The Summer I Turned Pretty: book review

The Summer I Turned Pretty: Book Review by Allison T.

Release Date: May 5th, 2009

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 288

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Source: County Library

Other books in series:It's Not Summer Without You

Buy the Book: amazon

"The Summer I Turned Pretty" is about a girl named Belly who goes to the beach every summer with her mom, her mom's friend, and her two sons. But this year, things are different. Belly has turned pretty. Belly must face three love interests. Who will she choose? This book is a great beach read. I read it in the winter, and it took my mind away from all of the snow and ice that's covering the ground. Here's my review.

The setting was great, since it describes the beach and the places that Belly goes to very well. I also liked the flash backs to when Belly was a kid. Jenny knew how to make the readers question about things but then reveal it just before they start to get annoyed. It helped me to relate because Belly felt that she got left out.

A thing that I didn't like was how Belly acted towards the boys once she became "pretty". She was rude to Connor and Jeremiah and was not acting like her character that was depicted in the flash backs. She seemed really cocky and whiny. Also, the boys pretty much started liking her just because she got pretty. If Belly had never changed, they wouldn't have acted this way towards her. It shows how shallow they are because it seems that all the two brothers care about is looks.

Savannah and Belly's mom, Laurel, were cute friends and I liked the dialogue between them.

The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first book in Jenny Han's Summer series. I definitely will read the second one when I can get my hands on it. I hope you enjoyed the review.

-Allison T.

Book Review: Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales
Release Date: October 5Th, 2010
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages:368
Rating: 4.5/5
Source: The Library
Buy the book:


This book is one of my new favorite reads. It kept me up at night turning the pages because of the author's writing style. When I first saw that this book was coming out, I thought I wasn't going to like it but put it on my wish list anyways. But when I was at the library, I saw Mostly Good Girls on display in the teen area. I read the summary and LOVED it. I could relate to it easily. This is Leila's debut, so I'll be very excited when her next books come out. She has a very promising career ahead of her. Before I tell you what I liked and didn't like about this book, here's the summary.

The higher you aim, the farther you fall….

It’s Violet’s junior year at the Westfield School. She thought she’d be focusing on getting straight As, editing the lit mag, and figuring out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva. Instead, she’s just trying to hold it together in the face of cutthroat academics, her crush’s new girlfriend, and the sense that things are going irreversibly wrong with her best friend, Katie.

When Katie starts making choices that Violet can’t even begin to fathom, Violet has no idea how to set things right between them. Westfield girls are trained for success—but how can Violet keep her junior year from being one huge, epic failure?

My favorite character in this book was definitely Violet. She always tried her best and studied hard. She was also very supportive of her friends and I think that this will show readers to be nice to others even though they're not nice back. Violet had a good "voice" and she made me laugh out loud at times. I thought that Violet's best friend, Katie, was just ok. She was very smart, but didn't even try hard. Katie had a lot of things going for her, but then she just doesn't want to do them anymore. In my mind, she made some very poor decisions.
I liked how this book was more of a book about friends than a romance. It made the book unique to me and showed me and maybe others how to be a good friend (in Violet's case). There was a good message in this book. It was, even if you feel worthless or like they can't do anything sometimes, but you shouldn't let that stop you.
I could relate to this book because I go to a private all girls school and the academics are very challenging. I can see how Katie was feeling so stressed out and decided to just stop.
I am looking forward to readng more books by Leila Sales in the future.
-Allison

Another contest!

http://snifflykitty.blogspot.com/2010/12/150-follower-giveaway.html You can win a gift card!