Genre: Young Adult, Coming-of-age
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses cancer and death.
“It’s Not Summer Without You” follows Belly and the Fisher brothers into the aftermath of sickness and heartache. It’s summer, they’re not at Cousins Beach, and Jeremiah calls in to let Belly know Conrad is gone and no one knows where he is. Nothing is how it’s supposed to be, but there’s still time for this summer to be turned around.
In the second book of this series we can finally get a closer look at Jeremiah and Belly’s friendship. We get to see how they bicker and care for each other. I know they implied at that the first time around, but we didn’t get to see it as much. Belly is still a child but at the same time we can see how she’s grown, and how her thinking has evolved. Maybe it was heartbreak, maybe it was grief, but she’s grown.
I felt like the ending was a bit rushed and slightly unrealistic, and that’s why I gave this book 4 stars, not because I didn’t love the writing and the characters and all the feelings they made me feel this time around. Well, that’s one key difference I can point out about this book: there was less fluff and much more true feelings in this one.
I would recommend this series without any hesitations, keeping in mind it’s directed to pre-teens and teens (and young adults like myself that just want to relive these things one more time around).
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andrea's galley 