It's Not completely clear how this will end

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Here I was convinced that Lola Tung's narration couldn't get any better, when in waltzes Gavin Casalegno! Jeremiah himself! His perspective chapters were magnificent. Knowing how the plot of the TV show's second season unfurls didn't take away from this reading experience. If anything, I was glad there was more of a focus on Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad, that the extra fluff characters added to the show for the sake of drama and B plots didn't make any appearances. I'm talking about the Fisher boys' aunt and cousin specifically, but I felt the gaping Cam Cameron-sized hole. They don't really explain where he goes, now that I think about it. I guess it's just kind of assumed that Belly never called him after leaving the summer house. There was a lot less of Taylor and Steven, too. Hardly any Steven at all, really, which I was more disappointed about than I expected. I could've actually done with a little less Taylor, though she and Belly seem like the perfect friendship pairing at times: they both have incredibly selfish moments.
Susannah's death comes on swiftly and strongly in this book. It happens "off screen," so to speak, in between the events of that first and second book, but the narration style continues to jump back and forth between flashbacks and present day. I think this was especially important for the storytelling of this book because it let readers peek into Susannah's funeral, last moments, and Belly and Conrad's winter night before everything crashed and burned. I found myself once again annoyed with Belly on multiple occasions, but couldn't be surprised considering her track record. I do, however, appreciate how this book represents grief, chiefly in its range of characters. Laurel grieves Beck in her own internal world, while Belly just has to observe. Beck's boys keep their emotions in, especially Conrad who, poor guy, really needs to go to therapy. Their father has to grapple with times he fell short in the husband department. And Belly seems to grieve the loss of a second mother figure as well as the golden years of a childhood she can't ever get back, in more ways than one. It's all multifaceted and well-written. The quest to save the summer house and all it represents concerning Susannah drove the momentum of the story forward, too. Regarding the romance and the ever present "will they, won't they" of Conrad and Belly's dynamic, I still think I'm leaning towards Team Jeremiah. At some point, Belly needs to lean into the brother that's choosing to be there for her, choosing to express that he loves her and wants to be with her, rather than the brother she's still holding out hope for. There is the argument that Conrad loves Belly, needs Belly, in ways he doesn't know how to express cause, again, therapy is lacking. But I still think that Belly empowering herself to let Conrad go and be with Jeremiah at the very end of this book felt like a satisfying ending. I know it's not the ending; there's still one more full book. And this time, I don't have the third season of the TV show to guide my thinking or spoil any major plot points!



Some of my favorite quotes from It's Not Summer Without You:

"That's when I finally got it. I finally understood. It wasn't the thought that counted. It was the actual execution that mattered, the showing up for somebody. The intent behind it wasn't enough. Not for me. Not anymore. It wasn't enough to know that deep down, he loved me. You had to actually say it to somebody, show them you cared. And he just didn't. Not enough."

"We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything."

"Gone had come to mean something different, in a way that is hadn’t used to. Something permanent."

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