‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Book Ending: Does Belly Choose Conrad or Jeremiah — and Will the Show Follow Suit?
by Emily Longeretta · VarietyWith “The Summer I Turned Pretty” kicking off its final season, Variety is looking back at the famous love triangle’s origin story in Jenny Han’s bestselling trilogy. The third season of the Prime Video series, which follows Belly (Lola Tung) and the two loves of her life, brothers Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno), is based on Jenny Han’s third book, “We’ll Always Have Summer.”
Released in 2011, the novel picks up two years after the second, “It’s Not Summer Without You.” Belly is in a relationship with Jeremiah, but she finds out that he had slept with another girl while away for spring break. Jeremiah insists it happened while they were broken up, but Belly thinks they were just on a break (à la Rachel and Ross). Although Belly lost her virginity to Conrad in the show, in the book, she is still a virgin and has many discussions about wanting her first time to be with Jeremiah.
Related Stories
Connie Francis, 'Pretty Little Baby' and 'Stupid Cupid' Singer, Dies at 87
In the book, after learning of Jeremiah cheating(ish) on her, she briefly breaks up with him, only for them to get back together — and engaged — days later. During Jeremiah’s bachelor party, Conrad finds out about Jeremiah’s fling, tells Belly that he still loves her, and then asks her not to marry his brother. The morning of the wedding, Jeremiah punches Conrad, and realizes he’ll never be Belly’s first choice. With that, the wedding is off, and Belly needs to get away. She decides to study abroad during her junior year in Spain and, in turn, starts exchanging letters with Conrad. At her college graduation, they finally see each other again.
The book ends with a flash-forward: Belly is 23 and engaged to Conrad. Jeremiah, who has said he’d never see his brother again, is a guest at their wedding.
Whether or not the series will follow Han’s books is a big question. Many changes have already been made throughout the series. The trailer reveals that Belly and Jeremiah get engaged, and it shows a wedding — but it’s still to be determined who it is that Belly is marrying.
Prime Video won’t be sharing screeners of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” during its final season, which is unusual, but Han has been doing press. “I always knew how I wanted to end the books. But with the show, I went into it with an open mind. I wanted to approach it with fresh eyes and just see what sort of magic happened on screen,” she recently told Elite Daily, saying she’s made some major modifications while adapting the trilogy into a television series. “I am somebody who is always changing things up. People will be like, ‘Why are you changing that? That was working well!’ But to me, it could always be better. That’s how I approach everything, so naturally I was going into this story feeling like I wanted to make it even better and try new things.”
The first two episodes of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 debut on July 16, followed by weekly episodes until the Sept. 17 series finale.