It’s Not Summer Without You is the second book following The Summer I Turned Pretty. For me personally, I find second books usually to be kind of boring. I usually am missing the feeling that the first book in a series provides. I did really like this book though. I thought it did a good job of representing the growth of Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad.
This is the first year in Belly’s life that she will not be going to Cousins Beach. Belly used to always think summer was not really summer until she arrived to the house in Cousins Beach. This year everything changes though. After Susannah got sick again, they are not going to Cousins Beach this year. To Belly, this is the worst summer ever, and she wishes that she could just skip over it altogether. That is, until Jeremiah calls telling Belly Conrad has gone missing. Jeremiah and Belly head to the house at Cousins beach to try to make everything right again. Conrad, Jeremiah, spend what will probably be their last summer ever at the house on Cousins Beach. They just hope they can make it the best summer ever.
This book really dove into Belly’s relationships with Jeremiah and Conrad. She has a very different relationship with both of them, but she still loves them both. Belly is determined to save Conrad throughout this whole book. I kept having to remind myself she is only a teenager and love is new to her. I found myself frustrated with her at times because of her desperate need to save Conrad. I get it though. I think we have all loved someone in our life that you want to save, but simply cannot.
I gave this book 3/5 stars. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first one. There were also times I was frustrated with Belly throughout the novel. Just a reminder this is a young adult novel. I am not saying that is a bad thing, it is just teenagers are going to love a lot differently than adults do. It was easy to be frustrated with the characters, but then also remember we were all 16/17 at one point. Overall, I would recommend to read it, if you have read the first one. It answered a lot of questions that I was left with after finishing the first one. On Friday, I will cover the third and final book of this series! I look forward to you all reading it!
Lotuskey Poetry 