Content warning/editor’s note: This review will feature spoilers for the series “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” (TSITP) started out as a book in 2009, followed by two books and the television series beginning in 2022. The first season of TSITP was a hit causing fans to be super excited for a new season. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the first season received a 78% audience score. Season 2 released episodes every Thursday from the beginning of July until the middle of August.
In Season 1 of TSITP, viewers were introduced to Belly, Jeremiah, Conrad, Susannah and Laurel. Laurel is the mother of Belly and Susannah is the mother of Jeremiah and Conrad. The families spend each summer in Cousins Beach at their beach house. Belly had been in love with Conrad since she was in elementary school and everyone knows, including Conrad. As much as Belly has tried to get together with Conrad, he has always seen her as his little sister until this summer when she came to Cousins and turned the heads of both boys. Although Conrad knew he wanted to be with her in his heart, he didn’t show it all summer as he had secretly found out that his mom had gotten cancer again after being cancer free for years before. So with Conrad being unpredictable all summer and Jeremiah being the one she spent summer with, Belly began catching feelings for Jeremiah. Towards the end of summer, Jeremiah and Belly were going on a late night swim when they kissed. Belly was so torn because now she had feelings for both boys but knew Jeremiah was the one that had treated her better all summer. The relationship between Belly and Jeremiah didn’t last for long when Conrad and Belly went on an early morning beach walk and talked to each other about how they really feel, when Belly understood she forgave Conrad and just a few days after Belly kissed Jeremiah, she kissed Conrad on the beach. From then on, Conrad and Belly were in a relationship, until they weren’t.
Season 1 was definitely more interesting to watch. I think it was so interesting because we were just getting to know the characters and seeing where Belly felt her love was between the two boys. Belly was just getting to Cousins to spend her annual summer with her second family and that made it less drama filled and more relatable to watch compared to Season 2. I am definitely more team Jeremiah and in Season 1 it was mostly team Conrad which I wasn’t very happy about, but other than that, Season 1 was much better than Season 2 in my opinion.
If you watch TSITP there are one of two teams: Jeremiah or Conrad. On social media the two teams are split pretty down the middle from people all over who watch TSITP. Whatever team you are on is the person you feel is best for Belly.
Season 2 of TSITP was a mixture between flashbacks of what happened between Conrad and Belly’s relationship and the summer in Cousins where the boys and Belly were fighting to keep the beach house from being sold. With Susannah’s cancer coming back, she attempted a new trial in hopes to make the cancer go away for good this time, sadly it didn’t work leaving both families absolutely devastated.
As Susannah’s condition got worse and worse, Conrad began to get farther and farther away from Belly. It started when Conrad forgot Belly’s corsage in his college dorm, then he was distant from all of prom when he didn’t want to dance and wouldn’t talk to Belly. Then Conrad left Belly crying in the rain outside of prom. At Susannah’s funeral, Jeremiah was mad at Belly for making him believe him and Belly had a chance if in her mind she knew she always loved Conrad, and Conrad was still avoiding Belly after leaving her the way he did. Belly was so overwhelmed and hurt from all the different events happening that she accidentally made a big scene at the funeral, making her mom upset at her for a long, long time. After a hard school year it was finally summer but it would never be the summers they were before.
Belly got a call from Jeremiah telling her Conrad had been skipping classes hoping she would know where he was. Jeremiah and Belly, still with tension between the two, hoped to find Conrad. Jeremiah and Belly drove to the beach house and found Conrad who was upset with both of them. He told them Aunt Julia, Susannah’s sister, was trying to sell the beach house. They did whatever they could to try and save the beach house. When Aunt Julia saw how much the house actually meant to them and their families, she agreed to not sell the house. At this point Belly was still torn on what boy to choose as her Conrad and Jeremiah had all forgave each other. After saving the beach house and getting Conrad back to college in time to pass his exams, Belly chose Jeremiah.
I personally thought Season 2 was not as good as Season 1. With only one episode coming out per week it was very long and dragged out. At times I felt like there were scenes that didn’t need to be in the show. The last episode had a really bad ending. It ended with Belly playing volleyball at volleyball camp. I was expecting a cliff hanger to lead into season 3 and was disappointed with the way it ended. I feel like Belly was being super indecisive between the two boys which made the story line boring at times. Overall though I thought the season was good— it was suspenseful and every episode kept me wanting to watch the next one.
