Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty isn’t afraid to make a big change. This book-to-screen adaptation of Jenny Han’s trilogy has added characters, created new romances between existing characters and inserted events that weren’t in the novels. Now, as Season 3 approaches its July 16 premiere on the 2025 TV schedule, I’ve been reading We’ll Always Have Summer, and there’s a massive (and I mean massive) change I need the show to make.
So, here's your warning: spoilers for We’ll Always Have Summer are ahead! Read with caution and watch the show with an Amazon Prime subscription.
It’s Important To Me That The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Abandons Belly And Jeremiah’s Engagement
Alright, now that you’ve had a proper spoiler warning, I can scream: I DON’T WANT BELLY AND JEREMIAH TO GET ENGAGED! And I especially don’t want them to get engaged under the circumstances they’re facing in We’ll Always Have Summer.
For context, in this book, Belly just finished her freshman year of college, and she’s almost 19. That alone makes marriage a questionable choice to me. However, to make matters worse, Jeremiah proposes immediately after Belly finds out that he’s been keeping a secret: he hooked up with another girl during a week when they were on a break. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see that on TV.
Teen marriage has always been a trope I didn’t understand or like, even though it had an odd popular moment in the 2000s and 2010s on shows like Glee and One Tree Hill. And this book, which was published in 2011, plays into it in a way that wouldn’t work on screen today, to me.
At the very least, if they go for the engagement plot, the show will feature older versions of the characters. So, if this happens, Belly will have finished her junior year, per Amazon, rather than her first, and she’ll have been with Jeremiah for years. That’s an easier pill to swallow than a 19-year-old in a relatively new relationship going through this.
However, I’d like to avoid this whole situation, and see Belly and Conrad wind up together in a way that doesn’t involve a teenager saying yes to a proposal right after her boyfriend confirms he was with another woman.
For Conrad, Jeremiah And Belly’s Sakes, Let This Plot Line Go, And Create Tension In A New Way
Now, it’s worth noting that I was done with Conrad at the end of Season 2, and I’ve been a Team Jeremiah gal for a long time. So, there’s some bias in my disdain toward this plot, because I don’t want him to be the villain. However, in the end, I really just want all three of them to be happy and get epic love stories, and I don’t think this is the way to do it.
In the book, the majority of it focuses on Belly planning this wedding on a small budget. She’s stressed, Jeremiah isn’t being very helpful, and Conrad is reluctantly assisting her as they both battle their feelings. It’s not a particularly happy finale until the very, very end, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, I want it to be more thrilling and exciting the whole time.
I think there’s a way to do this if they build a conflict between Belly and Jeremiah that isn’t linked to a rapid engagement and involves Conrad more. He’s not in much of the first half of the book, and even as a Jeremiah gal, I want to see the older Fisher brother more.
I also want this story to end in a way that leaves these three in a solidly healthy and happy place that isn’t scared by poor and rushed decisions.
Thankfully, Jenny Han, who is also the showrunner of the Amazon Prime series, has said they’re working to create a season that will “surprise” fans. She also told EW “there are definitely changes” in the season, and there “are things that aren’t exactly like the books.”
So, I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing how this story ends on screen, and I’m hopeful that changes will be made that help enhance this beloved romance series.
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