Jenny Han is a successful young adult author. She has published many books in the romance genre, including The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and Shug. She grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and got her MFA (Master of Fine Arts)  in creative writing from The New School.

The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first book in the young adult trilogy written by Jenny Han. It is sometimes referred to as “The Belly Conklin Series”, focused around soon to be 16-year-old,  Isabel Conklin.

Isabel “Belly” Conklin measures her life in summers. She’s always saying her real life doesn’t begin until she’s at the beach house back at Cousins Beach. Belly travels to Cousins Beach every summer, to spend it with her mom, her brother, Steven, her mom’s lifelong best friend, Susannah Fisher, and her sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. Growing up, Susannah had always told Belly that she was meant to end up with one of her sons. The choice was hers.

Belly has been in love with Susannah’s oldest son, Conrad, for her entire life. She spends the entire summer trying to hide her feelings for him. But things get more complicated when she meets Cam, her first real boyfriend. Cam puts Belly’s relationship with the two brothers in jeopardy. Suddenly, Jeremiah begins acting differently around Belly with a secret crush of his own, which makes deciding who she is meant to be with even harder.

It turns out, the kids are not the only ones with secrets of their own. Her mother’s lifelong best friend, Susannah, keeps a secret from everyone that could change everything.

This summer, she had finally thought it was her turn to be accepted by the boy’s, and be a part of their games. It’s what she had been waiting for her entire life.

In my opinion The Summer I Turned Pretty is an excellently written romance novel for young adults. On interesting part of the book is that many of the chapters are written in flashbacks, explaining Belly’s life at the beach house. They show the type of person that she has grown into, and how Conrad, Jeremiah, and her brother have influenced her life and the decisions she’s made. One thing that I did not like about the book was how immature Belly seemed in most situations. She was always bickering with Conrad and Jeremiah, and telling on them to her mother for ditching her.

For most of the book, Belly’s real family seems absent from her life. Her parents had gotten divorced and her father never calls, while her mother never spends time with her either. The boy’s mother, Susannah, treats Belly like she’s her own daughter.

The Summer I Turned Pretty is a quick read that I would recommend to any reader who likes the genre. It’s full of unexpected twists and surprising new characters that make the book interesting. I would say that it’s definitely worth reading the other two books in the trilogy.

published May 5, 2009