The Summer I Turned Pretty- Jenny Han
Jenny Han was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then went to graduate school at the New School in New York City to get her MFA in children's writing. She currently lives in Brooklyn. Some fun, quirky facts about Jenny are: her favourite dessert is blueberry pie, favourite piece of clothing is knee socks and if she could have any job it would be Oprah's best friend, Santa's helper or White House party planner.
Characters
Isabel Conklin, or Belly as most call her, is the main character who acts as the narrator and the protagonist. Belly is Steven's little sister. Steven is good friends with Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher,who are brothers and Belly's love interests throughout the book. Jeremiah is the youngest and has always loved Belly, but was always just her friend as Belly loved Conrad. Conrad in the oldest and the one Belly loved throughout childhood. Conrad was nice to her at times, but cold other times. There are also Belly and Steven's parents and Conrad and Jeremiah's parents, but the kids are the main characters.
Synopsis
The story follows Belly as she spends her summers with her family staying with the Fisher's at their house in Cousin's Beach. Belly tells about a lot of her past summers there and how she loves Conrad. While Belly loves Conrad she has other love interests, such as Jeremiah and Cam. There are several flashbacks of Belly telling how she fell in love with Conrad. The stories only tell of Belly and the boys times in the summer and never goes into much detail about the rest of the year. Belly is tired of being seen as the little sister so she tries to show the boys how she has grown up. It ends up that both brothers love her and she has to choose between them. So as not to give up too much I shall say no more. The gist of it is the story follows Belly's summer antics chasing after boys and dealing with the heartbreak that follows.
Related Books
If you love the teen romance you will love this other author, coming soon to Readers' Frenzy, Susane Colasanti. Suasne Colasanti has written, 'Keep Holding On', 'When It Happens', 'Waiting For You', 'Something Like Fate', and 'So Much Closer'. I have read them all and am addicted to her writing style! She tells the side of both the boy lead and the female lead in, 'When It Happens' and the newest book, coming in May, 2013, 'All I Need'. Another author you may like is Sarah Dessen. Many of her books are of teen romance, but also some follow other teen issues with romance as a side note. Some of her books include, 'Lock and Key', 'Along For The Ride', 'Just Listen', 'The Truth About Forever', and many more.