Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - L'été où je suis devenue jolie

it was cute but that was it. i guess im over young adult/teen romances cus it just feels so juvenile and basic and naive. also the audiobook narrator had a really annoying voice and kept laughing while delivering lines which made it hard to understand what was actually said. i think a different audio person would have made this easily a 3 or 3.5 stars.

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mirabellee_'s review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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cnannery19's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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breedawnwriter's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.0

I enjoyed this book. It was a fun summer read that I knew I'd love after falling in love with the TV show adaptation.

I'm only giving it 3 stars because there wasn't really a plot, which made a lot of the scenes and interactions feel unnecessary. Hoping there's more of a plot for the other two books in the series.

Also, yes, I'm Team Jeremiah because Conrad is moody, broody (in a bad way), and cannot maturely deal with his emotions.

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ashleyjean6's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A coming of age story set in a seemingly perfect small US beach town. The premise, mother & kids going away Dan's the father's for the summer, reminds me of other books set early in the 1900s near NYC (a la mad men). However this is YA and ALL about the kids, particularly the lone girl, and youngest, in the bunch. There are some problematic passages about diet culture/ body image that I really disliked. They're not even needed!! I'd let my elementary aged daughter read this, except not because of that. (It's not the focus of the book. But those stupid asides are what get stuck in a young girls head). The ending leaves you hanging, so have the next book in the series ready. I also enjoyed the narrator.

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syraluna's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

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dblue236's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

By the time I got halfway through this book, it was glaringly apparent to me that I am not its target audience. But having said that, I can absolutely see its appeal for teenage girls and if I had read it 20-25 years ago, I probably would have adored it. It's well written and the characters are lovable, and once I learned to get past the massive amount of teen angst, I did enjoy the story. The "big reveal" toward the end was painfully obvious from about 20 pages in, but it was a good bit of escapism and overall I enjoyed it despite being too old and cynical for it.

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lucyatoz's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han is a young adult story featuring Isabel, or as she goes by her nickname in the book Belly, which I think most teenagers would have bulked at!

This novel has issues. Belly is an annoying teenager, with an internal monologue which did get some what irritating. Jeremiah and Conrad, the son's of her Mum's best friend, are the people who she has spent the Summer with, along with her brother Steven, for a long time. They are your typical American boys, who enjoy swimming, football, playing computer games, and teasing Belly.

It is not my kind of read personally, but wanted to read something that I would not normally read. They are some topics that affect teenagers, such as drinking alcohol and using drugs, which are mentioned but not really elaborated on. Both mother's are divorced, or about to be, with one also having a relapse of cancer, which again is touched on but not really part of the story as such. It is mainly centred around Belly and, for me, this lead to very self-centred story, when it could have been so much more.

I borrowed a copy of this book from Taunton Library and listened to it on cloudLibrary. I read this for prompt 10, told in a non-chronological order, for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2024.

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