The Summer I Turned Pretty

When Jenny Han adapted her own bestselling YA trilogy into a television series for Prime Video, she created something that felt both familiar and freshly resonant. The show follows Isabel Belly Conklin, a teenage girl whose entire world revolves around the summers she spends at Cousins Beach with her mother's best friend Susannah Fisher and Susannah's two sons. What begins as a classic summer romance quickly expands into a richer story about grief, family loyalty, and the painful process of growing up.

Lola Tung, cast through an open call in her first professional role, anchors the series with a natural, unforced presence that makes Belly's journey feel immediate. The show's visual language leans hard into golden-hour nostalgia, with the beach house and coastal town shot on location in North Carolina and Rhode Island. A carefully curated soundtrack, featuring Taylor Swift's This Love (Taylor's Version) and tracks by Olivia Rodrigo, became a cultural phenomenon in its own right, with official playlists amassing hundreds of thousands of followers on streaming platforms.

The series ran for three seasons and twenty-six episodes, concluding in September 2025. It became one of Prime Video's most-watched originals among 18-34 year old viewers, sparked a 300 percent increase in book sales according to Nielsen BookScan, and generated the kind of passionate online discourse usually reserved for franchise fare. The love triangle between Belly and the Fisher brothers dominated social media conversations, with Team Conrad and Team Jeremiah factions debating the merits of each brother across every episode drop.[edit]

The story centers on Belly Conklin, a girl who has spent every summer of her life at Cousins Beach, a coastal Massachusetts town where her mother Laurel and her best friend Susannah Fisher own adjoining houses. Alongside Belly come her older brother Steven, and they join Susannah's two sons: the brooding, intelligent Conrad and the warm, easygoing Jeremiah. Belly has nursed a crush on Conrad since childhood, but as she turns sixteen at the start of the series, she begins to see both brothers in a new light.

Season one, covering the first novel, establishes the idyllic rhythms of summer at the beach: bonfires, boardwalks, late-night swims, and the easy intimacy of two families who have grown up together. Belly arrives determined to make this summer different, only to find Conrad more distant than ever and Jeremiah suddenly paying her attention. The season builds toward the revelation that Susannah is battling cancer, a secret that casts a long shadow over the carefree surface. The love triangle forms the emotional engine, but the deeper currents involve the mothers' friendship and the children's struggle to understand the adults as real people with their own fears.

Season two, adapting the second novel, opens after a devastating loss. The Fisher house at Cousins Beach is under threat of being sold, forcing Belly, the brothers, Steven, and Belly's best friend Taylor to come together to save it. The season employs a flashback structure, revealing pivotal moments from past summers that explain the fractures in the present. Grief is the dominant note here, but the show balances it with the warmth of shared memory and the stubborn refusal to let go of a place that holds so much meaning. The romantic tensions deepen as Belly navigates her feelings for both brothers while the characters confront family secrets and the fear of losing their shared history.

Season three jumps forward to Belly's junior year of college. She is in a committed relationship with Jeremiah and looking forward to another summer at Cousins, but unexpected events bring Conrad back into her orbit. As Belly stands on the brink of adulthood, she must confront the unresolved feelings between the brothers and decide which path her heart truly wants. The season expands the scope beyond the beach house, showing the characters in their college lives and the ways they have grown apart and together. The central question, which has animated the entire series, finally demands an answer: can first love be lasting love, or is it something you outgrow?

Throughout its run, the show balances the romantic drama with the mothers' story. Laurel, a writer, and Susannah, an artist, represent different approaches to life and motherhood, and their bond provides the emotional foundation that the younger characters build upon. The series also gives substantial arcs to the supporting cast, including Belly's brother Steven and her friend Taylor, who have their own romantic subplots and growth. The tone remains consistently warm and nostalgic, punctuated by moments of genuine emotional weight, and the show never loses sight of the fact that these summers are finite, which gives every moment a bittersweet edge.[edit]