“The Summer I turned Pretty,” Amazon Prime’s popular adaptation of the book series of the same name by Jenny Han, has gained some popularity since its air in 2022, and especially recently with its release of season three, which aired the series finale Sept. 17, and shortly after a “The Summer I Turned Pretty” movie was announced the same day.
The show has received a wide fanbase in recent years, but what of its cousin- the much better Netflix adaptation of Jenny Han’s other book series “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”? Has it become forgotten in the anticipation for the weekly episode drop approach of “The Summer I Turned Pretty’s” season three and movie announcement? No, I don’t believe it has been.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a three book series with the first book publishing 2009 and the final book releasing 2011. The book series was picked up by Amazon to be adapted into a TV series in 2021, and they aired season one episode one in 2022.
The story follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin, played by Lola Tung, as she spends her summers at Susannah Fisher’s, played by Rachel Blanchard, Cousins beach house, accompanied by her mother Laurel Park, played by Jackie Chung, and brother Steven Conlink, played by Sean Kaufman, and Susannah’s two sons, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, played by Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno, respectively.
The show explores the love triangle between Belly and the Fisher brothers, as well as a side romance with Steven and Belly’s best friend Taylor Jewel, played by Rain Spencer. It also explores themes like loss and grieving, when Susannah unfortunately passes when her cancer makes a horrible return.
The show is very emotional, tugging on the audience’s heartstrings constantly. The show’s main emotion to provoke is heartbreak, like two characters that are clearly made for each other breaking up, or a loved figure passing away, or someone pouring their heart out to their love gets rejected. But sometimes, feeling this very dramatic emotion isn’t for everyone.
The actors do amazing jobs portraying the characters, it’s as if the characters walked right out of the books and onto the screen, so it isn’t the actors faults, but solely the characters. Many of the actors are- to put it bluntly- narcissistic, specifically Jeremiah. Belly and Conrad have their moments, but by the end of season three, it’s clear to see they’ve grown as characters, but it’s hard to look for places where Jeremiah has grown.
In comparison, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” is yet another three book series first released in 2014 by Jenny Han, following half-Korean protagonist Lara Jean Song Covey, a love sick teen who has written and addressed, but never sent, to five past loves, when one day all five of the letters were sent. To avoid drama with her sister Margot- who is the ex-girlfriend of one of the letter recipients- Lara Jean fake dates another one of the letter recipients, Peter Kavinsky, only to realize she wanted to be more than fake dating.
Lara Jean is portrayed by Lana Condor, Noah Centenio plays Peter, Janel Parrish plays Margot, Anna Cathcart plays Katherine “Kitty” Song Covey, Lara Jean’s little sister, Israel Broussard plays Josh Sanderson, who is Margot’s ex-boyfriend and the boy Lara Jean is trying to avoid her feelings for, and John Corbette plays the Covey father. The books were picked up by Netflix in March 2018, and the first movie released Aug. 17, 2018, and the last movie was released Feb. 21, 2021.
The movies then got their own K-Drama spin-off, “XO Kitty,” in 2023, which follows Kitty Song Covey to Korea to learn more about the Song Covey girl’s mother, Eve, who passed away when Kitty was just a baby. Anna Cathcart reprises her role as Kitty, and many other Korean actors join her on the show, such as Choi Min-young as Dae, Gia Kim as Yuri, and Sang Heon and Min Ho. (Kim and Heon are actually siblings in real life but do not play siblings on the show.) The show’s first two seasons have been released, and both Netflix and Cathcart have confirmed a season three, with an anticipated release in 2026.
While “XO Kitty” goes more in depth- although it focuses more on romance- about the passing of Eve Song Covey, “To All the Boys” still echoes her in everything the sisters do. Margot leaves Josh before college because “Mommy said not to go to college with a boyfriend,” Lara Jean keeps her picture in her bedroom- with many shots in the three movies focusing on it- and she keeps her unsent letters in a hatbox her mother gave her when she was young.
The movies explore losing a parent differently than other shows- the loss of their mother doesn’t affect the girls directly, at least not what we can see. It’s not used the same way, for example, “The Kissing Booth” uses it as a way for us to sympathize with the characters, then is never mentioned again. The loss of their mother also affects the girls in different ways. Lara Jean is afraid to let people into her life out of the fear she’ll lose them, Margot takes care of her sisters because she’s the oldest, and Kitty has never known a mother figure besides her sisters or stepmother, causing her to be risky and outgoing, unlike her older sister Lara Jean.
Both series, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” deal with loss, they just deal with loss differently. TSITP loses Susannah, and the loss of her echoes through seasons one and two, which is heartbreaking, until the characters use her death as a way to manipulate each other. Jeremiah was always a fan favorite to make fun of because of the way he’d always use Susannah’s passing as a way to get what he wanted, as well as the whole cake debacle- the man should’ve married that cake instead, I’m just saying.
TATBILB doesn’t use the loss of their mother as a way to manipulate characters or as a personality trait of the girls. It’s mostly used as an explanation for them, or even a conversation topic, like at the dinner with Peter’s mom. Genevieve, who plays a big role in the story as well as Peter’s ex he’s trying to get over and Lara Jean’s ex best friend, who is played by Emilija Baranac, claims that Lara Jean is “poor and innocent” because “her mommy” passed, but this isn’t actually the case- Lara Jean doesn’t use Eve’s death as a way to look smaller, it’s just something that happened to her that taught her that life goes on, and so will the memory of her mother.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is more recent, and Han is more invested in the projects emotionally, and is evidently more popular. Love triangles are one of the most popular romance tropes stories take on, the “who will they choose?” question making the trope appealing to most audiences. The plot of TSITP has even inspired another popular series- Netflix’s adaptation of Ali Novak’s 2012 book My Life With The Walter Boys, which recently aired its second season after the release of the second book in 2025, My Return To The Walter Boys.
While TSITP is more popular, TATBILB is still better. Nothing beats the feeling Lara Jean and Peter give audiences, opposed to the feeling Belly and Jeremiah give, or Belly and Conrad (I was team Staylor day one anyway.) Peter and Lara Jean just have that real couple feel- despite being a fake couple. Belly and her love interests felt forced, felt as though they were trying to be older than they were- even when they were teenagers for the majority of the show. Peter and Lara Jean never pretended to be older- and by the end of the first movie, they both grew as people- together.
In my opinion, I still enjoy “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, giving it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, but at the end of the day, when given the choice, I still will choose the 5 out of 5 stars “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
