To All The Boy's I've Loved Before

Beautiful cover for a beautiful book

Title: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Author: Jenny Han

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: April 15^th, 2014

Length: 355 pages (in Hardcover)

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Format and Source: eBook from the iBook store

Summary from Goodreads: [This will be spoiler free, but the actual review below will not]. What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them... all at once?

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.

Review: [Reminder: Spoilers]. A little warning in advance: this review will be slightly biased because I fell in love with this book and it made me feel so, so happy that it’s hard to express how I feel without gushing. If you decide to read this book, be prepared to hate Jenny Han for the rest of your life because it’s so good, no other contemporary romance could every compare. Okay so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is that good.

I admit at the beginning of the book I was totally rooting for Josh and Lara Jean to get together. It seemed to make sense that they would get together considering how close they were. Josh was just such a sweetheart and I thought that it would just work between them, seeing as Margot had already broken up with him.

Then enter Peter Kavinsky, the hottest YA romance lead of 2014 (this might just be me but wowee). He was just so different to the common popular-boy trope. I have a soft spot for people that get along with kids, and Peter was so kind to Kitty, it made his hotness rocket up the scale. But enough about his looks etc., and onto his interactions with Lara Jean.

I am a sucker for fake-relationship-turns-into-real-relationship plotlines, and it was pulled off masterfully in this book. You could almost feel them falling in love and I was squealing so many times throughout the book. Their ‘romance’ was natural, and there are no words that can describe just how cute it was. I’m probably repeating myself a lot, so while I’m at it, I might as well list all the reasons you’ll love this book;

Sisterly love, one of the greatest fictional parents, Josh (Margot’s ex(?)-boyfriend who also kinda likes Lara Jean and Lara Jean also kinda likes him), Christmas recitals, skiing trips, the jealous ex (Gen), kissing, Lara Jean getting along with Peter K’s friends (massive awww moments), Lara Jean and Peter K talking about love, Lara Jean and Peter K falling in love, Lara Jean and Peter K – do we see where I’m going with this?

All in all, I absolutely adored this book and I believe it’s now my go-to for when I need a pick-me-up. It’s the first work I’ve read of Jenny Han’s but I suppose I’ll have to read all of her books just so I can feel the feelings I felt in TATBILB again.

Final Rating: A+. I already told you this was a biased review, but this book was it for me. It matched my tastes and I guess while some people might not feel the same way, it’s definitely worth reading. I may have went on about all the fluff too much, but the book is really brilliant and the way it deals with distance (in the case of Margot leaving for Uni) is all so real, there’s no way you can’t love this book.

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Isla and the Happily Ever After

The prettiest simplistic contemporary covers ever - aka everything about this trilogy is beautiful.

Title: Isla and the Happily Ever After

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Dutton

Publication Date: August 14^th, 2014

Length: 339 pages (in Hardcover)

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Format and Source: eBook from the iBook store

Summary from Goodreads: [This will be spoiler free, but the actual review below will not]. From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever.

Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

Review: [Reminder: Spoilers]. I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume not all of you have previously witnessed the greatness that is Stephanie Perkins’ work, so just to catch you up, here’s a quick rundown of Anna and the French Kiss (which you should go read right now if you haven’t already);

“St. Clair gets a crush on Anna. He’s torn between her and Ellie, and he spends too much time running between them that he hardly has time left for Josh. And the more time that Josh spends alone, the more he realizes how alone he actually is. All of his friends will be gone the next year. Josh grows increasingly antagonistic towards school, which makes Rashmi increasingly antagonistic towards him, which makes him increasingly antagonistic towards her. And she’s upset because Ellie dropped her as a friend, and Meredith is upset because now St. Clair likes two girls who aren’t her, and Anna is upset because St. Clair is leading her on, and then St. Clair’s mom gets cancer.

It’s a freaking soap opera.”

So I was basically cackling at this part but don’t let the ‘soap opera’ aspect turn you away. Stephanie Perkins is one of my favourite contemporary authors and I know I can rely on her to pick me up whenever I feel down. So this is officially the end of the spoiler-free section, and I would suggest reading the trilogy if you think you’ll like it.

I’ll start off by being completely truthful; I haven’t reread Anna or Lola since I first read them last year, so my memory is a bit hazy. I do know that I enjoyed Anna and the French Kiss more than Lola and the Boy Next Door, but both were so adorable, it was hard not to love them. I know for a fact that Isla isn’t as good as Anna in my eyes, but I don’t know where I would place it in comparison to Lola, so don’t expect any comparisons at all in this review – it’s all based on how I felt about Isla.

The thing about Isla is that it was a bit instalove. Anna and Lola had time to fall in love with St. Clair and Cricket, but that just wasn’t present in IATHEA. Maybe it’s because Isla and Josh harboured crushes on each other for, like, three years, but the first few chapters seemed a bit rushed. The first half of the book was just as fluffy and cute as I would expect from Stephanie, but things quickly turned downhill.

Isla and Josh went on a little escapade to Barcelona and got caught. Josh gets expelled. Josh goes back home for his parents’ political campaign. Isla starts to think Josh is more in love with the idea of love than with her. Isla breaks up with Josh.

It was quick, it was explosive, and I was left absolutely heartbroken. I found myself dying inside for Isla when she waited for Josh on New Years and he didn’t show up, and all of my friends could probably vouch for how annoying I was when I read that part. I just could not accept that after all the love Josh had for Isla, he would just give up on her. I was shaking with anger because how dare he hurt her. In hindsight it was kind of her fault too, but I was rooting for Isla from the start so I couldn’t find it in me to blame her.

Imagine my excitement when THE WHOLE CREW reassembled at the end of the book for the Olympics, and St. Clair proposed to Anna! I was just so happy with the closure and everything wrapped up so beautifully. IATHEA was a perfect ending to an amazing trilogy which holds fond memories for me in my heart. I’m a fluff-addict, and the trilogy is just so feel-good and it cheers me up whenever I’m down.

Before I end this review, I just want to commend Stephanie for the section near the end of the book when Isla started treating her little sister, Hattie, like a friend rather than mothering her. That scene resounded with me deeply since I have two little sisters of my own and it just really got to me. It’s hard to put it into words but I felt like that one scene made Isla 1000 times more relatable, which is what every good character should be.

Final Rating: A-. With the exception of the whole instalove thing, this book was one of the best endings to a trilogy ever. I have a special place in my heart for well-written contemporary romances and it’s fair to say that the Anna and the French Kiss trilogy takes the cake. Stephanie Perkins is an extremely talented author and I’m so glad Isla met my (extremely high) expectations.

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