I must confess that I’m incredibly late to the The Summer I Turned Pretty craze. I only discovered it when Amazon Prime announced the show, and didn’t decide to read it until a couple of weeks ago. I’m a firm believer in reading the book before seeing the adaptation, so I couldn’t wait to crack into it!
And once I did, there was no stopping it. It only took me a few days to read all three books and I blushed, laughed, and cried in each of them. They are a perfect combination of the sweet teen romance we all imagine ourselves to have in some other lifetime (or maybe you were lucky enough to have!). I’m not usually an avid reader of contemporary romance novels, but there was some secret sauce in these that kept me hooked on Belly and the Fisher boys.
Whether you’ve watched the show yet or not (which has already been renewed for a second season!), here’s why I recommend you read the books by Jenny Han:
- They’re smooth reads: The chapters are relatively short and the language is so casual that you’ll forget you aren’t talking to a friend. This makes it easy to breeze through and get sucked into! They’re perfect to bring to the pool.
- There are both heavy and light subject matters: It starts off with the endearing dramas of high schoolers and their friendships and crushes, but slowly adds in more mature elements, like the concept of grief and making hard decisions for yourself. The series strikes a good balance and captures the contradictions of youth.
- A patchwork of memories: The books are written in a way that links the past to the future. Old memories are mixed up with the present moment to give context and color to what’s happening “now.” If you’re someone who likes to reminisce or see snippets into a character’s life that aren’t necessarily major plot points, you’ll love how it’s laid out.
There are a plethora of reasons why you should give this series a try, but as most of them contain spoilers, so I’ll let you discover them in Cousins yourself. As for me, I’ll be over here daydreaming about the Fisher boys, a homey beach house, and my own family vacations…