It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

It's Not Summer Without You

by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Book01) ♥ We'll Always Have Summer (Book03)

Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.

But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started--at Cousins Beach.

Review

I'm just gonna start off by saying, thanks to my gut for getting the whole trilogy all in one batch. You will never imagine the kind of excitement I was in staring at this book. I was like "I'm gonna eat you up like you're the best type of honey(bad dirty joke time!). Reading It’s Not Summer Without You drew me back into the world Jenny Han created with the tears of its fandom. I went back into Belly's life, dominated by her summers at Cousins Beach and her relationship with her mother-Laurel(Yay!), Steven (Dude, be nice), Susannah*crying tears of fucking sorrow*, Jeremiah(there there) and Conrad(Come here to me). It was, as always, impeccably and perfectly done, and I couldn't put the book down until I was done eating. Devouring!

I read the third book five mins after finishing the second one, so my mind is a little foggy in some areas and I might confuse some parts. But bare with me people, I promise to stay on common ground. A lot has changed since the first book. And I loved that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I hate it when sequels start off when the first book ended. I just love how it was continued. The changes weren't major enough that it makes you feel like you're reading a completely different story but with the same characters, and the changes weren't mild enough where you feel like no time has actually passed. I think it was written so moderately that I never stop to reevaluate what I last read. Belly is older now, and is slightly more mature, not much by numbers, which some might say isn't enough. I feel like growth is so fast-paced and constant that we don't stop and think until years pass us by. One hour from now, we'll grow some, and one month from now, we'll have grown radically high. Belly's also suffering from the effects of her “relationship” with Conrad, aka after the asshole broke her heart, she's gonna have to deal with it. And deal with it she does, In her own-nonchalant way(Yay from narcissistic sarcasm)

Characters! Belly, I think has more backbone, Laurel and Susannah are still awesome besties, Steven was just..there, Jeremiah was...isn't it funny how people tend overlook the nice guy(if you ignore the Cam thing) Conrad pissed me off. I hated Conrad so much to the point that I hated him. I'd get it if he was indifferent and simply didn't give a rat's ass, but nooooo, he DID share her feelings, but decided to be an ass in angst about it. I hated how he treated her, I could feel her pain of not being good enough in his eyes and it broke me. It turned out he did have reasons for being that way(Ho-ray for him, whatever) So I felt sorry for him, but is that reason enough to treat people you claim to love that way. I still ship him and Belly together, but he better get his shit together. Which he did(Fucking awesome necklace scene.. why are you so good?*tears*). Lets get back to Jeremiah for a second. I like him, he's a really cool guy, he's just an awesome person. He's always felt unworthy in his father's eyes, he feels disconnected to his brother-who could care less, he has to live with the fact that the girl loves is...I don't even know anymore, and to top it all off, he has to deal with losing his mom(*tears of fucking agony, people!)-who he loves to death. I'm not even gonna touch Susannah or Laurel. Reading it broke my heart, just simply broke my damn heart. Susannah's death messed everybody up, and I felt their pain like it was my own.

Let's go to a lighter place now. The reunion! That fucking reunion! Great stuff(Bravo Jenny, you get all the awards) Just..Aghhhhh. I didn't know what to do with myself. I was a mess of mixed feelings and crap. (This is the part of the review where I'm lost and have nothing to say. 'feels' can't be translated into words)

Jenny Han’s writing is so good and soothing, she has many beautifully written moments in the book, that I find it very hard to describe. I love how she was able to capture the essence of what a first love is really like–the strong infatuation, the unwillingness to let go or believe that it isn't meant to be. I love that she didn't make Belly sound like a wimp who gave into love, but choose it on her own and fought for it. It’s Not Summer Without You was another cluster fuck of a book detailing Belly’s experience with the two boys she’s known forever. The story took me in and I refused to let go until I was done with it all. I was completely absorbed in its pages once I’d started. Pages I refuse to touch again.

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