Book Review | To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 15, 2014
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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

 

My Thoughts:

I must admit that from the beginning of this book up until about 15% in, I really didn't think I was going to like it. It just started out a little too slow for my taste. BUT, I'm so glad that I stuck with it because it is such a wonderful story and I absolutely adored these characters.

Lara Jean has written 'goodbye' letters to any boy that she's every loved as a way to wipe her hands clean and move on. These were letters that were meant solely for her and no one else was ever supposed to read them, especially the ones that were written for. So when Peter K. comes up to her one day at school holding a letter that she had written to him years ago she is stunned. However, it turns out that her letters getting sent out may be one of the best things that could have happened.

I really liked the fact that this book isn't just about the romance either, it also has such a strong family dynamic and I love that. It's not often that we see books that have such a strong family bond in YA so I'm always excited when I finally come across one.

I really liked Lara Jean as the MC, she felt really genuine and it was extremly easy to connect with her. There's also a very complicated love triangle, well I guess square would be more appropriate (read it and you'll see what I mean) so I don't really want to give anything away about the love interest. Let's just say that I really liked one at the beginning of this book and not so much the other and by the end it was kind of vice versa.

And Kitty! She was absolutely adorable, I wish that I had a younger sister like her (I'm an only child :( ) to keep things interesting. I didn't really connect to much with Margot, Lara Jeans older sister and the oldest of the Song girls. I don't know what it was about her that I didn't click with, but it just wasn't there.

Overall, To All the Boys I've Loved Before is an cute and intriguing contemporary that will leave you wanting more. While it did take a while to warm up once the story got going, I couldn't have put it down even if I wanted to. I look forward to see what happens next with Lara Jean.

----Christy