The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han is a romance novel that explores the complexities of love, loss, and the challenges of emotional vulnerability. The story follows a teenager named “Isabelle” or “Belly,” a family friend of the Fishers, two brothers of around the same age that she has feelings for. She has always had feelings for the older brother, Conrad Fisher, however throughout the story begins to see how the other brother, Jeremiah Fisher, is also a man she could see herself with. There is an immediate strong connection between Belly and Conrad, however Jeremiah refuses to give up on Belly, and continues to put forth his best effort to win her over. While the two brothers battle out for the love of Belly, it is revealed to the audience that the mother of the brothers, a longtime friend of Belly’s mom, has been faced with the difficult task of beating cancer, again. Conrad finds out and is forced to shut down himself from everyone around him, in order to keep the secret of his mother’s illness. This confuses Belly and pushes her into the arms of Jeremiah. As the story continues to unfold, Belly must face the reality of her situation, leading to the discovering of how love can be beautiful but also extremely painful, leaving readers with a sense of heartache and hope and indifference on which brother is the right choice for her.
This book was an incredible read! I was constantly interested and wanting to flip to the next page! The way the book gives me insight into how each character is feeling is incredible. It pinned the two brothers against each other so beautifully and gave me no option but to want everyone to have a happy ending! Rate this book—4 Extremely good, left me on a cliffhanger though!