The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Biggest Book Changes
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty.
It's not summer for Belly Conklin without her love triangle.
But she's ready to move on from that chapter. With The Summer I Turned Pretty's season three finale dropping on Sept. 16, the Finch University student (Lola Tung) has paved her own future after finding herself stuck between brothers Conrad Fisher (Chris Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno) once again.
Just like the final book in Jenny Han's trilogy, We'll Always Have Summer, Belly—who chose the youngest Fisher brother at the end of the second season and book—navigates the reality of getting engaged to Jeremiah after learning that he cheated on her while on spring break.
It doesn't help that Conrad—the guy she romanced before dating his younger brother—continues to have a hold on her. As the season goes on, it's clear just how strong the pull is. After all, as Belly's mom Laurel Park (Jackie Chung) said in season one, "Conrad is the sun and when the sun comes out, the stars disappear."
With the Amazon Prime series coming to an end after three seasons, fans may be surprised by some of the changes in the last installment, both big and small. For instance, the show jumps forward a bit as Belly is finishing up her junior year at Finch, whereas she was wrapping up her first in the book.
Meanwhile, Steven Conklin (Sean Kaufman)—who takes up very few pages throughout the triology—continues to explore his messy on-and-off relationship with Belly's best friend Taylor Jewel (Rain Spencer).
The third novel concluded with Jeremiah calling off his and Belly's wedding once he acknowledged how deep her feelings were for Conrad, having uncovered five letters he wrote to her as she studied abroad, none of which garnered a response. (All of this takes place in the series, too.)
Although the correspondence gave readers a glimpse into her life in Europe, including a fling with someone named Benito, season three included three episodes dedicated to Belly's year in Paris. Though she gave up her spot in the French program when Jeremiah graduated late, she spontaneously flew across the Atlantic and decided to stay. Along with taking online classes, she also worked at a movie theater and bar to make ends meet.
Although she was initially homesick, Belly ultimately found herself loving her new life, including a new friend group. For Jenny, it was essential to explore this arc, telling Entertainment Weekly in September, "It's not just an epilogue."
"I kept adding more and more to the last scripts the longer I was in Paris, because I kept thinking of more that needed to be included," she continued. "There's just so much to living on your own, for the first time, in a foreign place, and that's important for Belly as she's growing up."
As Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard) would say, Belly is "in bloom."
To see all the biggest changes that TSIP made in season three, keep reading.
While We’ll Always Have Summer begins with Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) finishing up her freshman year at Finch University, season three of The Summer I Turned Pretty actually takes place at the end of her junior year.
That means, by the time Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno) cheats on Belly with Lacie Barone (Lily Donoghue), they had been dating for four years in the series, not two.
Before Belly opens her dorm room ahead of her freshman year—a flashback that takes place in the first five minutes of the season premiere—her brother Steven Conklin (Sean Kaufman) quickly scribbled “Belly” over her full name, “Isabel,” on the door. In subsequent scenes, her college friend Anika Johnson (Sofia Bryant) calls her Belly.
However, in the book, Belly didn’t correct anyone who called her by her government name.
“I didn’t plan to start going by Isabel. It just happened,” she said in the book. “I remember the way I fumbled with my key and how I looked up at the door and saw it. ‘Isabel,’ it was in glue-on rhinestones.”
Then, she introduced herself as Isabel to her roommate Jillian Chapel and moving forward, it’s what everyone at Finch called her.
Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before—the first in its own trilogy, later adapted for Netflix— might’ve been published three years after We’ll Always Have Summer, but the series was sure to pay homage with small Easter eggs.
For instance, Belly had a photo of her and Jeremiah dressed up as Peter Kavinsky and Lara Jean Covey on her dorm wall. The novel’s sequel, P.S. I Still Love You, was also a hint in the crossword puzzle Conrad Fisher (Chris Briney) was doing with Belly during Christmas.
The TV series began exploring Conrad's mental health struggles, including anxiety attacks, during the first season while he tried to keep it together after learning that his and Jeremiah's mom Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard) was diagnosed with cancer again.
By the third, the Stanford University student was seen sitting with a therapist before he planned his return to Cousins Beach for a dedication in Susannah’s honor. During his session, he and his doctor explored his concerns around attending the event, although he doesn’t delve into his complicated love triangle. At least he’s there, right?
In the series, Belly learns that she was taken off the waitlist to study abroad in Paris the following semester, which means she can’t room with Anika in the fall. (Jeremiah hadn’t even proposed at this point.)
However, in the book, she changes her boarding plans because of her unexpected engagement. Anika still understands as she tells Belly in the text, “I’m not mad. I mean, yeah, it sucks that we won’t be living together, but I’ll figure something out.”
While Taylor Jewel (Rain Spencer) and Steven’s relationship isn’t explored in any of the books, their on-and-off romance becomes a secondary storyline in the latest season. Although Taylor is dating frat boy Davis and Steven is dating Mia, the pair had been having an affair since reuniting in Manhattan during spring break (the same week Jeramiah cheated on Belly).
After Steven tells Taylor, while they’re driving, that he broke up with Mia so they could try to rekindle their relationship, an overwhelmed Taylor demands that he pull over. When she gets out, Steven is T-boned by another car while making a U-turn, which puts him in a medically induced coma. Don’t worry, though, he makes a full recovery.
Although the same can’t be said for their relationship—at least at this point in the season.
In the book, Belly agreed to marry Jeremiah—who proposed after cheating on Belly during spring break—while describing what was a very codependent relationship.
"He looked at me so determinedly, so earnestly,” she explained of the proposal in chapter 10. “I knew his face well, maybe better than anybody now … Maybe I knew his face even better than my own—the hours I'd spent staring at it while he slept, tracing my finger along his cheekbone.”
“I don’t want to see a mark on his face one day and not know how it got there,” she continued. “I wanted to be with him. His face was the one I loved.”
As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that her decision is also partly a way to convince herself that she does not love Conrad—which also happens in the series.
In the show, it was still Jeremiah cheating that pushed him to propose to Belly. But she later admitted to Taylor that Steven's car accident reminded her that life is too short. However, it’s still clear that her decision was also to ignore her deep feelings for the older Fisher brother.
Taylor's mom Lucinda (Kristen Connolly) isn't mentioned much in the book. However, her finances do play a significant role in Taylor and Steven's on-and-off romance in the Amazon series. After Lucinda reached out to Belly's older brother in hopes of reconnecting him and Taylor, he learned that her hair salon was bleeding cash.
Although Taylor refused any more help from Steven—whom she had broken up with at this point—she worked with Lucinda to cut down her overhead costs and pay off her debt. The complicated situation also sheds light on why Taylor felt an inability to lean on others, like Steven, for support.
Since Jeremiah was only in his junior year at Finch during the book, he didn't have the added pressure of graduation during his relationship with Belly. However, in the series, he learned that he won't be graduating on time. The additional layer was the reason Belly initially decided against going to Paris the following semester.
With Lucinda taking on a bigger role in the series, it was the mother-daughter duo who took Belly dress shopping and planned her bridal shower, since Laurel disapproved of the wedding.
Adding another messy romance, Kayleigh is both Adam Fisher's secretary in the series and the woman he cheats with while his wife Susannah is undergoing chemotherapy. In the book Jeremiah and Conrad's dad still has a secretary, named Denise Colletti, who's tasked with planning the wedding. But their relationship is strictly business.
While Belly's parents Laurel and John (Colin Ferguson) maintained a strictly coparenting dynamic in the novel, things got messy between the pair during season three after a literary conference and a few glasses of wine led to them hopping into bed.
Laurel and John ultimately missed Belly's distraught phone calls after Steven had gotten into his car accident in episode two, leaving them with a deep sense of guilt for the spontaneous hookup.
However, after some back-and-forth—which included a few arguments and John not attending Susannah's garden memorial service—the duo began spending more time together. In fact, as Belly misses Thanksgiving, a FaceTime call with Laurel showed that she and John are spending the holiday together.
In the novel, before Belly's wedding, Taylor admitted that it was Conrad who had convinced Laurel to take part in the celebration.
"Conrad went to see your mom," she told her best friend as they were almost asleep in chapter 44. "He convinced her to come to the bridal shower. She told my mom and my mom told me…"
Meanwhile, in the series, Belly realizes on her own that Conrad had intervened, leaving her feeling especially conflicted on the dance floor. In fact, after taking an edible at her bachelorette party, she replayed a compilation of intimate moments between them to the song "we can't be friends" on the dance floor.
In the series, Belly didn't get to study abroad in Paris since she missed her deadline after agreeing to skip the experience for Jeremiah. However, after their wedding is called off, she spent a year in the City of Love, where she took online classes, made new friends and had a fling with a guy named Benito.
While readers only had a glimpse of Belly's study abroad experience—which was in Spain—through Conrad's letter, the series dedicated three episodes to her time in France.
For Jenny, expanding on Belly's time away from her family was needed for the character arc.
"There is so much that is going to surprise fans about how much we're showing of Belly in Paris and the whole ending," Jenny told Entertainment Weekly in September. "It's not just an epilogue."
"I kept adding more and more to the last scripts the longer I was in Paris, because I kept thinking of more that needed to be included," she admitted. "There's just so much to living on your own, for the first time, in a foreign place, and that's important for Belly as she's growing up."
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