The first episode was honestly pretty typical for a “summer romance” show. It showed a lot of Jeremiah and Belly, Taylor and Steven, and you get Conrad sprinkled in. There’s a big reveal at the end, but if you read the book, then you definitely know what the reveal is at the end of the episode.  

ALSOOOO am I the only one who didn’t know that they weren’t dropping all of season 3 at one time?? Like I was so freaking ready to binge the whole thing and then BAM, true disappointment. 

Taylor and Steven are honestly my favorite couple even though they’re the most dysfunctional, and obviously, Connie is my favorite character. Taylor is a close second, and then Steven in third! 

Overall, though, it was a pretty good introductory episode giving us all the feels with Belly’s transition into adulthood. This season definitely has a more “grownup” feel, which I honestly love, but not too much to where I feel like the characters matured completely. In the book, all of the stuff happens when Belly is 19 and having only been in college for a year or two. Now, she’s near the end and almost graduating (which makes everything that’s about to happen feel less ridiculous if I’m being honest). There’s still plenty of questionable reactions that let you know these characters aren’t full adults yet, just growing into themselves, but the time jump potentially changes a lot. 

With episode two, you get more about the big reveal (that honestly made it worse in my opinion) and a big incident that happens with Steven (that was SURELY not in the book!). And also a scene with Belly and Conrad that was for sure from the book, I think at least 😅. The end of episode 2 gives us a similar event, just not the same setup. I’ll talk about all the specifics and my thoughts in the spoilers. 

Spoilers ahead. 

So, obviously, the car crash didn’t happen in the books. Belly is much older in this season than she was in the books. Jeremiah proposes to Belly after Steven’s accident (which makes it seem less of a “please forgive me” proposal, so not so douchey). And in the books, too, it felt WAY more like cheating than they make it seem in the show. Maybe that’s just how I remember it, but in We’ll Always Have Summer, Jere felt way less redeemable than he does in the show. 

Some specific feeling I had while watching it are bulleted below:

Episode 1

• I kind of died a lil when the ad for liquid iv came on right after the scene of them drinking and playing sorority/fraternity games 😂
• I literally HATE that Jeremiah’s dad blamed him for not graduating on time. Like, y’all, there are college advisors for a reason. It is literally their job to make sure that college students are on track. I really think this is something that has become absolutely unacceptable, and the amount of people I’ve talked to who lost financial aid because they had to take another semester to graduate is ridiculous. 
• I know you guys are “whatevering” had me cackling when Belly talked about Taylor and Steven.
• The running away at the end of episode 1 was honestly kind of cringe. I also wish they would’ve explained the cheating better because in the show it doesn’t make it sound like he cheated, but in the book it was definitely 100% cheating from what I remember and I totally lost all hope for Jeremiah. I do feel really bad for him right now in the show, though, because a lot of crap is going wrong for him and it makes me think they’re trying to build up a redeemable character arc. 

Episode 2 

• Jere. Once is a mistake. Twice is a choice. You can’t make excuses for sleeping with her TWICE. 

Overall, I think this is a really strong start to season 3 of “The Summer I Turned Pretty”. HOWEVER I’M REALLY FREAKING BUMMED TO WAIT EVERY WEEK. The ads? Maybe I can look past, Amazon, but making us wait for the whole season?!?!? I might never forgive you.