It's Not Summer Without You- Jenny Han
It's Not Summer Without You, the second book in a trilogy including the first book, The Summer I Turned Pretty, starts out with Belly, the main girl, daydreaming about her summers spent in Cousins Beach as if she'd gone as planned. She'd still be with Conrad, her mom and brother, Steven would be there, and Conrad and his brother, Jeremiah's, mom, Susannah, would be there, happy as ever. However, as she heard her best friend Taylor calling her name, Belly snapped back into reality; Susannah had passed away two months ago with cancer, and Conrad wasn't her boyfriend anymore, since their short lived winter romance fizzed out. Belly was home, five hours from Boston, MA.This summer was the first summer Belly wasn't going to Cousins Beach, like every single year of her life before, and it was killing her. Taylor continually tries to help Belly have fun back at home with her, but it's hopeless- Belly can't stop think about Jere, Con, Susannah, and Cousins Beach. However, within three days of Taylor failing to make Belly happy, Belly gets a call from Jeremiah. Conrad is missing- He left summer school and is no where to be found. After lying to her mom saying she's staying a Taylor's, the search finally leads to the summer house in Cousins, where Conrad is. Belly immediately has a flashback of her and Conrad's short lived winter romance, where they drove all the way to their empty Cousins house without telling her mom. At the summer house they kissed and made hot cocoa, and just lied in each other's arms, before her mom called and demanded she come home. After the flashback chapter, when Jeremiah and Belly arrive in Cousins, they stay for three days to figure out that Conrad left because his dad was going to sell the house; he was trying to save it.Throughout these three days, Conrad is very closed off towards Belly, having only few brief moments with Belly, where by the time she realizes their happening, they're over. Belly gets drunk for the first (and last) time on their last night there, accidentally calling her mom to come get her as she fell asleep. Her mom came, upset with Belly. However, after learning why they were all there, she invited Mr. Fisher, Conrad and Jeremiah's dad, over for breakfast and is successful in getting him to not sell the house- under one condition. Conrad needs to get back to summer school by Monday to take his exams. While waiting in the car for Conrad to finish his last exam, Jeremiah out of the blue starts kissing Belly, and at that moment, nothing has ever felt so right in her life- until Conrad sees them. Then moment is over as Conrad tells Belly he doesn't want her now and never did. Later that night, in a motel on the way home, Conrad whispers to Belly while Jere sleeps, not receiving a response, "Earlier, when I said I never wanted you, I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. Goodnight, Belly." The next morning, as Conrad was closed-off like nothing ever happened, Belly realized something- whatever they ever had that winter, it was all over now. He just couldn't be the guy she needed him to be. On an end note for It's Not Summer Without You, Jeremiah drives Belly the rest of the way home that morning, hand in hand in with her in almost complete silence.
Belly is a tall girl with wavy, light brown hair, and deep brown eyes. She is sixteen during early summer, but turns seventeen in July. Belly, in this second book of the series, is coming to realization that her precious summers spent at Cousins Beach were over, which makes her feel complete melancholy throughout quite a bit of the book. A quote from Belly to support this analysis is this: "We drove through town, by all the old places, the mini golf course, the crab shack, and Jeremiah drove as fast as he could, whistling. I wish he would slow down, make the drive last forever, because I knew it might be my last. But it wouldn't last forever, of course. We were almost there." This quote from Belly supports my analysis of her really coming to full realization that the way she'd she spent every summer of her life wouldn't be perpetual- her summers in Cousins Beach were ending right before her eyes. Another feeling Belly is feeling is her yearning for Conrad, her lifelong love, who she knows she may never have. A quote from Belly to support the analysis of her wanting Conrad is this that she says after her best friend, Taylor, tells her she needs to forget Conrad: "But Conrad wasn't just my first love. He wasn't some rite of passage. He was so much more than that. If I forgot Conrad, if I evicted him from my heart, pretending like he was never there, it would be like doing those things to Susannah. And that, I couldn't do." This quote supports my analysis of Belly wanting Conrad, her first love, more than ever. As far as Belly's actions, she is willing to do absolutely anything for family, especially Conrad and Jeremiah, who are family to her, and feels it so intensely if any of them are in trouble. A quote to support my analysis of Belly doing anything for people she loves, like caring intensely, is this that she says after Jeremiah calls about Conrad going missing: "I tried to make my voice sound calm and reasonable, like I wasn't scared out of my mind, due to the thought of Conrad being gone. It wasn't so much that I thought he was in trouble. It was that if he left, really left, he might never come back. And that scared me more than I could say." This quote from Belly supports my analysis of her willing to do anything for family, and being scared for them, because right after she thought that, she left with Jeremiah to go find Conrad.
As far as Belly's interactions with others, she is very prone to keeping things inside. Belly isn't the type of girl to spill everything on her mind, or tell how she really feels about something. A quote from Belly to support this analysis is this: "If I was very brave or very honest, I would tell him. I would say it, so he would know it and I would know it, and I could never take it back. But I wasn't that brave or honest, so all I did was look at him." This quote supports my analysis of Belly almost always keeping everything inside when interacting with others. Everything described in my character analysis of Belly, the main character, is how she interacts, feels, acts, and looks in It's Not Summer Without You.
A major theme in It's Not Summer Without You is melancholy. This is a major theme because Belly, and most of the other characters, are completely upset, feeling melancholy, throughout the whole book. A quote to support this melancholy is this flashback quote, from Jeremiah, as a few of the chapters have his point of view instead of Belly's: "My gut just twisted. I felt like somebody had drop kicked me in the stomach. I was completely upset with Conrad, and felt like crying, though I was still jealous, crazy jealous. I watched him and her walk away and I felt sick inside." This quote from Jeremiah completely shows a theme of melancholy, or sadness, in It's Not Summer Without You. A quote from Belly to support this melancholy is this one, where she realizes she needs to let Conrad go: "We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything. In his eyes, there was no trace of what happened between us earlier, and I could feel something inside me break. So that was that. We were finally over." Due to this being such a major event in the book, I decided to include another quote backing it up, which is this one: "I looked at him, and I felt so sad, because this occurred to me: I will never look at you the same way ever again. I will never be that girl again. The girl who comes running back every time you push her away; the girl who loves you anyway." Those two quotes support my analysis of Belly feeling really upset with her realization that she needed to be done with Conrad; to stop chasing after him. I can relate well to the theme of melancholy; everyone can, because everyone has sad points in their lives. I've personally never have felt melancholy due to a boy, but I can relate it to my life because I've felt sadness over many things like: drifting friends, rumors, hormonal sadness, and many other common things. The theme of melancholy described is backed up by the quotes from Jeremiah and Belly, and can be related to my life in many common ways.
It's Not Summer Without You is a book that I really enjoyed reading, and have read twice now. Its very realistic, but not cliche', plot makes me feel like I'm there in the story, experiencing everything that happens. Not only that, but It's Not Summer Without You made me actually feel the emotions within the story line. it's such a raw, realistic, real-life seeming book, so I easily was left with the lingering emotions of Belly, Jeremiah, and other characters for a while after each time I finished a reading session. That being said, I would completely recommend It's Not Summer Without You to anyone who is interested in a real, raw romance book. Though I'd definitely say I'd only recommend it to someone who also has the understanding that love is unexpected, and won't always turn out 'perfectly', making for a book that may make you feel some sort of sadness. It's Not Summer Without You is very hard to put down, like the other two books in the trilogy, because it's a realistic plot that draws people in and leaves them wanting to know the whole story.
*I chose the first image (the one of the boy and girl) because it portrays Belly's memories of her summers at Cousins Beach, playing in the water with the boys*
*I chose the second image because a LOT changes this summer, and that quote really just sums it up- all Belly knew was that everything had changed- some for the better, some for the worst.*
IMAGE 1: http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-cute-little-boy-girl-playing-wave-beach-image20986509
IMAGE 2: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/taylor%20swift%20everything%20has%20changed
Want to purchase It's Not Summer Without You? Click here- http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Summer-Without-You/dp/B00AK3OY6S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359530622&sr=8-1&keywords=its+not+summer+without+you
Want to learn more about author Jenny Han? Click here to visit her website- http://www.dearjennyhan.com/
