How Do ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Books End? ‘TSITP’s “We’ll Always Have Summer” Ending

With The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s third and final season coming to an end, fans of the Prime Video series are turning to Jenny Han’s sacred summer texts for clues about where Belly (Lola Tung), Conrad (Christopher Briney), and Jeremiah’s (Gavin Casalegno) stories are headed.

Before Season 3’s premiere, TSITP‘s creator warned fans, “There are definitely changes… There are surprises. And there are things that aren’t exactly like the books.” With Belly (and now Conrad!) headed to Paris — which we didn’t see in the text — we’re not sure where the story is taking us next. Only The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s finale on Wednesday, September 17 holds the answers, but we do know how the third book ends…

With new characters, a new location, new writing, new romances, a potential medical emergency, and a potential Valentine’s Day flashback, TSITP Season 3 won’t end exactly like Book 3, We’ll Always Have Summer. But the final chapters can potentially provide insight into the series’ ending.

So how do The Summer I Turned Pretty books end? Who does Belly end up with in TSITP books? What does TSITP‘s epilogue say? And what can fans expect from TSITP Season 3, Episode 11 Here’s what to know about We’ll Always Have Summer‘s ending.

How Do TSITP Books End?

Like TSITP Season 3, We’ll Always Have Summer showed Belly and Jeremiah call off their wedding and Belly head abroad. But instead of Paris, she goes to Spain. Despite the difference in location, Belly does still receive letters from Conrad in the text. And just like in the series, those letters not only keep the two linked from afar, but they inspire their eventual reunion. Ahead of TSITP‘s finale, Conrad is headed to Paris to see Belly after some time apart. And while we don’t know what fate awaits them on-screen, here’s what went down on the pages.

A couple of years after Belly and Jere called it quits, Belly reads the letter Susannah wrote her for her wedding day, which lets us know our girl’s finally getting married!

What Did Susannah’s Letter To Belly Say In TSITP Books?

Curious what Susannah wrote Belly for her big day? We read her letter to Conrad in Season 3, Episode 8, so here’s Susannah’s message to Belly:

Dearest Belly,

Right now I am picturing you today, on your wedding day, looking radiant and lovely, the prettiest bride there ever was. I picture you about thirty or so, a woman who’s had lots and lots of adventures and romances. I picture you marrying a man who is solid and steady and strong, a man with kind eyes. I am sure your young man is completely wonderful, even if he doesn’t have the last name Fisher! Ha.

You know that I could not love you more if you were my own daughter. My Belly, my special girl. Watching you grow up was one of the great joys of my life.

My girl who ached and yearned for so many things…a kitten you could name Margaret, rainbow roller skates, edible bubble bath! A boy who would kiss you the way Rhett kissed Scarlett. I hope you’ve found him, darling.

Be happy. Be good to each other.

All of my love always, Susannah

Who Does Belly End Up With In TSITP Books?

So who does Belly marry in TSITP books? Major spoilers incoming, don’t say we didn’t warn you! In 3…2…1…

“Oh Susannah. If you could see us now. You were wrong about a couple things. I’m not thirty yet. I’m twenty-three, almost twenty-four. After Jeremiah and I broke up, he went back to live in the fraternity house, and I ended up living with Anika after all. Junior year, I studied abroad. I went to Spain, where I did have lots and lots of adventures,” TSITP Book 3 reads. “Spain is where I got my first letter from him. Real letters, written by his hand, not e-mails. I didn’t write him back, not at first, but they still came, once a month, every month. The first time I saw him again, it was another year, at my college graduation. And I just knew.”

Though some details do change from book to screen, the letters should be a dead giveaway on Belly’s book endgame. But if you need more confirmation, buckle up! “My young man is kind and good and strong, just like you said. But he doesn’t kiss me like Rhett kissed Scarlett. He kisses me even better. And there’s one other thing you were right about. He does have the last name Fisher,” the text continues. AHH!!!!!!

Belly explains that she’s wearing a creamy white, lace-cap sleeve dress that her and her mom picked out for her big day. He hair is pinned up. Her shoes are off. She’s holding her man’s grey suit jacket and he’s holding her heels. It’s raining. Their first dance will be to “Stay,” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs. And Jeremiah attended their wedding with an unnamed date. (Denise? Redbird?! TBD!)

“I look out the window, and there is Jere across the lawn. He has his arm around his date, and our eyes meet. He gives me a small wave. I wave back and blow him a kiss. He smiles and turns back to his date,” Belly explains in the book before she and her HUSBAND, Conrad, make a very on-brand detour on the way to their reception: the beach.

“…[Conrad] turns on the ignition and we’re off. We head for the ocean. We hold hands the whole way. When we get there, it is empty, so we park right on the sand. It’s still raining out,” the book reads. “I jump out of the car, hitch up my skirt, and call out, ‘Ready?’ He rolls up his pant legs, and then he grabs my hand. ‘Ready,’” Belly explains. “We turn towards the water, tripping in the sand, screaming and laughing like little kids. At the last second he picks me up like he is carrying me across the threshold. ‘If you dare try and Belly Flop me right now, you’re going down with me,’ I warn, my arms tight around his neck. ‘I go wherever you go,’ he says, launching us into the water.”

“This is our start. This is the moment it becomes real. We are married. We are infinite. Me and Conrad. The first boy I ever slow danced with, ever cried over. Ever loved,” We’ll Always Have Summer continues. BRB, SOBBING! And that’s not all…

The Summer I Turned Pretty Epilogue (Conrad Letters Edition)

Following TSITP‘s flash forward to Belly and Conrad’s wedding day, We’ll Always Have Summer takes readers back and shares five letters that Conrad sent Belly while she was abroad, with some additional context.

“Even now, all these years later, I still read them—Conrad’s letters to me when I was studying abroad in Spain,” Belly reveals. “Just every once in a while, I pull them all out and sit down and read each one. I know them all by heart, but they still touch me, they still make me feel it all over again….To think that once we were both very young, and very far apart, and still finding our way back to each other.”

Before the last paragraph of TSITP‘s third and final book, Han shares Belly’s handwritten response to Conrad’s letters, which differs from her response in the series. Her letter in the book references her memorable Christmas in Cousins with Conrad, as well as an old, embarrassing Fisher family portrait featuring the boys in red button-downs and reindeer bow ties that he promised to show her.

Dear Conrad,

When I come home next spring, you’d better show me that family portrait. Don’t you dare try to get out of it. Oh, and I’ll be taking it with me, since it’s my gift and all. And yes. I do remember. Of course I remember. It was my best Christmas, too.

Write back soon,

Belly

“For years he kept it in his wallet, soft and creased into a million little folds,” Belly says in Book 3’s final paragraph, which TSITP Episode 310 referenced. “He said it kept him going. Kept him hoping. He said he wanted to keep it with him always, but I said we should keep the letters together, where they belong. And he did show me the family photo. It’s hanging up in our living room.”

So there you have it, folks. In TSITP books, we flash forward to Belly and Conrad’s wedding day, then quickly jump in time again to get a glimpse at their life as a married couple who share a home and a life, at last! We can’t stress enough that anything can happen in this final episode, though whatever changes Jenny Han makes, we find it hard to believe she’d abandon Belly’s OG endgame plan and conclude the series without a happy ending for Belly and Conrad.

While we wait to learn who Belly ends up with on TSITP, mark your calendars for the September 17 finale, set your alarms, plan your watch parties accordingly, and be sure to catch up on all of Decider’s TSITP Season 3 coverage.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 finale premieres Wednesday, September 17 on Prime Video.