During April, I’ve finished several novels, five in total, but if I had to choose a favourite, I’d pick We’ll Always Have Summer, the final book in The Summer I Turned Pretty series. Written by Jenny Han, this book is, in my opinion, the perfect concluding novel of any series I’ve read so far. You may be asking yourself: “Why such a bold statement, Linnea?” Good news for you, I have some quotes (and some reasoning :)) to prove my “bold statement”, but first, let me provide you with some background information for those of you who may not have read or even heard about this immaculate romance (if you would like a little overview of the first two novels in this series, click here to read a mini-overview written by yours truly!) The main character, Isabel “Belly” Conklin, her mum has a friend named Susannah who has two sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly is madly in love with both of them (kind of a love triangle situation, don’t you think?), but she doesn’t know who likes her more: Jeremiah or Conrad. This novel tells about how she tackles this dilemma head-on she might end up solving this problem with the help of her friend Taylor. If you asked me to pick a character I would like to be besties with, I would choose Belly because of how helpful she is. Her helpfulness is most notable on pages one and two when she’s helping Taylor study for their college finals. Taylor asks Belly to quiz her, and she answers, “‘Define anima versus animus.’” Taylor doesn’t know, so she asks for a hint. Belly replies, “‘Umm … think Latin,’” which stresses Taylor out for a second, because she didn’t take any Latin courses, therefore causing her to believe that there may be questions about Latin words and roots on her finals. Belly responds, “‘No, I was just trying to give you a hint. Because in Latin boys’ names end in –us and girls’ names end in –a, and anima is feminine archetype and animus is is masculine archetype. Get it?’” Despite Belly’s helpfulness, Taylor still doesn’t understand, probably because she’s obsessed with texting. Helpfulness is a quality I look for in a good friend because I, like other people, can get confused sometimes, and it’s nice to always have a friend to help you out should you get confused. My favourite line is located on page two hundred eighty-six, “Your life could go in one of two directions. Do or die.” This line teaches a valuable lesson, which invites you to think about how your decisions make an impact not just on the people around you, but also on the world as well.
