Always and Forever Lara Jean
By: Jenny Han
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Simon Schuester
Pages: 325
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Lara Jean is having the best senior year.
And there’s still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her boyfriend Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad’s wedding to Ms. Rothschild. Then she’ll be off to college with Peter, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends.
Life couldn’t be more perfect!
At least, that’s what Lara Jean thinks . . . until she gets some unexpected news.
Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans—but when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?
First Impressions
Honestly, I remember being a little irritated by this book when I first heard it was coming out. Hence not reading it until almost 2 years after it came out. I enjoyed the first book of this series, but not as much as everyone else seemed to. I then disliked the second book. The series was originally supposed to be a duology, so I became irritated when I found out a third book was all of a sudden being added. I worried it was going to be a bunch of lip service to fans. It wasn’t until the Netflix adaptation of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before that I finally considered reading this book.
What I thought
I don’t know if it’s because my opinion on this series has changed since the Netflix adaptation, but I found this story to be very cute and much more enjoyable than I expected it to be.
Lara Jean and Peter are finishing up their Senior year and planning for college. Their hopes are to both get into UVA and attend together, but a wrench is thrown into their plans when Lara Jean is denied. Amongst trying to fit in as much time together before college, Lara Jean’s father is getting married.
As always, I enjoyed Lara Jean’s relationship with her sisters the most, followed closely by her relationship with Peter. I think my biggest issue with this book is there seemed to be a lot going on. I know that’s kind of the point, but there were a few storylines that in the end came off as a bit pointless to me. When (and I will say when, not if) this book is adapted by Netflix, I can see them easily trimming the fat and I think I’ll prefer it that way.
I did appreciate the complicated thoughts of going to college with a boyfriend versus going single. It was an interesting comparison between Lara Jean and her sister Margot and I enjoyed watching Lara Jean and Peter work through everything. In all honesty, Peter is a bit annoyingly perfect in this book and I think I was only able to tolerate him because Noah Centineo was so charming as Peter in the movie. I was able to easily picture him as Peter as I read and it made his perfection easier to swallow.
I do wish there had been an epilogue that forwarded like 10 years into the future, but I understand why there wasn’t. I would gladly read about Lara Jean and Peter through their college years and I think it might be a bit more interesting to me as they mature.
I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would and I think it’s a sweet ending to the trilogy. I think I prefer the movie adaptations to the books, but it’s still a solid read. If you, like me, were avoiding the third book because you disliked the second one, I’d encourage you to go ahead and read this book. The characters are all sweet, wholesome, and likable, so there really is nothing to not like about this story.