Release Date: April 15 2014
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 288
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Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis: 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 hit 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.

Review: This book, guys. This book. I kinda love it. I’m not saying it’s up there in my top reads of 2014, but I kind of am. I’ll warn you now: This review might be a little gushworthy.

So. Lara Jean is the middle sister of three. Her older sister, Margot, is about to leave for university in Scotland (which is way cool, but that’s not the point here). Because of this, it’s Lara Jean’s turn to take on all the responsibility. She has no time for crushes. So, to get rid of her feelings, she decides to write letters. To all of those she’s liked before. What she never anticipated was them being sent out. Now, Lara Jean has to deal with the consequences.

Can I just start by saying how clever the plot was? Like, that sounds dumb, but it’s such a simple idea, that it should have been done before. But it hasn’t. It’s something that never even occurred to me.

Also, the cover? It’s gorgeous. It pleases my eyes so much. The title on my edition looks like it’s actually been written on in Sharpie. It’s aesthetically very nice, and I think that it really suits the tone of the novel. Also, A+ for diversity on covers.

I loved the characters. Lara Jean was a wonderful main protagonist. This was really her story. While I liked her in the beginning, I felt that her relationship with Margot was borderline blind idolisation. I loved watching her develop into her own person, who made her own decisions, and figured out her own life.

I liked Peter. I think we saw a lot of development in his character as well. While he could’ve remained this stock-standard jock persona, we really got to see a broader side to him. Even to a certain extent, I think Margot and Kitty (her little sister) really got some growth.

The writing was well-done, and I really liked it. Jenny Han did a great job at capturing Lara Jean’s voice.

She also did a great job at creating the atmosphere of high school. Obviously, I don’t know if this is a true representation of high school in America, but gossip and rumours is kind of a universal thing. I liked that Han showed how things like that affect a person.

I’m probably overselling this at least a little bit. Because, I know there are some problems with it. Primarily, the pacing was a little on the slow side. It took a while for the inciting incident to occur, and throughout the entire novel, not a lot actually happened. But it worked for me. I was ok with it. However, if you are a reader who wants things to happen, and to happen quickly, you might not enjoy it as much.

I however, genuinely enjoyed it all. It really had the capacity to be a bit superficial but Jenny Han really pulled it off in an authentic way. It was the exact book I needed at the time. A warm, not-too-hard-to-think-about sort of book.

Quotes:

“Love is scary: it changes; it can go away. That’s the part of the risk. I don’t want to be scared anymore.”

“Life doesn’t have to be so planned. Just roll with it and let it happen.”

“I didn’t fall for you, you tripped me!”

“Do you think there’s a different? Between belonging with and belonging to?”

“I wonder what it’s like to have that much power over a boy. I don’t think I’d want it; it’s a lot of responsibility to hold a person’s heart in your hands.”