It's Not Summer Without You: Book 2 in the Summer I Turned Pretty Series

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Mr. Fisher: A man who is known to have his way no matter what it costs or who it hurts. He is Susannah's husband and the father of Conrad and Jeremiah. After Susannah dies, he turns to whiskey. He drives Conrad away after Conrad saw how badly he began treating Susannah, such as cheating on her and running away when she got cancer. He tries to sell the summer house in It's Not Summer Without You following Susannah's death, and is barely stopped in time by Laurel and Conrad. In the final book, he tries to mend his relationship with his sons and pays for Jeremiah and Belly's wedding, despite not agreeing with them getting married at such a young age.

When prom day finally came, he forgot her corsage at his dorm, and his classic Conrad-Fisher-sad-boy-angst was through the roof! Taylor wanted me to forget about Conrad, to just erase him from my mind and memory. She kept saying things like, “Everybody has to get over a first love, it’s a rite of passage.” But Conrad wasn’t just my first love. He wasn’t some rite of passage. He was so much more than that. He and Jeremiah and Susannah were my family. In my memory, the three of them would always be entwined, forever linked. There couldn’t be one without the others. Laurel is distraught over the death of her lifelong best friend, Susannah, and distracted from parenting Belly. Belly makes meals for her mother and reminds her to rest and take care of herself. Laurel slaps Belly for disrespecting her. She also stands up for Belly and the boys to Mr. Fisher, negotiating with him so he won’t sell the beach house, which leaves Belly in awe of her mother’s skills. The Fisher boys appreciate having a responsible adult like Laurel around to help them. Mr. Fisher was only interested in parenting Conrad, his eldest son, and ignored his second son, Jeremiah, when the boys were growing up. Mr. Fisher wants Conrad to be perfect in all areas and pressures Conrad to live up to his vision of what a man should be. Conrad tells Mr. Fisher that he is a bad father and a worse husband.Wow, how to take a happy and hopeful ending, twist and turn it inside out until it becomes so sad that you don't really want to finish the story. That's what happened here and I didn't like it.

This book finds Belly and Jeremiah in search for Conrad. Their search leads them to Cousins Beach. When they find Conrad everyone has decisions to make that will forever change them.Jenny Han gives us plenty of opportunities to compare and contrast Jeremiah and Conrad—who they are as individuals, as well as who they are as they relate to Belly. Belly is constantly evaluating the two brothers. A few times in We’ll Always Have Summer, she even confuses the two—like when she realizes that it was Conrad who found the dog, Rosie, and not Jeremiah. A similar mix-up occurs at the very end of the book, when Jeremiah opens his letter from Susannah, only to realize that the letter inside was really for Conrad: “My mom must have mixed up the envelopes. In the letter she said she only got to see him in love once. That was with you.” Can you think of other similar mix-ups? What do we learn from these mix-ups?

Contemplate Belly’s experiences from when we meet her in The Summer I Turned Pretty through the final book in the series. How would you characterize her journey, overall? When faced with a tough choice, did she always do the right thing? What were her biggest mistakes? Her greatest successes? This caused Belly to feel even more guilty about the fears she had. They discussed Conrad and their relationship that had recently ended. Susannah then asked Belly to be there for and look after him. He would call her almost every night, and would even make the three and a half hour drive to her house on occasion. Their romance wasn’t defined by any means, but to her it meant everything. Chapter 3 Alone in my car again, I cried loud, ragged sobs. I cried until my throat hurt. I was mad at my mom, but bigger than that was this overwhelming, heavy sadness. I was grown up to do things on my own, without her. I could get married, I could quit my job. I was a big girl now. I didn’t have to ask for permission. My mother was no longer all powerful. Part of me wished she could be.”At the funeral, Belly could tell Conrad was upset, so she promised herself she was going to be strong and supportive for him, even though she was also grieving for Susannah, who was like a second mother to her. However, when Belly walked in on Conrad talking to his ex-girlfriend in the basement, she had a complete temper tantrum and told him she hated him and never wanted to see him again in front of everyone they knew. Since then, Belly had been in a dark depression that seemed to have no solution.