Lovely Love Letters
I've spent most of this summer reading non-fiction-y books and soaking up knowledge. I figured it was time to get my dose of delightful teenage normalcy, this time in the form of Jenny Han's bestselling series of three books: To All the Boys I've Loved Before, P. S. I Still Love You, and Always and Forever, Lara Jean. I had never read any of Han's work before, but I loved these books and devoured them in less than a week!
Lara Jean Song Covey, middle daughter and accomplished scrapbooker, writes letters to the boys she falls in love with. She pours out her every feeling and notion about them, using up all her emotions. Then, rather than sending them, she keeps them in her hatbox, hidden away. She's written five letters, and when they get sent out to their respective recipients, Lara Jean is mortified, because one of the letters was to her next door neighbor, who is also her older sister's recent ex-boyfriend. In order to cover up her feelings for Josh, Lara Jean creates a fake relationship with another one of the boys she wrote a letter to, Peter Kavinsky. But where do they draw the lines in this contractual romantic agreement? What if the lines are crossed? Lara Jean's letters have caused a lot of hullabaloo, and she has to wade through the mire of high school with her older sister Margot 3,000 miles away, her younger sister Kitty plotting and scheming, her dad delightfully oblivious, and her ex-best-friend trying to sabotage her. What could go wrong?
I haven't read a proper cotton-candy-goodness teenage love story in forever and this series was just the ticket. Lara Jean is a delight! So are all the characters in Han's story. The relationships and emotions Han creates are real and effervescent. That's what drew me into the story - the way Lara Jean and the rest of the Covey gang interact, fight, and recover. Yes, they make mistakes and argue and are sometimes pretty annoying. But all of the characters are wonderfully real. Han's writing is vaguely reminiscent of Sarah Dessen in the way that her characters are constructed and her lovely, idealistic plots. Overall, I loved Han's work and I'm excited to see how the movie adaptation of To All the Boys I've Loved Before turns out!
Plot: A-
Characters: A
Overall: A
Lara Jean Song Covey, middle daughter and accomplished scrapbooker, writes letters to the boys she falls in love with. She pours out her every feeling and notion about them, using up all her emotions. Then, rather than sending them, she keeps them in her hatbox, hidden away. She's written five letters, and when they get sent out to their respective recipients, Lara Jean is mortified, because one of the letters was to her next door neighbor, who is also her older sister's recent ex-boyfriend. In order to cover up her feelings for Josh, Lara Jean creates a fake relationship with another one of the boys she wrote a letter to, Peter Kavinsky. But where do they draw the lines in this contractual romantic agreement? What if the lines are crossed? Lara Jean's letters have caused a lot of hullabaloo, and she has to wade through the mire of high school with her older sister Margot 3,000 miles away, her younger sister Kitty plotting and scheming, her dad delightfully oblivious, and her ex-best-friend trying to sabotage her. What could go wrong?
I haven't read a proper cotton-candy-goodness teenage love story in forever and this series was just the ticket. Lara Jean is a delight! So are all the characters in Han's story. The relationships and emotions Han creates are real and effervescent. That's what drew me into the story - the way Lara Jean and the rest of the Covey gang interact, fight, and recover. Yes, they make mistakes and argue and are sometimes pretty annoying. But all of the characters are wonderfully real. Han's writing is vaguely reminiscent of Sarah Dessen in the way that her characters are constructed and her lovely, idealistic plots. Overall, I loved Han's work and I'm excited to see how the movie adaptation of To All the Boys I've Loved Before turns out!
Plot: A-
Characters: A
Overall: A
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