Clara Anderson

From hundreds of social media posts and debates to a wide range of merchandise, the hit series “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has made waves with its significant impact over the past few years. A summer romance based off of the New York Times bestselling book series by Jenny Han, the third and final season premiered on Prime Video on July 16, 2025 with the last episode being released on Sept. 17. We were looking forward to another season of fun romance, conflict and drama to accompany the book we both enjoyed, but we were instead sadly disappointed.

“The Summer I Turned Pretty” follows the love life of Belly Conklin as she is torn between her feelings for two brothers she has grown up with. After being caught in a love triangle for two seasons of the book-turned-Amazon-show, in the third season Belly finds herself engaged to one brother, Jeremiah, while still struggling with her feelings for the other brother, Conrad. This conflict is not helped by the fact that her relationship with Jeremiah is on rocky ground.

However, despite the drama and excitement that should have come from this rom-com series, the third season left us feeling infuriated on more than one occasion. One big problem we had with the show was the main character and her decisions. Belly continues making excuses to marry Jeremiah, despite her obvious feelings for Conrad. Additionally, when Conrad opens up about his feelings for her, she shuts him down brutally. This was a very hard romantic plot to watch. Any engagement and suspense over the back-and-forth was lost in the unrealisticness and annoyance of the plot. Instead of sympathizing with any of the characters, we felt no emotional attachment whatsoever. Many of Belly’s decisions, such as when she impulsively runs away to Paris, felt illogical and over-dramatized.

However, though Belly was an incredibly annoying main character to watch, she was one of the few that had consistent characterization. While Jeremiah is described as having “golden retriever energy” in the books and follows this for the first two seasons, season three showed him becoming the stereotypical frat boy with little transition in between. Through many of his actions, he becomes a completely different character without many of his defining qualities from past seasons. While some of this could be attributed to growing up, seeing as there is a four-year time gap between the end of season two and the beginning of season three, this shift felt weirdly sudden. Jeremiah tries to fix the bullet wound of his betrayal with a simple band-aid by proposing, which is not a typical action for his character. 

Conrad, too, experienced a major character transformation from a moody, distant “black sheep” to a responsible, romantic future doctor. Suddenly, he is the one confessing his feelings for Belly, whereas in the previous seasons, it was the other way around.

Another one of our struggles with this series was the major deviation from the books. Though apparent throughout the entire show, the creators of the third season took many liberties in the plot. The romantic relationship between Belly’s brother Steven and her best friend Taylor was a major focus in the show, depicted as an important subplot when it was not originally mentioned in the books at all. More emphasis was placed on the work environment for both Steven and Jeremiah, further adding subplots to enhance the drama. While scenes such as these did add more depth to the series, they felt unnecessary and overdone. The series began to feel like something completely different from the books so many readers love.

All these added elements made the series feel very drawn out, not to mention the fact that Prime Video recently announced a movie to wrap up the plotline. Instead of a satisfying way to end the series, this just feels like a desperate cash grab to capitalize on the massive fanbase. The makers of the series already extended the third season to 11 episodes, whereas previous seasons reached no more than eight. The episodes of the third season also tended to be longer, some reaching nearly an hour and a half. These so-called “episodes” left us feeling like we were watching short movies, often getting bored as the events felt increasingly slow. 

Despite our many problems with it, the third season did show Belly growing as a person without relying on others in her romantic relationships. We see her making new friends in Paris and dating someone who does not have the last name of Fisher. Over time, Belly gains responsibility as she learns who she is without anyone else to define her. Additionally, we watched other characters find their own identities, such as Jeremiah with his discovered love for cooking. 

Ultimately, the third season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” was a disappointment. While there was some part of us that looked forward to each new episode, we had too many problems with the show to fully enjoy it. It is true that this series is widely appreciated and has attracted an immense amount of fans, but the characterization, deviation from the books and pacing all combined to create a mediocre show that gets more attention than it deserves.