A Guide to the Jenny Han Literary Universe
Can’t get enough of The Summer I Turned Pretty? Check out the books that started it all.
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From To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before to The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han’s best-selling novels have captivated readers and viewers alike for years. In 2018, To All the Boys became a Netflix film starring Lana Condor, introducing a whole new class of fans to Han’s beloved coming-of-age romance. It was followed by To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You in 2020 and To All the Boys: Always and Forever in 2021, and turned Condor and castmate Noah Centineo into rom-com icons. In 2022, the Jenny Han cinematic universe expanded when The Summer I Turned Pretty debuted as a Prime Video series starring Lola Tung. Three years later, the show is now in its third and last season.
Fans of TSITP might be reaching for the books in anticipation for the impending series finale. Luckily, the author has plenty of titles to keep fans fed. Want to dive in? Here’s where to start.
Our first introduction to Belly Conklin comes in Han’s second published novel. (She first published Shug, a standalone children’s book, in 2006.) Along with her family, she spends each summer at the beach with the Fisher family. When Belly turns 16, the dynamic between her and the two Fisher sons Conrad and Jeremiah, boys that she’s known her whole life, transforms.
The second book in the trilogy picks up in a much sadder place. There’s no beach trip this year: the Fisher boys’ mother has died, and the boys are grieving. Belly has fallen out with Conrad, who she dated for several months, but when Jeremiah tells her that Conrad is missing, she knows she needs to help find him.
Belly is now in college and has been happily dating Jeremiah for two years. When Jeremiah proposes to her, Conrad, who regrets having broken up with her years before, realizes he’s losing his chance to tell her how he feels. For Belly, this means she has to make a final decision on which brother she truly loves.
Han wrote Burn for Burn, the first in a trilogy, with writer Siobhan Vivian. In it, three girls living in a beach town have each been badly hurt. All of them want revenge and they realize that the only way they can get away with their plans is to do them together.
The plot continues as Lillia, Kat, and Mary find that their plan didn’t work out just as they had hoped. They’re still being hurt, and Mary is in a dangerous place. They have another plot, and they hope that this one will set everything straight.
The revenge plot has gotten out of control and people are hurt (and dead). Lillia, Kat, and Mary need to stop their plotting, but they might not be able to.
Lara Jean Song has a box full of letters that she’s written to her crushes. She has no intention of sending them; they’re just a way for her to express her thoughts. Then the letters get mailed, and each of the five boys knows exactly how she feels about them.
What started out as a faux romance has turned genuine and Lara Jean has fallen in love. Which is great, until she falls in love again, with someone else. What does she do now?
Lara Jean is having a wonderful senior year. The joy of having a boyfriend and her father’s exciting remarriage is only tempered by the stress of selecting a college and figuring out what that will mean for her relationship.
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