Book Review: It’s Not Summer Without You

Title: It’s Not Summer Without You
Author: Jenny Han
Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Fiction

What It’s About: It’s July and Belly is hanging out with Taylor at a party full of her school friends.Taylor tries to convince Belly to give Cory a try, but Belly is not interested in him. Taylor tells her that she’ll come by later to help Belly get dressed for the massive party run by her classmate during the July 4th weekend–something that Belly has never been to before because she was in Cousins usually during this time of the year. Susannah had died two months prior and it still feels unreal to Belly as she remembers the funeral and how she had made the promise to stick close to Conrad but he had hurt her feelings and they made a scene at the reception afterwards. She had told him that she hates him at the reception.

Belly doesn’t get ready until Taylor comes over and then they go to the party together. She notices Taylor talking to Cory and when he seeks her out on the trampoline, where she hid alone, she knows that Taylor had sent him. She has an argument with Taylor about it because she really does not want to date anyone else after Susannah’s death and Conrad, but Taylor believes that Belly needs to find a rebound guy to get over Conrad. Belly heads home instead.

Belly reminisces about how she had to beg Conrad to go to Prom with her–they had been talking more and more on the phone, and after Christmas, he had picked her up and they drove together to the beach house. They had a great time only for her to forget that she never left her mom a note and she gets in trouble because of that. She had begged Conrad to come with her to prom, and at first he didn’t want to but then tells her that he’ll come. He shows up but forgets her corsage and he’s pretty distant from her throughout the whole party. He asks her to talk at one point, and Belly assumes that they’ll break up, so she tells him–before he can say anything else–that they are done. Conrad gets upset and slams his hand on the hood of his car as Belly leaves, but they are over in Belly’s eyes.

Jeremiah calls Belly and tells her that Conrad is missing. Apparently their father is flipping out because Conrad has missed school, and Jeremiah asks her to help him find Conrad. Belly agrees, and tells her mom that she’s going to Taylors–Laurel barely even reacts, since she’s so deep in her own grief over the loss of Susannah. Belly leaves the car with Taylor and Taylor pack her more clothes. Jeremiah picks Belly up from Taylor’s house. The two of them drive to Conrad’s school and talk to Conrad’s roommate, who doesn’t know anything about where Conrad may be. A girl comes by looking for Conrad and mentions something about a beach house. The two share a look, and they know that he’s in Cousins. So Belly grabs Conrad’s books and laptop as he has midterms on Monday, while Jer talks to their father. They drive all the way to Cousins and try to get Conrad to leave. He refuses to do so and refuses to talk to Belly after their fight at the funeral since she had told him to never speak to her again. Despite that, they start melting their frostiness towards one another.

Belly is at the beach house with Conrad when the real estate agent comes, which is how she finds out that Mr. Fisher is trying to sell the house. Conrad sends the real estate agent away telling her to tell his father that the house is off the market, and he asks Belly not to tell Jeremiah. The boys are surfing when their father comes to the house, and when they return, he tells them that the house is up for sale and the money will be for them to have. Conrad tells him that he doesn’t care the money, while Jeremiah is confused. When Jer realizes that Belly knew, he feels backstabbed because they had always been best friends.

Jer decides to throw a party since it is their last night together in the house, and Belly gets extremely drunk. She gets into another fight with Conrad on the beach, and he has to pull her out of the water so that she doesn’t drown. She returns to the home and drunk dials her mom, telling her what is going on and then falls asleep.

The next day, Laurel shows up and tries to get Belly to go home but Belly argues back. In response to Laurel’s comment that this is none of their business, Belly tells her that it’s about the boys as Laurel has promised to take care of them and help them. Ultimately, they fight and make up, and Laurel agrees to help. She invites Mr. Fisher for breakfast and gets special satisfaction out of Belly getting ill at the smell of bacon while cooking eggs. Laurel asks bBelly if she will be getting drunk again, and Belly says no. Mr. Fisher comes, and he is not willing to budge on keeping the house in front of the kids, so Laurel kicks all the kids out and lays into him. When they return, Mr. Fisher makes a deal with Conrad that if he passes his exams with Cs or higher on Monday, he’ll keep the house.

The parents leave and the boys want to rest, so Belly prepares the study area and the two of them help Conrad prepare–staying up till 4 am to get it done. The next morning they drive all the way down to Conrad’s school while he keeps studying en route. He goes through his first exam and does well, so they celebrate a bit before he goes into another one. Jeremiah and Belly wander and then return to the car, where they end up kissing passionately. Conrad sees them and begins to walk away in anger, so Belly goes after him but he pushes her away, and asks her for the necklace that she took from his room when she visited the first time back from her. He tells her that he had never given it to her, so it’s technically not hers and he wants it back even though she can tell that the necklace was always for her. Belly gives the necklace back, and when the two return back to the car, Jeremiah is guarded.

The boys drive Belly towards her house, but due to the rain and the flooding, they are forced to stay in a motel nearby. Conrad pushes belly away again, and when Jeremiah asks Conrad if he even cares about Belly because he has liked her for a while, Conrad tells Jeremiah to take care of her, giving him his blessing.

My Thoughts: Even after re-reading the book, and despite enjoying the overall story, I still think that the depth of the characters emotions are just not there. Belly just falls flat to me, as do the boys. It’s almost like they’re all stoic after losing one of the most important people in their lives, and the only kind of lashing out that you get after such a loss is one where Conrad runs away. Looking back on this book, it’s really not that well developed in terms of characters–I’m a bit confused because Belly was not friends with Taylor in the other book after their 14th summer, but then she’s still friends with her and treating her like a best friend. Ah, it’s actually the chemistry–there is very little chemistry between all of the characters, no tension between them in any way, and for teenagers that is a bit odd–they all seem just like friends with one another rather than what comes with teenage romances; messy emotions. Ultimately, I’m a big sucker for hopeless romances and meant-to-be relationships, so it’s the only reason I would continue reading this series but I think this could have a lot more depth and character development.