Clearly, Moccia knows his way around a quality teen romance, but fans shouldn't expect Summertime to be 100 percent faithful to the books. Most notably, the series is set in the present day, ditching the '90s and '00s setting of the novels in favor of emoji talk and a more inclusive cast. The Netflix series follows Ale and Summer, two teens spending their summer on the picturesque Adriatic coast, but their location is the only thing they have in common. Summer (newcomer Coco Rebecca Edogamhe) is a girl with big dreams, whose focus is firmly on her future, while Ale (Ludovico Tersigni) is a motorcycle enthusiast with a rebellious side. It's a classic tale of opposites attract that hinges on the two falling hard for each other even though they don't seem to have much in common aside from being attractive young people.