It's Not Summer Without You , by Jenny Han

 

Paperback, 288 pages

Published May 1st 2011 by Razorbill (first published April 27th 2010)

ISBN

0141330554 (ISBN13: 9780141330556)

edition language

English

original title

The Summer I Turned Pretty #2

series

Summer #2

characters

Jeremy Fisher, Conrad Fisher, Isabel Conklin (Belly)

literary awards

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2010) 

 

 In Han's follow-up to "The Summer I Turned Pretty," Belly finds out what comes after falling in love.

 

 

 My Review

I think I actually prefered this one to the first one mainly because it just seemed to have a whole lot more to it that was just a little more entertaining and engaging. What I liked about this book was that it showed a lot more emotional context to it, the fact that you had to overcome death, break ups and confusion when it came to best friends and relationships. There was a lot of powerful essence here within the pages. I wouldn't say it was the best book in the world but it was still a book that I enjoyed because of the way that it grasped me and caught my attention. There just seemed to be a lot of real elements to the pages, though there were also a lot of cliche things there as well, like the fact that she falls for the other brother at the end. That was obvious from book one, as it was made clear there that things between here and conrad would not work out, so you could really see that coming.

The book though is something that I would recommend to my younger sister because I think it challenges areas that others would perhaps consider taboo. it really makes you think and also opens your eyes to the sort of ways that others have to live. Afterall there are children out there whose parents are divorced, or emotionally unavalible due to depression and grief. I suppose what this book does, and this series for a matter of fact, is suggest all the sort of things that a teenager could actually go through because I think that sometimes we fail to tackle this obstacles face on and just pretend they never really happy. I do like the very real feeling that you get, although I still wish the main character was not as hot as they make her out to be because that seems to be the case in a lot of teenage books, and not all teenagers are that perfect!!! and it only causes others to worry about the way they look. 

There is a lot of pros and cons here to the book, but its well written and I do think its something that challenges everyday battles of life.

My rating