes the friendship Belly has with Conrad. Han then details the exact moment Belly starts to develop feelings for him and how those feelings grow in a span of years. Belly tries to move on with other men, but fails when she can’t get her first love off of her mind, making the words on the page all the more realistic. 

Towards the novel’s end, Jeremiah, Conrad’s younger brother, throws a wrench in Belly’s plans with a shocking a confession of his own. Torn between her love for both of the Fisher boys, Belly’s next summer at the beach house is about to get complicated…and interesting!