To all the Boys I've Loved Before (Book Review)

This is where it all started. It’s the first book of Jenny Han that I’ve read and the best so far. The feeling of wanting more made me want to read her other books. The final part of the book was “Whaat? That’s all?” That will make most of the reader feel hanging. I’m relieved it’s a duology, meaning there’s a sequel that will soon be released this year. This includes to the few books I would like to have a real physical copy. It’s the book 2 I’m looking forward to buy. Hopefully, Jenny Han would create an equally charming and adorable sequel.

What’s in the story?

The cuteness of the story will bring smile to readers. (kilig moments). It’s almost like a romantic comedy but a mixture of different issues and realities in life that is idealistic at the same time. To have an old crush in your sister’s boyfriend is very awkward, let alone the guy discovers it and chases after you. This will never happen if only the old letters Lara Jean made for herself was not sent to each of the boys that she secretly loved before. But how about the other guys who received the letters? Who sent it anyway? Sure it’s a dilemma but Lara Jean will find a way out.

The good side

It’s not hard to fall in love with Lara Jean’s family. Even with the other characters here, there’s something in them that you will love. Different level of kindness/goodness radiates that makes a relationship special in their own way (even if it’s friendship, family etc.) The only person that annoys me was Peter’s brother.

I read it again right after I finished it for the first time. That’s one of the few moments that a book has its strange effect on me. Now, it seems that I’ve read it for 4 times already. This book never fails to make me laugh. I was superbly head over heels in one of the guy she loved before. It’s for you to figure out who he is! Time to replace Edward Cullen :D I was even fantasizing the guy who will play the role if this book will have a movie counterpart.

Recommend?

Yes. But not yet for elementary students.

Rate:

5/5

Book Quotes:

When someone's been gone a long time, at first you save all the things you want to tell them. You try to keep track of everything in your head. But it's like trying to hold on to a fistful of sand: all the little bits slip out of your hands, and then you're just clutching air and grit. That's why you can't save it all up like that.

But the little things are what make up life.

It feels strange to have spent so much time wishing for something, for someone, and then one day, suddenly, to just stop.

"They're the ones that care the most," she says.

"Fighting isn't a good sign, Lara Jean. It means you still care."

When you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, you only want to be with that person, and you forget about everybody else, and then when the two of you break up, you've lost all your friends. They were off doing fun stuff without you.

...relationships are incredibly amorphous. They could get back together. They could stay friends. Who's to say what will happen in the future?

"Shit. I didn't know you had it in you. I'm kind of impressed."

“If you make Josh’s dumb white chocolate cranberry cookies and not my fruitcake ones, it’s over.”

Like everyone else that come before him, they were all to prepare me for this. I think I see the difference now, between loving someone from afar and loving someone up close. When you see them up close, you see the real them, but they also get to see the real you.