I was on a rainy Sunday afternoon, curled up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea, when I finally pressed play on Der Sommer, der nur uns gehörte — the German audiobook version of Jenny Han's We'll Always Have Summer, the final book in the Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy. I'd been putting it off, partly because I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Belly and the Fisher boys, and partly because I knew this one would be messy. Emotionally messy, love-triangle messy, the kind of messy that makes you want to yell at fictional characters.
And yell I did.
This third installment picks up with Belly two years into her relationship with Jeremiah. Things seem stable — comfortable, even — until Jeremiah drops a surprise proposal. Belly, swept up in the moment, says yes and throws herself into wedding planning with the kind of enthusiasm only a college-age girl deeply in love can muster. But her parents think it's way too soon, and after a blowout fight with her mother, Belly retreats to the one place that has always felt like home: Cousins Beach. And there, waiting like he always has been, is Conrad. Who tells her he loves her.
If that setup makes you groan, fair enough — this is a love triangle that has stretched across three books, and your patience with it will depend entirely on how invested you are in these characters. But if you've been with Belly since the beginning, this final chapter hits different. It's the book where she has to stop drifting between two brothers and actually choose. And the emotional weight of that choice, the way it ripples through every relationship in the story, is what gives this relatively short audiobook its punch.
At just under seven hours, Der Sommer, der nur uns gehörte is a quick listen, which works both for and against it. The pacing moves briskly — there's no filler, and you're never bored. But the trade-off is that some emotional beats feel rushed. The proposal, the family conflict, and especially Conrad's confession all happen with a speed that can feel like the story is sprinting toward its conclusion rather than letting you sit with these moments. Jenny Han has always been better at capturing the texture of feelings — that specific ache of wanting someone you're not sure you can have — than at constructing elaborate plots, and that strength is on full display here, even if the structural framework around it feels a bit thin. That emotional precision over plot architecture reminded me of what drew me to Reason to Believe — another story that trusts the ache to carry more weight than the mechanics of its setup.
Leonie Landa's narration is the secret weapon that elevates this audiobook above a simple read-along experience. She brings a warmth and emotional honesty to Belly's voice that makes even the more frustrating character decisions feel human. When Belly is giddy about the engagement, you can hear the breathless excitement. When she's torn, Landa lets the uncertainty sit in her voice without overplaying it. There's a naturalness to her delivery that kept me listening for long stretches without losing focus — something that's not always easy with YA romance, where internal monologue can start to feel repetitive. Her performance is consistent with the earlier books in the series, which is a real gift for listeners who've followed along from Der Sommer, als ich schön wurde.
One thing worth noting for fans of the Prime Video series: this book and the show diverge quite a bit. The adaptation adds characters and storylines that aren't in the source material, while the book includes scenes that didn't make it to screen. If you're coming to this audiobook after watching the show, you'll get a version of events that's more intimate and interior — less ensemble drama, more Belly's private emotional reckoning.
The heart of the book is really about growing up and figuring out what you actually want versus what you think you should want. Belly's decision isn't just about Conrad or Jeremiah; it's about who she is when she's not defining herself through someone else. Han handles this with a lightness that belies the seriousness of the question, and while some readers might wish for more depth, I found the ending satisfying in its quiet honesty.
Is this the strongest book in the trilogy? Probably not — the first book's magic of summer discovery is hard to recapture. But as a conclusion, it does what it needs to do. It gives Belly her agency, it gives the love triangle a real resolution, and it says goodbye to Cousins Beach in a way that feels earned.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
If you've listened to the first two German audiobooks and need closure with these characters, this is your listen — Leonie Landa's consistent narration makes finishing the trilogy in audio feel like coming home. Skip it if love triangles exhaust you or if you wanted something with more plot complexity; the emotional payoff here is real but quiet, and it won't convert anyone who wasn't already invested.
I finished it as the rain outside finally stopped, and I sat there for a minute before pulling my earbuds out. That's always the sign of a story that landed — not perfectly, not earth-shatteringly, but with enough emotional truth to make you pause before moving on to whatever comes next.
