The Summer I Turned Pretty: Books vs. Series
The Summer I Turned Pretty is Jenny Han's 2022 series, adapted from books by Jenny Han. It stars Lola Tung, Jackie Chung, Rachel Blanchard, Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno and ran for 3 seasons and 26 episodes on Prime Video.
From Books Adapted
Which books each season covers
Three seasons draw on all three books
| Season | Book adapted |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Summer I Turned Pretty, book 1, with new storylines including the debutante ball. |
| 2 | It’s Not Summer Without You, book 2, alongside expanded stories for the supporting characters. |
| 3 | We’ll Always Have Summer, book 3. The season moves its main events later in Belly’s college years and expands her time abroad. |
| A guide, not an exact match: shows move scenes and storylines between books and seasons. | |
All three books have been used. That does not mean the series includes the book trilogy’s entire ending: the show leaves a further chapter of Belly’s life for a movie.
Prime Video has announced that movie as the conclusion, with Jenny Han directing. It is a continuation of the series, not an adaptation of a fourth book. Amazon has not announced its plot details.
What changed from the book
The debutante ball was added for television
The first book has no debutante ball. Han added it as a visible way to mark Belly’s coming of age. She told TIME she had been thinking about the different ceremonies cultures use to celebrate that transition. A ball suited the wealthy community where the story takes place.
Belly is further through college in the last season
The third book’s main story begins after Belly’s freshman year. The series moves those events to the end of her junior year. Han said making the characters older gave them more independence and made their decisions about the future carry different stakes.
Steven and Taylor’s continuing romance is also an addition to the books. Han and the writers developed a history for their relationship across the years the series skips, including material that never appears in an episode.
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Belly’s time abroad becomes a story of its own
After Belly and Jeremiah’s wedding is called off, We’ll Always Have Summer jumps ahead to Belly’s wedding to Conrad. Her intervening time in Spain is described briefly, with Conrad’s letters filling in part of their reconciliation.
The series sends Belly to Paris instead. Its last three episodes spend time on the aftermath of the canceled wedding and her life there. The season ends with Belly and Conrad reunited, leaving their wedding unshown.
The books, in order
Details
- Author
- Jenny Han
- Year
- 2009
- Pages
- 304
- Audiobook length
- 6 hr
- Narrator
- Lola Tung
- Series
- The Summer I Turned Pretty, book 1
Belly returns to Cousins Beach expecting another summer with Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, the brothers she has known since childhood. This year, being noticed brings complications she has never had to consider: her longstanding crush on Conrad, a new boy’s interest, and a changing friendship with Jeremiah. Meanwhile, the adults are keeping troubles of their own out of sight.
Details
- Author
- Jenny Han
- Year
- 2010
- Pages
- 316
- Audiobook length
- 6 hr 7 min
- Narrator
- Lola Tung, Gavin Casalegno
- Series
- The Summer I Turned Pretty, book 2
After Susannah’s death and the collapse of her relationship with Conrad, Belly cannot imagine returning to the summers she once loved. Then Jeremiah calls to say his brother has disappeared. Their search brings them back to Cousins Beach, where the possible sale of the family’s beach house gives them something to fight for despite their grief and unresolved feelings.
Details
- Author
- Jenny Han
- Year
- 2011
- Pages
- 320
- Audiobook length
- 6 hr 3 min
- Narrator
- Lola Tung, Christopher Briney
- Series
- The Summer I Turned Pretty, book 3
Belly and Jeremiah are at college together, and after two years as a couple, they decide to get married. Planning the wedding brings opposition from her mother and puts Belly back in close contact with Conrad. The certainty she wants to feel about her future becomes harder to maintain when her first love is no longer safely in the past.
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