Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1) by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1) by Jenny Han

Published: May 5th 2009
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Page Count: Hardback, 276
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit
Find the Author: Website, Good Reads, Twitter, Blog
Buy This Book: Amazon, Book Depository

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along. - Good Reads

The Summer I Turned Pretty is another one of those books I stayed up way too late to finish in the past week. I first heard about this book from GReads and decided to check it out from the library - it's been lying around my house for quite a while and I had to renew it because I kept putting it off. But after reading a review from Fictitious Delicious last night and seeing Pretty in Fiction's Book Boyfriend pick this week I decided to pick it up and I ended up not being able to put it back down. 


This was a beautiful story full of nostalgia, growing up and long-time crushes finally coming to a head. Belly, her Mother and her older brother Steven spend every summer with Belly's best friend Susannah and her two sons Conrad and Jeremiah at their beach house. Belly has always been the underdog and forced to deal with the boys ganging up to pick on her or ignoring her and leaving her out of their boyish shenanigans. This summer though, it's a little different. It might be their last. Conrad, the brother she has been secretly in love with since she was 10 is going away to university in the autumn and she's afraid that next year he'll have no reason to come and Jeremiah will most likely be going to football camp next summer, so he might not come either. And this is the summer she finally feels pretty. 


The nostalgia factor is huge for me in this book. And it really made me miss the beach. I loved the atmosphere, the pacing, the characters and pretty much everything about this book. I found myself relating to Belly a lot. I remember the summer I turned pretty too. And I remember having crushes on more than one boy and settling for one that I thought I could have because I didn't think I was worthy or it'd work out with the boy I truly liked.


The only part that I found was confusing were the flashbacks. So, heads up! They are labelled by age at the beginning of the chapter, but I didn't notice right away, so you just have to keep your eyes peeled at the beginning of the chapter or you might end up a little confused.


This is definitely a must read for those who love a good coming of age story about a girl that has surprising depth.


                              5 out of 5 Hello Kitties!