To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before Series, book 1)
By Jenny Han
Blurb:
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.
So I just finished the Oracle Queen before reading this book and towards the end of that book I could feel myself starting to go into a reading slump, hence the huge change in genre.
I chose this book to read because I'd watched the Netflix Original and though it was excellent and found that there was actually a book series. So I puchased it, and now you get my review.
So the book started off with Margot dating Josh, everyone within the Song household loved him for different reasons. Margot is off to St. Andrews to study anthropology in Scotland in 2 weeks, so she is starting off a whole new life without her sisters (Kitty and Lara-Jean) and Josh being there for her. They are discussing meeting up in Paris as a whole get together so they can enjoy life again.
The ones staying in America are so nervous and worried about what they will do without Margot because she is the glue for all of those people, as she makes their lives easier.
Margot has took on the role of her mother since the age of 12 when her mum sadly died after hitting her head. I won't go into too much detail cause otherwise uou may as well just skip the accident part in the book. Within the Netflix Original you don't find out the reason why their mother died, you are just aware that she has passed away and Margot has took over this role.
Josh was first best friends with Lara-Jean until the start of the term one year when he announced to Lara-Jean that he loved someone but didn't know how to tell this person. Lara-Jean thought he was on about her so she was building up the courage to tell him that she liked him, and that day when she got home she found Josh at her house and Margot announced that they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
Since then Song girls had made a pact to always stick together, and not cause arguments with one another Lara-Jean decided that day was the last day she would love Josh and wrote a letter good bye. So the last 2 paragraphs are a bit of an insight into the past of all these characters lives. The book also does this and it is quite a good thing I think as it allows you to get a lot more detail and understand why characters act a certain way and the roles they have taken on and why.
I'll try not to go into too much detail about the rest of the book as I don't want to give away the main spoilers. But Margot broke up with Josh before going to Uni to make things easier for her, Kitty is annoyed and Lara-Jean because she felt like she was being secluded form the Paris trip and Lara-Jean returns to school to find all the letters she had wrote to the boys she loved had been sent out!
This is when we meet Peter Kavinsky. Described as the most handsome guy you've ever seen, who is one of the popular students that doesn't do too well at his classes.
Throughout the book Lara-Jean has took on the tole of mother but is struggling to do it and realised how good Margot was actually doing it. By realising this she starts to miss Margot a lot but because her life has changed so much she feels like she can't talk to her older sister about the things that are bothering her anymore. This upsets her even more because they used to be so close to one another and could tell each other everything. Also since the letters have been sent out the families relationship with Josh has started to fade making things difficult for Kitty.
Putting it in simple terms there is a lot of drama between Lara-Jean, Peter and Josh. Which is the majority of the book and things get difficult at times for each of these main characters.
I feel that each of the characters personalities and backgrounds were well developed and I wouldn't actually change anything about them. They all have their quirks and their annoying bits, but overall I don't think I hate any of the characters really.
The only one that I would have a slight grudge about would be Peter but that's just because I wouldn't get along with him in real life. He is far too stuck up but he fits perfectly in this book so there's nothing I'd change about him.
I found that when certain things happened in the book it was really strange to see another side of the character, but by doing it like this it felt more natural of how these events would happen in real life. So I actually loved the different sides of the characters you get to see.
The sisterly love within this book is really strong but certain things happen you can start to see the tears that appear in the relationship. But towards the end of the book when Margot is home and things are discussed the relationship between all of the sisters build up again. Which was really nice because that's how I'd expect sisters to react and just forgive one another rather just be moody with them and never forgive them.
To see an insight of the Song family, the Sanderson family and the Kavinsky family was really good too because you got to know the backgrounds of where these people came from which made it easier to see why they acted in a certain way.
The ending of the book was also quite nice it was sort of what I expected and it was a nice finish really because it didn't have too many cliff-hanger questions.
While reading this book I didn't actually find many of the details different from the Netflix Original which is really good considering. So I'm quite pleased about that and I'm super excited to read the rest of the series to find out what happens and what other drama I will come across. I'd also like to see how the characters develop and change some more now that things have changed and situations are better in a way.
I'd definitely recommend this book 100% and I would recommend watching the Netflix Original too. This book is perfect for anyone that wants a true love story, twists, sisterly love, fights, jealousy, rage, and funny cringe worthy moments.
Favourite Characters: Peter Kavinsky
Read: 11/09/18 - 14/09/18
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