To All the Boys I've Loved Before

3/5 stars

I guess going into this novel I was expecting something more. I knew I would get fluff, romance, a focus on the protagonist's family. Which was definitely in this book, but it just wasn't enough for me.

I like to start out with the positive, so there are things I did love in this book. The family dynamic was great. I enjoyed seeing the way each sister cared about one another, and how their father fit into the big picture. I also enjoyed how simple the story was, that you can just go in and have a fun time reading it.

I had problems with every character. The book constantly mentions how when the sister's mother died, that they had to grow up fast, but I didn't feel as if that is shown in the book rather than told. In fact, in my opinion, Lara Jean was very immature for her age. This entire book could have been avoided if she wasn't so impulsive, and took a second to think before speaking. Through her actions and voice, I had to keep reminding myself that's she's 16, not 12. And how they constantly refereed to their parents as “Mommy” and “Daddy” got old really fast.

Kitty was annoying, mostly because of the fact that half the time she acted like a 5 year old, and the other half she acted as if she was a teenager. I did like Margot, but she was only in the book for a few chapters. The only redeemable character for me was Josh, who had so much potential that got tossed to the side. The author kept on focusing on Peter, who, to me, was just a giant ass.


I'll probably pick up the next book soon, mostly because I'm curious how this story can expand to three books.

I enjoyed this book. It was light and fun for the most part and I really enjoyed the cozy family relationship themes throughout the book.

The ending though? Why? A lot of drama was thrown in at the end and the main character is really upset but then suddenly everything's fine in the most anticlimactic way.

I feel like the whole drama at the end was unnecessary, but I will try the sequel to see if that makes me like it more.

I picked this up mostly because the trailer for the Netflix adaptation looked AMAZING. It's the first book in a trilogy, and I really want to read the other two now! Lara Jean is the middle daughter in a house of three daughters, being raised by their widower father. The relationships between the four of them play a large part in the book, as they are all adjusting to the eldest daughter being away at college. Everyone's roles are changing, and in the middle of that, Lara Jean's private love letters get mailed to the boys she wrote them to, throwing her love life into chaos as well.

I loved almost every character in this book - even Lara's troublemaking best friend has a good heart. I definitely need to watch the Netflix show now, because I really want to see how Chris - aforementioned best friend - is represented!

The family scenes around Christmas really tugged at my heart - Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, and the author absolutely NAILED the nostalgic, slightly dreamy, loving holiday atmosphere.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before was a cute, sweet read, and really my only negative thing to say about it is the ending left me hanging! Which is part of why I really need to read the other two books, so I suppose it was a good strategy. But man I hate cliffhangers!

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

So happy I finally decided to read this!

At first I was worried about this being an overly sweet read because it's a YA romance. I needn't have worried! The Song sisters feel real. Their relationships are complex and relatable. There are some predictable plot points but I still really enjoyed seeing these moments play out. As far as the love interests go, Peter definitely grew on me but I still prefer Josh. We'll see what the next book brings!

I decided to sleep on this one before I reviewed it. I desperately wanted to give it four stars for two reasons. One, because I had hyped this series up in my head for so long that I was dying to be obsessed with it. I wanted so badly to love it. Two, because I did actually love some of the characters. Let's get into that.

Things I enjoyed:

Lara Jean, Kitty, and their dad were brilliant. The family dynamic was written masterfully. So well that I would assume the writer drew on some of her own experiences but maybe she's just that good. Idk but I loved reading about the Song sisters and their family. (Notice I left out Margot. I have mixed feelings on her for now. Maybe the next two books will clear it up.) The way they all took care of each other and tried to be their best for each other and their dad in the absence of their mom was portrayed so perfectly. Ugh, I adored it.

Things I did not enjoy:

THE LOVE TRIANGLE. And also, the enemies to friends trope. I feel like every book I've read in quarantine has had one or both of these and it's exhausting. Why does it always need to happen this way? Why? I have consumed so much media about this being everyone's FAVORITE couple and everyone's favorite ship and it truly could be because after all that I was expecting something that would knock my socks off, but it felt very lackluster to me. I don't think Lara Jean should end up with either of them. They both seem selfish and not good enough for her. And the enemies to friends plot was so strong that I felt like there were no sparks ever. It was so negative for so long.


Would I recommend?
Begrudgingly, yes. It's a quick and good read. I really really enjoyed reading about the Song sisters and that makes it worth it, I think. I will be reading the second one.

Overall, it was a pretty good book. Although I felt like a lot more could have been done in terms of character and plot development. Hate the way it ended. even for a book that's part of a series, the ending felt a little too abrupt and loose. I mean, what happened between Lara Jean and Josh? Did they make up? Did he apologize? Looking past the ending, I thought it was a cute, quick and easy read. Perfect for a day at the beach.

Gostei muito muito mesmo!!
Não foi aquela leitura maravilhosa que dá vontade de ler reler muitas e muitas vezes. Mas pelo fato de Jenny Han conseguir pegar um assunto tão simples e transformar em uma história rica, é a grande mágica desse livro. A relação da família, das meninas é tão bem descrita que parece que as conhecemos há muito tempo, além de transmitir a realidade da relação entre irmãs.
Por ter uma irmã mais velha, entendo cada sentimento que elas compartilhavam. Até o dos amores.

Kitty, para mim, é a personagem mais divertida lágrimas escorreram com algumas das reações dela, principalmente com Peter. Porém irritante como qualquer criança de 10 anos.
É o primeiro livro que não nos apaixonamos demais pela imagem do príncipe da protagonista (pelo menos eu). Percebi que ele era apaixonável apenas no final, nos bilhetes.
Gen, como uma “vilã” não causava arrepio. Ficou registrada como a líder de torcida linda e popular que seu único poder é a língua ferina e costume de rebaixar os outros (por medo de perder o próprio posto?).
Gogo, é sem dúvida a mais estereótipada das personagens com toda sua perfeição. Vê-la humana no final foi algo bem bacana.
Lara Jean é, sem dúvida alguma, o retrato de muitos dos temores das meninas de hoje. E muitos dos meus temores. Talvez esse reconhecimento de acontecimentos e receios tenha influenciado muito no julgamento deste livro, deste enredo. A ingenuidade tornou-se sua maior característica de personalidade.
Espero que a sequência seja envolvente de uma forma diferente. Que este PS ainda te amo, seja apenas para nosso caro Peter e não John ou Josh, por exemplo.

obs: John Ambrose. Apenas conseguia pensar no Ambrose de As crônicas do matador do rei (!!) que ser humano desagradável

“Margot would say she belongs to herself. Kitty would say she belongs to no one. And I guess I would say I belong to my sisters and my dad, but that won't always be true. To belong to someone—I didn't know it, but now that I think about, it seems like that's all I've ever wanted. To really be somebody's, and to have them be mine.”

This was cute. I didn't enjoy it as much the first time I read it, a few years back, but after seeing the movie and enjoying it so much, the re-reading experience was definitely better.

Picturing Lana Condor as Lara Jean made her character feel less juvenile and annoying and more endearing. I also saw Peter K. in a different light thanks to Noah Centineo's portrayal. Overall, a very enjoyable story about family, sisterhood and first loves.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han is a young adult romance contemporary series that is very cute. Jenny Han did it again this this book and I enjoyed the story the whole time while reading it. It was a quick read and I cannot wait for the next book because what will it be about?

The main character, Lara Jean, writes a letter at the ending of liking or loving a boy and seals it inside of a hat box. One day she comes home from school and finds the hat box and letters missing. Then the next day at school, one of the boys she sent a letter to has confronted her and that is when she realizes that all five of the letters have been sent out to the boys she loved before (hence the title).

To get into the story some more, Lara Jean lives with her father and two sisters – Margot and Kitty. Margot is about to leave to study at a college abroad and decides to leave her boyfriend of two years, Josh, before she goes. Now Josh was one of Lara Jean's passed loves. She wrote him a letter and sealed it in the hat box. Now it was a little betraying even to Lara Jean that she liked Josh so that is why didn't act upon it and when she learned about him and Margot, she ended the crush right then and there. Which was good of her and a good sister of her. It wasn't until after they broke up that Lara Jean started to have feelings for him again.

[ WARNING THIS PART CONTAINS SPOILERS ]

Once the letters were sent out, Josh and Lara Jean's first kiss, Peter, confronted her about it. Peter is an arrogant popular student that is dating the most popular girl in school but they do break up at one point. Josh makes a big deal about the letter though because he liked her around the same time that she did and he wants to know why she didn't tell him. (That is simple... because he started dating her sister) Since Josh was making a big deal about the letter and her feelings, she decides to lie and say she has a boyfriend so it means nothing to her now even though she still likes him a bit. She lies and says Peter is her boyfriend.

Now Peter and his girlfriend, Gen, have broken up for the moment when Lara Jean tells Josh this and she goes over and kisses him in front of Josh. Lara Jean try's to play it off but Peter wants to use this to his advantage. Lara Jean wants to get away from Josh's feelings (possibly make him jealous) and Peter wants to make Gen jealous. They decide to fake date. Now at this point, everyone knows this is going to go badly and they will start to have feelings for each other. Which of course happens, but it is a very cute book and I really liked the friendship/relationship Lara Jean and Peter had together. The reader saw a nice side to Peter. He would pick her up every day and bring her to school. Even take her little sister Kitty sometimes and Kitty started to really like him also.

Lara Jean and Peter's fake relationship goes on the entire book pretty much. Everyone thinks it is a little weird that they are dating each other and at times seems non-realistic to people. Josh has been getting jealous of their relationship though and actually confessed to her and kissed her! A cute part was when she told Peter and he said, “No one kisses my girlfriend! I am going to hurt him!” This is when I knew Peter actually liked her. Lara and Peter finally confess their feelings to each other when they are on a school ski trip. They actually like each other. It was a very cute moment but of course Gen had to ruin it. She told everyone that Lara and Peter had sex so this tore them apart because he didn't really deny it according to Lara Jean. This hurt her and she was away from Peter. They finally get back together at the end and that is how it end. Now, what will the second book be about? Their relationship? I hope so because they are so cute.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was a cute and fluffy read that went by quickly. I would recommend this to anyone that wants to read a cute book with a little love triangle. Jenny Han is a wonderful author and I can't wait to read more.

The movie adaptation to this series will always hold a special place in my heart and I am so happy that I finally decided to pick up the books.

Fake relationship is probably one of my favourite tropes so obviously this immediately had me hooked.

I really loved Lara's relationship with her sisters. As someone who has two sisters and is close with them, it felt really easy to connect to Lara and her love for her family.

This book felt so nostalgic in the way that it reminded me of how it felt to be sixteen and being around the people I had crushes on. It reminded me of how when one thing went wrong back then, it felt like my whole world was collapsing. It was really nice to teleport back to a place I hadn't been for a very long time.

Peter Kavinsky... I love you

I loved this and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

We all remember those days back in high school when all we used to dream about was our first love and how wonderful it would be, the crushes we'd have on that special boy and how perfect life would be if he just noticed us. An innocent time before the reality of serious relationships moved in and we began worrying about if we'll ever get married or if we will wind up an old cat lady forever. This book is the essence of all those feelings wrapped up in one wonderful narrative.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before is Lara Jean's story. Lara Jean is a high school junior and the middle daughter of the Song sisters. She, her elder sister Margot and younger sister Kitty are all being raised by their dad after the death of their mother some years before. A strong and close family they all look out for one another but change is coming as Margot prepares to leave home to study abroad in Scotland. Lara Jean is a quiet, quirky teen who knows she will need to step up more when her sister leaves and take on more responsibilities and be there even more for her little sister Kitty. With her sisters (ex)-boyfriend living across the street, she is nervous about how their relationship will change and whether he will still come round after Margot leaves.

Lara Jean is a dreamer, she wants to be loved and over the years as she's developed crushes on different boys she pens them a love letter with all the feelings she has about them and then instead of posting it she hides it in a hatbox in her bedroom. This is fine until the day that the letters are posted out by mistake and suddenly all the boys Lara Jean has loved before start getting their love letters and suddenly Lara Jean has to face them knowing they've read all her deepest, most truthful feelings about them.

This book is the first in a trilogy dedicated to following the life of Lara Jean. The final book was only just published earlier this month. A huge success it has garnered lots of fans around the world because of it's lighthearted moments, strong family values and emotional writing style. I read a few people who said that they found Lara Jean to be an annoying character, overly naive and too young for her years but their criticisms have been far outweighed by those who've said they find it to be endearing and great contemporary young adult fiction. I personally loved Lara Jean's voice in this novel, she did have an innocence about her which whilst some people could perceive as immaturity I found to be refreshing that she wasn't an attention seeking, limelight loving teen with overconfidence and mean girl tendencies. Instead, the focus is on her family, she puts them first. She is sweet and thoughtful and favours a few close friendships over being the popular kid in school and rather than find this awkward she is okay with that.

In fact, I found Lara Jean to be a delight and I fell in love with her family as well. Many teen books can tend to portray the parental figures as party poopers or people who lay the rules. In this book, Lara Jean has a close relationship with her father and he is an integral part of her life whose opinion is valued. I think this is a positive role model family to provide young teens reading this book with.

This book ends with a great cliffhanger ending which means that you are desperate to find out how things are going to progress into book 2 in the series, P.S. I Still Love You. It is full of characters who I would like to spend more time with. In this hot balmy summer days I know that I will find these great contemporary reads to pick up and fly my way through. The chapters are short and snappy and you sit down to read a chapter and before you know where you are you've read 5 or 6 and the book flew past so quickly which makes it just perfect summer reading. I know that at 40 years old I am way way beyond the intended target audience for this book but I really enjoyed being taken back to those innocent days where the most important thing you had to worry about was whether your first kiss was going to be that fireworks moment you had dreamed in your head and who that special boy was going to be.

Rant mode on.
When I first saw the title of this book on Instagram, I immediately classified this book as a NO-GO-kill-it-with-fire-kind-of-things. Then it got real popular on instagram and Aya bought it so I thought it became a must, just so I can say “yes, I read this book.”
You see, I am not big on romance. I really hate romance. I first thought it was a 35 year-old woman talking about her experiences with men. I mean that would have been interesting. Then I started reading the book and I realized that the main character is 16 and all her loves are 7/8th grade. That was the first turn-off for me (I already considered this book a quickie, a bostitute - book prostitute - so yeah a turn-off is exactly the term I need to be using here). We need to stop making middle grade crushes a big thing in life, and stop making books about them. I don't need more vaginal lubrication and wetness over hot guys be considered “love”. That's bullshit. It is not love, and stop naming it as such.

I will admit. I kind of liked the writing. It was better than most YA books, but then I haven't read a lot of good YA books - if there's any out there. I gave on ever finding a properly written YA book, written to suit my taste.

Lara Jean was actually a kind of a likable character but she pissed me off how she stands up to herself in the most ridiculous of situations and completely shuts up when everyone is forcing her around and telling her what to do and ordering her to dump her boyfriend when it is not really their place to do that.
And then she doesn't tell her sister that Josh kissed her first - actually forced her to kiss him. No. She takes the blame. Why? Because she is soooooooo weak. Such a weak character.

There was no correct plot twists. It dragged on a lot. It was basically a story about a girl who was getting picked up from home to school by hot guy. Seriously. Nothing real. No events. No action. Nothing.
And that ending.
That
stupid
motherfucking
ending
....


And what about Lara Jean actually standing up to herself when she got bullied by Genevieve? When she was SLUT SHAMED by that bitch? I can understand that slut shaming may be a part of our society but it HAS TO STOP. and she could have stood up to herself and called Genevieve by what she really is, someone who fools around a lot. But no. She has to cower. And cry. And refuse any consolation. And leave us with a cliff hanger because the author apparently is too greedy and wants to sell more ridiculous pages that do nothing to benefit man kind.
It was a silly book.
really.
I mean what the hell.
She could have ended the book with her going to Peter's place or something. It would have left me satisfied, without any need for a sequel.
but no.
She has to make a sequel because that's the new trend, isn't it?
Fucking ridiculous.

I decided to read the book because the movie comes out in a week and I have time, so why not? I enjoyed it overall, but some of the characters just didn't click. And no, it's not Lara Jean the one that makes me say this. Reading other reviews, she seems to be the reason for low scores, but I actually liked her.

Funnily enough, my problem are the romantic interests.

We're introduced to Josh as this perfect guy but we don't see much of him besides when drama is needed for Peter and Lara Jean. Everyone's problem seems to be Lara Jean liking him because it's her sister's boyfriend, but the three of them had been friends for years before he dated Margot and Lara Jean liked him before he did so I don't see a problem with that. The problem is him flip-flopping between sisters, it makes me question if he ever loved any of them at all. Actually, Lara Jean herself wonders if they're all interchangeable to him. Will he try and date Kitty next? Who knows.

Then there's Peter, who has a 50% chance of being a jerk or a sweet guy. And, to be honest, his good moments were eclipsed by the douchey ones for me. Plus, he still seems into Genevieve. Every time Lara Jean confronts him about her he's like ‘it has nothing to do with you' even though it does considering she's your girlfriend now.

Margot getting angry at Lara Jean for her feelings, which cannot be controlled, was also not my cup of tea and made me dislike a character I had liked at first.

Anyway, maybe I'm just too old for teenage drama? Sigh.

This is not the typical book that I choose to read. I saw it on Netflix and gave it a try. It was a really cute show so I thought I'd give the book a try.
This was such a cute YA story. I loved the characters, the dialog, and the emotions it made me feel. This is a well-written fun book that I think is actually appropriate for most teens.

Oh my god, I fucking adore this book.
It's so freaking cute and adorable and Lara Jean is so wonderful and Peter is great and Kitty is the cutest thing in the entire world.
I didn't like Chris at all in the beginning but I warmed up to her so much by the end, and with Margot I felt the complete opposite and oh my god, I can't deal with the cuteness, it was sp fluffy and amazing and heart eyes

I gave tatbilb 4/5 love letters I really enjoyed reading it. Even after watching the film adaptation first. I will say that I loved the movie wAY more than the book. Yes you read right, personally the movie had everything that the book lacked. WHY WAS PETER SUCH A DOUCHE?! Like honestly movie Peter >>>>>>>. Book Lara deserves better. Also while we're talking about movie characters being better than the book character. MOVIE MARGOT AND JOSH > BOOK MARGOT AND JOSH DO NOT @ ME. They annoyed me so much to the point that when they said something I just rolled my eyes. I was like that one vine where the guy goes “oh my God she's always doing something” “ooo what she do?” “She breathed”. Yep that was me with them. ESPECIALLY WITH JOSH OML WHEN HE DID YOU KNOW... THAT YEAH I WAS LIKE BOI!! Let me stop before I throw my phone out of frustration. To end my statement, the movie was better drops mic.