To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Not all what I expected. A lot of useless parts & pointless things were added in like: constantly describing the food they ate - breakfast, lunch & dinner, detail by detail; seriously, I don't care that much. It felt more like I was getting a whole recipe or something. I really wanted to know more about the letters being sent out & how each guy reacted, honestly only 3 out of the 5 guys responded with a little cameo of a forth guy. I didn't expect there to be a fake relationship being involved & that being the whole point of the book, but eh okay. Conversations were kind of pointless and run-offs. The main character acted like such a child, the younger sister was even more mature than her! But, there were still some cute moments & I like how it played out, despised the ending though, because there were still some unanswered questions but I guess that's what the sequel is for. I might read it, just to find out what happens next. But, I really hope that the main character grows up a little. ( )

"We're not the same as Margot and Sanderson or anybody else. We're you and me."

In terms of plot this book has some faults with me but this is easily my favorite in the series. I have to admit that I did not ship Kavinsky and Lara Jean at first but this book suddenly easily made me love them. It is so much sweeter, romantic and shows the reality of finishing high school.

A nice quick read for readers who are in need of a romantic, sweet love story. ( )

It was as good as any other teenage contemporary romance. Maybe I'm too old to read these books. It was really confusing at times and the boys were stupid. Josh most of all. How can you like a girl and then date her sister? It's just stupid. I might continue with the series but most likely I'm going to forget about it. ( )

Not sure if I should rate this a 2.5 or a 3. Lara Jean kind of got on my nerves through out the book. One thing that kind of weird for me was hearing a teenager called their parents mommy and daddy. ( )

I absolutely adored this book from beginning to end. I am so glad I bought it in hardcover too since I absolutely adore the cover.

Told in the first person, the main character is Lara Jean Song Covey. Lara is a mixed Caucasian and Korean teenage girl. She has an older sister named Margot and a younger sister named Kitty.

Lara Jean does her best to be a good sister and daughter and is still dealing with losing her mother when she was younger. I thought it was especially moving when Lara Jean would just remember something her mother had done or how she was since you can see how losing her still affects her years later.

Everything in Lara Jean's life is okay though Margot is moving to Scotland for college and Lara Jean has a quick episode of still feeling like she maybe still in love with Margot's boyfriend Josh. I can understand how Lara Jean feels she doesn't know what to do since she has been part of a trio for so long.

I found Lara Jean painfully naive at times, but that was part of her charm. It was nice to see her waken up and become stronger and a bit more daring than how she was at the beginning of the book. We can see that through how she acts, what she wears, and even how she keeps trying to braid her hair. I think everyone else but Lara Jean saw her as a young woman, and she still wanted to be a kid.

The other characters in the book are written very well too. Lara Jean's sister Margot you can see is always focused on her family and how to make things easier for them. Margot really is Lara Jean's mother in a way and you can see how much Lara Jean initially struggles when Margot moves away.

Kitty cracked me up since even at the age of 9 she is what my family would consider a Miss Ann, i.e. sure of herself and cannot be told a thing. I would love to read a book with Kitty as a teenager.

Even Josh and Peter are written as typical and atypical teenage boys. Josh I found to be a little light in the character development. I would often forget about him unless Lara Jean brought him up. I think it was because the character of Peter outshone Josh so much to me.

Lara Jean is super naive about boys/girls/sex/life in general. And it was great to see her interacting with Peter and having the fake relationship wake her up to life. As it was pointed out to Lara Jean by her father, he wanted her to go out and have experiences and interact with people. It sounded like Lara Jean's sister never did that since she was too busy taking care of other people. And Lara Jean could have went that way also if it wasn't for Peter forcing her to interact with other people that were not her family, her "best friend" Chris and Josh.

The plot of the novel is pretty simplistic though it was so good from beginning to end. Lara Jean writes letters to every boy that she has "loved" and addresses them and places them in her mother's old hatbox when she is done. One day Lara Jean finds out that her letters were sent to the five boys she loved, one that is Josh, and the other which is an old childhood friend named Peter Kavinksy. Lara Jean quickly panicks when Josh gets his letter since she doesn't want things to change between them, so in a twist that I swear was the exact plot in Drive Me Crazy she asks Peter Kavinksy to pretend to be her boyfriend so that Josh doesn't realize that she still may have feelings for him.

I will admit that I was tempted to lower the book one star since Lara Jean should have figured out pretty quickly who sent the letters. It is pretty much telegraphed in neon lights who did it and why.

And I was tempted to lower it again because the plot made no sense. Just tell a guy that you are not into him and leave it at that. Why go through a whole charade with a fake boyfriend? That said I still gave it five stars because it made my heart smile. Sometimes you need to read a book that just does that. It is great to be able to just read and enjoy a book and you don't think about plot holes too much because you like it so much that it feeds you in a way. This book fed my heart.

The writing was very good and did read as the inner workings of a teenage girl's mind. And the pacing was just right too. Sometimes I would be surprised how fast I got to the end of a chapter.

I am totally baffled at the setting of this novel though. I think it takes place somewhere in California. Please don't hold me to that though. It was probably said somewhere and I don't recall reading where Lara Jean lives. That would probably be the only thing I ding this novel on really. The town where Lara Jean lives doesn't seem real. It could just be because she doesn't do anything outside of her house and school though.

The ending I thought was just right and made me smile. I now know there's a sequel to this book, P.S. I Still Love You that I do want to read though I am a bit worried that the synopsis makes it seem like Lara Jean is still acting way too young for her age when it comes to matters of the heart. ( )