I can almost smell the ocean and the suntan oil….
Genre: Y/A, Contemporary, Romance
No. of pages: 276
From Goodreads:
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer–they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
I picked up this trilogy straight after reading the ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ duology, hoping for more Jenny Han goodness. I’m not sure if I liked it or if it was just okay… I think only because I wanted more to happen in this book.
On the one hand, Susannah’s journey is truly touching (and I can relate to it personally) and really drags out the feels.
Belly herself is such a little girl – in the sense that she is young, and totally naive. A little girl crush on the Conrad boys… is that enough of a hook for a novel? It didn’t quite grab me. However, it was a relief to see Belly struggle and forced to grow up a bit. The time to start putting away childish things… and by the end I liked Belly a little better.
Cam was annoying, Jeramiah, slightly less. There was that big brother thing going on that boys do – the teasing, the fighting, the ignoring. So true to character and left me feeling annoyed and insulted. I wanted awareness to come early in the novel – it felt like the story took too long to build to something between these characters.
Plenty of passive aggressive behaviour, teen angst, and presumptions to keep me satisfied. Spot on for the YA market.
You get a real sense of summer holidays, the beach, the relaxing warm breeze, sun baking, swimming in the pool, carefree days. I could practically feel the sun on my skin.
The narrative was a little scattered – mainly because Belly gets a little scattered; but that aside, Han’s writing style is effortless, just like the setting of the Summer House. A beautifully engaging story of love, life and growing up.
Overall feeling: kittens and lollypops!
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Casey Carlisle 