I cannot believe that John Ambrose McClaren read that letter. I didn’t remember it to be so… naked. With so much… yearning. God, why do I have to be a person who yearns so much? How horrible. How perfectly horrible.

P.S. I Still Love You

Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter. She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever. When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

Can a girl be in love with two boys at once? I found myself asking this question throughout the book because I couldn’t help but love both Peter and John Ambrose McClaren. Of course, I fell in love with Peter in the first book, but this one just cemented that love. He’s kind and charismatic, and his love for Lara Jean is so evident, despite the drama with Genevieve going on. Him giving her the locket? So sweet. And taking Kitty to school on her birthday and telling her that she’s his “only girl” that day? I understand entirely why Lara Jean was swooning. But then there’s John Ambrose McClaren (I can’t help using his full name like Lara Jean. It’s just a great name). He’s confident and smart and also clearly thinks the world of Lara Jean. I mean (mild spoiler) who shows up for a nursing home USO party in a red convertible Mustang and wearing a full uniform for a girl he wasn’t head over heels with? I was with Ms. Rothschild on that one: “Whoa is right.”

Usually, the second installation in a series tends to be the weakest. Oceans 12 was not nearly as good as Oceans 11 or Oceans 13. Catching Fire was not nearly as compelling as The Hunger Games or Mocking Jay. Even Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was kind of weak in comparison to the rest of the 7 books. P.S. I Love You bucks this tradition. While I loved To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, I think P.S. I Love You is even stronger. This could be because it was intended to be the last book in the series, but I think that wouldn’t be giving the book enough credit. The side characters grow and become even more likable than they already were (Kitty had me laughing out loud more than once. Someone, get that girl away from The Sopranos!). The side plots with Stormy and the nursing home and Kitty being a matchmaker for her dad and their neighbor Ms. Rothschild are well developed and interesting in their own right. P.S. I Love You builds on what I loved about the first book, but it also tells its own story.