My Jelly heart cried, but I also felt okay about it because they weren’t right for each other. It was hard to admit that. The entire series though, it never felt like Jere was the one she was going to end up with because Belly loved Conrad so much more. I guess, there really is power in your first love and you never forget your first love. And sometimes, people can love each other so much and that love be real, but they’re just not meant to be together compared to with someone else. I appreciated that he felt like shiz and like a trash human being because he deserved to after he broke Belly’s heart and trust. I also appreciated how he regoconized what he lost when he almost did lose Belly by cheating on her. But DANG, proposing to her to prove that she was the only girl for him and that he would never cheat or break her heart again!?!?!?!?! When they told their family, I already felt like Laurel was going to combust, Mr. Fisher was going to be confused, Steven was going to be shook, and Conrad was going to be heart-broken but numb.

Conrad dates around over the course of the series, particularly because he thinks he can't be with Belly. He gets cozy with his ex-girlfriend Aubrey after Susannah's funeral, and while at Stanford, he has a no-strings-attached fling with a woman who realizes he's not as into her as she is into him. Belly breaks up with Cam midway through season 1 after confessing that she's in love with someone else and, at the end of the season, Jeremiah reveals that he's in love with Belly. Belly begins considering a relationship with Jeremiah. He's set to take her to the debutante ball but, when Jeremiah finds out that his mum Susannah has cancer, Conrad fills in for him. Are you worried about me going on spring break without you?” I could feel my cheeks redden. “No! You can go wherever you want, I don’t care. I just think that it would be nice if you spent some time with your dad. And your mom’s headstone is up. I thought you wanted to go see it.” “Yeah, I do, but I can do all that after school’s out. You can come with me.” He peered at me. “Are you jealous?” “No!” He was grinning now. “Worried about all the wet T-shirt contests?” “No!” I hated that he was making this into a joke. It was infuriating, being the only one who was mad. “If you’re so worried, then just come with us. It’ll be fun.” He did not say, If you are worried, you shouldn’t be. He said, If you are worried, you should come with us. I knew he didn’t mean it that way, but it still bothered me. “You know I can’t afford it. Besides, I don’t want to go to Cabo with you and your ‘bros.’ I’m not going to go and be the only girlfriend and drag down your party.” 26 · jenny han “You wouldn’t be. Josh’s girlfriend, Alison, is going to be there,” Jeremiah said. So Alison had been invited and not me? I sat up straight. “Alison’s going with you guys?” “It’s not like that. Alison’s going with her sorority. They’re getting a bunch of rooms at the same resort as us. But it’s not like we’ll be hanging out with them all the time. We’re gonna do guy stuff, likeThey started dating shortly after the last book when they went on a few dates and then they kissed more and then they started dating. I loved how she could go through college with Jere right by her side. I know that there’s this saying that you shouldn’t go to college with your boyfriend, but if it’s Jeremiah Fisher, you do 👏🏼. As for Jeremiah, he and Belly decide to be friends and he attends Belly and Conrad's wedding with an unnamed date. We imagine that the series may explore who that is in further depth. Meanwhile, Cam only appears in the first book. I loved loved loved that. He didn’t give her flowers or chocolate or cheesy teddy bear she didn’t need. He gave her the moon, the stars, and infinity. Get you someone who gives you the mom, the stars, and infinity! He was too late!! But also, the way he did let her go because he loved her and didn’t want to hurt her—he was protecting her. But at the same time, he needed to give himself more credit to have known that if he feared hurting her, to work on not doing so because he did hurt her in the end. But when he told her that he loved Jere, but hated seeing them together, my heart cried because I knew how much he hurt 🥺. He didn’t hate his brother, he hated the situation they were in. Dang, but when he told her to straight up be with him . . . WHERE WAS THIS ENERGY BEFORE?!!! I know, he needed to do some self-growth but dang. It took me a long time to figure it out. That I was the one who had put my dad on that pedestal. I did that, not him. And then I despised him for not being perfect. For being human.” (pg. 180-1)

Characters: Each character was flawed in a perfectly imperfect way that made them human and relatable. I loved getting to really know Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah and how much love they had but how much love connects with pain, a pain that they all carried and that brought them closer to each other eventually. They really did need Susannah to navigate this absolutely heart-wrenching and complicated situation because she would have known what to say to Jere and Connie to help them through this situation, but they were all hurting and figuring it out together. They were all loving each other through the pain. You know, I love a good love triangle because there’s the angst, the drama, the jealously, the wonder about who the person will end up with. In most love triangles, there’s always a clear person who is endgame, and in TSITP series, I always knew who Belly would end up with (and that’s not because this was my second time around reading the series). I just knew. But what I loved about TSITP books, especially We’ll Always Have Summer was how Jenny Han made me so confused, conflicted, and combusted over Jeremiah and Conrad because I genuinely loved them both that it hurt to think about either of them being heartbroken or sad because one of them was going to end up with Belly and the other wasn’t. And it GUTTED me to even think about who Belly would choose because I grew to appreciate both boys because they brought such different storylines and perspectives that I felt a personal well within me that wanted to protect both of them. I feel like it’s the romantic in me that had so much empathy for Jeremiah and Conrad and wanted them to find love . . . but it’s hard when they loved the same girl. Belly dismisses her fears as groundless until she overhears Lacie saying she slept with Jeremiah during spring break. Jeremiah admits that what she said is true, and Belly slaps him, utterly devasted by his betrayal. She tells him they’re finished.But who does Belly choose in the final novel though? Here's your extensive guide to how the trilogy ends. WARNING: THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY SPOILERS BELOW! UGUUUUUUUUGGGHGHGHGHHGHGH!!!! He screwed up!!!! He could have been with the woman he loved all this time if didn’t screw the freak up. *world’s biggest sigh* Sometimes I wondered if we had rushed into getting married because we were both trying to pivot something to the other and maybe even to ourselves. But then I think no, we truly did love each other. We truly did have the best of intentions. It, we, just weren’t meant to be.” (pg. 287) We were growing up. We were still figuring out how to be in each other’s lives without being everything to each other.” (pg. 54) Oh, and the conversation Jeremiah and Conrad had while they were surfing had me screaming too! I liked how even though I knew deep down Jeremiah being engaged to Belly probably tore Conrad a part, he never not took his brother seriously—he believed Jere. He also never outright lambast Jere for being stupid, but gave his concerns as an older brother. What made me scream was when Conrad said:

He was marrying my girl, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to watch it happen, because he was my brother, because I promised. Take care of him, Connie. I’m counting on you.” (pg. 146) At Jeremiah’s bachelor party, Conrad overhears Jeremiah’s friends teasing him about not having sex with Belly yet. The guys also mention how Jeremiah slept with Lacie during spring break, infuriating Conrad, who had assumed that his brother was faithful to Belly and would never do anything to hurt her. Conrad briefly dating a girl named Agnes because she was cool and very blunt. One day while they were studying, she asked him if he had ever been in love, and when Conrad said “once,” I felt like I was combusting 😆. And then when Agnes asked if on a scale of one to ten, how in love was he, and he said “You can’t put being in love on a scale . . . either you are or you aren’t,” but managed to say ten (pg. 160), I was screaming!!!!!!I’ve only ever loved two boys–both of them with the last name Fisher. Conrad was the first, and I loved him in a way that you can really only do the first time around. It’s the kind of love that doesn’t know better and doesn’t want to–it’s dizzy and foolish and fierce. That kind of love is really a one-time-only thing. I just applaud Jenny for making me hurt for Jere and how pained he was to know that Belly would never love him the same way, for Conrad who was losing the love of his life and his brother, and for Bely who had to break one of their good hearts. I grieved for their brothers hip and friendships. It was so hard to read that conversation and the last part of the book in general 💔. That day , without another word about it, we decided to leave the past in the past. The future was where we were headed.” (pg. 59) It’s impossible . . . I love Jere more than anybody. He’s my brother, he’s my family. I hate myself for doing this. But when I see you two together, I hate him too.’ His voice broke. ‘Don’t marry him. Don’t be with him. Be with me.'” (pg. 237-8)

I loved when Belly went to the grocery store and cooked a whole spaghetti dinner with salad to prove to Conrad that she could eat a healthy meal. He didn’t go home that night, but she left a plate and a bowl out for him of what she made. And the next day, the food was gone and he washed the dish 🥺💚. I’m assuming he ate the food and didn’t throw it away. But it made my heart swell that he still ate her food and cleaned up after himself—such a gentle, sweet Conrad thing to do. Do I still agree with how he treated Belly? No. But I forgive him for it because I now knew what he was going through. Sometimes we become the worst version of ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we’re bad people. We’re just going through a bad situation. Now finishing her freshman year of college, Belly has been happily dating Jeremiah for two years. They’re a comfortable couple, happy together and well-liked by everyone they know. At a post-finals party at Jeremiah’s frat house, Belly feels jealous when Jeremiah talks to Lacie, a beautiful girl at his frat’s sister sorority.College freshman Belly Conklin was in love with Conrad Fisher for most of her life. Her mother Laurel was best friends with Conrad’s mother, Susannah, so Belly and her mom would go stay at the Fishers’ summer house in Cousins Beach every summer. Belly’s childhood dreams of dating Conrad came true in high school, but Conrad’s emotional distance eventually broke them up. Susannah’s death from cancer drove them further apart, and Belly began dating Conrad’s younger brother, Jeremiah. Lying here and looking up at the stars like this, it makes me feel like I’m lying on a planet. It’s so wide. So infinite.” (pg. 281) But it just is a testament to Jenny Han’s writing that she changed my perspective of Conrad and Jeremiah to find room for them both in my heart. Because both are great but both made mistakes and hurt Belly in monumental ways. They were human though, they both weren’t perfect and I oddly loved that. That’s life. That’s people. Belly and Jeremiah kiss passionately and often sleep in the same bed. They haven’t had sex in the two years they’ve dated because Belly hasn’t felt that the timing was right. I didn’t have a specific answer to that question. There hadn’t been one specific moment. It was like gradually waking up. You go from being asleep to the space between dreaming and awake and then into consciousness. It’s a slow process, but when you’re awake, there’s no mistaking it. there was no mistaking that it had been love.” (pg. 161)