Review: It's Not Summer Without You

It's Not Summer Without You (Summer #2)
Jenny Han
Contemporary romance

Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?

It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.

But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started--at Cousins Beach.

You can read my review of The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1) here. 
It's Not Summer Without You rectified the things I didn't like about book 1- Taylor gets recognized for the bitch she is, no more kids' POVs, Conrad both redeems himself and gets me more pissed with him than I was before. In general, everything get better and deeper in this installment.

For starters, the novel had me crying right off the bat. No spoilers, but it's emotional. And there's all this nostalgia and longing that Belly feels that comes across to the reader very strongly- missing those beautiful summers with the people she loves most, back when everyone was okay. 

This time, the flashbacks are to different points from the past year, telling you the story of what happened between last summer and now. And the best part? JEREMIAH'S POV. Of everyone in the books, he's the one who's suffered the most and is still the nicest one to everyone, good and loving all the time. By far my favorite character.

I was very satisfied with the end. Belly falls from her character development but then gets up again and develops again. Some might not like that, as it has a similar arc to the first book romance-wise, but I found it fitting. In life we swear not to fall into the same trap again but we do- the trick is not to give up, but to get up again. 

However, I understand from the synopsis and the reviews that book 3 is going to screw it all up in the most obvious and predictable way, so I'm stopping here. I liked this ending, it was everything  I wanted to be, and that's that. 

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