Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Book Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (Book 1)

THE DETAILS:
Pages: 276
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
1st published on: 05/05/09
1st in a series.
Purchased on Kindle Store.

THE BLURB:
Belly’s never been the kind of girl that things happen to. Year after year, she’s spent her summers at the beach house with Conrad and Jeremiah. The boys never noticed Belly noticing them. And every summer she hoped it would be different. This time, it was. But the summer Belly turned pretty was the summer that changed everything. For better, and for worse.

MY THOUGHTS:
'The Summer I Turned Pretty' was another of my recent contemporary purchases. I decided to buy the book because of the great reviews it has gotten and because it looked like a fun summery read; which was exactly what I felt like reading. 'The Summer I turned pretty was not what I expected, but it certainly wasn't disappointing either.

Belly was an interesting name for a main character. You don't really find out until later that it's simply an abbreviation for her name. Belly is a character that I think many girls who have felt like a bit of an outcast will get along with Belly quite well. Belly is the youngest. The girl in a group of boys. The one who is known as the "baby" and I instantly felt sorry for her.

I thought the relationship between Belly and the boys mother versus her relationship with her own mother was very "Spanglish". For those who have seen that movie. I felt like Belly favoured the boys mum, and I didn't like that about her. I felt like Belly didn't appreciate her own mum enough and that the boys mother (sorry can't remember her name) did try to buy Belly. I just feel like some lines were overstepped.

I had just finished reading a book about "the boys next door" and now I was reading a book about "the boys at the summer beach house" and they were brothers. This still felt different though. The love interest was very definite and could not be changed no matter how much Belly wanted it to change.

This book was just as summery as I had hoped. It was a very nostalgic read that skips back and forwards in time; revealing past summer memories. These memories really shaped my opinion about different characters in the book and went really well with the story-line. I think this was the perfect read for someone who liked 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling pants" series.

This book reminded me of  the 'Vampire Academy' books in the way that the writing makes you "feel". I feel like I felt every thing that I was supposed to feel. This book was also surprisingly sad at times. Something that I did not expect. And, I know that some people will not be interested in the book once they find out it's a bit soppy...

Overall, 5/5 but no favourite. I liked the book. It  was good. It was complete. It was entertaining. But, there was no WOW ending or detail like you'd get in a favourite book. I am very excited for book two though. And, I would love to read more by this author in the future.

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Natalie

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I loved this trilogy and couldn't get enough! I hope to re-read them before this summer is over!

Lisa
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