**The show that I saw last week is a series of shows, so I decided to go back to the theater to see act one, part two. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the last show, so I can’t wait to go again. This time, my dear friend Betty is coming with me. We purchase our tickets at the booth and find our seats, waiting for the show to begin.**

Welcome or welcome back to bookishcore. Last week, I did a post watching the first three episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty, an Amazon Prime series based on the books by Jenny Han, following a sixteen year-old girl named Belly as she spends time at the summer house and navigates life with her family and her mom’s friend’s family, while having a crush on one of the boys. I didn’t love the books, but wanted to watch the show, so I actually just finished up season one today, so I wanted to discuss my thoughts for the second half of the season.

I have been enjoying this show. I don’t feel fully connected, but I don’t know if it’s the show or just because I’m watching it on my computer instead of a TV. I do still think it is entertaining, but there is a tiny something that doesn’t get me fully hooked.

I have been really enjoying these characters, and they are better on screen. Reading the books, I didn’t care for any of the characters. I also didn’t really like the books, so that may be why, but I actually like a lot of them in the show. Belly actually doesn’t bother me. She has some moments, like in the Fourth of July episode, but that was more second hand embarrassment. I have never understood when people say they feel that for characters until watching that episodes. I think that Shayla and Nicole also made really great side characters.

Out of these four episodes I watched, I really liked episode six, “Summer Tides.” I think there were some really great moments in this episode and we got to see deeper into some characters. I also really loved the volleyball tournament scene. I think that a tournament is a great way to see how well the characters interact because it puts them in a more “high stakes” or stressful situation. The other thing I really liked about this episode was Conrad. I feel like the entire time watching this show, I feel like we never see Conrad, even when he’s there. I think this is one of the first episodes where we can see a little bit of the real Conrad, like during the volleyball scene. Happy Conrad has a completely different personality and it makes him a great character.

I also want to touch on the last episode, “Summer Love.” I’m trying to not give spoilers, so I will be working around them. This was another episode that I really enjoyed, and probably one of my favorites of the show so far. I will say that I didn’t really like Steven in this episode. I honestly don’t love him as a character in general, but this episode specifically made me more annoyed. Steven goes to tell Shayla something that happened, and I feel like he almost blames the other people involved, which I kind of picked up on later when he is confronted with them. This situation is more his fault, but I feel like he might want to push that onto the other people.

This was also definitely more of a heavy episode. I read the books, but there are changes that were made, like the entire deb ball, so it’s hard to know what will happen. I love the scene where Conrad helps Belly out, and it’s one of my favorite scenes of the show. Then there is a really emotional scene at the end and it really got me. I feel like the end was done really well and i could just feel the emotions that everyone else was feeling.

These posts are a bit difficult to write. I have seen people doing reaction videos to episodes or different things, but I think doing a blog post about it is a bit hard. It’s not live reactions, so I am writing all of it days later. Then it’s hard too because I do multiple episodes at a time so I have enough to write about, especially when I am not doing spoilers. I am going to keep trying these out though, so I will probably do a post for episodes 1-4 and 5-8 of season two. Stay tuned for those in the coming weeks.

xoxo,

Just another reader