Book Review: We’ll Always Have Summer

By Neha, Grade 9

Book Review: We’ll Always Have Summer

We’ll Always Have Summer is the final installment in Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy. Taking place a couple years after the conclusion of the second book, this one follows main character Isabel Conklin, who’s now a college student dating Jeremiah Fisher- who she’s known and trusted her whole life. Following a shocking revelation early in the book, Isabel (Belly) and Jeremiah decide to get married to save their relationship. 

The decision to get married ultimately causes Belly a lot of stress, between wedding planning, her family’s disapproval, and worrying about finances. She soon starts to realize that Jeremiah may not have been as reliable of a partner as she thought going into the relationship. The main conflict of this book stems from the wedding, and the fact that it felt rushed to everyone- after all, Belly and Jeremiah were still students. And just as Belly is at her weakest, Jeremiah’s brother Conrad walked back into her life.

This book honestly felt a lot more suspenseful than the second one in the series, which I didn’t particularly enjoy. I noticed that in the first book, Belly chose Conrad, and in the second she chose Jeremiah. Since both boys already had their moment, I was curious about which direction the finale was going to go in. At first, I wasn’t sure, since the book had a bit of a slow start. Although there was some wedding-planning action, it didn’t feel like a whole lot was going on. However, as the wedding approached, the pace picked up. 

As the plot progressed, and Jenny Han started to sprinkle in chapters from Conrad’s perspective, I started to get a sense of where the plot would go- but I was surprised by Belly’s strength as she refused to get sucked back into her past with Conrad. That was when I started to really appreciate the careful building of Belly’s character arc that Han developed over the course of the three books- making Belly more strong and able to walk away from Conrad each time. She also did a very nice job writing the resolution at the end of the book, and I understood the emotions that Belly felt as she tried everything she could to protect her heart. 

I’d say an area of growth for this book would be the inconsistency of the pacing- a little too slow in the beginning, and quite fast at the end. By introducing more conflict earlier in the novel, I’d have been more engaged. For example, Conrad wasn’t a significant character in the book until the later stages of wedding planning, but by forcing him and Belly into proximity earlier in the book, the plot could have worked up to the climax in a more steady progression. 

That being said, this book did have its stellar moments as well. I really enjoyed the tension between Conrad and Belly, especially being able to see the same situations from both of their perspectives. Conrad’s side of the story revealed a lot of information that the reader wouldn’t have known about otherwise, like how he had promised to take care of Jeremiah and how it was killing him inside, waiting for him to marry Belly. 

Overall, this read was definitely worth it. The second book in the series did disappoint me a little, but the third one made up for it. I also felt that Han ended the series in the way that felt true to Belly, and I appreciate how she fleshed out the characters so well that I somehow knew in the back of my mind what would happen, without being fully sure. Between the characters, the climax, the thoughtful resolution, I’d recommend this read. Accounting for the blips in pacing, I’d give this 4 stars.

We'll Always Have Summer