Overview
It's the page-to-streaming YA series that turned into a smash hit, made Lola Tung a star in her first-ever screen role and gave a second Jenny Han franchise a successful leap to the screen. It's also the show that's earned such passion and obsession that free tickets to a live book club event featuring Tung, fellow actor Rain Spencer (Test Screening) and Han in Sydney were snapped up instantly. The series in question is The Summer I Turned Pretty, of course, aka Prime Video's adaptation of Han's 2009 novel of the same name, as well as 2010's It's Not Summer Without You and 2011's We'll Always Have Summer. The show's third season is streaming now — and with it, the flower crown-loving, often Taylor Swift-soundtracked small-screen sensation is coming to an end.
2025 marks a mere three years since the world was first introduced to Tung as Isabel 'Belly' Conklin, then an about-to-turn-16 teen living her summer dream. Whenever the weather turns warm, the coastal Massachusetts town of Cousins Beach has always beckoned her family, who vacation at the luxe house owned by her mother Laurel's (Jackie Chung, Coming Home Again) best friend Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard, Uno). Belly is the youngest among the next generation, thanks to her elder brother Steven (Sean Kaufman, Walker), plus Susannah's two children Conrad (Christopher Briney, Mean Girls) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno, Queen of the Ring). She's also been in love with Conrad since she can remember.
In the initial sunny season charted in The Summer I Turned Pretty, neither of the Fisher siblings see Belly as a kid anymore. Enter the Team Conrad-versus-Team Jeremiah clash — and a hard choice for the show's protagonist between her lifelong dream and her forever best friend. Which of the duo that Belly's heart is swooning for at any given moment has changed more than once as season two and now season three have arrived, but can you ever truly get over your first love, or move past the person that's always known you better than anyone else? Audiences will soon find out for the character that turns 21 in the series' final run, and is so established in a long-term relationship with Jeremiah that the pair are making big plunges. Although Conrad is at Stanford chasing a medical career, he's clearly still deeply affected by how his time by Belly's side faded in the previous season.
A coming-of-age story and a summer-romance tale all in one — several summer romances, in fact, thanks to Belly's love triangles, catching up with its characters summer after summer, and other relationships surrounding Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah — The Summer I Turned Pretty was always destined to follow Han's To All The Boys I've Loved Before trilogy to the screen. It was published first, but made its way to streaming after 2018's To All the Boys I've Loved Before, 2020's To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and 2021's To All the Boys: Always and Forever films, all on Netflix, where that saga's spinoff series XO, Kitty debuted in 2023 and dropped its second season in early 2025.
One of the key reasons that Han's work keeps finding a home on the small screen, as well as in the hearts and minds of fans — both those familiar with the source material and others brand-new through the adaptations — is an approach that's pivotal to the author. Han also created both The Summer I Turned Pretty and XO, Kitty in their streaming guises, and is a showrunner on both. That crucial factor: allowing the teenage girls and young women that are her protagonists to experience the entire and full spectrum of their feelings, and genuinely appreciating that with all sincerity and earnestness, which can't always be said about the depiction of characters in that demographic.
Such an approach is essential to Han — and also to Tung and Spencer, who've grown up with their starring roles on The Summer I Turned Pretty. As Taylor Jewel, Belly's ride-or-die best friend, who has her own complicated romantic situation with Steven, Spencer has also been navigating a storyline that expands well beyond the novels, charting new territory even for avid readers. That said, whether book diehards actually know who Belly will end up with when the show says goodbye after its 11-episode third season isn't assured. Han, Tung and Spencer are all feeling good about where The Summer I Turned Pretty wraps up, though, they tell Concrete Playground.
"I feel great," says Han, accompanied by smiles and nods from Tung and Spencer. "I feel excited for people to see it. The last episode is one of my favourites of the whole series," she continues. "I think — I hope — people feel satisfied, but I think I feel satisfied as a storyteller with the work that we did."
What's in store will keep being revealed weekly until Wednesday, September 17, 2025; however, we also chatted with Tung, Spencer and Han about the viewer response to the series and what it means to them; the importance of the show valuing young women's emotions; the fact that The Summer I Turned Pretty has always been Team Belly first and foremost, regardless of what's happening amorously between her and Conrad or Jeremiah or anyone else; Tung and Spencer's experience with Belly and Taylor's journeys; and more.
On What the Viewer Response to The Summer I Turned Pretty, Including Events Like Prime Book Club LIVE and Fans Obsessing Over the Show's Love Triangles, Means to Tung, Spencer and Han
Lola: "It makes me so excited. I feel cool."
Rain: "It's so cool."
Jenny: "It's an honour. I think as an author of books, it makes me excited anytime I see people reading or being passionate about stories. So it's really cool for us."
Lola: "We were walking around Sydney the other day, and it was just cool to see how many people watched the show."
Jenny: "I was like 'whoa'. I was very surprised.
Because I think you often just think about who's watching it in the US. We live in the US and people come up to us. So it's very exciting to leave the country and be like 'you've heard of us?'. It's so cool."
On the Importance of The Summer I Turned Pretty Allowing Its Teenage Girls and Young Women to Experience the Entire Range of Their Emotions — and Appreciating That with Sincerity
Jenny: "To me, it's essential. As somebody who writes stories about young people, I've always approached it in that way — with, I hope, respect — where every experience is meaningful and valid.
And I think a lot of times adults can minimise a young person's point of view, because they're like 'oh, puppy love' or 'oh, they're just kids'. But I think It's all relative.
It's kind of what you were saying earlier, Rain — that's always been my ethos, is that your experience is your experience, and it's relative to what you've already experienced."
Rain: "Yeah."
Jenny: "So as a teenager, if I have a really bad fight with my mum, that can be really destabilising and really horrible, right?
And so I think people look back on it and laugh, but you forget how big that was in the moment — to not have someone to eat lunch with at school or to be dumped publicly."
Rain: "Yes, it's the heightened emotion, the different definitions of love as you get older. But the first love that you experience, it might not be your experience when you get older, but it is absolutely real and true in that moment. That is what love means."
Jenny: "And in some ways, that's more real than anything, because that's the first time and everything is magnified."
Lola: "It's so special, yeah."
On the Series Always Being Team Belly First, No Matter Her Romantic Status with Conrad or Jeremiah
Lola: "I think that's more credit to Jenny, because that's always been a huge conversation, and that's always been a priority as a writer and as the creator — to protect Belly and to make sure that her story is fulfilling to her as a person on her own.
And I love getting to explore all of that. The relationship with the boys, absolutely — and the relationship with Taylor, the relationship with her mum and her dad, and with Susannah.
It's been so cool to get to feel like she has a proper story, and that Jenny is really fighting for that always."
On How Tung and Spencer Feel About the Journey They've Taken with Belly and Taylor Over the Show's Three Seasons — Not Just What the Characters Have Gone Through, But Going on That Ride with Them
Lola: "It's been so special. I mean, we really did grow up with them. And this was one of — this was one of our first, like my first project, her second project. So we've learned so much about this world and what it's like to be on a TV set.
And also had a lot of time to really form this relationship, this friendship, that Taylor and Belly have together, and what it looks like as time goes on. And they're not kids anymore — and they spend a lot of time together even when their lives take them in different directions. And how they continue to be best friends.
I think it's been really lovely."
Rain: "It has been really lovely. Like Lola said, we grew up with these characters.
I think something that's so beautiful about acting is there is a part of Taylor that will always be with me, because she taught me so many things. I've spoken before about the level of confidence that she had, I didn't have when I started playing her. And so she sort of taught me what confidence feels like in my body.
And so I'll have that forever."
On Taylor's Storyling Expanding Well Beyond the Books, Charting New Territory Even for Readers
Rain: "I think I just feel so grateful to Jenny for the ability to explore the character and go deeper with her. It's been just one of the joys of my life thus far, is getting to know this character and having the opportunity to do so."
Jenny: "But you also bring so much of yourself into it, which I think suits the character so much. So it's really, I think, special. I've loved being able to expand the character out and see more of her as a character.
I think now, Rain, the way that you've brought Taylor to life, it's to me in some ways it's its own thing, which is really fun."
The Summer I Turned Pretty streams via Prime Video.
The Summer I Turned Pretty images: Erika Doss © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC.