“For me there was – is – nothing better than walking on the beach late at night. It feels like you could walk forever, like the whole night is yours and so is the ocean. When you walk on the beach at night, you can say things you can’t say in real life. In the dark you can feel really close to a person. You can say whatever you want.” – 4.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: beach houses, salty air, summer parties, cigarettes, charm bracelets, siblings, divorces, bonfires, Latin, pools, movies, learning how to drive, growing up, friendship, dancing, cancer, birthday cakes, colorful seashells, cute bikinis, pearl necklaces, sundresses, The Titanic, veganism, family issues, a lot of swimming, and seafood dishes.

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.

I know this is irrelevant, but I have to mention this. You should see my face when the main character’s nickname comes up for the first time. Belly. Really? I’m very serious when I say I cringed the entire time her nickname came up. I mean, I get the nickname thing since her name is Isabella… but I truly disliked it. I wish she had a different name, like Bella for example… it just sounds so weird to me calling another person “Belly”. At the same time, I understand it makes the character memorable – so I guess it worked!
Besides her name, I didn’t like the MC’s attitude at times. She’s indeed a teenager, but I found her very immature and childish, which I didn’t like.
With that said, I really liked the book! I loved all the other characters, especially Susannah, Conrad, Jeremiah, and Cam. I just like how unique they were in their way – it felt like they were real people. The characters were very well defined from the beginning. The “perfect” main boys were not perfect and their lives were WAY far from perfect, and I liked that a lot. I also loved Susanne and Lauren’s friendship and I loved the whole “summer family” dynamic and how they all interacted as a group.
I enjoyed Jenny’s style of writing a lot! I appreciate how the book is structured, making it very easy to follow. The references to Belly’s age at the beginning of the throwback chapters made it easier to go back in time, without feeling completely lost. So, that was a plus!
I would describe this book as the “love child” of Sarah Dessen and Nicholas Sparks, so if you’re a fan of one of them, I recommend this one!