If you’re anything like me then you spent this summer watching (and rewatching!) The Summer I Turned Pretty and when you finished it you just wanted more. This is a great teen tv show that knows how to keep you invested so you need a good book with great characters, a summery setting and lots and lots of romance. Here are 12 books I think you might like if you loved The Summer I Turned Pretty.
The Summer I Turned Pretty – Jenny Han
Belly spends every summer at a beach house with her family, her mom’s friend and her two boys. This year, Belly is about to turn sixteen and everything is about to change.
If you’ve finished the show and want to continue to find out what’s gonna happen in season 3 then try the books! They’re a little different since they were published quite a while ago now and they read a bit younger than the TV show but if you take that into account the books are really great!
They’re so easy to read and I’ve personally read them multiple times.
Along for the Ride – Sarah Dessen
Every since her parents divorce, Auden has struggled sleeping but she’s about to spend a carefree summer living with her dad and his new wife and baby at their house in a small beach town.
She meets Eli, a fellow insomniac, and together they embark on parallel quests. For Auden, to experience the carefree life of a teenager, and for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.
Along for the Ride is a young adult summer romance book set in a small beach town. It’s perfect for The Summer I Turned Pretty fans and it also has it’s own Netflix adaptation that was really great.
Every Summer After – Carley Fortune
Percy spent six summers a teenager living in a lake house next to a boy called Sam who she fell head over heels for.
Years later, she’s returning to the lake house for Sam’s mother’s funeral and she hasn’t spoken to Sam since she was a teenager.
Over 6 years and one weekend we follow Percy and Sam as they fall in love and as everything comes crashing down.
This book reminds me of an adult version of The Summer I Turned Pretty. It’s a summery read about a girl who is friends with 2 brothers and spends all of her time with them in the summer before she starts dating one of them and everything changes. Every Summer After has a dual timeline that focuses on these characters as teenagers as they meet and fall in love and then years in the future when Sam’s mother has just died.
Loveboat, Taipei – Abigail Hing Wen
When Ever is sent to Taiwan to study Mandarin the summer before she starts college, she finds herself thrust among the over-achieving kids that her parents have always wanted her to be.
But what Ever’s parents don’t know is that this program is nicknamed Loveboat and it’s an infamous teen meet-market, where Ever learns more about clubbing than calligraphy.
Loveboat, Taipei is a summery read about a girl being forced into an unfamiliar environment where she learns to become a new person while falling in love with 2 different boys and finding herself in a love triangle. This also has an Asian protagonist (and main cast!) and a movie adaptation was recently released on Paramount+.
Better Than the Movies – Lynn Painter
Liz’s childhood crush, Michael, has just moved back to town and Liz will do anything it takes to get his attention, including befriending her annoying neighbour, Wes.
He has recently become friends with Michael so Liz thinks if she starts hanging out with Wes, she’ll be invited to all of the same places, but she’s shocked when she starts to enjoy hanging out with Wes.
This one is more about vibes than anything but I really think if you love The Summer I Turned Pretty then you’ll enjoy the sweet romance in Better Than the Movies. It has a little bit of a love triangle but it’s never not obvious who Liz is actually going to end up with.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han
Lara Jean has never openly admitted her crushes, instead she writes a letter about how she feels to them and hides them under her bed.
But one day, her letters are accidentally sent out and one has gone to her sister’s ex-boyfriend. In an attempt to prove she’s over him, Lara Jean begins fake dating another boy that got a letter – Peter Kavinsky.
My Life With the Walter Boys – Ali Novak
When her entire family dies in a car crash, Jackie is forced to move from New York to Colorado to live with her mum’s old friend. When she arrives Jackie gets a shock when she finds out that her new guardians have 12 children and none of them are happy that she’s there.
Jackie goes from being the daughter of a billionaire living in a New York City penthouse to living on a ranch in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of hot guys. She also unexpectedly finds herself in a bit of a love triangle with 2 of the brothers: the shy and geeky Alex, and the popular Cole.
This book is absolutely nothing exceptional but it’s about a teenage girl dealing with grief which is a big plot point in The Summer I turned Pretty season 2 and it also focuses on this girl falling for 2 brothers and having to figure out which of them she really wants to end up with.
This Is How You Fall in Love – Anika Hussain
Best friends, Zara and Adnan, end up fake dating to cover up Adnan’s real relationship with a girl who’s dad is very overprotective.
Zara agrees to go along with it because her parents love Adnan and she hopes this will help stop them arguing for a while. But, things get a little bit complicated when feelings start to become real.
I think you’ll enjoy this one if you enjoyed the friends to lovers aspects of The Summer I Turned Pretty. I think the Jeremiah/Belly relationship specifically because in this book both of the main characters have separate relationships who they seem to like more than they like each other at some points and it reminds me of how Belly claims to be in love with Jeremiah when it’s obvious she’s not over Conrad at all.
One True Loves – Taylor Jenkins Reid
On her first wedding anniversary to her high school sweetheart, Emma’s husband, Jesse’s, plane has gone down and he’s presumed dead. Years later, Emma has moved back to her hometown and she’s about to marry a childhood friend when she receives a shocking phone call – Jesse has just been found a live.
Emma must now figure out what it is she wants – her husband or her fiance.
I think One True Loves is perfect for fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty due to the love triangle. Throughout the series, Belly spends a great deal of time debating with herself about who it actually is that she wants to end up with and even gives both of her love interests a chance before finally choosing. One True Loves is a whole book about a woman deciding which of the loves of her life she wants to spend the rest of her life with.
Some I haven’t read yet but often come up on similar lists:
- Love and Other Words – Christina Lauren:
- Macy is about to marry an older, financially secure man and keeps her heart tucked away until she bumps into the first and only man she’s ever loved and the careful bubble she’s constructed starts to fall apart.
- The Summer of Broken Rules – K.L. Walther:
- Meredith is going back to Martha’s Vineyard for the first time since her sister’s death for her cousin’s wedding. Also in attendance is Meredith’s boyfriend who unexpectedly dumped her two weeks before the wedding. But her family has a tradition of playing the ultimate game of Assassin every summer which is the perfect distractoin for her and her target happens to be a very handsome groomsman.
- Love and Gelato – Jenna Evans Welch:
- Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany to fulfil her her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. She’s given a journal that her mother kept while living in Italy and suddenly Lina is uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art and hidden bakeries.
I’m sure there are so many more recommendations of books that give The Summer I Turned Pretty vibes, these are just a few that I have personally read. However, I’m always on the lookout for more similar recs so expect a part 2 at some point!
