By Jenny Han
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.
Official Summary
Lara Jean’s letter to all the boys she has ever had a crush on gets sent out. One of the letters is sent to her neighbour and sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. Trying to prove that the letter means nothing Lara Jean tells Josh she is now dating Peter Kavinsky, a boy who also got a letter.
Having seen the first two movies, I wanted to read the books.
I found the book and the characters to be a bit childish, especially Lara Jean, maybe it’s because I am so used to sixteen-year-old characters who act and do things like they are twenty-five. Although I found it wasn’t just the fact that she was childish that made relating to her character so hard. I found her dreamy-eyed view of the world to be annoying at times and her innocence to be a little unbearable, I could not help but think that she wouldn’t survive the real world if it wasn’t for the people around her.
Lara Jean having a crush on her sister ex-boyfriend grossed me out extremely. I know you could use the argument that Lara Jean liked him before her sister even dated him but still the whole thing just felt wrong. There was a scene in the book where she thinks. ‘if you were mine I would never have let you go.’ As someone who has an older sister all I can say is EWWWWW! Nope, I was not here for that.
Speaking of Josh, wow that guy was something, the way he said he thought about Lara Jean while he dated her sister was gross. Also even if Lara Jean does pick him what’s stopping him from going after her younger sister, Kitty in a few years. It was also super weird the way he got jealous and whenever he felt threatened by Peter, Josh would just bad mouth him to Lara Jean. I found him to be an unbearable second male lead.
My favourite character had to be Kitty, Lara Jean’s younger sister. She was funny and brutally honest. I loved her. Even though she was the youngest character, at times it seemed like Kitty was the most mature. I loved her wit and how she just said what was on her mind.
Overall I think that if I were thirteen I would have loved it. I just think I’m not the target demographic. It was a quick read and only took me about three days to read.
Author: Jenny Han – ISBN: 9781407149073- Publisher: Simon and Schuster BFYR – Pages: 421 – Source: Private Copy
books in the Series:
About The Author
Author Bio from the Author’s Site
Jenny Han is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series.
She is an executive producer on all three Netflix films– To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, and To All the Boys: Always and Forever, Lara Jean. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Summer I Turned Pretty series. Her books have been published in more than thirty languages. A former librarian, Jenny earned her MFA in creative writing at the New School. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Goodbye, my little book nerds….
