It’s summer, and for some of us, this means a modicum of rest and relaxation. While summer break might not be the break for most of us – work is still the status quo – this doesn’t mean we can’t kick back with a good read or two. With the approach of the third season of The Summer I Turned Pretty on Amazon Prime, I’ve been reading tons of books with the same vibe and essence to prepare myself for the utter devastation to come.

So if you, like me, read Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty series and enjoyed it, here are 5 books that deal with similar themes, be it the messy love triangles between brothers, falling for your childhood best friend or dealing with the tragedies of life that sucker punch the hell out of you.

Some Other Now

Author: Sarah Everett

With emotionally neglectful parents, Jessi has felt alone for most of her life, until she met the Cohen family – Mel, Rowan and Luke. While Rowan is her best friend, the one she yearns for is Luke. She thinks it can never happen – he’s older and therefore unreachable – but then Luke starts showing interest in her. They keep their burgeoning romance private, worried about how it would change the dynamic of the family. Then tragedy hits, causing Luke and Jessi to break up.

Years later, Jessi works a dead-end job and Luke returns from college. The sparks are still there, but can they ever overcome the events of the past? Because the story moves between past and present, we don’t know the reason behind Jessi and Luke’s breakup. This mystery does help with the book’s pacing, as we’re invested and want to know how two people can go from being so in love to complete strangers.

Many of the reviews of the book note the similarities with Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. Both protagonists have relationships with brothers, things get messy and complicated, with tragedies interlaced into the narrative. Still, I think Some Other Now does bring something new to the table, but be warned, the material is darker in comparison.

Love and Other Words

Author: Christina Lauren

Much like Some Other Now, Love and Other Words also weaves between the past and present. It begins in the present with Macy running into her first love Elliot, 11 years since she stopped talking to him. He sees her, gets her to talk to him, and they work towards some sense of reconciliation. But Macy’s engaged to another man, and she’s worried that letting Elliot back into her life would complicate things again. What exactly happened 11 years ago that caused Macy to push Elliot so forcefully out her life? The mystery will have you flipping through the pages, but it’s also a lovely exploration of friendship and young love.

Christina Lauren’s Love and Other Words is a divisive book. Some adore it and praise how well it deals with themes like grief, loss and heartbreak. Others feel that Elliot isn’t given enough grace and understanding given the nature of what happened to him. I do think the revelation isn’t handled as well as it could be, but I also understand Macy having intimacy issues after all the things that happened to her.

Every Summer After

Author: Carley Fortune

Every Summer After is usually referred to as exact copy of Love and Other Words. The structure is the same – both protagonists spend summer with their childhood loves and once again the story flows between the past and the present. The only difference is that the characters are definitely more flawed and messy.

Once again, there is an unspoken event that we don’t know about, so we’re moving between past and present, wanting to find out what exactly caused Sam and Percy (her name is Persephone) to fall apart. The book focuses more on the past than on the present, I guess because Percy’s life is more or less falling apart after her break-up with Sam and Fortune didn’t want to inundate the book with too much sad times. However, this harms the book a little, since the reconciliation feels far too quick and easy given the nature of what happened all those years ago. A messy but entertaining read.

Dear Emmie Blue

Author: Lia Louis

At the tender age of 16, Emmie releases a balloon with her name, her email address and a secret. Lucas finds this balloon in Paris and contacts her, which is the start of their 14 year friendship. With Lucas being her best friend since forever, she of course thinks that their friendship will eventually blossom into something more. I mean, it’s fate isn’t it, that he was the one to find her balloon and actually write her back.

So when they meet up for dinner, Emmie thinks Lucas is finally going to confess his love for her, only he doesn’t; he asks her to be his best man instead. As she helps Lucas plan his wedding, his half-brother Eliot comes back into the picture, and they reconnect after a falling out they had years ago. Will Emmie find love, or is friendship her destination with both brothers? Emmie is a wonderfully developed character, and the writer Lia Louis does a great job of fleshing out all the other characters as well. In these sort of love triangle stories, one of the men is usually villainised in some way so that the main relationship works better, but this isn’t the case here. Emmie is given the chance to truly explore her relationships with both men and to properly figure out who she truly yearns for.

Before I Do

Author: Sophie Cousens

Before I Do by Sophie Cousens is about the one that got away. You know exactly what I’m talking about; you think this is the person you want to spend your life with, only for them to slip away and be lost through time. This is what happened to Audrey, she had a wonderful, adventurous day with Fred, only to never see him again after that – very Before Sunrise if you catch my drift.

Now it’s years later and Audrey’s about to marry Josh, who is truly a great guy. Fred’s still at the back of her mind, but she’s reconciled that they weren’t fated to be, until Fred shows up at their rehearsal dinner as Josh’s sister’s date. Is this kismet? Is Fred back in her life because he’s the one she’s meant to be with? Or is it Josh, who she’s shared years and a life with?

I like it when love triangles are built properly, with both love interests properly fleshed out, and this is the case with Before I Do. Both Fred and Josh are great guys, but only one of them is the perfect man for Audrey.