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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