It's Not Summer Without You is the sequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty and it definitely has more drama, angst and heartbreak. This time around, Belly has to contend with losses on all fronts: the loss of Suzanne, Conrad running away, her mother becoming a stranger and summer as she's always known it. 
 At the heart of the story is Belly's relationship with Conrad. She's been in love with him ever since she could remember but he rejected her. Now that Jeremiah is asking for her help to find him, she can't help but have those feelings resurfacing again. What I loved about this book is that the emotions were very real. Belly's emotions were written with such skill and the dose of reality was unbelievable. There were some points in the story where I didn't approve of her actions; I found her to be wishy-washy sometimes but in the end, she pulled through. 
 Most love triangles are written stupidly but not the one here. I still have my reservations about Conrad. For all the hurtful and stupid things he's done, I can't really sympathize with him. He deliberately hurts the people around him. I certainly hope we have his whole story by the end of the sequel. 
 I've always been fond of Jeremiah but having his perspective included in the story this time, while nice, didn't add that much zing to the story. He's been lovable, kind, caring and just generally so nice. 
 The characters are extremely relatable which makes this book a really light and pleasurable read. The ending is a bit of a cliff-hanger in terms of emotions and I can't wait to read the conclusion!