Tell me, which Twenty Boy Summer cover do you like best? US on the left, we've got the Dutch cover in the middle and the German one on the right side.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Book Review: It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han (Summer #2)
Title: It’s Not Summer Without You (Summer #2)
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Publishing Date: April 2010
Length: 288 pages
Genre: YA, romance
5/5 ***** It’s Not Summer Without You- A novel one should savour a whole summer! This is a very good second book in a series and a must-read!
~ The Author ~
Jenny Han (Han like Han Solo, not Han like hand) was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and she went to graduate school at the New School in New York City, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn and works part-time at a school library on the Upper West Side.
Author profile by www.dearjennyhan.com
For further information visit www.dearjennyhan.com
~ The Novel ~
It’s Not Summer Without You is the second novel in the Summer series published in 2010. The first book in this trilogy is The Summer I Turned Pretty and the third novel, We’ll Always Have Summer will be released in on April 26th 2011.
Other novels by Jenny Han are the children’s books Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream and Shug.
~ The Story ~
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.
Summary by Amazon.com
~ The Review ~
It’s Not Summer Without You takes place several months after The Summer I Turned Pretty and that fact already had me engaged, because I so wanted to know what happened right after the first book ended.
Again the story is told from Belly’s point of view who describes her current situation and only gradually reveals what happened after The Summer I Turned Pretty. Jenny Han develops a wonderful balance between present and past events on various levels. And her writing style is just as good and casual as in her first novel in the Summer series.
In It’s Not Summer Without You it’s also Jeremiah’s turn to tell several chapters from his point of view, which gives us deeper insight into his caring and fraternal character.
Belly and Jeremiah often refer to Conrad, who needs to be found after he suddenly left college. Wow, I never dealed with such a difficult literary male protagonist before, when it comes to coping with his emotions and love. Han is a genius, she made me love and at the same time in some way hate Conrad's unstable character. It was so exciting to find out his motives for leaving college so suddenly, it made me understand him a bit more.
The content of It’s Not Summer Without You is engaging, the atmosphere isn’t as relaxed as in book one, more aggressive, depressing and melancholic. The end was horribly wary and heart wrenching and I am glad I didn’t have to wait one whole year for the third book. I started it immediately after I finished this novel.
It’s Not Summer Without You is a fast read thanks to an engaging plot and a casual writing style. Still this is no easy read as this second book in the Summer series is about deep feelings and dealing with great losses.
Just like The Summer I Turned Pretty, I read It’s Not Summer Without You in one day. It totally consumed me.
~ We love this book because… ~
1) we all want a private math tutor
2) we love spontaneous trips
3) cocoa is our specialty
4) of a selfless and persistent demonstrator
5) it’s like a huge game of truth or dare
~ The Verdict ~
It’s Not Summer Without You is a fabulous, sensitive and melancholic sequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty. It’s simply not summer without this book series!
New Releases March 14th– March 20th
Let's have a look at the wonderful books being released this week!
March 15th
March 17th
Sunday, March 13, 2011
In My Mailbox #23
The idea of In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren and is to bring books to the attention of our blog readers and to encourage interaction with other blogs.
Bought:
Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson ( Already read and really liked it!)
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
For Review:
Divergent by Veronica Roth
* And actually it won't be my review copy for much longer, because thanks to HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks I received a second copy of Divergent and am currently having a contest! You can enter my GIVEAWAY HERE !
Friday, March 11, 2011
Book Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1)
Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1)
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Publishing Date: May 2009
Length: 288 pages
Genre: YA, romance
5/5 ***** The Summer I Turned Pretty- A sweet tribute to youth, friendship, love and the special warm, joyous feeling only summer wakes!
~ The Author ~
Jenny Han (Han like Han Solo, not Han like hand) was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and she went to graduate school at the New School in New York City, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn and works part-time at a school library on the Upper West Side.
Author profile by www.dearjennyhan.com
For further information visit http://www.dearjennyhan.com/
~ The Novel ~
The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first part of the Summer trilogy. It was followed by It’s Not Summer Without You in 2010. The third novel We’ll Always Have Summer will be released on April 26th 2011.
Other novels by Jenny Han are the children’s books Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream and Shug.
~ The Story ~
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along
Summary by Goodreads
~ The Review ~
I came across this novel often but never really felt like reading it. A few weeks ago I downloaded the Simon & Schuster e-galley We’ll Always Have Summer and noticed that it was the third book in the Summer series. Because I was so intrigued by its summary by then I decided to buy the first and second book and give this series a try.
So I started book one, expecting it to be a good, not THAT good! I read it in one day and I am in love with these characters, the setting, wonderful scenes from their childhood and the extraordinary summer feeling it carries.
Belly is our narrator, a quirky, bright girl, that takes hearts in storm... unless they don’t want to be taken. I immediately liked her and was engaged in her attempt to win Conrad Fisher’s heart. She tells the story about her summer in Cousins, mixed with flashbacks to former summers, summers that meant something, had something special. The flashbacks aren’t thrown into the story randomly, they are perfectly integrated, always relevant to our present scene.
The word “pretty” in the title doesn’t necessarily refer to a physical development or stunning beauty , it my opinion it stands for the metamorphosis a character can go through. Belly has developed physically but also grown psychically. Now she is experiencing a whole new array of emotions, exploring her new relationships to her big summer brothers.
Our male protagonists are brothers, friends, rivals. Conrad is moody, dark and very unreasonable in his behaviour. Jeremiah is his little brother, kind and caring. We also meet Belly’s brother, her mother and Susannah, Conrad’s and Jeremiah’s mother. The character’s backgrounds, relationships and pasts are revealed gradually through the whole novel.
Reading about their summer adventures, quarrels, reconciliation, friendship and love was a lot of fun. Jenny Han has a very casual writing style. I read this novel in one sitting, it very easy to read, not because of a plain content, but flowing writing.
The Summer I Turned Pretty is a funny and youthful read. Special about The Summer I Turned Pretty is that its romance, happenings and emotions are anything but easy or plain because beside fun and frieds it also deals with very emotional and serious topics.
~ We love this book because...~
1) it makes us want to sing summer hits all the time
2) of its wonderful memories
3) swimming frees our mind
4) one last summer won’t overshadow the summers before it
5) a girl sometimes needs her big brothers
~ The Verdict ~
The Summer I Turned Pretty is a wonderful and light summer read with an authentic setting and characters and a great writing style. This novel should definitely be in the bag you pack for your next holidays!
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