We'll Always Have Summer

Jenny Han

The final book in Jenny Han's Summer series sees the love triangle between Belly and the two boys she's known her entire life, brothers Conrad and Jeremiah, come to a head.  After the dark, although necessary, tone of the last book, it's refreshing to see Belly just enjoy life again, this time fast-forwarding a few years to college.  There are some pretty rough spots that Belly needs to get over on her way to a happy ending, but that's what makes a story worth reading in the end, and we get to see plenty of the yearning and jealousy that we've come to expect from the other two novels.  Belly is still confused about her feelings in this new story as she was in the others, but she considers herself a grown-up and wants to act accordingly, which means big things in terms of where she wants her life to lead.  Most of the book, in fact, surrounds her obsession with getting married.  It's every little girl's dream, and pretty much the entire book we get to see her plan, and stress, over the wedding, overlooking her reasons for getting married and her conflicted feelings, with that stubbornness that readers have come to know in Belly over the last few books.  There's a good message in this story by the end, and I'm happy that Belly gets her own moment to shine in there through the choices she ultimately makes, not relying quite so much on the boys to define who she is in every aspect of her life.  It's ultimately a satisfying final chapter to the series, although it does seem to end a little too abruptly for my taste.  I'm sad to say goodbye to Belly, but I've enjoyed the journey and can't wait to see what Jenny Han has in store for readers next.

We'll Always Have Summer is available in bookstores on May 3rd.