The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy by Jenny Han

Belly (short for Isabel) has been going to the beach house every summer since she can remember with her mom and her brother, Steven. They share the beach house with her mom’s childhood best friend and her two sons Conrad and Jeremiah. The three boys have always been their own little crew and all Belly wants is to be included. Finally things start to change the summer she turns 16. For the first time she feels pretty and she thinks the boys are starting to notice that too.

I did not particularly care for these books. Obviously Belly is going to be caught between the two brothers and we’re going to see how that plays out. Blah blah blah. First of all, I guess I didn’t particularly care for Belly. In the first book she’s too immature–always on the brink of crying or getting overly embarrassed. In the second book she’s grown up a little bit, but not really. In the last book she’s just okay. Secondly, I didn’t really like either of the brothers! It’s kind of a problem when you don’t like any of the three main characters. I could never take Jeremiah seriously and Conrad was too back and forth. Just make up your mind! I will say, though, that I liked both Taylor and Susannah.

Speaking of people going back and forth…Belly drove me nuts. The. Whole. Time. Pick a guy and stick with it. I just didn’t like that this one girl was pitting two brothers against each other. How awkward. These are people you have to spend the rest of your life with! They were easy reads, but I wouldn’t say they were necessarily fun. Mostly I was agonizing over how dumb the characters were and just wanted them to make up their minds.

Overall Rating: 2
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: Moderate
Language: Moderate
Smoking/Drinking: Heavy