Book Review: We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

Title: We'll Always Have Summer

Author: Jenny Han
Series: Summer, #3
Pages:  304
Publisher: Puffin
Date of Publication: 3rd May 2012
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: One girl.

Two brothers.

The biggest decision of her life . . .


Just when she thought she had all the answers . . .

Isabel has only ever loved two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher.

One broke her heart; the other made her happier than she ever thought she'd be. But each brother is keeping a secret, and this summer Isabel must choose between the Fisher boys, once and for all. Which brother will it be?

My Thoughts:
This series really surprised me - I never expected to like it quite as much as did. It was one of my first YA contemporary reads and I wasn't really all that sure as to what I should expect, and to be honest, from the covers, it wasn't promising me too much. And then I loved it, and you can guess how I excited I was when this book, We'll Always Have Summer, dropped through my letterbox. I started reading almost immediately and only stopped because I had stupid revision for my stupid exams. Anyway.

However, I do think that this book was the weakest of the three. I loved that I could finally make my choice about which boy I thought was better, and it was great to see Belly making her choice, but I just found that the storyline itself felt really weird... I don't really know how to describe it. At first I thought that the book was the perfect ending, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised I wished it could have been a different way.

I'll attempt to explain myself but I'm not promising anything... For the majority of the book, Belly seems to have made her decision about which boy she will choose, Conrad or Jeremiah. I really wanted her to think about her decision, to not make a snap decision the moment one of them asks her something she thinks she really wants but doesn't really. She jumps to conclusions about her heart and while I think her response was realistic, I kind of really didn't like it. It's difficult to explain and I don't know if that makes sense, but basically it annoyed me that it happened that way and while I enjoyed reading it, looking back it wasn't that great.

And it makes me sad to say that, because I truly did enjoy this book, and saying that doesn't make me sound like I did, I know... Anyway, I'll shut up about that now, and tell you about what I did like. I loved being back in Belly's world - it felt so good! Seriously, to be back at Cousins (even though not much of it is actually set there) and 'spend time' with all the characters again felt great. There were sad bits and happy bits, good things and bad things, just as there always is, and it was awesome.

And of course, there were the boys. I've finally chosen which one I like better, and it's... CONRAD! I like Jeremiah enough, but Conrad's more exciting, more interesting, just all round a better character. Not to say I'd be disappointed with Jeremiah... ;P Aaand that's all I shall say ;D

While I didn't think this book was the perfect ending or the best in the series, it really is a very good read and a must for fans of this series, and ultimately the ending is the right one. If you haven't started the series, you should! If you're worried about not enjoying it because you've not read much contemporary, you should try and see what you think! I promise this series is more than just a bunch of pretty covers.

*Huge thanks to Puffin for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book.