We'll Always Have Summer

We'll Always Have Summer
By Jenny Han
Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2011. 291 pgs. Young Adult

Belly has only ever loved two boys: Conrad and Jeremiah, who happen to be brothers. After her relationship with Conrad crashed and burned, she and Jeremiah started dating, and after two years together, Belly is sure she's over Conrad and totally into Jeremiah...pretty sure anyway. When Jeremiah proposes, Belly says yes, much to the chagrin of her parents, and they begin planning their wedding. However, Belly stays at the boys' beach house--with Conrad, who has never gotten over Belly--and starts to doubt her feelings. Once and for all, Belly has to decide which brother she wants to love forever.

I really liked the first book in this trilogy, didn't like the second so much, and just couldn't get into the third. I just never really saw Belly and Jeremiah's relationship being that great...and maybe that's the point--maybe Belly is supposed to be an unreliable narrator--but it was hard for me to get into the conflict, since I didn't find it believable in the first place. I can see a lot of teen girls still liking it, though; however, readers who didn't like the second one won't find the same enjoyment they find in the first book here, either.

AE