Series Overview

Series Title: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Intended Audience: Young Adult
Genre: Romance
Sub-Genres/Tropes: High School, Childhood Crush, Opposites Attract
Representation: BIPOC
Spice Scale: 🫑

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

And now that the year is almost over, I know for sure that I am also over you. I’m immune to you now, Peter. I’m really proud to say that I’m the only girl in this school who has been immunized to the charms of Peter Kavinsky. All because I had a really bad dose of you in seventh grade and most of eighth. Now I never ever have to worry about catching you again. What a relief! I bet if I did ever kiss you again, I would definitely catch something, and it wouldn’t be love.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Oh, Lara Jean, if only middle-school you knew how untrue that would end up being.

Title: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (#1)
Published: April 15, 2014
Pages: 355
Sub-Genres/Tropes: Fake Dating, Friends to Lovers
Content Warnings: Bullying, Death of a parent

Summary

Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her, these are the ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she can pour out her heart and soul and say all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

Review

Lara Jean is your classic romantic. She’s not the popular girl, but she’s well-liked, just a little bit naïve, and grounded. She’s relatable. Peter, however, is the opposite. He’s your typical popular boy: a little cocky, plays a sport, and is dating the most popular girl in school—or at least was. He’s the boy that nearly every girl has had a crush on at some point. I know I had my own Peter Kavinsky (although he wasn’t nearly as charming as Peter, never gave me the time of day, and I stayed over him once my unrequited middle school crush was over).

The two of them make a nice pair. Yes, Peter and Lara Jean are seemingly opposites, but they both care, which is more important than extracurriculars anyway. Lara Jean loves profoundly and honestly, whether it’s her friend Chris (who is a whole mood), her sisters Margot and Kitty (who is, I think, my favorite character. That little girl is a firecracker), or the boys she wrote letters to. Peter loves almost effortlessly. He has lots of friends, but he seems to honestly like and get along with them, he has a close relationship with his family, and although Genevieve is kind of a nightmare, he still cares about her even after they break up. And then, of course, there’s how they end up feeling about each other, but I won’t spoil it too much for you.

I absolutely adored this story. Lara Jean’s inner monologues had me laughing one minute and feeling all the feels the next. It really helped me understand her as a character. I felt like I went on this journey with her, and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for me next.

P.S. I Still Love You

“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

Title: P.S. I Still Love You (#2)
Published: May 26, 2015
Pages: 337
Sub-Genres/Tropes: Love Triangle, Matchmaking, Meddling Elderly Character
Content Warnings: Death of a Parent, Infidelity (not Lara Jean and Peter, don’t worry), and Mild Racism

Summary

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?

Review

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. P.S. I Still Love You bucks this tradition. While I loved To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, I think P.S. I Still 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 Still Love You builds on what I loved about the first book, but it also tells its own story.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean

What if I came here and I ended up loving it? What if, after a year, I didn’t want to leave? What then? But wouldn’t it be great if I loved it? Isn’t that the whole point? Why bet on not loving a place? Why not take a chance and bet on happiness?

Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Title: Always and Forever, Lara Jean (#3)
Published: May 2, 2017
Pages: 325
Sub-Genres/Tropes: Graduation, Relationship in Trouble, Coming of Age
Content Warnings: Death of a Parent, Underage Drinking

Summary

And there’s still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her boyfriend Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad’s wedding to Ms. Rothschild. Then she’ll be off to college with Peter, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends. Life couldn’t be more perfect! At least, that’s what Lara Jean thinks . . . until she gets some unexpected news. Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans—but when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?

Review

Always and Forever, Lara Jean was hands down my favorite in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series. It opens a year after the events of P.S. I Still Love You. Lara Jean and Peter are well into their senior year of high school and dealing with everything that goes along with that; waiting for college acceptances, senior class trips, prepping for prom. Although it’s been nearly ten years since I was a senior in high school, reading Lara Jean go through all of the ups and downs of that year brought me right back. And I think that was my favorite part of this book and why it ended up being my favorite in the series.

I’ve never fake-dated my middle school crush and had that turn into a real relationship—and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that not many other people have, either—but almost everyone has gone through the panic of graduating from high school. Reading this book, I remembered the anxiety that went along with waiting for college acceptances, the joy of watching my friends get “promposed” to in elaborate ways, and the paradoxical feeling of both excitement and terror at the fact that everything was changing.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean is raw, real, and relatable in a way that the first two books were not but still had that same charm. Lara Jean and Peter’s relationship is as adorable as ever—minus the bumps along the way—and the side plot with Lara Jean’s dad getting married is heartwarming. As always, I loved Lara Jean’s dynamic with her sisters and her friendship with Chris and Lucas, as well as the growing relationship she has with Trina. As I mentioned in my review of P.S. I Still Love You, the series was intended to be two novels, not three, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the series, I couldn’t have imagined the series without the third installation. It’s a perfect way to wrap up the series and say goodbye to the characters I’ve grown to love.