This review will focus on To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han. It is the first installment in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy and was published in 2014. If you haven’t heard of it, I recommend you dig yourself out of the hole you’ve been living in and read the book, and watch the Netflix adaptation before it’s sequel airs.
I watched the Netflix adaptation before I read any of the books. But once I started the book, I couldn’t put it down. It was a great decision of mine to buy all three books at once because I read them all very quickly.
This story centers on Lara Jean, a 16-year-old that is dealing with her older sister going away to college, being the only big sister at home for her little sister, missing her mother that passed away when she was little, and everything a typical teenage girl worries about. She typically hides her feelings, and in the case of any major crush she has had–she wrote a letter to that boy, but never sent it.
Somehow, her hatbox of letters has been mailed out and each boy approaches her about her letter. Josh, her sister’s ex-boyfriend is hurt by the letter, as he’s still grieving over the loss of his relationship with her sister. He doesn’t know what he’s feeling, but he turns on the over protective act when Peter shows up.
Peter is the first boy that Lara Jean ever kissed during a game of spin the bottle. He has had a long term relationship with Lara Jean’s ex-best-friend, but with that relationship on the rocks, Peter figures he can use Lara Jean to make his ex jealous, and Lara Jean figures she can hide from Josh this way. So Lara Jean and Peter write out a contract laying out the terms to their fake relationship.
Obviously, along the way they fall for each other, but they are both too proud to admit it, and have their own ways of hurting each other when they think it’s all for show and not real.
I really enjoyed this book, and although the characters have their problems to work out, overall it was a light, quick read. I can’t wait for the sequel to come out so I can see how it compares to the second book.
Happy reading 🙂
Confessions of a Bibliophile 