Tuesday, June 22, 2010

the summer i turned pretty by Jenny Han


I enjoyed this sweet Young Adult Summer Romance. I would have really liked it when I was 14.

It is a story of a girl who spends every summer at a beach house with her mom, brother, her mom's best friend and her two sons. Who, of course, are handsome, funny, and cool. The story is sweet, as all the teenagers are dealing with different emotions of growing up. There's divorce, first kisses, cancer.

Belly is the girl, of course she has an embarrassing nickname. Most of this book is cliche, and would make a sweet teen movie. One thing that I really liked about Belly's character is that she bravely faces situations. There are a handful of times where she sees something, or hears someone talking about something, and I think she's going to hide and pretend she didn't. But she doesn't, she confronts them head on. I liked that about her.

There is a vulgar insult hurled from one of the minor characters in the story, and some mention of "getting to second or third base." But it doesn't explain what that is. Just so you have a heads up if you want to recommend it to a younger reader.

It was a nice story, and mainly made me nostalgic for the summers I spent reading books like this!

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