Category: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Review: P. S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #2) by Jenny Han

by Alexia, posted in 4 Stars, Book review, Jenny Han, library book, May 2015 release, P. S. I Still Love You, Simon & Schuster Books For young Readers, To All The Boys I've Loved Before
Book Title: P. S. I Still Love You
Author: Jenny Han
Published Date: May 26th, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Contemporary 
Series: Book Two in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before duology
Book Link: Goodreads
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.
When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that’s part of what makes it so amazing.

Disclaimer: Library book.

Review:
I feel so conflicted about this book guys. I mean, I absolutely LOVED To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, so I had every reason to believe that I would feel the same about P. S. I Still Love You. I’m utterly conflicted because while I enjoyed a lot of the book, I didn’t feel the same way about this one as I had in the first one.

Lara Jean was maddening in a lot of the book this time around. Sometimes she would be really awesome and mature and then sometimes she would show exactly how sheltered she had been for so long. 

She seemed to not think very highly of herself as a person and that really showed when she obsessed about Peter’s ex, Genevieve and the fact that she had bigger boobs and the fact that Gen and Peter had had sex before. Lara Jean seemed so hung up on the sex thing even though Peter never even mentioned it until she did. It was obvious to me that she wondered why Peter was with her.

Peter wasn’t entirely blameless himself though. Look I have no issues with exes being friends as long as there are boundaries set in place. Peter clearly had issues establishing boundaries with Gen and it was infuriating and I felt bad for poor Lara Jean. She was trying so hard in the relationship, but it didn’t feel like Peter was trying as hard as he could have. Yes, as it turns out Gen was having family problems, but Peter shouldn’t have been her confidant anymore.

It was the adult characters that really struck a chord with me this time around. Stormy and Alicia and Mrs. Rothschild all had words of wisdom for the often naive Lara Jean.
“You’ll go about your day and you will miss him at first, but over time it will ease.” -Alicia

I think it was really important for Lara Jean to hear this because despite the fact the breakup was Peter’s fault, she was definitely hurting a lot and I hurt for her. She needed to know she wouldn’t always feel so sad.

Her dad was also very important in this book. While she was dealing with some craziness, she along with her older sister, Margot & younger sister, Kitty, were trying to set their dad up on dates. They didn’t want him to be alone. 
I do wish there had been more sister stuff, but I still loved Margot and Kitty to death. I loved how they were when some stuff happened and poor Lara Jean was freaking out. They supported her without question.

He also had some insights about love that he shared with his middle daughter.

“It’ll get easier, I promise. Peter Kavinsky isn’t the only boy in the world.” -Dad
“I just don’t want to hurt like this ever again.” -Lara Jean
“There’s no way to protect yourself against heartbreak Lara Jean. That’s just part of life.” -Dad

I actually really loved John, and I kept hoping that something would happen between Lara Jean and John. Not while she was with Peter of course, because cheating makes my skin crawl, but after they break up. Lara Jean was different with John, less aggravating, and I liked that a lot. They seemed to be a better fit.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I didn’t like Lara Jean as much as I did in book one, and I heartily disliked Peter in this book. I am going to give it 4 stars because there was a lot of friendship stuff in there which I loved. I would recommend this book only if you are patient because Lara Jean really drove me crazy through a good chunk of this book.

Review: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before #1) by Jenny Han

by Alexia, posted in 5 Stars, April 2014 release, Book review, cover love, duology, family, Jenny Han, library book, Romance, Simon & Schuster Books For young Readers, To All The Boys I've Loved Before
Book Title: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before #1)
Author: Jenny Han
Publish Date:  April 15th, 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers 
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: Book 1 in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before duology
Book Link: Goodreads
Synopsis from Goodreads:
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Disclaimer: library book.

Review:
This BOOK! I am going to be gushing about it all the way through this review so it may be a really short review or it could be really long. It was perfection all the way through. The writing was beautiful, the characters were well developed and gahhhh, this book was everything I want every other book to be. It was my first Jenny Han book which really makes me realize I need to read all of her books. Especially if they are this fabulous.

I thought for sure the romance would be my favorite part of the book but it wasn’t. My favorite parts all had to do with Lara Jean and her sisters and their dad. Very rarely are single dads portrayed in YA books and especially single dads with only daughters. Throw in the fact that the sisters are half Korean and you’ve really got a wonderfully unique book that will definitely appeal to all sorts of readers.

I loved Lara Jean. She was flawed, which is one thing I really love in books. She’s human, she makes mistakes. She fell for her older sister, Margot’s boyfriend for goodness sake. She’s not great in the kitchen, but she’s working on it. 

I didn’t feel like I really got to know Margot as well as  I wanted to, but I think that was mostly because she wasn’t in the book a whole heck of a lot. But I do feel like I got to know her through Lara Jean and Kitty and even through Josh, her ex boyfriend. 

Kitty was an awesome kid and it took me back to remembering how badly I wanted a sister growing up. Kitty was vastly different from her older sisters. She was more outgoing and less reserved than both Margot & Lara Jean were.

Now with the boys, I found myself loving one of them at the beginning and hating the other one. By the time the book ended, my feelings had completely reversed. Talk about confused. I totally understood how Lara Jean could feel confused and conflicted. It made sense to me given all she knew about both boys.

There was definitely more than met the eye with this book. I LOVED this book. I loved that so much focus was on family and despite what the synopsis said, this book didn’t focus as much on the boys as I was expecting. I mean, the boys were there but Lara Jean’s family played such major roles in this book which was what really made me fall in love with it. 5 stars to this book. It’s definitely something you should pick up if you haven’t already.