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 Susannah 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.
Stars in: YA Contemporary, Romance
Book Rating: ☆☆☆
Fangirling Scale: Wishing on the Stars!
Belly's perfect summer was set every year: at Cousins and with Susannah & her boys. Her summer will never change right? Well, put in Susannah's death this year into the picture. Things will never be the same for Belly and the boys ever again.
How can I say this in the nicest way possible? This book did not woo me at all not like with the first book, The Summer I Turned Pretty. I know, I shouldn't be the one to judge since I don't review many contemporary books on my blog. But, I've read my fair share of contemporary and this one didn't do it for me. My main reason for not liking this book as I wanted to was that the whole time I was CONFUSED and ANNOYED at times with the characters and the storyline.
I will explain myself, don't worry. First of all, the plot was so disorganized where I mean that the order of some events should have been lined up next to each other rather than released in bits and pieces. Recalling a memory at the same time would have been easier to understand. Second, the events that did happen in those memories did not make any sense to me. At first, I thought I forgot some things that happened in the first book since it's been a long time I have read it. But, actually, Ms. Han just wrote those memories into the book. I didn't recall that Belly was ever even the girlfriend of Conrad because in the first book, he rejects her badly. When Belly referred to her and him dating, I was shocked because the time of when the events occurred, I felt that them dating was not logically correct. Everything just happened too fast when I felt that the book should have been started after the events of the first book. This just left me with more questions like: How can Belly even consider loving Conrad at all still?
As readers receive the dual point-of-views from Belly and Jeremiah, I felt that Belly's point-of-view was truly from a girl. Coming from a girl myself, I understand where Belly's love attachment to Conrad and her feelings would come from. From being insanely in love with Conrad, she is blinded by how he makes her feel and treats her. Even though her reaction totally makes sense to me, I still felt that Belly could have been less passive to Conrad's treatment and learned at least a LITTLE from her last try at love. In this book, she did not grow up at all and still goes back to Conrad at some point. Although she goes back to Conrad, in the end, I am sort of happy that she finally caught on that Conrad makes her go crazy and what surprises me is that she learns that maybe he's not the one for her. (But, guess what, she turns to someone else and ends up with that person!?)
I am deeply saddened that my feelings wasn't swayed by the romance or anything in this case. Since this book is a contemporary, romance and drama was its main focus. However, the romance was very dry as Conrad is basically acting as a hard-butt towards Belly and Jeremiah likes her but, she is not into him as much as Conrad. Conrad doesn't deserve Belly because she has been trying when he would basically appear to be toying with her emotions in my sight. This interaction in books and movies just kill me sometimes because I feel so bad for the person trying when the other person ignores their actions. Which then leads the person who was trying, to have another love interest they're involved in and that's the turning point where the other person who ignored them to finally display their true feelings towards the other person. That cycle looks like it will happen in the next book. *disappointed sigh and repetitive hitting my head on wall*
This series may have become a downer in the contemporary genre for me but, I decided to read the last book for the sake of wanting to know what will happen next. I'm not excited for the choices that Belly made in this book because I know that will just fill the storyline for the last book. All I'm going to say is that I was disappointed with my high expectations for this book. It's Not Summer Without You just didn't reach the stars this time.
Twinkling Quote:
Always looking for the star,
No comments:
Post a Comment