Bookmarks 'n Blankets
Hey story lovers, it’s time to unwind, relax, and get comfy cozy! Each week, I discuss one of my favorite pastimes - reading books. I also love talking about cozy living, cozy hobbies, self-care, and mindfulness tips. If you like reviews, recommendations, discussions, and a whole lot more, then you’re in the right place. Join me with your favorite blanket, beverage, and snack, and let’s get cozy together!
Bookmarks 'n Blankets
Ep. 150 - Pages to Popcorn: The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy by Jenny Han
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
I’m in the mood for a sweet, wholesome YA summer romance, and I’ve heard so many good things about this trilogy. Come find out my thoughts in real time as I read all three books and then watch the popular series on Amazon Prime.
You can find the companion blog here.
**If you want more YA summer romance book reviews, you may enjoy listening to episodes 27 and 28.
Shop at Book Outlet and use my link to save $5 off your first order when you spend $25 or more.
Follow me on:
I'm in the mood for a sweet, wholesome YA summer romance, and I've heard so many good things about this trilogy. Come find out my thoughts in real time as I read all three books and then watch the popular series on Amazon. Hey story lovers, it's time to unwind, relax, and get comfy cozy. You're listening to the Bookmarks and Blankets podcast. I'm your host, Kelly Matsudira. Each week I discuss my favorite forms of art, which are books, movies, and TV series. I also love talking about cozy living, cozy hobbies, and self-care tips. If you like reviews, recommendations, discussions, and a whole lot more, then you're in the right place. Join me with your favorite blanket, beverage, and snack, and let's get cozy together. Welcome or welcome back, my book friends. If you're new here, I'm so glad that you're here. My name is Kelly, and I am in the mood for some summer romance. Give me all of the beach reads right now. It is summertime, the weather has warmed up, and I am just in the mood for some summertime romance. Now, I have heard of this trilogy. I've heard of Jenny Hahn. I know she's a very popular YA romance author, and I've heard of the series, so I know all about this, but I just decided, you know, I'm really in the mood for something sweet and wholesome. I do feel a little weird wanting to read this trilogy as a mid-40-year-old woman. However, with all of the controversy that is going on in the book world when it comes to young adult books, and if you haven't heard about this, there is a lot going on. They want to put very mature content in these teenagers' books. And I've made a whole episode about it, I've blogged about it, but they really want to start putting spice and very mature content in young adult books starting probably next year in 2027. And I am somebody who is absolutely against putting spice in young adult books because we're talking about teenagers who are 12 years and older. And then sometimes you even have younger children reading these books because they read up. So I am very much against any kind of language, any kind of political, social agenda being pushed, especially with any LGBT stuff. I'm very much against putting any smut in these types of books. So I feel like as a content creator, as a book reviewer, I owe it to my audience to read everything that's out there and to let you know what is in these books. That includes YA Romance. So while I might feel a little weird as a grown adult reading about teenagers falling in love, I do want to offer suggestions to either teenagers who are looking for wholesome sweet books or parents or any loved ones that are looking for clean books that their teenagers or young children can read. So I do feel a little bit of responsibility, but also I can channel my inner teenager. And I think I can really enjoy these types of stories myself and go back and just imagine, as young teenager Kelly would, what it would be like to be involved in a summer romance with two different guys, two different brothers, because I know this is about a love triangle. So that's how we got here is I just want to read more YA romance so that I can suggest what I think is appropriate and just give you my thoughts on some of these books, especially when they're very, very popular. I know this is a wildly popular trilogy, especially now that the Amazon Prime series has come out. So I just wanted to check it out and see what all of the hype is about and see what I think about it. So usually with these pages to popcorn episodes, I read the book first and then we'll watch the movie or the TV series. In this case, I am going to be reading all three books. I'm gonna read the books first, and then I'm going to watch the series. And I know there's three seasons out, and it looks like they do get longer as we go on. So the first season, I think there's only seven episodes, but by the third season, there's 11. So I think it's gonna take me a little bit of time to get through the series. But since you're listening to this, you're not gonna know how long it's taken me to be able to get through everything. But I think I'm gonna be able to get through the books very quickly because the audiobooks are only six hours each. So basically, that's 18 hours for the entire trilogy. I've listened to audiobooks that are longer than 18 hours. So I think putting it all together is not gonna be that bad for me. And I think I'm gonna get through these pretty quickly. So usually with these kinds of episodes, I do a little bit of an author spotlight in case you're not familiar with the author. Then I'll just share a little bit about my experience if I have any with them, and then if I find any interesting information about the series or the movie. And in this case, it's a series. So let's hop to the author's spotlight. So, Jenny Hahn, I don't really know much about her. I do know that she's a very popular YA author. I'm looking on her Wikipedia page, and it says that she is an author, a screenwriter, an executive producer, and a showrunner. She was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia to Korean American parents. She went to a bunch of schools. She got her master's in creative writing, and she wrote her first book called Shug while she was in college, and it was published in 2006, and this was a middle grade book. Then her next project was this one, which is the Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy. And this is a coming of age story during summer break. So I had an idea of what this was about. She also has another young adult trilogy that she co-wrote with another author, and the first book was published in 2012 called Burn for Burn. And then she wrote a third YA romance trilogy. So she likes her trilogies. She wrote To All the Boys I've Loved Before, and that came out in 2014. So let me hop over to my experience because it kind of ties in with this author's spotlight when it comes to the TV and film aspect of her career. So as far as my experience with Jenny Hahn, like I said, I've never read any of her books, but I have seen the Netflix movie trilogy to all the boys I've loved before. So that came out in 2018, the first movie did, and then the second and third movie came out in 2020 and 2021. So I have seen those. I haven't read the trilogy. I do want to read the trilogy because I did enjoy those movies. And I thought maybe I could go back and re-watch those movies after I read the trilogy. I think that would just be fun for me. And it's been a while, so I don't really remember them too much. I know she also just released a graphic novel about the first book to all the boys I've loved before that just came out. And I saw that my Libby Library app has it, but it's on like a four-month wait. So I think I can just access the books first and maybe get to the graphic novel later on. But that is also out, and I would like to read that at some point. So I've seen those movies and they were really cute movies, and she was an executive producer for the Netflix adaptations. It looks like she also had a brief cameo in the film. Not sure if I caught that or not when I watched it. And then in June of 2022, The Summer I Turned Pretty, the first season was released. It looks like she was a showrunner and executive producer for that. She also has cameos in all three seasons. And it says that the television adaptation was noteworthy in part because there were a number of modifications to make the story more diverse. So that makes me a little leery. If you are not aware, I am a conservative Christian and there are certain political messages and social commentary and cultural things going on that I do not agree with, especially the woke agenda. So the fact that this is on Amazon, I know Amazon likes to wokeify their series. So I'm not surprised that this was wokeified, but hopefully it's not too bad and it's tolerable because I will shred it apart if it's too bad. But I definitely like to make my listeners aware of how things are. It says that, for example, in the book, Belly, who is the main character, she is white in the book, but in the TV series, she's portrayed as biracial. Her father is white and her mother is Korean American. And then also one of the guys that she's interested in, Jeremiah, in the book, he's straight, but I guess he's depicted as openly bisexual in the television series. So those are a couple changes. I'll see what other changes that they did once I read the book. But again, I'm not surprised that they're making these kinds of changes because of course they are. It's Hollywood. It said that even before the first season was released, they renewed the series for a second season. And then the third season came out just last year in 2025. So I think this is a completely completed series. So I can watch all three seasons and be able to complete this entire series. So that makes me feel good. And then it also says in 2022 that she launched her production company, Jenny Kissed Me, after signing a multi-year deal with Amazon Prime Video. So she's got this production company as well as her books and being an author. I don't know if she's got any future books coming out. I didn't see that she has any books coming out soon. Maybe she's just caught up in her film production company right now. But I do know that in May of 2023, there was a spin-off television series to two all the boy film series called Exo Kitty. And that was released on Netflix. And I know that that follows the youngest sister in that series. It looks like the young sister, she goes to a boarding school in South Korea. Now, this looks like it's maybe upper middle grade or very early high school. I did watch a trailer and I'm just not interested in watching that series. So I'm not gonna watch that, but that is available if anybody is curious about a spin-off from the To All the Boys film series. If you really like that, there is a spin-off series you could watch. So I will put all of the information for this author in the companion blog. She has a website that has a lot of information on it about her. She also has an Instagram account and she's got a huge following. She has 3.4 million followers. I usually don't see authors with that many followers. Not even really, really popular authors have that many. So she is a very popular person. But I will put all those links in the companion blog if you're interested to learn more about this author if you want to follow her. But that is my little spotlight about her, and that is my experience, is I haven't read anything, but I've watched the movies, and I'm excited to see what all of this is about. As far as the series, I do know I'm coming late to the party. As I said, this series came out in 2022, so I'm a few years late, but better late than never, I guess. And I did go ahead and watch the trailer for season one of the series just to see what it was gonna be like, if it would even be tolerable for me. I am somebody who likes to watch YA series. I love the old original gossip girl. I'll rewatch that. I'll watch Gilmore Girls, which I know is an adult show, but has high schooler in it as one of the storylines. I watch Vampire Diaries, I've watched Riverdale. So I am definitely somebody who is open to watching young adult series. And I'm really hoping that this is bingeable for me because I'm really in the mood for a bingey soap opera-ish series that I can really get into. So I'm hoping that I really, really like this. And when I was watching the trailer, I thought I recognized the voice of Belly, the main actress, because I did listen to a sample of the audiobook to make sure I did want to listen to the audiobook of The Summer I Turn Pretty. And lo and behold, the actress who plays Belly in the television series is the audiobook narrator. That's why I recognized her voice. So that's kind of cool that I'm gonna be listening to the actress and then I'm going to watch her play the character. So I'm very excited about that. I think that's very cool. I don't think I've ever experienced that before. So that's just a little something that I found out. Okay, I think that's it for the intro. Let me hop to the logistics. So the way that I'm gonna do this is I think I'm just gonna take one book at a time because I don't want any spoilers. So I'm just going to read the summary of the first book and then I'm going to read the book and I'm going to give you my thoughts as I go through the story. I usually stop around the 25-30% mark, the halfway, and then finish it up and give you my final thoughts. So I'm going to do that with each book as we go through the trilogy. I also have a companion blog on my website if you go to bookmarksthelternblankets.com. If you miss anything in the episode, if you want to learn more, again, if you want the links to the author and her website, I will also have my written reviews over there. If you want to read my reviews, you can just head over to the companion blog and everything will be there for you. Easy access. Also on my website, I have a blog. I post every Tuesday and Thursday. So if you like reading tips and tricks, book discussions, book crafts, book lists, head over there every week. I'm always posting brand new things. I am very seasonal. So right now it is summertime. So I'm getting all of my summertime posts up there, summertime book lists. I also have a lot of blogs from last summer. So there is a whole bunch of fun stuff for you to check out over on the website. Also, if you want to know what I'm reading in real time, you can follow me on Goodreads. I'm in there every single day. I read multiple genres in multiple formats. Whatever I'm in the mood to read, that's what you're gonna find on there. I also post all of my written reviews on that platform as well. And then finally, I would love to know your thoughts if you've read the books, if you've watched the series, which did you like better? Did they do good by the series, in your opinion, or are the books better? I would love to know your thoughts. You can let me know what you think of this series, or if you've read anything else by this author, any other YA romance books maybe that I should have on my radar. I definitely am starting to build a list of more YA romances that I do want to read so that I can recommend those to you. So I invite you to head over to social media. You can find me in all the places X or Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can leave me a comment in the post that I make when I announce this episode. All right, without further ado, I am really excited to check out this trilogy and the series and see what all the hype is about. So let's get comfy, let's get cozy, and let's dive in. Okay, so of course we're starting with book number one, The Summer I Turn Pretty, and the narrator is Lola Tongue. And as I said, I know this is short, it's only a six-hour audio, so I'm sure I'm gonna be able to get through this really quickly. On Goodreads, this has a 3.73, and the description reads, Some summers are just destined to be pretty. 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 Susanna, 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. Okay, I am very excited. So I'm gonna go ahead and start the book, and then I will come back when I get to around the first quarter mark. Alright, I will talk with you soon. Hello, hello, my book friends. Alright, so I have started The Summer I Turn Pretty by Jenny Hahn, and so far so good. I feel like I've gotten through this first portion very quickly. I'm actually at the 30% mark, and it was almost hard for me to stop because it has been so easy and so quickly to get to this point because it is such a short book. So I know I'm gonna fly through these novels, which is nice because I really just want to get through the book so that I can watch the series because I know so many people are talking about this series, and I'm just really in the mood for a summer series right now. So let me tell you where I'm at in the plot of the book. So we meet Belly, and first of all, I don't love the name. I'm not sure if that is short for something, but I don't love it. And I wish she was named something else. But we meet Belly, and she is on the way to a summer beach house with her mom and her brother. Her brother is older than her, and they've been doing this for as long as she can remember, since she was a little girl. And I think she's about 15 or 16 right now. And so she's been going to the summer beach house, and Susanna is best friends with her mom. And then Susanna has two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. So Conrad is the older son, and then Jeremiah, I think, is her age. And of course, she has her crush on Conrad, the older brother. And then Jeremiah is just her friend. So, first off, right off the bat, I was getting the kissing booth vibes. I watch those three movies on Netflix. So, as you can tell, I do consume young adult content, and I've seen those movies, and that movie is about a girl, she's best friends with this guy, and then she falls for her best friend's brother. So I was totally feeling the kissing booth vibes. Now, I know that's also a trilogy of YA romance books. I have not read those books yet. I'm not sure which came out first, this series or that series. But as soon as this started and she was liking the older brother, and the younger one was just her friend, I was getting vibes of that movie or that movie series. So that was the first thing. So we just learned that Conrad is the older and he's kind of more of that bad boy, rebellious teenager where Jeremiah is the sweet, very nice, kind boy. And there's past and present timelines. So we go back in time, like when she was 12 and when she was 10, and then it skips to when she was 13 and then 14. So it's kind of skipping around when we go in the past, but it is giving us a look at her life as well as her experience with the brothers. So in her life, we do learn that her dad cheated on her mom and they got divorced, and just how her home life has been. So we learn more about that, but then we also learn more about different summers that she spent at this beach house and how her feelings started growing for Conrad, her crush, as she kept getting older. They've always seen her as like the little sister, but of course, now she's getting to be more mature and older, and they're starting to see her a little differently. So that's really it with the plot right now. Not anything has happened yet. We're just learning a lot of the backstory. We do learn though that Susanna, the friend, so the boy's mom, has breast cancer. She had breast cancer and she had to go through chemo, but it looks like she went into remission because they were talking about her being sick and going through chemo like five years ago, and now she's still around. I'm thinking she went into remission. So I don't love the cancer aspect because that hits home with me. When I was 16, my mom died of ovarian cancer, and this lady has breast cancer, but still, I just don't like the cancer trope. I just don't like having that in stories because. Because it does hit home for me. I mean, it was really, really long time ago that she passed away, but it's just still hard to read about at times. So I don't love that aspect of it. And I'm hoping that it doesn't go too much into that storyline. But it feels like the story is trying to set itself up, that it's not some light, fluffy, young adult rom-com, that there is more depth and darker themes to the story. But I just hope that it doesn't focus too much on the cancer aspect. But I have a feeling that maybe at some point, maybe not in this book, but maybe in another book, either two or three, that maybe she's gonna die and then that's gonna bring her closer to the brothers. I'm just totally predicting right now. I really don't know. And I have not read the summary of book two and three because I didn't want anything to be spoiled. So I have no idea what those books are about. But right now, it's fine. There's no language so far, so I'm happy about that. It definitely reads like a YA romance. Sometimes you can read a YA book and it doesn't feel like a YA book, but this definitely does feel like this is targeted for teenagers and this is about young people falling in love. But it's not terrible. It's very tolerable. I'm enjoying it. I think the narrator is doing a great job. I think she's performing it very well, and I'm enjoying listening to her right now. It just feels like a lot of information being thrown at us right now in this first portion. I wouldn't say it's necessarily info dumping, but there is a lot of information being dumped on us. So maybe it is info dumping. But it doesn't feel hard to follow along. I did have to slow down the speed. I always start my audiobooks at 1.5 speed, and I did slow it down to 1.4 for a little bit, but also I was working and listening to it, and I wanted to pay attention. So I did slow it down, but then I did end up speeding it back up to 1.5 speed, but that's where I'm at right now, and I'm just gonna throw it out there right now. I'm not team Conrad or Jeremiah yet. I still want to see how things go before I pick a side. I haven't really learned much at all about the guys. So I want to read a little bit more, but I do like the references. There are some pop culture references to the mid-2000s or maybe early 2010s. So I do like some of the pop culture references, so that was a little fun. And then nobody seems annoying right now because again, you can read about teenagers and they're just super annoying, but I'm not finding anybody annoying yet. So I'm just waiting for something to happen. Nothing is really happening in this first portion. So I'm just waiting for the story to really get going. But I am gonna make a prediction that whenever I read anything or watch a movie where the girl falls for the older brother, it always turns out that she ends up with the best friend, right? It always becomes a best friend to more. And I have a feeling that's what's gonna happen here. I have a feeling she's crushing on Conrad, but he's gonna do something stupid because teenagers do, and he's gonna do something stupid to break her heart, and then she's gonna go cry on Jeremiah's shoulder, and they're gonna get close, and she's gonna end up picking him. So that's my prediction right now is that she's going to pick the best friend because they always do. But I could be totally wrong, and I'm gonna see what happens. So that's my check-in. Probably, since I'm at the 30% mark, I'll probably stop around the 60% mark, and I'll give you my check-in and my thoughts of where we are with the story. All right, I will be back soon. Hello, hello, my lovelies. So I have actually finished the book. So I'm just gonna talk about everything. And this is going to include spoilers because I'm reading all three books and I just don't know how I can talk about this trilogy and not taught spoilers. So if you haven't read the books, if you haven't seen the show and you want to, then you probably want to stop listening and come back to this once you have read or watched the show. So we're gonna talk about it all right now because I have thoughts. So I didn't stop at the 60% mark because I was running out of time with the audiobook and I didn't want to lose it because there are people waiting in line for it, so I wouldn't be able to renew it. So I went ahead and powered through because it was so short and I just wanted to get through it before I lost it. So that's why I didn't stop. But let me go back and talk about the second part of the book, and we meet a lot more characters. So we meet Taylor, who is Belly's best friend from home, and I was reading some reviews. A lot of people were describing her as a pick me girl. I know that is a newer term, and as far as I know what that means, because I'm not a millennial or a zennial, I think a pick me girl is described as a girl who is just very clingy, wants attention, pick me, pick me, just maybe insecure about herself and trying to just get all the attention of people, especially guys, and wanting to be that it popular girl. And I can absolutely see if my definition is correct, I could absolutely see Taylor as that because she was super annoying. I did not like her. I did not like that Belly invited her to come out during one of the summers. So we met her in past timeline in the memories of Belly, and that she went right after Conrad, who is the guy that Belly really likes. But then she also got the attention of Jeremiah, so I felt like she was kind of playing both of the brothers. She knew that Belly liked one of the guys, and I just I don't know, you don't treat your friends that way, and I just didn't like that character. Then we met Clay. He was a friend of the brothers. We barely interacted with him, so I didn't really get to know him. But then we met Cameron, and I really liked Cam. He's a Japanese American, and he and Belly took some Latin course together and they reconnected at a party. And he always had a crush on her, but he never really said anything. So then she starts to get a crush on him. Then once they meet at the party, they start hanging out a lot more. I wouldn't say that they were boyfriend, girlfriend, but they were kind of acting that way. However, I really think that the way she treated him by the end, and I'll get to that in a second, was really crappy. But I really liked Cam. I really liked that character. So in the second part of this story, we're just seeing a lot more of the back and forth past and present timelines. We're learning more about what happened in the past, and we're just a lot more in Belly's head. There is drama between Belly and Conrad in the present. He sees her as a little sister and he treats her that way, and she gets angry about it. There's a point where she's at the party, and I think it's when she reconnects with Cam and meets him for the first time. And Cam says, I'll take you home. And she went to go tell Conrad, and he's like, I don't know who this guy is, I'll take you home. She's like, No, I want to go with Cam. They kind of have this little bickering argument, and then she just blows up at him at the party, and she doesn't like him controlling her or telling her what to do. It did feel like a brother-sister relationship there, even though we know she has a crush on Conrad. But it just really seemed like petty teenage drama as somebody in their 40s. I really had to channel my inner teenager when I was reading these scenes because they were a little cringe and some of it was a little cheesy. But I had to remember, I'm not the demographic. This is what happens with teenagers, and they're highly emotional when they're going through puberty and in their teenage years. And something like this would set a 15-year-old off that she wants to go with the boy she likes, but then the other boy was trying to control her. I was like, no. So I understood that. In this whole second part, we see her reconnecting with Cam and them getting closer. But then we're also seeing the past timeline of how things were and how she developed feelings for Conrad and just the different ages and how she interacted with these brothers and how she got close to them. And her and Jeremiah are more on the friend level, and Conrad is more the guy she's crushing on. But then she has her first kiss with Jeremiah. So it feels like there could be something there. So it definitely felt like the past timeline was more of the love triangle, and then the present turns into a love square, I guess, once Cam entered into the picture. So let me fast forward just to the end. So after I finished reading this, I was sitting with this and trying to figure out my final thoughts and what I was really thinking about this. I will say, as far as content-wise, there is no spice. So I was very, very happy that there was no spice. It was just some light kissing. And there's very, very mild swearing. I think there's like one or two swear words towards the end, but otherwise it's almost swear-free. So I enjoyed that. I really enjoyed the narrator, and I know that she is the actress in the show. So I'm very excited to see her portray this character on the screen. So I really liked her. There were times her inflections or her delivery was a little off-putting because she would giggle, or you could tell she was smiling or kind of laughing, and it was coming through, and it just didn't quite land for me. But overall, I thought she did a really great job. And I think she narrates this entire trilogy. So I'm gonna continue listening to her. The best thing I will say is that this is a very quick read. It was very easy to read, very easy to finish. You could read this in one day. The chapters are very short, and this would be a great beach read during the summertime. And it does feel very summery. There are a lot of summer activities. They go to the beach, they're swimming in pools, there's the late night parties. It definitely feels like a coming-of-age story because we watch Belly learning how to drive. So there were a lot of different scenes that were very summery, give you that summer vibe. So this is absolutely perfect for the warmer months. Now, I mentioned before I did not like her name Belly, and what the heck is that all about? Well, I thought it was about halfway or even more than halfway in. And we finally find out that her name is Isabel, and Belly is a nickname. And I had a feeling it was a nickname. I just wasn't sure what it was short for. I think it was Karen that was even says, why do they call you Belly? Why not Belle or whatever other nicknames Isabelle is short for? She just says that she got it from I think her dad, and it was just a nickname that she got when she was younger, and it just has stuck with her. But I personally do not like the name. And if I was a 15, 16-year-old girl at this point, I think I would want people to start calling me either a different nickname or just my real name because Belly just feels like a very kiddie nickname. And I wouldn't want to be called that growing up into this teenager being in high school and still having that nickname. So to me, that was a little weird. But I think the biggest thing about this book is there is a lot of just petty, over-the-top teenage drama. And I can absolutely see why teens would love this and that they can relate to it and that there's certain things that would resonate with them more so than an adult. And I am very well aware that I am reading this or reviewing this as an adult. And to me, there were very cringy moments, there were some cheesy moments. It definitely felt like a coming of age story. And I had to try to channel my inner teenager to really enjoy this because it just felt so stupid at times because they're teenagers. And of course, that's what 15-year-olds think about and worry about and stress over. But as an adult, it just feels so stupid and trivial. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is such trivial drama that is just so dumb. That I had to remind myself that I need to be in my teenager mind. But we are inside Belly's head a lot. We get a lot of musings and thoughts about daily life, her family, and of course, the boys. So I can see how teenage girls can relate to this book, to this series, because these are things that teenage girls go through and it would resonate with this audience. As an adult, I found her quite annoying, but I know I'm not the demographic for this story. I do wish she had other hobbies and interests that she could do besides being boy-obsessed, because the whole story is just her being obsessed with boys between these three boys, Conrad, Jeremiah, and Cameron. And I know that's the point of the story, but it would have been nice if there were other things going on outside of just her boy-obsessed mind. And for that, I would say not really much happens in this story. I was bored for quite a bit of it. I started to feel like I don't understand the hype because other than just the teenage drama and her trying to figure out herself and the boy that she likes, there wasn't much going on. There weren't a lot of action scenes, there are not a lot of action sequences, nothing really huge happens. I was just really surprised that more wasn't going on with all of the hype that is around this book. So that was a little disappointing because I thought there would be more things happening and there weren't. But I do like that all of these characters are flawed and it made them feel real and easy to connect to. So again, I can understand why teenagers would relate to this book and like it. And it did make me remember my teenage years and all of the challenges and the struggles. You have all these conflicting emotions, and it's just a time when you want to still be a kid, but yet at the same time, you want to start being treated like an adult. So that 15, 16-year-old time is a really weird time for kids because you are in this in-between stage, and you still want to be a kid, but you want to be an adult, and it is like this back and forth, and you could really feel that with Belly. Now, as far as the love triangle, we know that she likes Conrad, and Jeremiah was always seen as just a kid that she was friends with, but I think there's a little bit of a spark there between Jeremiah and Belly. It's not huge, but I think it's more on his end than her end. So it's like the little brother likes her, but she likes the older brother. But then there's Cam. And Cam comes in, and I really liked him because I felt like of the three boys, he was the most emotionally mature. I thought that he treated her the best, but yet she treated him the worst. I really think that she used him to make Conrad jealous and to notice her, and it worked. And I really think that she did Cameron dirty, and I do not like that she started reconnecting. They were kind of making out. She was really into him and he was into her, and then she just totally flipped the switch and called things off with Cameron and then was all about Conrad again. I just didn't like that at all. I thought that was really mean and cruel, and she just led poor Cameron on. I don't think he deserved that. He deserved so much better. I was all about team Cameron, but if I had to pick between the two brothers, I would say that usually I would probably go with the misunderstood bad boy. But in this case, Conrad was such a jerk. And I understand why. We learn why in the end, because his mom has cancer and it was in remission, but now it's back. And that is very upsetting. As somebody who did have a mother that had cancer, I was 16 years old. She fought it for 14 months before she passed away. I totally understand going through the most difficult time of your life with a parent having terminal illness and you're being a teenager and you're processing being a teenager, but then you're also processing a parent dying. I understand how hard that is. But the way that he was acting and the way he was acting out. And like I said, I understood why, but I still didn't like it. And he's 18 years old and more mature than the others, but just the way that he was behaving, I didn't like. So I guess I was leaning more towards Jeremiah. I thought he was so sweet. He was so kind and caring, very genuine guy. I think right now I'm team Jeremiah as far as going between the two brothers. Now, I didn't like that they put the cancer trope in this book. As I said earlier, that's just not something that I want to read about because that hits home really, really hard for me. Even almost 30 years later, it still hits hard. And the ending, when they said that Susanna was back with her cancer, I just felt like the ending was such a deppy downer. It was such a downer at the very end. So we have this drama-filled story for three-fourths of it. And then it just becomes this huge downer at the very last quarter or third of the book because Susanna's cancer is back, and we don't know if she's gonna be able to fight it again and go back into remission or if it's gonna take her this time. She did say that she's going to try to fight it. There are things that she's doing to try to get rid of it again, but we don't know what's gonna happen. So there was a cliffhanger there, and then there was a bit of a cliffhanger at the very end where once they leave and we fast forward, I think to around Christmas time. So we fast forward a few months, and then Belly sneaks out of her house and she jumps in the car and goes off with Conrad. And that's how it ends. So, of course, with a cliffhanger like that, I'm dying to find out what happens next and what's going on. Does Conrad still see her as a little sister? Or is he starting to have more feelings for her? I mean, they did have a little bit of a makeout session towards the end and they were kissing. So I'm guessing his feelings have evolved more, and we know that she's always had feelings for him, but now I'm just curious of what's the next chapter? What's gonna happen next with these characters? So, overall, for this first book, I'm giving it three stars because I was not completely blown away, but I wasn't turned off by it either. It was okay, it was mediocre. I expected a lot more from it, so I was disappointed to a point, but also it's the first in a series, and I'm hoping it gets better. Now, I have read some reviews already, and I've heard that it doesn't get better. So I'm hoping that's not the case. Maybe that was just some of those reviewers, that's their opinion. Hopefully, it does get better. Now, I have also seen a lot of people say that the show is way better than the books, but like I said, I'm going to read all of the books first before I even attempt to watch the show. But I did tell you that I watched the trailer for the first season, and I already see that there's quite a difference because in the trailer it shows that there's some debutante ball that Belly gets ready for, and that is not at all in this first book. And I thought about it when I finished the book, and I thought that would have been a really good part of this story if they included some kind of debutante ball. I think that would have made it a lot more interesting for the book. It would have given us maybe more action scenes and something actually happening and going on because otherwise there was really no plot. It was just here's the summer of this girl and her family with this other family and just what's happening in their daily lives and then just what's going on in her head. It almost felt like diary entries without being diary entries. And there really wasn't a main plot, anything that we're trying to get to. There was no point A to point B that we were trying to get to. It's just here's the summer and just here's what happened. Again, kind of like a diary, like dear diary. Here's what happened this summer with these three boys that all are crushing on me. So again, I didn't hate this, but I didn't love it. I really feel like it was middle of the road, mediocre. I don't understand the hype, but I'm also not the demographic for this novel. So those are my thoughts. I'm glad that there was very little profanity and there's no spice. So this is a clean book to give to your teenagers. So I did appreciate that. I'm hoping it stays that way and that it doesn't get spicy the further in we go. But anyway, those are my thoughts for the first book. So I'm gonna go ahead and start the second book. So the second book is It's Not Summer Without You. Again, it's still narrated by Lola Tung, and this has a 3.74 on Goodreads. And the description reads 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 Susanna 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. Okay, so it doesn't tell me too much of what to expect. We are gonna go back to the beach house, it seems. The whole thing about Conrad disappearing, well, Conrad and Belly disappeared at the end of book one. So yeah, I'm very curious of what's going on in book two. So I'm gonna go ahead and start it. Again, it's very short, it's only six hours. I don't know if I'll do three check-ins. I might just do two check-ins because these books are so short. So maybe I'll just go to the halfway point and then update you and then come back and give you my final thoughts. I think that's what I'm gonna do for these next two books. So I'm gonna go ahead and start book number two, and then I will be back once I get to the halfway point and give you my thoughts. All right, I will be back soon. Hello, hello, my book friends. So I am back, and I have started book two, It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Hahn. And this time we are actually getting two perspectives. We're getting Belly's perspective, but then we're also getting Jeremiah's perspective. So we have two narrators with the audiobook. So again, Lola Tung is back as Belly and the main narrator, but then we also have Gavin Costalegno, and he is Jeremiah's perspectives. Now I will say I really enjoy having a second perspective in this book. His chapters are pretty short, at least for the first part that I've read right now. So we're not getting a lot of insight into Jeremiah's mind, but I do like the fact that we have a second POV now. So I am 50% into the book. Again, this is another six-hour audio. It is going by so, so fast. I got here really quick. Honestly, I could have probably listened to the entire book in one day, but I decided to just listen to the first half so I could come in and give you my check-in. So I'm only gonna do this one check-in and then I'm gonna finish the book and come back and give you my final thoughts. There's still some language, but there's no spice, at least not right now. So, as far as content, I'm pretty happy with that. I wish there was no swearing at all, but I mean, it's realistic to hear teenagers swear. So I can understand that. And it's not a lot, and I feel like it's pretty tolerable. So, in this installment, we are still getting past and present timelines, but we don't go back as far in the past. So basically, the past timeline is what happened, what we missed between books one and two. So, book two picks up a few months later, and we find out that Susanna unfortunately has died of cancer, and that is just affecting everybody right now. It's affecting Laurel, her best friend, Belly's mother. She's not doing real well. It's affecting Belly. She keeps thinking about Susanna, and that's a lot of the past is finding out what happened with Susanna during those months that led up to her death. So we're just doing short-term past timeline, and then we have what's going on in the present. So we do have the kids. I'm gonna call them kids because they are kids, they're teenagers. They are growing up, and Jeremiah and Belly are still in high school, but Conrad is now in college. So in the past timeline, we did learn what happened at the very end of book one. So at the end of book one, Belly gets in the car with Conrad. It's around the holidays and they just take off. That's where it ends. So book two does not pick up where book one left off. We have to wait a few chapters to get into it to find out what actually happened. But they ended up just going back to the beach house and cousins, and there's a whole sequence there of them together, and they're making out and they basically get together. So Conrad and Belly start dating, and I think they're dating for a while, and he takes her to her prom. I think it's a junior senior prom. So they go together, but unfortunately, and man, the timing, I mean, guys and their timing, right? He breaks up with her on prom night, which I mean, breaking up with the guy you've been in love with your whole life is traumatic enough. But then to do it on prom night, it's like, dude, bad timing. That was just not the right time to do that. So now we see Belly in the present struggling to get over Conrad because she is still in love with him and he's the one that broke it off with her. And I really think he did that because she's younger than him. I don't know if she's like a year or two years younger than him, but he's getting ready to go off to college and she's still in high school for a year or two. I just wonder if he was really that into her. I think she was more into him than he was into her. Obviously, he wants a clean slate when he goes to college. He's gonna have all these college girls around. So I get why he did that, but it still was a really bad time. Very poor decision making on his part. But in the present, we see Belly really struggling with Susanna's death, struggling with her breakup. And like I said, her mom, Laurel, is not doing really well. She's really depressed and upset that her best friend has died. So things are not great. It feels a little depressing. It feels really sad right now. And we do see Taylor show up again. That's Belly's friend. She's trying to have Belly get over Conrad and they go to a party, and she's trying to get Belly to flirt and hook up with this other guy. I think his name's Connor or something. She's just not interested at all. And I do wonder why Belly and Taylor friends are because Belly always complains about Taylor. Taylor is just all about being a party girl and wanting to hook up with guys. She's a girly girl. Belly is nothing like her. I feel like as far as friends, they're opposites of each other. And I just wonder why Belly is friends with her, but I don't really see Belly with friends with anybody else. So maybe Taylor is her only friend, and that's why she's keeping her around because they've been childhood friends and there's really nobody else because Jeremiah is really good friends with Belly, but they don't go to the same school. So I don't know. That was just something that came up to me. And then the biggest subplot that's going on right now is that Conrad is in college and he just took off. He's kind of missing. So Jeremiah and Belly go searching for him and they find him at the beach house in Cousins. And Conrad doesn't want to go back to school. So I think Conrad's just having a really, really hard time with his mom's death. I don't think he's doing very well in college. I think he just kind of wants to be left alone and he just wants to hang out at the beach house. So that's how we get back to the beach house right now is some of the past timeline, the memories that Belly has. We see them at the beach house. And then we also are remembering Susanna, and we're getting past memories of Susanna at the beach house. And now we have followed Conrad to the beach house. So it's very different tone in this second book. And like I said, it feels very dramatic. It feels very over the top. It feels very teen angsty. Feels like a soap opera, I will say, more so than in the first book. And then there's just also this looming gloom because of Susanna's death and how that's affecting everybody. So obviously, trigger of parent dying of cancer with this book. And for a YA summer book, it does feel like a Debbie Downer. It does feel really sad. It's like the gang is broken up. It doesn't feel like the group is cohesive like they were in the first book. But also, this is real life. This is what happens. So I do really like Han's writing because she's really capturing the emotions of a teen going through a parent's death, falling in love, still trying to come into themselves. It still feels like a coming-of-age story. You do get all of that teen angst and that over-the-top drama, but that's how teens are. So I feel like Han is really capturing the teenager really well. And I feel like these characters feel real and raw. I understand why this series is popular because teenagers can really relate and resonate with these characters and connect with them. Again, as someone who's reading this in my mid-40s, it just feels silly and absurd and just a bunch of teen drama that I'm almost feeling like I don't care about. But again, I'm not the target audience. So I'm trying to summon my inner teenager and see it from the perspective of a high schooler. I can see why these are really popular and that especially teen girls would really like this story. Now let's talk about our three main characters because I feel like they're all getting really annoying. Conrad is just moody, he's brooding. I find him very selfish. I feel like he doesn't care how his actions and his behavior are affecting others, especially when he just takes off from school and nobody knows where he is. His family, his friends, he's just gone. It's like he doesn't even care how he's affecting everybody. And I'm just finding him really, really not likable. So I'm trying to understand Belly of what she is seeing in him. Is this just a teenage girl that is still holding on to her young teenage fantasies about him when she was much younger? But he's different now. He's older, he's in college, I'm guessing he's 18, 19, and he's changing, but I'm not liking who he's changing into. So not team Conrad right now. Now, Jeremiah, I did like Jeremiah more in the first book. I think I'm liking him even more now in this book. So I would say between the two brothers, I'm definitely Team Jeremiah right now. But this boy, oh, he's such a sweetheart. And he feels like an underdog. And I'm definitely rooting for him. I love how he's a true friend to Belly, and he doesn't let his emotions and his feelings get in the way of their friendship. But you can tell that he's in love with her, but she's in love with his older brother. So it is a very messy love triangle. The way he's pining for her, it's just it breaks my heart because she just does not feel the same way about him. But I'm really liking Jeremiah and I really like that we have his perspective. I just feel for him, my heart goes out to him because he is pining for somebody who's just not that into him. And then we have Belly. Now, Belly, I feel like she was a bit annoying in the first book, but she was tolerable. I feel like in book two, she's becoming even more annoying and obnoxious. And I'm just starting to not like her either. Especially, like I said, she is pining after a guy that's not into her, but then there's a guy that's pining after her that she's not into. So it is this really messy situation that she's gotten herself into with these two brothers. But I'm just not really liking her so much right now. I do feel for her because she is going through it. She is a teenager that's in this messy situation. She's trying to follow her heart, but I don't know if she really knows what her heart wants. And then she's dealing with the loss of Susanna, which was like a mother figure to her. So it's almost like she lost a mother as well, and she's dealing with that. But then she's also dealing with her parents. And I think her parents' marriage is having a hard time, her mom's having a hard time. Her brother is gone off to college because he's older than her. So she's all alone with her parents dealing with all of this. And then she has this friend that I don't feel like Taylor is that great of a friend. And there's just a lot going on. So I do feel for her, but at the same time, she's also starting to rub me the wrong way. And I was looking at some reviews on Goodreads, and someone wrote, Belly is stupid, Conrad is annoying, Jeremiah is pathetic. And that's a very simplistic way to describe these characters. But yes, I do agree with that. It does feel that way. So that's where I'm at right now, and there's kind of a lot going on, and I'm curious to see what's going to happen in the second half of the book. Like I said, it went by really, really fast. So I'm probably gonna be able to get through this really quickly. It's not gonna take me too long. So I'm gonna go ahead and finish up and then I'm gonna start book three. I will say, as I was listening to the second book, I am very, very curious to watch the TV show. And I told you guys I'm not gonna watch it until I finish the entire book trilogy. I almost, almost started watching it because at the time of this recording, it's the middle of June, it's summertime, it's the perfect time to get into a summer drama, romance, love triangle series. And I'm just really in the mood for a summer TV show. But I'm still worried that the first season may pull aspects of book two and three. And I just don't want to miss anything. I don't want anything to be spoiled. So I am gonna just hang tight and finish this trilogy first before I start watching the TV show. But I am getting more and more excited to watch the TV show because as this story is playing out in my head, I'm just curious to see how it's gonna play out in a live action series. So I am really excited to start watching this. And as I keep reading more reviews about these books, people keep saying that they love the show, they like it so much better than the books. So I just really am interested to see what the TV series is like compared to the books. And am I gonna like that more? Is it gonna be more tolerable? Because I have found that sometimes the movie or TV show, especially for these teenage stories, the characters can be more tolerable on the screen than they are in the book. And right now, all three of these characters are really starting to bug me and to annoy me. So I'm really hoping that they're more tolerable on the screen because right now I'm just ready to start screaming at all three of them because yeah, they're being stupid and annoying and pathetic. And again, that's just teenagers being teenagers. But I am really ready to start a series and to see how things are on the screen. So anyway, I'm rambling at this point. Let me stop. I'm gonna finish this book up and then I will be back and give you my final thoughts before we move on to book three. All right, I will talk with you soon. Hello, hello. I am back. It is the next day, and I have finished It's Not Summer Without You. And this was just, I feel like another mediocre story about some teenagers falling in love and trying to find their way. And it's a coming-of-age story. There's a lot of teen angst. I've already talked about that. I didn't really feel like much happened in this book. I didn't feel like it was better than the first. I feel like they're both on the same level to me. I don't know if I preferred one over the other. This was just an extension of the first one. So we are picking up a few months later. Actually, I think this is two months after Conrad breaks up with Belly, and that's the present. But then we're also, like I mentioned, going back to the short-term past to learn about the final days with Susanna and just everything that led up to her death, and then them dealing with her death. Again, this is containing spoilers. So in this second half of the book, we did get a little bit more plot of what was happening and why Connor was at summer school. I don't know if I mentioned it was summer school, but he was at summer school. It is during the summertime, and he left school to go to the beach house and cousins, and that's where Jeremiah and Belly tracked him down. And we find out that he was actually trying to save the beach house because his dad was wanting to sell it after his mom died. And of course, nobody wants the beach house to be sold because they have a lot of fond memories there. That's where Susanna was there, and she is in all parts of the house. They can still feel her there, sense her there. They remember her. And of course, the boys are angry at their dad because I think he cheated on Susanna when she was sick, and now he's trying to come in and sell the house out from under the family, and the boys don't agree with that. And the real estate agent does show up. We see a confrontation between the three teenagers and the real estate agent. They're just really confused about what's going on because their dad didn't say anything to them about wanting to sell the house. So they feel like there's not really much they can do. So they want to have a last hurall. So they have this big beach house party. There is underage drinking that goes on, and Belly gets drunk. She drunk dials her mom, lets her know where she's at. And then the next morning, her mom shows up, and it's this whole argument that they get into. And of course, Belly's in trouble. And then Conrad and Jeremiah's dad show up, and there's this big blow up between Laurel and I forget the name of the dad, but the dad of the boys. There's this whole blow up between them, and he wants to sell it. Laurel is against it as well. She doesn't want the beach house to be sold. She thinks it's something that they can keep in the family and the boys can look after it, and everyone can still use it. And he kind of throws in her face that she's not family. This was never her beach house, even though she acted like it was. So there's a lot of hurtful words exchanged. But then the dad finally comes to his senses and says, All right, if Conrad goes back to school and he can pass his exams, then the boys can keep the beach house. So then the very, very end of the book is Jeremiah and Belly taking Conrad back to school. And while he's taking his exams, Jeremiah is feeling all sorts of things. While they're in the car waiting, or they're around the car waiting or something like that, he kisses Belly. He doesn't really express himself verbally of how much he likes her or is in love with her, but he kisses her and she kisses him back. And Conrad comes out and finds them kissing. He sees this. Of course, Belly's really embarrassed. And now there's these two brothers that are both into her. There's a scene where they're heading back home and they get caught in a storm, so they're stuck at a hotel. Before they go to bed, Conrad tells Belly that whenever he blew up at her and said he didn't want to be with her, he wasn't being serious. So it seems like maybe Conrad really does have feelings for Belly, but I really, really question that because the way he's been acting towards her, the way he's been treating her, it tells you otherwise. I really don't think Conrad has that deep of romantic feelings. I think he sees her maybe as a sister. I think maybe there is a little bit of romantic love there, but it's definitely not as deep as Jeremiah. I really feel like Jeremiah is the one that has fallen for Belly. I don't really feel like Conrad has. And then the very, very end is Belly now has to basically figure out is she gonna finally let Conrad go? And is she gonna get together with Jeremiah? And it ends on a kind of sort of cliffhanger-ish. I'm definitely excited to pick up the third book just to finish this trilogy and to see what happens. But I mean, overall, I gave this three stars. So both of the books right now are three stars for me. I feel it's very average, it's very middle of the road. It's written well. I think it's written really well for teenagers. As an older adult reading this, I'm not finding it to be super entertaining. It's just very dramatic. It's over the top, it's a lot of teen angst, and there's not really an actual lot happening. There's not a lot of action scenes. And so I am feeling myself really bored, and I'm glad that these are really short books to get through because I see the hype, but at the same time, I don't understand the hype because, again, there's just not much really happening. It's more of these teenagers and being in their heads and just their thoughts and feelings. This didn't feel as much like diary entries as the first book. I think maybe because we did have that second perspective of Jeremiah, and now there's two teenagers' heads that we're in. And I think there was a little bit more plot going on in the second book than in the first one, where I mentioned the first one felt like more like diary entries, and then it was just all put together to tell a story. This one didn't quite feel like that. So I'm going to finish this trilogy and just see what happens. But overall, I'm not super impressed reading this. I will probably never. Pick these books up again. I am excited to watch the show. I am happy to report there is no spice, but there is language. So there is a little bit of language. I think there might have been a couple F-bombs. It's not a ton of language. It's not like a Lynn Painter YA where I was totally disgusted by every other word was a curse word, and I just felt like it was super excessive. So it's nothing like that. I do feel like the language is sprinkled throughout. So it is tolerable. I still don't want to see swearing in YA books, but I totally understand kids swear, especially teenagers. And that's just real life. So if nothing else, this definitely feels raw. It feels real. I can see how teenagers can relate to this. And this could be a real life situation. But I am happy that there's only kissing, there's no spice. There's nothing super triggering as far as other type of content outside of a parent dying of cancer, which is really sad. And there were some very sad moments, but there's nothing graphic, there's nothing super in-depth about the illness. It's just there. And I did feel like this book was a lot more somber and serious than the first book. The first book really felt like a lighthearted, fun summer beach read, but this one felt heavier. It felt a little darker, I guess, because of Susanna's death and their dealing with grief and loss. And it just really brought the tone of the book down. So, yes, it's a beach read. It's a quick summer read, but it didn't feel like that light-hearted, airy summer romance story that you might expect. And again, it's just an extenuation of the first book. So we're just continuing to follow these characters, and it was just okay. So those are my thoughts for the second books. So let's hop into the third book because I am ready to be done with this series and to start the TV series on Amazon Prime. So the third book is called We'll Always Have Summer. It does look like we're gonna have multiple perspectives. Again, the female narrator is gonna be Lola Tongue. This time the male narrator is gonna be Christopher Briney. I'm not sure if I've listened to anything with him before. I don't know who he's gonna be narrating as. I'm guessing maybe Conrad, but I don't know, maybe it's Jeremiah again with just a different narrator. But this has a 3.77 on Goodreads, and the description reads, It's been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college. Only their relationship hasn't exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It's time for Belly to decide once and for all who has her heart forever. Alright, so it's gonna be a couple years later. We're finally getting into the college years. I'm hoping this is a lot more interesting. I'm hoping I like this the best of the three. I really would love to see this last book be a four-star because I really don't think it could be a five-star for me, but I really would love to give this a higher rating than the last two. And maybe it will be even more dramatic now that they're older and in college, and hopefully we'll get some more action scenes, or at least the plot will be more interesting because I just feel like the plot with the last two books was just a little ho-hum for me, and it just wasn't super interesting. But now that it's a couple years later, I am interested to see what is going on, and I bet it's gonna be past and present timeline again. So I'm sure the past is gonna be showing us what has happened the last two years, and then the present will be now that they're in college. And as I mentioned multiple times, I am Team Jeremiah. So that's who I would love to see her with. I don't really care about Conrad, he needs to go find somebody else. I don't think he's great for Belly. Hopefully, she has gotten over him, but we're gonna find out what's going on with these kids. So I'm gonna start the book, and again, it's gonna be another short six-hour audio. So I'm just gonna go ahead and read the first half, and then I will come back in, give you my thoughts, and then finish things up. All right, I will be back soon. Wait, what? They're getting married? We gotta talk about it. Hi, my friends. Oh my gosh, you guys. There is a lot going on in this third book that I was not expecting. What? Oh my gosh. Okay, I have so many thoughts right now. I actually almost stopped at the 25% mark because my mind was just being blown and I wanted to talk to you guys about it. But I went ahead and I got to the 50% mark. So I am 50% through, we'll always have summer, and I am just floored right now with what is going on. So I'm trying to get my thoughts in order, but I am just so flabbergasted of how the story has taken a turn. I was not expecting this at all. So we do pick up two years later from book two, and Belly and Jeremiah are in school. He's a year older than her. I believe she's a freshman in college and he's a sophomore because she does talk about her senior year of high school and now she's in her first year. There is past and present timeline again. And in the past, we do see some high school scenes, and then we also see when her parents took her to college and dropped her off, and she met her roommates and she met some other friends. So we are meeting some new characters. Taylor is also at this college, but it doesn't seem like they hang out as much as they used to because she's in a sorority now, and Belly's not. Jeremiah is also in a fraternity. So we are learning that they are interacting with other people. There's other friends, we got other characters going on. It seems that Belly has acclimated pretty well to college. I would say, why wouldn't she? Because her boyfriend's there, her best friend's there, she's out on her own, she's meeting new friends. So it seems like things are going really well for them. But then we find out that she goes to a party, she hears some girls talking, and she hears that one of the girls was talking about hooking up with Jeremiah. They've been together for two years. So immediately she goes and confronts him. And I think this is one of his frat parties that she's at, and she pulls him aside and he admits that he cheated on her when they were on spring break because he went someplace with his frat brothers, and the girl that was bragging that she was hooking up with him is one of the girls in his sister sorority. So usually frats and sororities they pair up. So there's like brother, sister, I guess. I don't know, whatever. But anyway, she was part of the sister sorority that went on this trip, and Belly wasn't able to go on this trip with Jeremiah. She needed to go home and see her mom. So while he was away on this trip, she thought that they just made out, but then he admitted that they slept together. So of course, Belly is just devastated because this is a boy she's known all her life. She has finally fallen in love with him. They've been together for two years, and then he goes and cheats on her. So that was really sad and unfortunate. But honestly, I wasn't surprised. He's just a young, immature college guy. Sometimes they do that. I wasn't really surprised by it, but what I was surprised is that instead of talking through this and reconciling, he comes up and is saying, Well, let me prove it to you that I do love you. I am committed to you, and I'm never ever gonna do this again. And he tries to prove it by proposing marriage. Marriage. Mouage. Mowage marriage. Are you serious? These kids cannot even stay committed in just a regular relationship. And now they want to take it to the next level to marriage. He cheated on her and she just accepts it. She's like, okay, sure, I'll let you prove it to me. And yeah, let's get married. They're like 18, 19, 20 year olds. I mean, what do they know about a long-term commitment like marriage? I have been married for over 20 years. Well, technically, I've only been married for 16 years, but I've been together with my husband for almost 21 years. And let me tell you, it is hard. It's not easy. There's things that you have to learn about each other, and you've got to make compromise. And it's about communication and sacrifice and so many things. And it takes a lot of work to make a marriage work. And these kids are just wanting to nilly willy, like, oh, let's just get married. They don't understand the depth of what they're getting themselves into. I don't think they understand how serious of a step that they're taking. So I am glad to see that the rest of the family, when they finally announce it to the rest of the family, nobody is on board with this. Especially Laurel, Belly's mom, is like, I'm not even going to come to the wedding because I don't think you guys should get married. She's saying, why don't you guys just wait till Belly graduates college? And then if you guys are still committed to each other, if you still want to do this, then you can go ahead and get married. But they're just being stubborn little teenagers. And she's like, no, I want to get married this August. It's basically a couple months away. And it's like, what? Like, why are you rushing into this? Why can't she just finish school? And she's already telling this girl that she's become really good friends with that they were gonna room together. And now she's telling her, nope, sorry, I'm gonna be married, so I'm gonna be living with my husband. So she's breaking out of her commitment to her friend of rooming with her for the next year because we're going into summer. I think it's June when we're picking up in the present. And she basically wants to get married in two months. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, what's the rush? And of course, everybody thinks that she's pregnant, but we do find out that they haven't even slept together yet. She's still a virgin, which I find that very surprising that she's been with this guy for two years and they have not slept together. So she's like, no, I'm not pregnant. We just love each other and we want to commit to each other and we just want to get married. I'm just so floored by learning this. I think when I was listening to the audiobook, I think I had to stop it and rewind because I was like, What? It just feels like this has come out of nowhere. And they're just so, so young. In modern times, most people do not get married this young anymore. It used to be you get married really young and have kids young decades ago. But now in modern times, in 2026, most people are not getting married in their late teens or early 20s. It's almost unheard of. In fact, more people are getting married in their 30s and 40s because they're trying to get established, they're trying to get their careers going. There's other things going on that they want to do before they settle down. So the fact that the author wrote this story this way is very surprising to me because, yeah, this is an older book, but still we're in modern ages and she has these kids wanting to get married to each other. So I'm just very confused by the turn of events. And Belly is just on board and she's just letting Jeremiah get away with cheating on her, and now they're gonna get married, and don't know what that's gonna do to her college career, I guess if you want to call it that. Is she gonna be able to experience a normal college experience being married? I wouldn't think so. So I just don't know what to expect in the second half of the book. I know that her family is not on board with this, but the one that's really, really pushing back a lot is Laurel. I mean, she's refusing to go to the wedding where everyone else is just like dealing with it. And then there's Conrad. So the second perspective that we do get, which is not a lot of, is Conrad. And that's what I kind of figured we'd get in this story. And I think I've only had like one or two chapters out of all the chapters I've been listening to where it's his perspective. So he hasn't come in a lot in this first half. Maybe he'll show up more in the second half. But of course, he's coming in saying he's all devastated and he's upset. And I just don't understand where those feelings are coming from from him because he was acting like he wasn't even really into her too much. And yeah, he mentioned that he liked her at the end of book two. But the way that he's been treating Belly between book one and two, and sure, they dated for a few months, not nearly as long as she's been with Jeremiah. But now he's all devastated because he's in love with her and he wants to be with her, but now she's with his brother, and I'm just thinking, where is this come from? Because you really wanted nothing to do with her when she was falling all over you in the first two books, and then you broke up with her. Now she's been with your brother for two years. I would think that he just wouldn't see her in that light anymore, and he wouldn't really care that she's with somebody else. Maybe it's because it's his brother. If it was somebody outside of the family, maybe it wouldn't be as bad. I just don't understand why Conrad is so upset about Belly choosing his brother over him. Because I'm like, dude, you had so many chances to be with her, and you were with her, and you chose to break up with her, and she has been into you or in love with you for practically her whole life. You guys finally got together. It didn't last very long. You broke it off. It's been over two years now, and now you're coming back and wanting to be with Belly because now she's committing her life to your brother. So I don't know, that doesn't quite make sense to me either. So I do hope we get more perspective from Conrad and what's going on with him. But right now, Belly is just trying to plan her wedding, and she and Laurel got into a big fight, and Belly has decided to move out of the house because she went home for the summer break from college, and she and her mom were just not getting along. So she's like, fine, I'm just gonna go to the beach house and cousins. Well, Conrad is staying at the beach house and cousins. So Jeremiah takes her to the beach house, but then she realizes, oh, Conrad is here. So Jeremiah's like, are you gonna be able to stay here with him for the summer? So now I'm thinking it's gonna get even messier because she is engaged to Jeremiah, but now she's gonna be living in a house with her ex-boyfriend, Conrad. Are they gonna start getting closer again? And it's gonna once again turn into this love triangle of does she truly want to marry Jeremiah or does she want to break that off and get back with Conrad? What's gonna go on? I don't know what's gonna go on. It feels so messy right now. But I will say, of the three books, this one I'm enjoying the most so far because it is over the top, just like the others, but it's more dramatic. It feels like there's more going on in this book. Maybe because they're older now, they're out of high school, they're in their late teens or early 20s. It's more new adult now than YA. So I'm thinking that more is going to happen. And I don't think that they're maturing at all. I still think they're all very immature. I think this was such an impulsive decision to make, and I just don't see the engagement lasting, to be honest. I think Belly's gonna come to her senses and break things off, whether it's on her own terms that she comes to this conclusion or Conrad comes in and makes her change her mind. I don't think that she's gonna end up with Jeremiah. There was a little teaser at the very beginning. It might have been like a little prologue, but something about how she always knew she would marry one of the brothers, but she didn't know it would turn out this way. So it sounds like she is gonna marry one of them, but is it gonna be Jeremiah or is she gonna change her mind and go back to Conrad? So that's what we don't know who she's gonna end up with. I do think that she works better with Jeremiah. I think I'm still teen Jeremiah, but now he's really tainted in my mind because he cheated on her. I mean, at least Conrad never did that. Conrad was that bad boy and he was very moody and he had an attitude. He definitely had his moments and he could be a real jerk, but at least he never cheated on her. And now Jeremiah, who is supposed to be the underdog and the sweetheart and the one that everybody loves, and then he cheats on her. So I don't know. I think I might be changing my mind about these boys. I don't know. I think I'm still at this point team Jeremiah, even though he cheated on her. I still think they're really good together. I really like their chemistry and they were friends first, so they have that friendship between them. But I am curious to see in the second half what happens with Conrad and is he gonna change my mind? I mean, he's older now. Belly is almost 19, so I think that makes Conrad what 2021, I think. So he's getting a little bit older. Maybe we'll see a change in him this summer at the beach house with her. So, anyway, I'm very curious of what's gonna happen in the second half and how this whole trilogy is going to end up because this has been such a roller coaster ride. Also, I want to admit that I cheated a little bit. I said I wasn't gonna watch the Prime series until I finished the trilogy. However, there was a day that I was getting ready to eat lunch and I just wanted to watch something while I ate lunch, and I did watch the first episode of the first season. I don't think it ruined anything. I mean, it was following along with book one pretty closely. There's definitely differences, and we'll talk about that later when I watch more of the show. But I did cheat a little bit and I already watched the first episode because I was just so curious. I think I had just finished book two and I just really wanted to watch it while I was eating lunch, and yeah, so there's that. But I'm not gonna watch any more, I promise, until I'm done with this book. But I'm probably gonna go ahead and finish this book today. I may be back in a few hours later because I have a day left with the audiobook, and there's only three hours left, but it's not gonna take me three hours because I speed it up. So I'm gonna get through the second half, but I'm just dying to know what happens now. Just wanted to let you know. So that's my first check-in. So I'm going to finish everything up and then I will come back, give you my final thoughts once we conclude this whole long dramatic trilogy saga between this girl and these two brothers. And then I'll give you my final thoughts, and then I will talk about the first episode that I watched, and then continue watching the series. Okay, so I will be back soon. Welcome back. Hello. So I have finally finished We'll Always Have Summer. So I have now read The Summer I Turn Pretty trilogy. I think overall, for me as an adult in my mid-40s, reading a YA or young adult, new adult trilogy, this was just okay. I am gonna give the last book three stars. The story overall, if you look at all three books as one big story, it was written really well, but just as an adult, it didn't pull me in. I could completely see how this would resonate and connect with teenagers or young adults, 18 to maybe 25. But as somebody in her 40s, I just didn't get the appeal. I really don't get the hype, but at the same time, I do understand the hype. And I just feel like it was just a messy love triangle overall. So let's get into the second half of this last book. Again, there are gonna be spoilers as it's been this entire time because I'm reading a series. So I'm just gonna talk about what happens. Ultimately, we find out who Belly decides to be with once and for all. So going into the second half, we see that Belly is getting ready to marry Jeremiah. She has a bachelorette party, the boys have a bachelor's party, she buys a dress, everything is getting set up. They look at the flowers, the food, and they meet kind of with a wedding planner. They're just trying to plan everything out because we're getting closer and closer to the wedding. It is gonna be on the beach, so she feels like they don't need a lot of things. It's supposed to be pretty informal. She only wants 20 people, but then she finds out like 40 people are supposed to attend. And the one thing that I really did appreciate is that her mom did end up coming around and she came to the Bachelorette party and she was there for the wedding. I am glad that Laurel had a change of heart and she realized this is my only daughter, this is my girl. I need to be here for her. Even if I don't agree with what she's doing, I still need to be there and show my love and support. So I'm really glad that Laurel did show up. Now, let's get into this messy, messy love triangle. So honestly, the moral of this story is ladies who are listening don't ever date brothers. That's what I'm getting as the moral of the story because she's with Jeremiah for over two years. She agrees to marry him, but it's clear that her heart is still with Conrad. Now, we do get more of Conrad's perspective in the second half, which I'm glad that we got more of him and we heard more from that male narrator. I'm glad that we were inside his head more because we can clearly see that he has fallen in love with Belly and he does want to be with her. As I mentioned earlier in some of my other check-ins, I didn't feel like Conrad did see her in a romantic way. And once he did, I think he just took her for granted and maybe his true feelings really weren't there. But then by the end of this book, and maybe because he's more mature, I think he's 21 at this point because he was drinking with Laurel and she was okay with that. So I think he's 21, Jeremiah's 20, and Belly's about to be 19. So I think those are the ages in this last book. And I think because he was getting older and he had time to think about things, that he realized he was in love with Belly. She's been there all along. That is who he really wanted to be with. But he didn't realize it until she already chose his brother. So this whole time, I was seeing Conrad as kind of a jerk and this bad boy. He had an attitude, but obviously he was grieving about his mom. In the first book, he was just upset because she was sick. In the second book, she had died. And I think he was just going through it. And he was just a teenager going through it. It was rough for him and he lashed out. I think that can explain his behavior. He was just going through a lot of heavy things with his mom dying. He's not on the best terms with his dad. They were trying to sell the beach house and then he had to go off to school. And then you have this messy love triangle in the mix of it. So it is a lot for someone very young to experience. And they don't really know much about life. They're not very experienced with life and to go through quite the situation like that, especially if he felt very alone, which I think he did. He was really lonely and he didn't really have anyone to talk to. It's just a lot. So by the end of the third book, I did start to feel more compassion for Conrad and sympathized with him. And I could start to understand where he was coming from. And I do feel that with his feelings turning, I do feel like that was genuine. I don't think it was, oh, well, my brother stole the girl that I was with. I don't think it was anything like that. Because he said at the end of book two, when they were dropping Conrad off to finish his exams at school, and then they got caught in that rainstorm and they had to stop at the hotel. He realized that he's not the best man to be with Belly. And he basically was telling Jeremiah, you have my blessing to be with her because she deserves someone better than me. She deserves to be with someone like you. But then Conrad does find out that Jeremiah cheated on Belly. Now Jeremiah is kind of pulling a Rachel and Ross friends situation where he's like, we were on a break because they had kind of sort of broken up or were on this break, but Belly thinks that they were still together. And Conrad goes off on Jeremiah, and Jeremiah retaliates and goes off on Conrad. But Conrad does make some really good points and saying, Yeah, I might have been a jerk when I was dating Belly, and I am the one that called off things between us, but I never cheated on her. And that's what I had said. At least Conrad never cheated on her. But then Jeremiah goes and does the stupid thing and cheats on her. So the brothers have it out. They actually get into a physical altercation. I was wondering, are these brothers gonna be able to bounce back and repair their relationship because they are letting this girl come between them? But Conrad wants the best for both his brother and for Belly. So he bows out of the running and just wants them to be happy. But then Conrad and Belly have a conversation and she realizes that he does love her and he's loved her all along. He just didn't know it because he was going through a lot of things. And so then once she realized this, she realized herself that she's more in love with Conrad than she is Jeremiah's. And the fact that she broke off the engagement with Jeremiah, they never got married. I wasn't surprised by the end that she and Jeremiah did not end up together. Even though I felt like they had really great chemistry together, I felt like they were really good together. It was very familiar for both of them. They were best friends before they became anything more. But you could always tell that her heart was not always in it with Jeremiah. She was one foot in with Jeremiah, but her heart was still with Conrad. And you could tell that that was always there. So it made sense to me at the very end that she chose Conrad and they ended up getting married. I'm just happy that both characters ended up with a happily ever after, and we just have to assume Jeremiah's gonna find somebody great out there. But I do understand the ending and why it turned out the way that it did. It made sense to me. Now, I still think she might have been better off with Jeremiah, but I don't know. I mean, he's only a year younger than Conrad, but he just seemed more immature. When they were planning the wedding, you could start to see some clashing in some ways. She wanted this, but he didn't want that, and he wanted this and she didn't want that. So they were starting to see differences. So maybe she is better off with Conrad than Jeremiah. I don't know. I'm still kind of on the fence about her choosing Conrad over Jeremiah. I'm glad that they're both happy together, but I do wonder if he was the best choice for her. But we'll just have to assume that he was and that he did have a change of heart. And I do feel like he can take care of her. He is a few years older than her. You can tell that he really does love her, and she's always been in love with him. So she finally does get her boy that she always wanted. And I am glad that they ended up happy together by the end. So I'm not surprised. Overall, like I said, it was just an okay story for me. I feel like it was a lot more dramatic than it needed to be. Definitely over the top. Teen Angsty. There was quite a bit of cursing and language throughout all three books, but I am happy to report that there is zero spice in any of the books. So this is a closed door or no spice YA trilogy that if you are a parent or guardian or grandparent, you could recommend these books and feel good about this to teenagers or young adults in your life. Like I said, there is language, but there's no spice, there's no explicit content. So I was really happy that it stayed true to being closed door to the end because I was a little nervous that maybe in this last book it would break that rule, but it didn't. So I was happy about that. And all three books are very short. It's very easy to get through these. I think all of these were around six hours for the audio, and the chapters are short in every single book. So they are quick beach reads. They all take place during the summertime. I feel like the first book had the most summer vibes compared to book two and three. So that one felt the most lighthearted, fun, kind of fluffy beach read outside of the parent who had cancer. I mean, that definitely was heavy and brought it down. But outside of that storyline, it was very lighthearted and beachy fun. But this whole series takes place in the summer. So this is a great summertime story if you want to read it. Do I personally recommend reading this? I mean, sure. It wasn't bad. I didn't hate it. I did look forward to listening to it. I did want to find out what was going on. There was a lot of drama. I did like to see her interact with the guys, but then also there was Taylor, her best friend, and I like how Taylor was always supportive of her. I questioned their friendship a lot because they didn't really seem to be on the same page to be the same type of personality, but we all have friends that are completely opposite of us, and that's fine. I am glad that Taylor was there for her and was helping her shop and plan the wedding. So I do like that she was around. I did miss Cam, I will say. We just saw him in book one, and then we never heard from him again in book two or three. It was like the author put him in there as a guy between her and the brothers and that first book. But then once they stopped seeing each other, we just never hear from him again. So I felt like that was a little weird because I really liked Cam and I would have liked to see him maybe show up one more time in book two or three or something to see more of some closure between them. But I don't know. It is what it is. But overall, it was a decent read. And I would say if this sounds interesting to you, definitely pick it up, check it out, see what you like, see if the hype is real for you. I understand the hype, but at the same time, I don't understand the hype. So I'm kind of in the middle with that. And I'm just ready to move on to the TV series on Amazon Prime. So let's move in to me watching the very first episode because I mentioned that I already watched the first episode. I feel like they crammed most of book one in the very first episode. It felt like it moved very, very quickly. We already see them at the beach house and arriving there, and we see them go to the bonfires, she meets Cam. I feel like it's just going by really, really fast. So I am glad that I have finished the entire trilogy before watching it because that first episode, I feel like things are gonna go by really fast. Now there's quite a bit of difference of things, and I'll talk about that more once I get further into the show. But the biggest thing is Susanna wants Belly to sign up for this debutante ball thing that takes place in town, and that does not happen at all in the book. And I knew that going in because I had read about some of the differences that they took with the show compared to the book. And I do wonder if that would have made the book a little bit more interesting because I said book one was kind of boring, there wasn't a lot of action going on. I do wonder if they had her going into this debutant. I don't know if it's a competition or just some balls, just her coming out. I wonder if they included that in the book, if it would be a little bit more interesting. So I am expecting the show to be more interesting than the books. I am happy to see that the narrator of all three books is Belly, the actress in the show. So when she's talking, I can completely remember everything from the books because I remember her voice in my head, and now I'm seeing her on the screen. So I think that's kind of cool that the narrator and the actress are the same people. As far as the rest of the cast, I didn't recognize anybody that's in the cast. Yeah, it just seemed like your typical teenage drama. I don't know if I'll get into it as much as some of the other teenage dramas I've watched. I'm in the middle of watching Vampire Diaries right now. I love that show. I have watched the original Gossip Girl. Absolutely love that show. I've seen the first two seasons of Riverdale. That show I was into in the first season. It started losing my interest in the second season. So I have watched my fair share of teenage dramas. So I am curious if this one's gonna capture my attention as much as those. Those are some classics that I really, really enjoy, but I'm not sure about this one. But I will say it's giving me all the beach vibes, all the summer vibes. I'm loving the music that's in it. I just like to see them on the beach and at the coast. I haven't been to the beach. I used to live in San Diego, California. I lived there for three years in my 20s. I have not been back to the beach since I left in 2008. So it has been almost 20 years since I've been to the beach, which is crazy. But it's really nice to see the beach scenes and I'm getting all of the beach vibes. So summertime is the perfect time to watch this show. But I mean, so far so good. I'm not super impressed with anything yet, but it's only been the first episode. So I'm gonna just keep going and I'll check back in with you. I'm not sure how I'm gonna do this. So I will either check back in when I'm about halfway through the season, or I might just watch the entire season and then just come in and talk about it. I'm not sure. I think it just depends on how I'm feeling as I'm watching if I feel like I want to come back in and talk to you guys about it. So I will be back at some point once I watch some more episodes, or I'll just finish the whole thing and then come back and talk about it. But those are my thoughts as far as the book trilogy goes. Not terrible, but not great. Three stars across the board, only language, no spice, love triangle, messy, messy love triangle with brothers and girls, just don't date brothers. That's what I'm getting from this. That's the moral of the story. Just don't do it. Don't date brothers. It gets too messy. All right, I'm gonna continue watching the TV show and then I will be back to talk to you more about it later. I will be back soon. Hello, hello, my book friends. I am back. I have finished season one of The Summer I Turn Pretty. Before I started watching it, in the last update, I said I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch half of it and come back and talk to you guys, or if I wanted to watch the whole thing. I ended up just watching the whole thing. And I'm gonna be completely transparent that it has been over a month since I started this show, and I'm just now finishing this up. I really wanted to binge and get this episode out a lot sooner. But if you haven't listened to my August TBR episode, I do have an excuse. I was displaced for a couple weeks due to the Colorado wildfires. We have been experiencing some very, very tragic and dangerous wildfires this summer. There have been about eight to 10 or 11 wildfires going on throughout the entire state, but the worst of the wildfires was the Aspen Acres. It burned over a hundred thousand acres. There were over a hundred structures and homes that were lost. There were even some lives that were lost. I believe it is being recorded as the seventh largest wildfire in Colorado. So I live about 45 minutes to an hour away from that fire, and we weren't in any imminent danger of the fire reaching the house where I'm staying. But the air quality was really, really bad. And we had to evacuate for a couple weeks in July. And then I got really, really sick. I'm not sure what I was breathing in, but I came down with a virus and I was put on all kinds of antibiotics. So it has been a wild ride. July was all over the place. So I was not able to finish the series until now. And at the time of this recording, it is the very beginning of August, but I have finished the show. So I kind of had to refresh myself about this series because it's been a while since I've read the books. And I watched the first episode so long ago and all the other episodes. So I kind of had to go back and refresh my memory, but I have just finished the show and I do have thoughts about it. So overall, it was okay. This is definitely not my favorite teenage drama show. I think there are way, way better ones out there. I'm gonna talk about what I liked and what I didn't like because there were quite a few things that I enjoyed, and then there were some things that I just did not like at all. Again, I'm fully aware that I am not the target demographic for this show. I am a woman in my late 40s, and this is not made for me. So I have to keep reminding myself that this is a teenage show for teenagers. I definitely had to keep that in mind. But let's talk about the things that I did like. So I really like the beach vibes. This is completely summertime fun. I loved all of these summer activities. There's swimming, there's beach scenes, we have beach bonfires, we got summer parties, there's a volleyball game, there's boating, there's all kinds of fun stuff going on in this little beach town. So this is definitely the show to watch during the summertime, and I loved feeling all of those beach vibes. I'm also a music person and I pay attention to soundtracks when I'm watching movies and TV shows. For the most part, I would say I really liked the music in this show. Of course, this is a lot of newer music, and I don't really listen to newer music. I'm an old school girl. I like my 70s, 80s, and 90s music. That's just what I grew up with. That's what I prefer to listen to. And a lot of the songs I actually did not know, but for the most part, the music was pretty good in this show. I might actually put a few of these songs on some playlists on Spotify of mine. So for this show, it's seven episodes. And of course, because the book is so short, every book is really short. I think it's around six audio hours for the books that I listen to. So I know that they have to expand some storylines to get seven hours or close to seven hours out of this story for a TV show. So some things that they expanded upon that I really, really like that were not in the book. I really like that we get to know Steven more because Steven is Belly's brother and he's hardly in the books. He is there for what, maybe a week or so, and then he has to go check out colleges and we don't really see him much. We don't get to interact with him much, we don't really get to know him at all in the books. And I really like that Steven has his own storyline in the show. And we see his romance with Shayla, and I really, really liked Shayla. She was a very interesting character. We see Steven get a job at the country club, and he is really working through the whole trope of poor guy, rich girl. And it's the whole social or class status that he's from a lower class compared to all these rich people that he interacts with at the country club. So I thought his storyline was really interesting. I really like that character, and I'm glad that he was able to be through the whole show. We also see his friendship with the two brothers and how it really is this bro pack. They're kind of like all brothers together, and that was just really fun to see the guys interact with each other. The other thing that I really like, and I really wish that this was included in the book because I really do think it enhanced the storyline overall. But I like that they made Belly a debutante and that she has to work on during the whole season to go to this debutante ball and she has this coming out moment. I think that would have made the book a lot more interesting if they would have included that in the first book. And we see her interacting with those girls and just the whole, again, middle class compared to high middle class or high class. So she kind of also deals with a social class structure between some of the girls that are there being debutants. I really liked seeing her interact with those girls and just the dynamics with the different types of girls. So I think the debutante ball was a really nice touch for the show, and it definitely gave us something to look forward to at the end when they have the whole coming out ball, and then we see the dance scenes and just all of that. So it was just fun to see the season leading up to that very last episode. We also see more of Belly and Taylor interact. So Taylor comes and visits her a couple times. She does visit her a couple times. I think it's in some past sequences in the book, but we don't get too much of Taylor. I feel like we see more of her in the TV show. So that was fun. And then we definitely see more of Susanna and Laurel and their friendship or their sisterhood. There's definitely sequences and scenes of just the two moms together. And there's one point where they're smoking pot and they get really high and they go to a bar and Susanna hooks up with this guy. So I don't know about the whole doing drugs thing. I don't think that that's great morality to show on TV. I don't know if that's something that you want to show teenagers of adults getting high. I mean, we know why she has cancer and marijuana is supposed to help with that. And as an adult, I totally understand it. But do we want to show kids that? I don't know if that was really needed. But I mean, it was in the book that we saw the moms smoking and getting high together. But we do get to see more of the friendship between the two moms in the show. So that was really cool. And then the other thing that I liked, and I was not expecting at all, is that Belly's mom, Laura. Is single and we see her finding romance in this story. I love seeing an older woman in her 40s finding love. Not that she really found true, true love, but it was more like a summer fling that she had with Cleveland, the author in town. And not that I'm all about casual relationships, but it was nice to see Laurel kind of getting the spotlight and her getting a moment of finding romance again or at least finding someone to be with. We don't see that at all in the book. So we get to know more about her and just get to see her finding a relationship. The other thing that I really liked is just seeing all of the family together. We see them at Belly's birthday when she turns 16. There's the Fourth of July party. Then we have the very end where they're all at the ball. And then afterwards, they're all having dinner together. And so there's a lot of family bonding and family dynamics. So I really, really like that aspect of the show. And of course, we get to see more of Conrad and Jeremiah. Both of the brothers are pining for Belly, and we see a lot of that throughout the entire season. I don't feel like you really get that pining and yearning as much in the books as we see it on the screen through the TV show. Now, I will say, I was not a fan of Conrad in the books. He was just this moody, brooding teenager. And we know why he was that way, but he was kind of insufferable in the books. I liked this Conrad in the show more. I felt like he was more tolerable. He wasn't as moody. I mean, he still was. He's definitely the sensitive guy. And we know why that is. We know why he's acting that way because he finds out his mom is dying. And I liked how Cleveland kind of took Conrad under his wing because he's writing a book and needed some research about boating. And Conrad knew about boating or sailing. And I like how they kind of created this relationship, and Cleveland stepped in as a good friend to Conrad. And he even helps him when Conrad has a panic attack. So there is anxiety, panic representation in this. And I like to see how he was bonding with Cleveland, and Cleveland helped him out when he was having his panic attack. Cleveland is not a character we see in the books. I think that was just made up for the TV show, but that was a nice touch. And then Belly herself is just a sweet character. I feel like she's a good role model in the TV show for young girls. She's humble, she's real, she's relatable, she's easy to connect to. She doesn't try to be somebody she's not. She's not all made up with a ton of makeup and crazy clothes and all this, that, and the other. She's just herself. She's belly. She's always kind of been one of the guys, and she still is kind of like that. She's still a little tomboyish, but she is coming into herself. I mean, the whole story is a coming-of-age story about her. And she's turning 16, she turns pretty this summer, and I think she was a really good role model for younger girls. I like to see when there's more wholesome characters portrayed in TV shows compared to all the immoral characters that are out there today that I do not feel are good role models for young girls. So those are some things that I really did like about this first season. However, I will say this was a bit of a hard show for me to stick with. I think just because of my age, I'm just older. And this felt very juvenile. It felt very immature. And again, this was absolutely a show about teenagers for teenagers. There were times that they made stupid decisions. There were times they were really annoying and insufferable. And it didn't feel like some of the other teenage shows that I enjoy. I feel like Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries, those are some shows that I really enjoy. And they don't quite feel like YA. They feel more new adult with teenagers in them, but you kind of forget that they're supposed to be high schoolers. But this absolutely felt like a high school teenage show. And I am somebody that grew up with actors who were not teenagers, and I think that's the difference. Is back in my day, I watched teenage shows like Dawson's Creek, Beverly Hills 90210, Party of Five. Those were some really, really big shows. And you knew that the actors were in their 20s or even their 30s. But today, I think it's quite different. They do hire younger actors. And I don't know how old these actors are, but they definitely look like teenagers. I'm not saying that they are and that they are high schoolers. They probably are 20-something year olds, but they definitely act a lot more immature. They look a lot younger. And just as somebody who's older, I just couldn't relate to any of this. Even when I was trying to channel my inner teenager, this just wasn't a show that really captured my attention. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's a personal preference, but I was not the biggest fan of this show. And there was a point, I think I was about halfway through the season, that I thought about stopping this and just DNFing it and just not finishing it because I was bored. I wasn't interested. It wasn't hooking me. But I powered through for you guys because I promised myself that I would watch at least the first season and see how it would go. And I feel like I barely got through the first season. I was just not really having a great time with it. So overall, it just wasn't for me. But a few of the things that I did not like is there were some characters I didn't really care for. I was not a big fan of Nicole. That was the black girl that was dating Conrad. And it just felt like that subplop wasn't needed. It just felt messy. And she was nice to Belly until the very end. And then she was a jerk when she stole their clothes when they were skinny dipping in that lake or whatever they were. I don't know if they were in the ocean or a lake, but they were skinny dipping and then they stole the clothes. And Belly and Taylor, because Taylor had come into town, they had to walk home in this sheet that they found. Maybe it was a boat covering, it looked like. And they had to call Jeremiah. And then the boys, both brothers, went and rescued them and had their clothes because Nicole dropped them off to Conrad. But Nicole was all feisty and upset because she felt like she wasted her time with Conrad because Conrad was really into Belly the whole time and not really her. But I don't know, that whole relationship felt messy. It felt unnecessary. And I just didn't really care for that character. Another character that honestly I hate to say I did not really like in the show was Belly's mom, Laurel. As much as I was happy to see her hook up with somebody and to find connection and some intimacy with someone, I like that for her in general, but as the character herself, I felt like she was a bit of a witch with a bee. And I just thought she had a chip on her shoulder. And there were some comments that she made that were just very eye-rolling. And I felt like she was kind of a Karen, and something always upset her. She was quick to get feisty and fired up about something. And it was just annoying. I just felt like she was just a really annoying character. I know she's struggling with her best friend dying, but she also was kind of an insufferable character because anything and everything bothered her. I don't know. I just didn't really care for her. I also didn't like that they had one episode where we see Belly's dad and he comes to a family gathering. I can't remember because it's been a while since I've seen this episode. I don't know if it was for the 4th of July or Belly's birthday, but he comes for some family gathering and he brings a much younger woman that he's dating. I didn't really feel like that was necessary. That wasn't in the book. And there was this huge age gap. And then by the very end, we hear that he's not even with her anymore. So I'm like, then what was the point? What was the point of bringing this girl with him? And it just made Laurel upset. It made the kids upset. I just didn't really feel like that was necessary either. So I was not a big fan of Belly's parents. I didn't really care for them. But I did like her brother. And I like how protective he was once he found out what was going on and he was all mad at Jeremiah because he caught them kissing. So I like the protective big brother. He was cute. We don't see much of Cam. And I feel like that was a potential relationship that just fizzled out really quickly in the show. I feel like we saw more of Cam in the book, and Belly spends more time with him and she gets to know him more in the book than we actually get to see that in the show. So I feel like that was kind of a miss. And also they changed his ethnicity in the book. It definitely says that he is a Japanese American, but maybe because Laurel and her kids are Asian that they didn't want to have another Asian character. But I believe Cam is maybe biracial. It looks like he is. So I wasn't a big fan of that change. But also I would have liked to have seen more of Cam because I actually thought he had a pretty fun personality. I would have liked to have seen him interact more with Belly and of course the other boys, but we didn't really get to see much of him, which was too bad. So as far as the characters, I do feel like Conrad and Jeremiah, they're our main guys, the main love interest. And I feel like they just didn't really have a lot of personality. Jeremiah had more than Conrad, but honestly, they were both just very boring. And I think Belly was boring too. I liked how sweet and wholesome she was. And I think she was a good role model. But if you just look at personality, I think the three main characters just didn't have much of personality and they were all just boring. Nothing really stood out to me. I'm probably not gonna remember this show. I'm not gonna remember these characters. We don't go very deep with the brothers, we don't get to know them. However, we do learn a lot about the women. We learn a lot about Belly because we're in her head. We learn a lot about Laurel and Susanna and their friendship. And I just feel like we focus more on the women and we learn more about them, but the guys get glazed over and we don't really get to learn as much about them. So I just didn't really care about them. And Conrad was just the moody, quiet, sensitive guy. And his one-liners, oh my god, they were so bad. Some of the dialogue was cheesy, it was cringy. So I don't know if the writing of the show was that great. Some of it I was just like, oh, they're really trying here. And Jeremiah, I mean, he's the fun guy. He's down the clown, as the kids say, and he had a bit more of a personality. But I don't know. When I looked at him, I just was expecting to see him out surfing the waves because he just looked like some beach surfer dude. And he didn't have much depth to him either. But that was just unfortunate that we don't get to learn that much about the brothers and the guys. Even with Belly's brother, Steven, we don't learn too much about him either. So I don't know what that was all about, that we focused more on the women than the men in the show. But I will say Cam was the most interesting of all the guys, and he had the most personality. So I think that's why I wish we would have seen more of him because he was just more fun to watch on a screen. Okay. I cannot give this review without mentioning the wokeness because you guys know, as a more conservative person, that I will call out the wokeness because it's just absolutely absurd. And I feel like there were things included in this show to just check off boxes. It was absolutely not necessary to have any of this in the show. But because we are living in today's political climate and all these liberal agendas must be pushed on us, especially the youth of society. So we pretty much see anything and everything. Anything you can think of was mentioned. So there were comments on race, there were comments on gender and feminist comments, there were comments on climate change, there were comments on the social and class status of the rich versus poor, and we had LGBT represented. They made Jeremiah bisexual, which I felt was absolutely unnecessary. It made absolutely no difference to the storyline. So why did we even need to make that change? There was one party scene where he was drinking and got drunk and he made out with a guy, and I think that was about it of the entire season. So that made no sense to me of why they made him bisexual because that played zero into his character. It's just we have to check a box. And then, of course, we have to remind everybody that lesbians exist. And there was lesbians that were included in the debutante ball. So one of the girls is gay and she brings another woman, and the woman dresses like a man, and she does the dance number with the men. So we have to remember that the lesbians are there too. They have to be represented, right? Everybody has to be represented all the time. So there was just all these boxes that were just so unnecessary, so eye-rolling. And I think that was part of the reason why I was ready to just turn this off halfway through because I was just sick of all the woke comments. It was ridiculous. Also, I'm gonna be a little bit of a prude. There's underage drinking. We have the pot smoking with the mothers. So I don't feel like that's a good example for teens, but of course, I know that happens. I'm not stupid. I drank as an underage teenager. I know that that happens, but again, do we need to portray that on TV? Do we need to show teenagers? I mean, these are 15, 16, 17-year-olds that are drinking underage without any adult supervision and doing stupid things. Do we need to show that to teenagers? Do teenagers need to think that that's okay? Because obviously it's not okay. And there was quite a bit of swearing. So I don't feel like all the language was necessary. There were some crude jokes that were mentioned. And again, I know this is a teenage show and this is how teenagers act. But as an adult, watching this as if would I recommend this for teenagers? I don't like some of the things that were included, like the underage drinking and all of the swearing. Now, the good thing is there is no spice. We have no sex scenes, there's only kissing, and at the very end, Belly is making out with Jeremiah and he touched her breasts. Ooh. So I think it was more that she just wanted to go from first base to second base because she's getting older and she's ready to take that leap. So part of the coming of age story. But I am happy that there was no spice and that this is clean on that front. Now, here's a hot take. I will say, and this can just be me being really petty, but I felt like most of these actors were not that attractive. Again, I'm from an older generation where when we watch teenage shows, almost every character was absolutely gorgeous. Guys and girls. And nowadays, I feel like these TV shows hire actors that are just not as attractive as they used to be. And I just did not find anybody that attractive to me. That's just me. That's my hot take. And I know it's probably they're trying to be more authentic, more real. This is real life. And in real life, most people are not Hollywood gorgeous. I get that, but I'm just so used to watching shows where everybody is beautiful. And nowadays I feel like there's hardly anybody beautiful in TV shows. So that's just my hot take on that. Okay, so overall, I absolutely see what the hype is about with this show. I understand why teenagers love this, but I'm not in that age bracket. So I had a really hard time with it. There were a lot of things that I didn't like about it, but there were things that I did enjoy. So it wasn't not enjoyable, but I would have rather been watching anything else, to be honest. I would have rather watched my vampire diaries than this. So, with that said, I have stopped with season one. Am I going to continue and watch season two and three? Not right now. I don't have it in me to push forward. I am done right now. I am over this story. I am over these characters. I feel like this is just a mid on all levels. I feel like the show is a three-star, the trilogy is three stars, and I just don't want to go further. I know what happens because I've read the trilogy. So I don't feel like I have to watch season two and three right now. I may come back around and watch it eventually, but it's most likely not going to be this year. I may save season two or two and three for next summer if I'm really feeling like I want to get back into this story and to see how season two and three plays out on the screen and what Hollywood does with it. But I've read the books. I know what happens. I don't feel like right now I need to force myself to watch something I just have absolutely no interest in watching. So those are my thoughts. Three's across the board. It's okay. Would I recommend it for teenagers? I mean, if a teenager was interested, I would say if they're 15 and older, I feel like younger audiences don't need to watch anything like this. But if they're 15 or 16 and older, if a parent feels okay with their teen watching a show about a messy love triangle with brothers, that there's swearing, there's underage drinking, there's pot smoking. I mean, it's not terrible. I've definitely seen worse. Would I personally recommend it? I personally would not recommend it, not just for those things, but just because there's better shows out there. I just felt like this wasn't that great of a show. If you want to watch a really good teenage show, there's better out there than this one. So for me personally, I would not recommend the TV show or the books. There's better teenage romance books, there's better teenage romance TV shows. So personally, I wouldn't recommend it, but overall, it's not bad. And I wouldn't say no if a teenager was interested in checking it out for them. Because maybe again, they would find it very relatable. They would connect with the characters. Maybe they really would love the teenage drama of coming into their own, the whole coming of age story, and then the drama of the love triangle between the two brothers. I would say it would be up for the teenager if they really wanted to read the series or watch the show. But personally, I would say, meh, skip it. There's better out there. Thank you so much for sticking around listening to me babble about this teenage story and this messy love triangle. Again, ladies, don't date brothers. Just don't do it. It is so messy. But overall, it was entertaining. I didn't hate it. It was okay, but I'm ready to move on to something else. And I really do appreciate you sticking around for this entire episode. I have so many more pages to popcorn episodes planned. I have movies planned. I have other TV shows planned that I want to watch after I read the book or books in a series. So definitely stick around for more of these episodes if you like these and you can enjoy what's already up on the podcast. But I absolutely have more coming. But I'm gonna keep that a secret of what I have in the works and what is on my list to tackle next. You will just have to wait and see. But have I been satisfied with a wholesome teenage summer romance? Yes, I think I'm good to go this summer, and I am just ready to move on to my next series and to my next Pages and Popcord episode. Alright, you guys, that is all I have for this episode. As always, this is so much fun when I make these types of episodes, and I can't wait to share more with you. Alright, until next time, my sweet book friends, happy reading and happy watching. Well, that's all I have for this episode. If you missed anything, you can find the companion blog on my website at bookmarksandblankets.com. That's bookmarksthelternblankets.com. If you enjoyed today's discussion, please consider subscribing to the podcast so you don't miss any episodes. Also, if you feel called to do so, please share this podcast with others who you think may be interested in this type of show. Or if you have a few minutes, I'd love for you to write a quick review. This helps me reach more people, and I would greatly appreciate it. Until next time, my friends, please remember to take care of yourself and always stay cozy.