To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han

Release date: 20 March 2015
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★ – 9/10
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To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (Lara Jean Song #1), blurb:

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.

So, I really wanted to hate this book (I don’t know why, I just thought I would!) and about 6 chapters in I was ready to do a DNF, but then I remembered that my Discworld books didn’t load onto my iPad properly and it was this or some trashy romance novels so I kept going.  And then I started to really love it and then I was crying by the end.  Worst hating of a book ever.

So, in a nut-shell, the story is about a kind of angsty teen, Lara Jean, who may or may not be in love with a bunch of boys.  This seemed to be a very typical YA fiction book, but what I wasn’t counting on was really liking the characters, or the super sweet family side to it.  Not having a sister myself, this was everything I wanted growing up and I loved it.

The characters were good, well thought out and angsty, just like real teenagers! Their problems and motivations were real, and while I didn’t necessarily agree with everything they did, I felt like they stayed true to who they were as a character.

One thing I really liked was Lara Jean’s obsessiveness with her baking… because I am the same. It must be the perfect chocolate cake / choc chip peanut butter cookie / lemon tart, etc. However, that was pretty much where our similarities ended.

Also, I’m not sure how or when it happened, but I quite liked Peter in the end. But Josh really annoyed me… Go figure.

Basically I loved this book.  The story was sweet in all the right places, and not overly gross in all the other ones.  And I’m also really glad that I have the next two books as well because I will probably read them all immediately, because my love for this story is sickening.

Puke. Vomit. Gross.

Also, I don’t even know why I’m hating myself for loving this book so much.  I’m just being such a grinch today.

Sorry Jenny Han, your book was amazing!