Author: Jenny Han
Release Date: May 5th, 2009
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 276
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: Bought

Rating: ★★★★

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 terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

I am on the fence with this book... As a whole, I really enjoyed it. I loved the concept, and the way Jenny wrote it. There were just a few things I didn't really care for, but I will get to that later in the review. This was a really light read though, so it was nice after some of the most recent books I've been reading.

The story was really great, I loved how Jenny jumped back and forth between all the different summers that these two families had spent at the beach house and seeing how Belly, Steven, Jeremiah, and Conrad grew up together and how close they were. Steven and Belly are brother and sisters, and Jeremiah and Conrad are their really close friends that they get to see every summer. Belly has always had a thing for Conrad, but there also ends up being feelings elsewhere. I ended up getting a little annoyed with some of the relationships though, I guess looking from the outside it's easier to see things from a larger perspective but I just wasn't to impressed.

The characters were somewhat of a disappointment for me. I really liked Belly, Jeremiah and Steven. But I didn't really care for Conrad of Cam. People will probably not like the fact that I didn't care for Conrad, I just didn't care for his character. I felt like Jeremiah was the better of the two. There isn't a huge complex plot to this story, so the characters were all very real and believable. Pretty much what you would expect in with this type of contemporary story.

Depending on which characters you like most will pretty much define if you enjoy the ending of this book or not. I felt like Belly could go either way with her choices, but she has to eventually figure out what she wants to do. She makes some big choices at the end. I thought it was a good ending though, I wasn't happy with all of the choices she made throughout the book but I think it will make for a good transition into book two.

This book is just a really light read, I enjoyed it but I didn't really have a huge connection to it. I will finish the series eventually, but I don't really see it as a story that I will remain memorable after that. If you're looking for just a light read for this summer, then I would suggest this one. It might not be one of the most memorable books I have ever read but it was still worth reading. Just wish I would of got a little more out of it than I did.