Books Like 'The Summer I Turned Pretty': Try These Romances Next

Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah?

Gone are the days of the great Edward vs. Jacob debate: now we’re all waiting to see who Belly ends up with in “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” The cast confirmed that the hit Amazon Prime series will return for a third season in the summer of 2025.

In anticipation of this, many have turned to Jenny Han’s original books. But if you’ve already finished the trilogy and need another summer romance on your hands, we’ve got ideas.

What is ‘The Summer I Became Pretty’ about?

“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a coming-of-age story that follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin, a teenager who lives for summer. The rest of the year doesn’t matter to her—she just wants to be at her beach house with her family and lifelong friends. She’s known Jeremiah and Conrad, the sons of her mother’s best friend, practically forever. Over the years, she’s seen them as brothers, friends, and even her ideal partner.

For years, Belly has loved her older brother, Conrad, but he sees her as a little girl. And then there’s Jeremiah, who Belly realizes she’s perhaps overlooked for too long. Now, as he approaches 16, everything changes and both boys begin to see Belly in a different light.

This series is a trilogy. “The Summer I Became Pretty” is followed by “Without You It’s Not Summer” and “We’ll Always Have Summer.”

Books like ‘The Summer I Became Pretty’

These books for adults and young adults are the perfect sequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty, filled with fleeting adventures, crushes on the girl next door, and the tantalizing possibility that one summer could change your life forever.

‘Love and Other Words’ by Christina Lauren

It’s a similar story of childhood friends who become lovers, except this book alternates between “then” and “now.”

“Back then,” Macy Sorenson was a teenager quickly falling in love with her best friend Elliot, who lives next door to the family lake house. “Now,” Macy is a pediatrics resident engaged to a practical, financially stable man. “Back then,” Elliot and Macy spent summers and weekends bonding over their favorite books, words, and growing pains. “Now,” they’re unwittingly reuniting a decade after the fateful night when one declaration of love changed and destroyed everything.

‘Some Other Now’ by Sarah Everett

Much like “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “Some Other Now” finds 17-year-old Jessi Rumfield caught between two boys who live next door: Rowan and Luke Cohen. To Jessi, they’re more of a family than her biological family. But after a tragedy and a string of terrible mistakes change everything, the broken bond between Jessi and the Cohen brothers seems irreparable.

A year of silence later, Luke re-enters Jessi’s life with a proposition: will she pretend to be his girlfriend to make his mother, who is battling a terminal illness, happy?

‘The Summer of Broken Rules’ by KL Walther

In “The Summer of Broken Rules,” Meredith Fox returns to her usual summer home of Martha’s Vineyard for her cousin’s wedding. It’s also her first time back since her sister died and she was recently (and unexpectedly) abandoned, leading to a host of complicated new feelings.

A family game of Assassin should distract her, especially since her target is a very handsome groomsman. But she also doesn’t want to be distracted enough to lose the game and fall into another doomed relationship.

‘Every Summer After’ by Carley Fortune

In “Every Summer After,” Persephone “Percy” Fraser spent every summer of her childhood at a lake house with her best friend, Sam Florek. They were inseparable for six summers (a friendship that eventually blossomed into something more) until she made the biggest mistake of her life.

Now, years later, Sam and Percy reunite at the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral. “Every Summer After” spans six years of summer and a once-in-a-lifetime weekend to set things right.

‘A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow’ by Laura Taylor Namey

In this young adult romance, Lila Reyes’ summer plans fall apart. Concerned for her mental health, her parents send her to England to relax and recharge with family friends. Summer vacation may be a dream for some, but for grumpy Lila, it’s all dull and dull.

Everything changes when she meets teahouse employee Orion Maxwell, who is determined to turn summer around for her by showing her both the city and the countryside.

‘One True Love’ by Elise Bryant

“One True Loves” follows Lenore Bennett, a recent high school graduate who is looking forward to starting her new life at New York University in the fall. Her parents put a lot of pressure on her, but luckily she has a family cruise waiting for her before the semester starts.

When her family joins another family on the cruise, she finds herself trapped with Alex Lee, an irritatingly romantic golden boy. Sparks fly all over Europe in this summer road trip romance.

‘The Infinity Between Us’ by NS Perkins

If you are looking for another summerandIf you’re looking for a tale of friends turned lovers, try “The Infinity Between Us.” In this book, Violet Mitchell and Will Seaberg have spent eighteen years together in a beach house in Ogunquit, Maine, with their families. But just when they’re ready to act on the love that’s been blossoming for years, a tragedy tears their families apart.

When they reunite after five years apart, Violet and Will must confront the price of true love and running away from their past.

‘Towards the Two Coasts’, by Dahlia Adler

Described as a gay and lesbian young adult film, this romantic comedy begins with Natalya Fox choosing whether she wants to spend the summer in New York with her father and the girl she’s always wanted or in Los Angeles with her estranged mother and the boy she never saw coming. Through alternating timelines in both scenarios, Natalya must make a decision and face the consequences of choosing one summer love over the other.

‘Same Time Next Summer’ by Annabel Monaghan

An engaged woman reunites with a first love she hasn’t seen in 14 years in this nostalgic beach read. In “Same Time Next Summer,” Sam has the perfect fiancé, the perfect job, and is planning the perfect wedding. What’s not on her agenda is reuniting with Wyatt, who broke her heart when she was 17. As she reunites with Wyatt in the place where it all began, it feels like no time has passed. Can she keep the past buried in the sand of their Long Island beach house, or will it follow her home?

‘Better than the movies’ by Lynn Painter

In this “romantic comedy about romantic comedies,” dreamy Liz Buxbaum goes to great lengths to impress her crush, Michael, who’s back in town after moving away years ago. To help, she recruits her annoying but handsome next-door neighbor, Wes, a thorn in her side since they were kids playing pranks. Prom is approaching, and as they plot to get Michael to notice her, Liz realizes there’s more to Wes than meets the eye.

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