Rating: ★★★★
Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?
It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.
But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started--at Cousins Beach.
This is going to be a short one because I don't know how to talk about this book without spoilers. Belly and Conrad's relationship is... complicated. Things have happened and they're not in the same place where they left off in the first book. Belly wants to help Conrad but she feels very unwanted by him and there were things that were said that were harsh and can't be taken back. This installment deals with Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad figuring out how to deal with the loss and how to move on. I don't even know how to say what I'm trying to say without spoilers but basically the the dynamics of their relationships change. Drastically. By the end of the book, things are very different from where we start off and it's heart breaking and yet a good thing and I don't even know where the final book is going to go. I know what I want to happen but I'm not sure what is going to happen and I feel like there is a possibility that the opposite of what I want is how the story is going to end.
Also, there are chapters from Jeremiah's perspective. They were a nice change from Belly's narrative but I think I might have preferred Conrad's perspective more. I get why it was Jeremiah though because of what happens in the story but of course I am biased towards Team Conrad so that's that. I do like the way that Jenny Han created this love triangle though. It was done in a more realistic way and I get why Belly felt all the things that she felt throughout the book.
It's Not Summer Without You was a great sequel and, though different from the first book, was not at all disappointing. There were still a lot of feels and the story left me kind of confused about my overall emotions towards Conrad and Jeremiah but in a very good and needed way. I'm nervous about the next book and how everything is going to be resolved but I will definitely be finishing this series all the way to the end.
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