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

It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 

Four/five stars

I enjoyed It’s Not Summer Without You a lot more than The Summer I Turned Pretty. It had me laughing, and crying and screaming in frustration! Belly grew up a lot between the books and her character was miles better.

It’s Not Summer Without You starts with Belly at Cousins Beach. But, she’s not really. Belly is just daydreaming about being in Cousins again with Conrad, Jeremiah, Steven, Susannah and her mother. But this summer everything changed. It all changed with Susannah died. Belly is spending the summer at home, with her best friend Taylor, and tanning at various parties. Then, with one phone call, everything changes. Conrad has gone missing and Jeremiah doesn’t know what to do. So, Belly and Jeremiah set out on an adventure that leads to heartbreak and closure.

This book was quite a rollercoaster! One moment Belly was at home with her friends and potential new boyfriend, and the next she was packing her things and leaving with Jeremiah to find Conrad. But, of course everything was not as smooth as that. I enjoyed reading the sort of mystery of Conrad’s disappearance. When Belly and Jeremiah find Conrad, though, he is still as stubborn as ever and refuses to leave. God, Conrad still annoyed me! Yes, he did have a valid reason, but that reason was not revealed until much later. If he hadn’t acted like such a spoiled brat, things could’ve worked out a lot faster! I like Belly’s mother, Laurel, in this book. She was firm, but fair, most of the time. I liked how she sorted out the Conrad and Mr Fisher problem. She was such a strong character with such a strong will! GIRL POWER. As I mentioned earlier, Belly’s character matured a lot between the books. In the first one she was acting like a spoilt little girl, who ran away and cried when things didn’t go her way. Sure, sometimes things didn’t go her way and she ran away sometimes, but she always ran back again to face her problems, which were mostly resolved. I still love Jeremiah! He was a lot different in this book, but good different. He was still caring, kind Jeremiah, but he was also firmer and tried to put a stop to Belly using him to get information on Conrad. God, you were so bling Belly. Also, I quite hate Mr Fisher. He was a selfish bastard, who needed to pull his head out of his ass and realise that he was not the only one who lost Susannah and that Belly and Laurel also had rights in the Fisher family, I mean, come on.  

Overall, this was a big improvement from the first book and I enjoyed it. It was a quick and easy read, too. I’m looking forward to reading the final novel in this series.