The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

A while ago, Chapter's advertised a bunch of books on sale, so I picked up many of them for $3.99. They were all young adult books, and most of them were romance books- which is great for the summer. This morning I woke up early and wanted a quick read before I got back into another adult book so I grabbed this one off my shelf. The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first book in a three part series (I love it when I find series that have all been written, because I now know what my next two books will be). The story is about Belly, a 16 year old who feels that her life begins in the summer. It is here where she spends every summer with her mom and brother and her mom's best friend and her two sons. The kids have grown up together, although Belly has always felt left out of the three boys and their adventures. She is the youngest one in the group and the only girl, so things are pretty tough for her. This summer, things are a bit different. Everyone comments on how different she looks and she starts to feel like things are different. Yet, her crush on the oldest boy Conrad has stayed the same. She has been in love with him forever, but he never seems to notice her or pay her any attention. This summer she hopes it will be different. But what Belly finds is that even when you want things to stay the same, everything changes and she must change as well. I really loved this book. It is a great beach read. Reading about kids having a carefree summer of parties, swimming, friends etc. is such a nice easy thing to do. I loved these characters. I loved Belly and her desire to one of the boys, while at the same time trying to figure out who she is as a women. The relationship between the two mother's is complex and fascinating. Best of all are the boys- they are just like the boys I grew up with. Interesting to watch, annoying, teasing, rough, sweet, they run the whole emotional gammit and I could so sympathize with Belly trying to figure out how to deal with them all. I was very excited at the end when I read that there was a seqeul. I'm off to start it right now!