We'll Always Have Summer (Summer, #3) (2024)

Warning: This review will contain spoilers, and loads of swearing, so please proceed at your own risk. Also, this will be a really lengthy review, so please, bear with me.
Disclaimer: I do not intend to offend anyone with this review, including the author.

Actual rating: 1.5 stars (that 0.5 is for the ending.)

WHAT THE f*ck DID I JUST READ?

If there was a rating system that rated books based on how much a book f*cked you up. This one would deserve a million stars. No book has ever f*cked me up so badly. I guess 290 pages of built-up frustration can do that to you. Part of me was mourning that this series ended. Part of me was so angry at how this book left me feeling cheated.

I thought I'd never say this, but I've never ever felt so frustrated and mad and hated a book so much. I thought The 5th Wave was already bad enough, but this book, THIS f*ckING BOOK, tops it all. After finishing this book, I was so f*ckING FRUSTRATED that I f*ckING CRIED. I hereby tell you, this has never ever happened to me before. I've never cried because I hated a book so much. So here I am, typing this review out at 1 a.m. because I'm feeling so messed up and filled with rage, I really needed a place to get it all out. I have issues with EVERYTHING in this book. I really want to kill something or stab someone right now, preferably Belly or Jeremiah.

Let's start with the plot, shall we?

In the beginning of the book, she actually felt really different from the Belly we've known from the first two books, and in a good way. And I thought "Hey, Belly finally grew up and became a lot more mature, I think I might actually like her now." I mean, she's already in college and is finishing her freshman year, so she just has to be different from the clueless little girl right? WRONG. Not long after I finished that thought, something awful happened. She finds out that Jeremiah, her boyfriend right now, cheated on her. At first, she was all depressed that she ignored his calls and stuff like a normal person would do, and when she told him that she wanted to talk to him, I was like "Yay, just break up with him already, he's an ass!" And then, the unthinkable happened. Jeremiah apologized and he f*ckING PROPOSED. Now, now, I don't know about you, but you do NOT propose to someone just for the sake of making up to her. Especially after she just found out you cheated on her. As if that wasn't bad enough, you know what she f*cking did? SHE f*ckING ACCEPTED. I, personally, would never ever accept someone's proposal after he f*ckING CHEATED. Although he did apologized and promised not to do it again, so what? A promise and an apology is not f*cking enough. Did she lose her f*cking mind? Is she f*cking nuts? And here I thought she was just naive. Because, apparently, SHE IS MOTHER f*ckING BRAINLESS. Also, what's with the rash decision? If you really do love him after everything he's done to you, fine, marry him. But can't you at least think it through? Or maybe wait a little longer and see if everything worked out, then make a decision?Marriage is supposed to be a really big deal, it's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. I've never ever heard someone who accepted a proposal right after she found out he cheated. Belly and Jeremiah are both f*cking twisted, I tell you. This is f*cking ridiculous.

If that wasn't worse enough, this is the thing that pissed me off the most. Okay, so, I can forgive you for all that, maybe you're just too wrecked to be rational. But this, I cannot. So, after they made that stupid decision, they announced their engagement to their family and friends. Everyone was startled. And everyone disagreed on it because you just DON'T get married in college. And I thought "Good, maybe they can finally see some sense." But no, that did not f*cking happen. Practically EVERYONE tried to talk them out of it, but they just wouldn't listen, they even got all pissed at their family because they're not being supportive and all. Reality check: You do NOT get married at the age of 19 and expect that your family will support you, if they do, they're as twisted as you are. Throughout the book, I was constantly hoping Belly would just wake up and snap out of it. She never f*cking did. I really thought she was better than this. Jeremiah, too.

Despite all that, the book was focused on the marriage. Nothing f*cking happened. I wasted my precious time on reading about Belly planning out the wedding, shopping for a dress, buying vases...etc., all of which I have no interest in. Maybe I am biased, but all I wanted was for Con and Belly to just get together. You know when Conrad finally showed up? About halfway. And you know what the story before he showed up was about? Boring college life and stupid marriage planning. UGH. Okay, but at least Conrad showed up right? NO. After Conrad showed up, the story was still f*cking boring, and it was still about the f*cking marriage. And then came the chapter when Con finally confessed his love. You know what Belly did? She f*cking ran away and told Jeremiah about this. Then, Jeremiah just had to act all pissed off and demand if she was hiding anything, if she still had feelings for Con...etc., Belly admitted and Jeremiah said something like "I've known all along" and just f*cking ran away the night before the wedding. Let's stop right there. I have issues with this. So, if Jeremiah knew about that all along, WHY DID HE f*ckING ASK HER TO MARRY HIM? If he doesn't care, then why run away? It doesn't f*cking make sense. This getting married thing was HIS OWN f*ckING IDEA. So why continue this twisted relationship if you were so pissed off about that? God, I don't f*cking understand the logic behind all this. Okay, so let's continue. On the wedding day, Jeremiah was still gone, so Con went to look for him and stuff. He did come back in the end. And Belly and Jeremiah FINALLY started doubting this entire ridiculous idea. Then, there was a conversation that went a little like this.

"I thought I could do this, but I can't." Jere said.
"What? Marry me? Okay, maybe you're right. It's all too crazy right now. We won't get married today. We'll just move in to that apartment first." Belly said.
"I can't, not until you look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love Con."
"Jere, I love you."
"What I'm asking is, do you love him, too?"
"Yes. But he's not the one I choose. I choose you, Jere."
"That's not enough. I don't just want a part of you. I want all of you... You haven't let him go. The worse part is, I knew you haven't but I still asked you to marry me."

Yeah, so basically, Belly never really realized her mistake. It was Jeremiah who called it off. And then went the vague mention that they didn't get married that day. Then BOOM, Conrad and Belly's wedding day. We didn't even get to see the actual wedding, only after they got married and went to Cousins beach. And then, suddenly, the book is over. Just like that. Now, can you imagine how freaking pissed I was? I was looking forward to the Conrad-Belly scene, and after 290 pages of crap, I finally got it ON THE LAST f*ckING PAGE, then the book just f*cking ended. I really can't believe how I kept waiting for the book to redeem itself, and when it finally did, it f*cking ended! I felt so MOTHER f*ckING CHEATED. I had to repeatedly go over the last page to calm myself. I have to admit, that last tiny page was romantic, but it doesn't mean it can make up for 290 pages of frustration. Now, can you see how f*cking twisted this whole book is? God, I want to f*cking punch someone.

Here's another issue. Constantly, I felt like I skipped a HUGE chunk of the book or something. I couldn't connect it to the first two books. Like how come Conrad bought Belly that necklace if that night on her porch hadn't even happened? And, last time I checked, Belly was still crazily in love with Con, so why claim that she's over him? Also, a lot of things were left unexplained. I kept wanting to know why Conrad would just break up with her like that at prom if he supposedly loved her so much, why he and his dad got back on good terms, and why he was with Aubrey at the funeral. But those were never explained.

Now, the characters.

Belly:
Like I said, SHE DOESN'T HAVE A BRAIN! I bet her IQ is like, zero. She's just so immature, I really can't stand her. She must be the most stupid and shallow main character I've ever met. She made me feel all frustrated, I've never ever wanted to strangle someone so badly. I wish she could just die. I'd rather not waste my time on her.

Jeremiah:
He is the only character I hated more than Belly. He is f*cking brainless and immature and shallow, just like Belly, but worse. While Belly still *maybe* has some redeemable qualities, all this guy does is stupid sh*t. He cheated on her just because they had a fight. He mother f*cking proposed to her after. When Belly was doing the marriage planning, he was doing nothing. Every time Belly asks him to help her, he always arrives late. He's a f*cking jealous sh*t. He always makes these stupid ideas that bothered Belly. ( I don't get why Belly still *loves* him so much after all that.) He only cares about his fraternity. All he can do is use his f*cking smile and innocent face to ask people to do stuff for him. GOD DAMN IT! I HATED HIM! I also don't get the drastic change of characteristic. He was a pretty nice guy in the second book, so what the f*ck happened to him?

Conrad:
As you can tell, I loved him in the second book. He's dark, thoughtful, reliable. He's just pure amazing. But in this book? He was just...okay. I have no idea why. I just...didn't like him as much, it's really sad, because he's such an amazing character.

"I go wherever you go."

Taylor:
I'm happy to say, Taylor IMPROVED! Woohoo! She's still shallow but she became supportive of Belly, instead of that sh*tty friend we met in the first two books. She's the only character I liked more, so YEAH! I'm glad!

There are a lot more characters in this book, but since no one's special, I don't want to bother. (Just FYI, her mom's still amazing, but I liked her more in the second book.)

Next up, my emotions:

1st stage: Anger
To be honest, I've never wanted to smack a book so bad. Unfortunately, I read it on my phone, or I would've jumped on it and smacked it repeatedly on my wall.

2nd stage: Depression
I really wasn't expecting this. The anger only lasted like 10 minutes, then I just started crying. There was this heavy weight in my chest that I just couldn't shake off. This has never happened to me before. I never thought you could cry of frustration. This lasted like 12 hours.

3rd stage: Lost
I had this pouty expression on my face the whole day. And I felt so lost. I just couldn't believe everything ended like that. I started mourning how the series ended so abruptly, I felt so...sad. And I kept on reading the last page over and over while listening to sad music and crying.

So, now you can see how messed up this is? I'm fine right now, though! *winks*

Anyway, I expected so much after finishing It's Not Summer Without you. I really thought this one would be the best book in the series. I'm still trying really hard not to tear up again while typing this all out. This was such a HUGE disappointment. I feel so CHEATED and all messed up. It seriously feels like my boyfriend just broke up with me or something. I think it might take me some time to really calm down and get over this book.

Lastly I just want to say:

Thanks for messing up my feelings, book.

Thic is quite ironic, but I miss this series. (This book, not so much, only the last page.)

Rating: 1.5

I feel so let down by this book.

Let's get one thing straight. It was definitely the weakest out of the three.

Belly has finally matured, and it has been truly wonderful seeing Belly transition from a young girl to the lady she is today. I feel like I grew up with her. And that makes her a little extra special for me. Meanwhile, we finally get to see things from Conrad' POV! Finally!!

But there is a BIG problem. We all know Conrad is the bad boy typical douche. We know he's wronged Belly and been a complete prick, whilst Jeremiah always the gentleman eventually swept her of her feet. So what changes? Well, this is where I get angry. I felt like the majority of the book was spent telling us how bad Jeremiah had f*cked up by turning him into a jerk, whilst, on the other hand, Conrad was made into this poor, misunderstood boy who had been this hero all along.

Really?

I knew what what going on from the get - go, and I suppose, I had reason to be worried. I just wish that things didn't have to end this way. I expected more from a series that had been genuine, lovely and swoon - worthy from the very beginning. A series that contained one of the most favoured triangles to date. Not only did I feel manipulated, but there was no swooning! This is horrible because something VERY IMPORTANT happens towards the end, but I didn't feel particularly happy. There is so much drama and confusion, that swooning is the last thing on your mind.

And girls, what is the summer series without the swoon?

I've re - read this since the first time and had time to really think things over. And although the pace is crazy fast and the book engrossing like its predecessors', I just felt so let down.

I have always had a soft spot for both boys - no matter how sweet or mean they tended to be at times. I adored Belly no mater how much she pissed me off. What I'm trying to say is, it would have been ok to have stayed true to yourself. To have allowed Belly to have fallen for whoever - just as long as you hadn't changed the boys so drastically. Don't you see? We loved the three of them regardless. You didn't have to basically play switch with both of the boys, so that Belly could pick the other. I feel like she thought we couldn't handle who she would pick, so she she just decided to completely change them - as if to soften the blow. What bothers me is that I feel not only did she underestimate her readers, but almost mocked us.

You can't face the truth, so let me shift things around.

I guess what I'm trying to say is. You didn't have to do it. I want you to know that I loved them regardless. And even if I didn't, I would have wanted you to follow your heart and allow Belly to pick who she wanted - no mater what their flaws. We would have accepted them anyway. I would have.