[Review] To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before - Jenny Han

Title of Book:
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Author: Jenny Han
Series: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before #1
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Year: 2014
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 362

Lara Jean's love life gets complicated in this New York Times bestselling lovely, lighthearted romance SLJ from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series.
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them ... all at once?
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved -- five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says 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.
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To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before follows Lara Jean Song, the middle child of the Song sisters. It’s the beginning of her junior year in high school and her sister Margot has to move to Scotland for college. Because of the move, Margot broke up with her boyfriend, Josh. The truth is, Lara Jean has been having a crush on Josh. However, Lara Jean doesn’t want to hurt Margot so she keeps her feelings by writing a love letter and saved it in a hat box in her bed room. The letter to Josh is not the only one that she wrote. She also wrote letters to four other guys that she’s ever loved including Peter Kavinsky, a popular guy in her school. Things get complicated when somehow the letter got sent out. When Josh was trying to talk to Lara Jean about the letter, she panicked and kissed Peter who was also responding to her letter. After that, Lara Jean made an agreement with Peter to be in a fake relationship so Josh will forget about the letter and Peter’s ex-girlfriend will get jealous.

It’s been a while since I last read a fluffy young adult contemporary book like this one. I almost forget how fun it can be. I know this book got a lot of buzzes when it first came out. People seem to adore this series. If I’m not wrong, I think back then it’s originally planned to be a standalone. It ends up being a trilogy and even has three film adaptations. Anyway, I finally read the first book and although I have some cons about this book, I still have some pros too.

First of all, I appreciate the fact that the main character is an Asian American and the book also includes some aspects of Asian culture in it. Back then, I don’t think there’s a lot of contemporary young adult book with an Asian American lead that makes it as big as this book does. I also like that this book is not only about romance, but also about family and sisterhood. The relationship between the Song sisters is brought up a lot in this book. Since they lost their mother when they were so young, as the firstborn, Margot takes a role on being the responsible sister and helping her father to take care of her sisters. They form such a strong bond as sisters which is why, Lara Jean’s crush on Margot’s boyfriend becomes such a big issue for her.

Even so, this book is still a young adult book. Maybe because I read it when I’m already on my late twenties, I found a lot of silly juvenile things in this book such as the way Lara Jean reacts to certain things which seems so childish. Sometimes Peter also does things which I think are childish and unnecessary, especially regarding his demands on their fake relationship.

The biggest problem that I have is, if Lara Jean wasn’t intended to send the love letters then why put it on an envelope with a complete address on it? Maybe in some unconscious level she did want these boys to know about her feelings so she prepared the letters as they were. These problems won’t arise if she hadn’t done that in the first place. But because of this, she got to step out of her comfort zone and experience things that she might not experience if the letters hadn’t sent out. So I guess it turns out great for her in the end.

Overall, I enjoyed reading To All the Boys I’ve loved Before. I have a lot of fun reading this book. Sometimes I cringed, but there are times that I smiled and had a good laugh while reading this book. If you’re looking for a fluffy contemporary young adult book, I recommend this book.

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