To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Ratings376
Average rating3.8
UBER cute.
I absolutely loved the characters and the story. This isn't really plot-based, but more character-driven, which I was fine with because of how flipping cute it is. That being said, not much actually happens.
Also, I totally dislike who she ends up with! UGH I dislike that character and don't feel like they match at all. I suppose in that way it very much feels like a first love/high school romance.
Will I read the sequel? I thought so, but I've already had it from the library and didn't feel like reading it. Maybe he will grow on me, so I'll care about their relationship?? I'm not sure :/
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.
I liked it! I'm not one for romantic YA but I actually quite enjoyed it and really looked forward to watching the movie after.
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.
Funny to read but not realistic at all: the crush on the sister's boyfriend, the way things start between Peter and LJ among other stuff.
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.
“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.
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.
just the right amount of fluff. i especially liked that it is (arguably) more about the relationship of the main character with her family than with the love interest.
You got me, I fell for Peter K. Not to mention this was really written well for a young adult book.
“To All the Boys I've Loved Before” is the first novel in a trilogy written by Jenny Han. I re-read this novel when the Netflix movie came out this year. This novel follows main character Lara Jean, who writes letters to boys whom she had feelings for, and places those letters in box. One day those letters have been mailed out.
There were five letters that were sent out, and Lara Jean has to deal with the outcome of this. Though out of the five letters, only three recipients of the five letters, are seen throughout the first novel, but of those three, one is gay, one is her sister's ex-boyfriend - Josh -, and the other is the boyfriend of Lara Jean's enemy - Peter. Peter and his girlfriend break up, and he suggests after getting the letter, that he and Lara Jean pretend to be in a relationship, to make his ex jealous, and so that Josh, will think that Lara Jean has no feelings for him any more. Throughout the novel Lara Jean starts to halve real feelings for her fake boyfriend.
I liked the relationship between Lara Jean and her two sisters, and how Lara Jean, does not like having feelings for her older sisters boyfriend, as she does not want to hurt her siblings. I also liked the fake relationship between Lara Jean and Peter, and how that relationship turns to a friendship then eventually into an actual relationship, near the end of the novel. I also liked the baking aspect. The novel was fast paced and fluffy, which I really enjoyed, I gave the novel a 4.5/5 stars.
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.
Really cute with some great characters - I LOVE Kitty.
I took this Book Riot “Which Song Girl are you?” quiz and I got Lara-Jean which is perfect: https://bookriot.com/2018/08/07/to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before-quiz/
And here's a lesson to myself in why I should trust my instincts as I KNOW WHAT I LIKE!
Maybe 10-15 years ago I would have been into this but now I just can't handle it. It's 420 pages long!! 420!! and it's about some girl having multiple crushes and letters being sent to those boys. Jeez. It could have been 100 pages and it would have been passable as a quick cheesey novella but this is just long and sickly sweet and tedious.
Nope. Not for me.
I gave it the extra star for the portrayal of family life, apart from the annoying little brat of a younger sister, the older sisters and their dad were lovely to read about.
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.
Boy, doesn't this book make you want to bake like a mom hosting her kid's Girl Scout troop's bake sale?
This is just such a cute story! The main character, Lara Jean Song-Covey, is a WOC and the relationship she has with her sisters is the most precious thing. Peter is also an adorable puppy and I just asdffghjkl.
I love this book.
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.
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.
first things first: the catalyst for this story–that Lara Jean writes these letters to boys she has crushes on to get her feelings out and exorcise the crushes AND THEN SEALS THEM IN ENVELOPES WITH THEIR ACTUAL ADDRESSES WRITTEN ON THEM–doesn't quite add up for me. I mean the first part, yes, but WHY WOULD YOU WRITE THEIR ACTUAL MAILING ADDRESSES ON THEM, LARA JEAN, THAT IS JUST A RECIPE FOR DISASTER?!
anyway once you get past that, I really loved this book and these characters <3 I read the whole thing in one very enjoyable afternoon and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel. It's very sweet and funny and the characters felt so real to me. A great readalike for Sarah Dessen et al. I think it's great for maybe some very studious, rule follow-y teens who might need a gentle reminder to ~live a little~.