Top 10 Differences Between The Summer I Turned Pretty Books & TV Series

Unfortunately, not all is sunshine and beaches in Cousins Beach. At the start of the second season, we learn that the beloved beach house is up for sale and Susannah’s half-sister, Aunt Julia, is the one behind it. The potential loss of the house doesn’t just represent the loss of childhood, but also the loss of Conrad and Jeremiah’s mom Susannah, so soon after her passing. Although the boys’ dad, Adam, is also involved in the sale, we primarily view Aunt Julia as the antagonist of this season. But in the books, she isn’t even a character! The creation of her character sends a message to viewers who think they know the story, telling us that not everything will go as we expect it to.

Belly may be the main character, but there’s no way we can ignore the moms when we talk about “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” While Susannah and Laurel’s friendship was always acknowledged, the TV series delves deeper into their own lives. This is particularly true when it comes to Laurel’s career as a writer. While her recent publication brings her closer to Cleveland in the first season, it’s her book “It’s Not Summer Without You”, written about Susannah, that dictates her story in the second. Her grief makes it difficult to talk about her book but through the encouragement of her kids, she’s able to slowly push past her reservations. We’re rooting for you, Laurel!

#8: Steven’s Role in the Story

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For the OG book lovers, the true underdog of the TV series has to be Steven Conklin. Belly’s older brother was hardly a main character in the books. In fact, he spends very little time in Cousins Beach in the first book, leaving for a college road trip. We didn’t get enough time to become properly acquainted with book Steven, but the same cannot be said for his TV counterpart. He’s an integral part of the relationship between the Fisher and Conklin families, with a focus put on his friendship with Jeremiah and Conrad. In season two, we’ve come to majorly ship Steven and Belly’s best friend, Taylor. Will they get together? We just have to know!

LGBTQIA+ representation is thankfully becoming more celebrated on-screen, but it’s still lacking. So it’s nice to see a teen show like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” taking part in this step towards diversity and inclusion. One way this was done was by making Jeremiah Fisher, one of Belly’s love interests, queer. The decision was made by Jenny Han, who wrote the books and created the TV series. She essentially stated that she wanted to consider how to introduce the characters she wrote over a decade ago to a modern audience. While Jeremiah’s fluid sexuality isn’t a focal point in the series, it is mentioned in the first season. And we love to see it.

#6: Kissing

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“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is no stranger to kissing. Belly’s smooches prove to be significant moments in the book series, especially when it comes to Jeremiah and Conrad. However, the book series keeps it pretty tame when it comes to romance. With only a few scenes and mentions of kissing, the books are generally recommended for pre-teens and teens aged 12 and up. The TV series, on the other hand, gets pretty steamy. We see a lot more romance between the characters, and that includes exploring sexuality. For this reason among others, the show is rated 14+, which may come as a surprise to those who read the books and remember more innocent versions of Belly and the gang!

While we love Belly, one of the advantages of bringing “The Summer I Turned Pretty” to screen is that we dive deeper into the stories of other characters. This is particularly true for Conrad. During the first season, it’s clear to see that he’s going through a lot. He knows his mom is dealing with cancer, and as we later learn, he also learned his dad had an affair. But he keeps all this to himself for the longest time. This leads him to have panic attacks, which worsen in the second season after Susannah’s death. It’s easier to empathize with him when we see everything he’s going through in ways we couldn’t always in the books.

Hands up if you love Taylor as much as we do. Belly’s sassy best friend from home has become a fan-favorite in this teen drama. But in the books, Taylor isn’t quite the same loveable character we’ve come to know. She can often be judgemental and mean, particularly when it comes to Belly’s summers in Cousins. Typically, Taylor doesn’t see much of the action. That totally changes in the TV series, where she becomes an integral character in the plot. We see her tagging along in season two shenanigans and even having a bit of romantic tension with Belly’s brother, Steven. The show definitely wouldn’t be the same without Taylor and we can’t wait to see how it plays out.

Whether on-page or on-screen, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has always been a coming of age story. The book follows Belly through many of her firsts—her first love, first kiss, and even first heartbreak. One “first” that isn’t covered in the books, however, is her first time. The same can’t be said for the series, which depicts Belly’s first time being intimate in a season two flashback. In the book, Belly and Conrad’s romantic winter evening in Cousins is way more PG. The fireplace scene between the pair in the show is an intimate and honest depiction of teen love, and adds even more emotional weight to Belly and Conrad’s relationship.

One change that we can all get behind was the decision to create a more diverse cast of characters on screen than we had in the book. While Belly’s race was never really disclosed in the trilogy, she was depicted as a white teenager on the original covers. When it was time to bring Belly on-screen, Lola Tung was cast and the character became Asian American. This wasn’t the only change, but it’s a big one that speaks to the show’s commitment to telling its story in a more representative way. Overall, it has a fairly wide range of diversity that both lends to the authenticity of the story and showcases some amazing talent along the way.

If there’s one defining episode of the first season, it’s the finale. The tensions building between characters all threaten to implode as they come together for the debutante ball. Susannah really wants to see Belly as a deb, which we later find out is partly tied to her cancer recurrence, and Belly obliges despite initially being a bit apprehensive. Fans of the TV series may be surprised to learn that the debutante ball wasn’t in the books at all. Instead, big moments happen at different points of the plot. And without this change, we would have never got that intense slow dance between Belly and Conrad!