First off, I LOVED this series. SO much. Jenny is unfortunately amazing at breaking my poor little heart then sewing it back up perfectly, continuously. oh ma gad. whyyyyy jenny whyyyyy
I started reading To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before because I’m happily going to the early screening of its Netflix Movie Adaptation next week with the lovely gals at The YA Room! I watched the teaser, the trailer, and got super excited and basically started reading it straight after the Booktubeathon ended. Then once the first book broke me, I read the second straight after, then the third and finished the whole series in less than a week. It was a beautiful beautiful series.
Now, because I don’t want to spoil anything at all. I’ll only put the blurb for the first book below and talk about some amazing elements throughout all three books to review this series as a whole. I was going to do a separate review for each, but my book memory is shocking and I was already mixing up details in my head. So here is my little series review for To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Goodreads Blurb:
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them… all at once?
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
Rating: ★★★★★(5/5)
Let’s categorise these babies up!
Lara Jean
As a mixed Asian girl, reading a book from the point of view of a mixed Asian girl is so refreshing and relatable. Lara Jean was such a likeable character. I feel like 75%-80% of the decisions she made I might have too, had I been in the same situation. Her character was realistic and made some serious development throughout the series. In the first book, it’s developing her personality and helping her come out of her shell, then working on listening and finding herself and how to deal with bullying, and the third is figuring out how to get past serious obstacles in relationships and being braver in the face of adversity. I think all the themes in each book were so appropriate and related well to her character.
I loved that she was such a foodie! The whole series is just filled to the brim with baking, Korean food and even more food than I could possibly imagine. Her obsession with baking to calm her down was super cute, and reading this series had me craving cake and cookies so often my gym trainer would kill if she knew what I was eating while reading this.
I honestly can’t understand how Lara Jean didn’t have any more friends or at least acquaintance even when she spent most of her time at home, because she’s just so witty. She’s smart and interesting and was so real about her struggles, anxiety and hopes and dreams.
Family
Lara Jean’s family is one of the biggest themes in this series. Like seriously, the second most important one or even the most important one because it was so central to Lara Jean’s character and the fact that half the characters were her family.
Her dad is just adorable, her sisters and Lara Jean’s bond with them was another huge and amazingly written component of the relationships in this series. I loved how Lara Jean looked up so much to her sister Margot, and how she wished her younger sister Kitty had known their mom a bit more.
To be honest, throughout the series I didn’t really like her sisters. Kitty had her good moments, but so many times she just came off as such an ungrateful little brat. By the end of the series, I was a little bitter towards her. Margot, on the other hand, did the opposite. I didn’t like her at all in the first book but she slowly warmed up to me.
Peter
I love him. I want my own Peter. That’s all I can say but I want my own Peter like now. Please.
Writing Style
I feel like I liked Jenny Han’s writing style and these books so much that I almost rushed through it a little bit. Her writing is so easy to read, and it was so captivating. I could not stop reading, hence why I haven’t been blogging as much this week. I just had to keep reading as much as I could. The only downside and that’s possibly because again I was so captivated and loving it that I rushed, were that some pieces of dialogue from Lara Jean felt a little robotic. I mean that as if, I couldn’t always decipher her tone if she was being sarcastic or simply her intonation when she said some things. Throughout the first book, it made me feel like Lara Jean didn’t have enough emotion in certain parts of the book, whereas here I am, crying my eyes out every 4 chapters. I hope that when I reread this book in the future, now that I’ve read it before that I can enjoy those pieces of dialogue a lot more. Although there was also a trope I hate to infinite: the love triangle, it was done extremely well in this book. It was a genuine, holy shit I’m torn apart with all this drama kind of love triangle that was actually realistic…a little…if love triangles even exist in real life lol
Overall
I loved this book series to bits. I don’t want to say any more lest I spoil things but even with its tiny faults, this is definitely a new favourite contemporary series and I can’t wait to watch the movie. I have a very good feeling about it like I did with Simon, and I just hope it’s as amazing as an adaptation as Simon was. I just want to hug Lara Jean and give her everything she deserves!
Have you read this series? What did you think?
Until next time,
xx Tracy
GIFs sourced from GIPHY as always.
