The Summer I Turned Pretty has won over Prime Video viewers — but how does the TV adaptation compare to the original book series?
The TV show, which premiered in July 2022, is based on the book series of the same name written by Jenny Han. The Summer I Turned Pretty follows Belly Conklin’s (Lola Tung) relationships with childhood friends Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno) and how their bond shifts as she explores her feelings for each of them.
Han, who is the creator and showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty series, surprised fans when she hinted that her original vision for the story may change on screen.
“I really had to weigh what the fans are expecting with where the show is going creatively and find that balance,” she told Variety in June 2022. “My priority has always been that I want fans of the book to feel really satisfied by the story we’re telling, but also for them to know that this is an adaptation in a new medium, so it’s not going to be exactly the same. I think those are sort of the two things that are always in my head. I don’t want to spoil too much but the books have been out for a while. You never know what could happen with the show. I was open minded going into it. I was considering a lot of different possibilities.”
Meanwhile, Casalegno showed his support for a shakeup to the outcome of the central love triangle.
“I do feel like there’s a strong chance that that’s a possibility,” the actor exclusively told Us Weekly in June 2023 about the popular series potentially straying from the original events in the books. “Obviously, I know where [my character Jeremiah] ends up going and what ends up happening. But I don’t emphasize on that. Because I think Jenny writes it so well that I’m able to kind of get there naturally without having to force it a certain direction.”
Before the third season premiered in July 2025, Han hinted at possible changes. “There are a couple of moments that people really love from the books that I knew that people were wanting to see,” she told People at the time while noting that book moments “might not always happen in the way that you’re expecting.”
“I wanted to make sure that I was going to really service those fans who’ve been following the story for a really long time,” she added.
Scroll on to see the main differences which had taken place on the show compared to the books so far: