12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic series and sequel does not disappoint!!, April 27, 2010
This review is from: It's Not Summer Without You (Hardcover)
Its Not Summer Without You was a wonderful, beautiful, riveting book that i can't get out of my head!! I loved the first book and i wasn't disappointed with the second which blew my mind. The only thing that got me down was how sad this book was, i felt bitter and depressed for Belly and the way Conrad was treating her. But then i'd read an especially touching part between Belly and Conrad or Belly and Jeremiah and it lift my spirits again. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who's looking for a new favorite, trust me it'll be a good decision. Now i have no clue how i will survive a whole year waiting for the final book We'll Always Have Summer and a little worried because honestly, the title sounds sad in itself!! Trust me and pick up this book or the first one, you won't regret it!!!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent!, March 31, 2011
I read the first book and this one back to back over a couple of days. I enjoyed the love story in the first one and knew there would be conflict in this one but was waiting for a more satisfying resolution... I felt that the big scene with Belly and Conrad was just not as powerful as the buildup and had to go back and reread it in order to see if I had missed something. And I hadn't-- so I was disappointed a bit. I am looking forward to the final one but just hope that it is better at tying up the loose ends since this felt more a book about the house than the individuals.
Also just as an aside--- in The Summer I Turned Pretty- when Belly is talking to Cam on the beach she whistles and it says that she's proud of her whistle. Yet in this book when Mr.Fisher shows up at the house and she's trying figure out to warn the boys and considers whistling she (belly) says she doesn't know how to whistle. I know i read these back to back and it's a small detail but it annoyed me. I hate it when authors/editors miss the little details especially related to character building!!
:(
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing., December 16, 2010
This review is from: It's Not Summer Without You (Hardcover)
There's been a sea change in the lives of Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah, the inextricable and love-fraught characters of Jenny Han's `It's Not Summer Without You,' the second installment in her `Summer Series'. And yet while some things are forever lost, the connection between them, the desperate, muddled, lusty feelings they carry for one another endure in this deliciously addicting and maddening follow-up to `The Summer I Turned Pretty'. Clear your schedule for three days before cracking the binding on this one, and read no further if you have not read the first book in the series.
While the story opens with a fantasy, an idealized, crystalline moment of what could have been, what follows when Belly is shaken from her revelry is anything but. This is the first summer that she is spending away from the house at Cousin's Beach, away from her lifelong friends and love objects, Conrad and Jeremiah, and everything has fallen to ruins with the death of the boys' mother, Susannah. As it was Susannah's house that they summered at, the axis around which all the characters orbited has dematerialized, and they find themselves flung into the dark and fearsome void. Belly's mother has gone on a zombie-like autopilot after the loss of her best friend, pouring herself into dealing with Susannah's estate and legal matters. Jeremiah, ever the life raft, is dragging along his remaining family as best he can while trying to stay afloat himself. Conrad, however, already a melancholic and volatile figure, has taken hold of his mother's death as an opportunity for a downward spiraling trip to rock bottom.
But more than Susannah's recent death has transpired in the year since we left Belly and Conrad holding hands on the beach at the end of the summer, on the brink of realizing their long hidden feelings. While Belly and Conrad may have taken a stab at a real relationship, Han uses her expertly timed flashbacks to reveal the acute pain of unmet, overbuilt expectations, and the inevitable disappointments of trying to turn a fantasy into a reality. The realism of Han's depiction, however, is chokingly accurate.
The will-they won't-they, `who will she pick?', angsty-teen-romance continues through this edition, but the pervasive theme is that of innocence lost, and the yearning for a simpler past. Belly's nostalgia for the summers of her childhood are contagious, and as the love triangle grows ever more complicated, it's hard not to wonder if everyone would have been better off keeping a lid on their feelings. Sexual pressures begin to enter the picture, as does an unfortunate turn with a bottle of tequila, and all the adults in Belly's life are too busy managing their own emotions to pull her back from the edge. Han perfectly captures the combination of fear, regret, and exhilaration of this age, of the uncertainty that every decision brings, the constant losing of what you thought was true and who you thought you were.
Most prominent is the death of Susannah and all the shock and anguish that goes along with it, which is tenderly wrought and believable. Each character comes to represent a different way of handling grief, and the book seems to end on a message of hanging on, rather than letting go, which was novel.
Giddy-making stuff, that Han carries the tightly wound and absorbing story into a second book with seemingly effortless fineness. There is a quirkiness and a confidence to her style that can't be learned. Not only did this book land her an official spot in our `Collection' of greatest reads for kids, it would be a safe bet to name her as one of the most exciting authors of teen literature to watch in the coming years. As you read the final page of Its Not Summer, get ready to throw the book across the room and howl in desperation for the third and final book in the series, due out in May 2011. Write Jenny Han! Write like the wind!
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