We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny HanMy rating: 5 of 5 genies
Genre: YA, Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Published: April 26, 2011
Pages: 291
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Purchase At: TheBookDepository.com or Amazon.com
Goodreads Summary
It's been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college-- only, their relationship hasn't exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It's time for Belly to decide, once and for all, who has her heart forever.
My Thoughts
Aw, chucks.
Man, I don't even know how to feel right now, after pretty much devouring the series this past week I am down-right speechless. Organizing my thoughts has never been harder, I'm a mixture of this:
As well as this:
That's right, baby. I'mma happy!!! But as you can probably tell I am also slightly insane. I thought to review this book first instead of the second one, It's not Summer without You since I was obsessed with it all day and as such didn't emerge from my room until almost 10pm due to reading. My folks were worried, but eh, I finished the series!! That is all that matters.
Because I really do love this series. Demo, you were right, it was fantastic! I give everything 5/5, Han is effing perfect. Pink's song was so right in her regard because the woman is boss-awesome. This writer has not only the ability to skilfully craft into being incredibly relateable plot, but also devastatingly real characters that feel alive. Or at least real enough to make me forego everything in order to find out what happens next to them! This morning I woke up at 5 and the first thing on my mind? I Gotta finish those last 20 something pages!
I dozed off the night before - trust me I am very much disappointed with myself - but it was a long day. I read as much as I could but certainly not as feverishly as I've been doing today, there was no stopping me this time. And I am satisfied, so very, very satisfied. So here's to trying for something more coherent below, I'll try to put my crazy thoughts at the moment to words, so beware of SPOILERS. I'll tag as many as I can but make no promises.
Right, so I began to realize something as this series went along, two things actually:
1.) Belly is selfish, she doesn't know how to control her tongue most of the time (eerily familiar somehow) and ends up hurting a lot of people around her. Predominantly Conrad Fisher, the amount of times she just yells things at him she does not mean is startling. After seeing so many cookie-cutter females pine over guys and walk on eggshells around them, it is rarer than a yellow octopus in the Antarctic to actually have someone give the bull back. Belly did, and more.
2.) Conrad Fisher is incredibly flawed. No joke, he can't communicate well to anyone, and he somehow almost always found a way of hurting Belly, even when he didn't mean to. I love intensity, intensity is what sells me with guys and if I can't feel that something special that gravitates me to them...I drop it like it's hot. I suppose that's why I related so well with Belly and Conrad, because they had this spark-the-air kind of fire; I got their relationship.
I really wish Han had painted him a little bit better, it was hard seeing him be such a prick to this girl who adored him, over and over again. Jeremiah got to be the Angel for most of everything and really, I do believe Conrad was one too. He was just never given the chance and didn't have to try as hard to be sweet, he just was, and sometimes even though he lost himself in his own problems thus forgetting everyone else around him, he really did care.
His love for Belly was eternal, really infinite and at the beginning I thought Jer's was like that too. (view spoiler) Closer to the end it got to look like he just wanted her to prove that he could and that he was just the man Conrad was. And he's not, not really.
Jeremiah has this innocence - not experience wise obviously but more less worldly in a sense - while Conrad is ragged and jaded with his pre-assumptions. The beauty in him though, lies in his ability to see past those failings of his. It warms my heart that everything aside, all the bitterness he might feel at times totally pushed away, that he really does care for Belly and did what he thought was best for her. It may not have 100% all the time have been the right decision, but he tried his darnedest. And in a way, that's what makes me cry, the thought that this journey really is over.
But I'm glad. That I got to experience this at all. Susannah, Conrad, Laurel, Steven, Taylor (who I actually like as a character now), Belly's dad, Belly and even Jeremiah, they really are wonderful people. And you know what? You can just tell the total BA level of novel is through the roof when the characters don't even feel not-real anymore, because they become special in a way only brilliant and carefully pieces of art can truly be--special enough to leave an imprint for forever.
Basically...
I really am an impatient person and being 10th in line for this at my library really did not cut it. Imagine my utter and jaw-dropping delight when I saw this at my local Superstore a day back?! Oh yes, I partied. Very seriously I explained to my mother the importance of this novel and that it really was her fault that I had no patience tolerance whatsoever - me having her genes and all - eventually we reached a compromise, and I got this book. Which I am very glad to own because I totally have the chance to read this over and over again.
How awesome is that? And I will, I'll keep coming back to this for as long as I can, because there's something magical here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi there, thanks for stopping by! Be sure to let me know you were here by leaving a message :)