I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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 wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

Short and Sweet Review

The Summer I Turned Pretty follows Belly. Belly spends her summers at a beach house with her mom, brother and her moms best friend and her two sons Jeremiah and Conrad. Conrad and Jeremiah have been like older brothers to Belly and they were also her first crushes, but now that Belly is a little older things have changed.

This book was a hot mess. I found Belly to be immature and childish and sometimes I even questioned if she was actually 16. Belly often acted like she was still a kid and maybe that’s because the boys have treated her like one for so long, I found it annoying. Anyway we basically follow Belly throughout the summer and see her trying to figure out which brother she likes more, its Conrad. She pines over Conrad and it was hard to read because he didn’t see her that way but then when she got a little summer fling her was jealous and everything about the dynamic between Belly and these brothers was messy! One day she likes Jeremiah the next she likes Conrad and everything about that is gross. The book also includes scenes from the past to show us what past summers were like at the beach house.

I did not fall in love with this book like I thought I would. I struggled to get through it and that’s because of Belly, I just didn’t connect with her, I found her to be selfish and too immature. I also don’t like that the love triangle is between brothers (that never works out well.) Anyway I’m still on the fence on if I want to read the next two books but this one was a big disappointment.