8 Books You Must Read If You Love ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’
We’re headed back to Cousins Beach for the last time this summer, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop feeling The Summer I Turned Pretty magic when the show comes to an end.
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han first came to Prime Video in 2022, starring Lola Tung as Belly Conklin, with Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno as Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. Every year, Belly’s family spends the summer with her mother’s best friend’s family at Cousins Beach in Massachusetts. Caught between her longtime crush on Conrad and her budding romance with Jeremiah, Belly has always known she would end up with one of the Fisher boys—the only question is which one.
There’s a lot to love about The Summer I Turned Pretty. You’ve got the intrigue of first love, an emotional subplot, immaculate summer vibes, and best of all, the heated love triangle between Belly and the two brothers. However, these books are quick reads, so if you’ve already finished your Summer I Turned Pretty reread, and you’re waiting for the third season to start—or maybe you just watched it… Hi, everyone in the future! How did it end? No, wait, don’t tell us!—you’re bound to be searching for your next great summer romance.
Below, you can find eight books that we know every The Summer I Turned Pretty fan will love. From the newest Tia Williams to some 2010s YA classics, these books share the settings, tropes, and overall vibes of The Summer I Turned Pretty, allowing you to relive your Cousins Beach days while finding your newest obsession! Plus, we’ve added a few of our predictions for the next major book-to-screen adaptations.
Scroll to find out the eight books every The Summer I Turned Pretty fan should add to their summer reading list.
Eleanor and Park
Rainbow Rowell
There are three types of people: Those who are Team Conrad, those who are Team Jeremiah, and those who think it’s time for Belly to just move on. If you fall into the third camp, Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park might be the perfect book for you. Described as the story of “two star-crossed misfits-smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try,” Eleanor and Park is for everyone who wants to be a hopeless romantic but can’t help but be a realist. With dual narration and fantastic voice actors, we’d also suggest listening to Eleanor and Park to anyone who loved The Summer I Turned Pretty series’ audiobooks!
The Summer of Broken Rules
K.L. Walther
Imagine if the Conklins and the Fishers played an annual game of assassins, and this year their cutthroat game coincided with a wedding. The Summer of Broken Rules follows Meredith Fox, a newly single, grieving sister who has just arrived at her family’s yearly vacation to Martha’s Vineyard. When Meredith learns the target for this year’s game of assassins is a cute groomsman, she risks everything to form an alliance with him instead of getting him out. For lovers of the way The Summer I Turned Pretty weaves together playful and serious moments, The Summer of Broken Rules is a must-read.
We Were Liars
E. Lockhart
Hitting Prime Video a month before the third season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, We Were Liars is a YA psychological thriller set in the New England summer sun. Much like Belly, Cady Sinclair waits all year for summer, which she spends with her family on a private island. The story revolves around Cady and the rest of the Liars, the mischievous name her family calls her cousins, Johnny and Mirren, and her longtime crush, Gat. However, everything changes when Cady returns to the island following a mysterious accident two summers prior, the Liars refuse to tell her about the tragedy that caused her sudden memory loss. To learn more about the Sinclair family, check out our complete Sinclair family tree here.
People We Meet on Vacation
Emily Henry
If you know us, you’ll know that we’re convinced that there is an Emily Henry book for everyone. If The Summer I Turned Pretty is your jam, you’ll love EmHen’s friends-to-lovers romance, People We Meet on Vacation. Woven through years of epic vacations, the book follows Poppy Wright’s last-ditch effort to remedy her devastating falling out with her best friend (and long-time crush), Alex Nielsen. The story shares The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s summer vibe, and while there isn’t exactly a love triangle, Poppy and Alex’s will-they-won’t-they relationship is definitely reminiscent of Belly and her Fisher boys. Plus, with the adaptation starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth on its way to Netflix just as The Summer I Turned Pretty wraps up, People We Meet on Vacation is in the perfect position to become your new book-to-screen obsession.
Audre & Bash Are Just Friends
Tia Williams
From bestselling author Tia Williams, Audre & Bash Are Just Friends is a YA novel that follows 16-year-old Audre Mercy-Moore, the youngster we first met during Seven Days in June. As the school year wraps up, Audre hires Bash Henry to be her summer “fun consultant.” Even though sparks are clearly flying between Audre and her new friend, Williams assures us that “[Bash] isn’t boyfriend material. And [Audre’s] not looking for one.” We’re certain The Summer I Turned Pretty fans will adore Audre & Bash Are Just Friends‘ adorable texts, incredible chemistry, and butterfly-inducing opposites-attract romance.
Better Than the Movies
Lynn Painter
If you have an affinity for The Summer I Turned Pretty because of the “we’ve always known each other but never saw each other in that way” vibes of Steven and Taylor’s love story, Better Than the Movies is the book for you. This YA romance follows rom-com-obsessed Liz Buxbaum, who enlists her longtime enemy/hot neighbor, Wes Bennet, to get her crush to notice her. There’s nothing we love more than a fake dating scheme, so our favorite part of Better Than the Movies is definitely Liz and Wes’s hilarious fake relationship. From witty banter to all the music and rom-com references you could ever ask for, Better Than the Movies is an absolute treat from beginning to end.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Jenny Han
We’re sure it comes as a shock to no one that Jenny Han’s most popular series, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, made its way onto our list. One of the most iconic modern rom-coms, To All the Boys follows Lara Jean Covey, a hopeless romantic who writes love letters to all of her crushes that she never intends to send. That is, until someone sends out the letters, turning her life upside down. Another story full of young love, high school drama, and Han’s signature wit, if you love The Summer I Turned Pretty but haven’t read To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, this is your sign to pick it up. Plus, if you’ve only seen the movies, there are lots of interesting differences between the books and their adaptations!
Picking Daisies on Sundays
Liana Cincotti
Second chance romance fans, you didn’t think we’d forget about you, did you?! Say, four years after Belly and Conrad fell in and out of love, Conrad asked her to be his fake date for a wedding. That’s exactly the case for Daniella Daisy Maria, who runs into her childhood best friend turned boyfriend turned semi-stranger at a bar years after they broke up. Hoping to regain their friendship, she agrees to be his plus one at his sister’s wedding, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Do you have romance recs for fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty? Drop them in the comments below!
