Review: Jenny Han - The Summer I Turned Pretty

Goodreads synopsis:
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

Review:
I had heard good things about this book so when I saw it in my local Waterstones I snapped it up.  It's actually the first in a trilogy of 'Summer' books and I'm eagerly awaiting the next two installments to see what's going to happen to Belly next.  Belly (or Isabel) is spending the summer the same way she always does, in her friend's beach house, with the boy of her dreams Conrad and his brother Jeremiah.  Belly wants everything to be the same it always has but she discovers that life keeps on changing whether you want it to or not. 

I loved this book - it's a perfect teen read.  It beautifully captured the feelings of adolescence and growing-up and that excitement which comes from your first love.  I liked the central character of Belly and I thought Han's writing really drew the reader in and allowed us to understand the emotions and feelings she was experiencing.  If I had any criticism it would be that I would have liked to have seen more development of the relationship between Belly and her mother.  Their problems were hinted at but never really touched upon in any depth.  Perhaps this is something that Han will concentrate more on in her other books. 

The other thing I liked about this book is the gorgeous cover.  Here's the UK and American versions of the book :

The sequel by Jenny Han is called It's Not Summer Without You. I can't wait to read it!  The third book in the trilogy, We'll Always Have Summer is published in the UK on 3rd May 2011.  That's ages away!