Nothing hits quite like a beachside love triangle, a wave of summer nostalgia, and a dash of heartbreak, and The Summer I Turned Pretty delivers all three. Or at least two, if we’re only counting cute brothers.

The Bookinfluencers.com team has been soaking up the summer season back in Cousins Beach,  finally, right? While we anxiously wait for a new episode to drop each week, we’ve been diving back into books and shows that hit just as hard and stir up the same feels. There’s just something about that sweet, innocent summer love story that gets us every time.

So, while we wait for Belly to make her decision between the Fisher brothers, we’ve put together a list of shows and books to help fill the void, and just in case she makes the wrong decision.

TV Shows and Movies

Dawson’s Creek, a coming-of-age classic  cult show for good reason. Dawson’s Creek had us all in a chokehold, from Pacey and Joey´s flirtatious banter to Dawson’s terrible filmmaking skills. We love it all. Dawson’s Creek takes place in a coastal small town, similar to Cousins Beach, following the complicated relationships between  Dawson, Pacey, and Joey.

Bonus: Joshua Jackson (Pacey) and Katie Holmes (Joey) recently announced that they have reunited for a romcom trilogy written and directed by Katie herself.

Love & Gelato. This is another popular movie adaptation. Summer in Italy? Sign us up. To fulfil her mother’s final wish, Lina spends the summer before college in Italy, where she finds love and adventure, and most importantly, a passion for gelato.
If you loved the summery vibes of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the drama, and the triangle, this is an adaptation for you.

My Life with the Walter Boys. We can’t talk about The Summer I Turned Pretty without mentioning My Life with the Walter Boys. Think The Summer I Turned Pretty, but make it country. Jackie moves from the city to rural Colorado to live with the Walter family, and her life is completely turned upside down. Soon, she finds herself torn between the Walter boys.

The show is sweet, frustrating, and charmingly innocent. Whether you’re Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah, or even Team Belly, this one will leave you just as emotionally frazzled.

Books

Every  Summer After – Carley Fortune. Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right. This story has more in common with Jeremiah Fisher than one might expect, but we still enjoy a trip up to the lake.  Every Summer After is messy, love is messy. But it’s a whirlwind that we can´t help but get swept up in. Carley Fortune always captures the nostalgic summer feeling in her books!

Bonus: Book lovers are getting spoilt with book-to-screen adaptations. Deadline recently announced the cast for the Every Summer After adaptation, and we can´t wait!

The Rest of the Story – Sarah Dessen. Summer is all about discovering, or rediscovering, yourself. Emma Saylor doesn’t remember much about her mother, but she does remember the stories about the big lake that seemed to go on forever. Now, unexpectedly, she’s spending the summer there, with a side of her family she hardly knows. In true West Side Story fashion, the community is divided: the wealthy families who stay at the fancy lake resorts, and the working-class locals just trying to get by. Caught between both worlds, Emma has to figure out where she belongs.

Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han share a similar gift for writing addictive YA stories that we’re still obsessing over as adults.