To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Review -

This was a long overdue read for me after it has been sitting on my shelf for a good while now.  To be honest, I'm not too sure why it has taken me so long to pick up, but no matter what the reason, I'm really glad I finally got round to this one.  It was cute, fun but was still a really enjoyable read.

The basis of the story involves the sending out the main characters hidden love letters, each one written to a boy she has loved.  This is ultimately what drew me to this book in the first place, as it seemed like such a cute story but one that would  be different to the average contemporary romance story (not that I don't love one of those two).  One thing that I did like about this was that the plot was actually quite quick to move away from this dilemma and move onto another, although slightly connected, problem of its own.  I liked how the storyline evolved from the simple concept, only referring back to this idea every so often.

The book centres around the character Lara Song and her family, particularly her two sisters.  I really liked how big a part family played in this book, with the relationship between Lara and her sisters Margot and Kitty.  It was really nice to see a really strong family unit be as important as the romance and main plot, particularly one revolving around sisters.

I also really enjoyed watching as alot of the characters evolved through the course of the book, this particularly the case with Lara and Peter.  Both of them changed so much from the beginning to the end for the better, and I really felt as though you got to see them grow into much better people.  This also allowed Lara to become alot more relatable to me, something which made me like her alot more.  The only character I wasn't so keen on was Josh, who I have to admit I didn't like from the offset.  I can't exactly explain why, but I just never could grow to like him, and so wasn't too keen on his relationship with Lara.

One problem that I did have, particularly at the start of this book, was that the main character did feel just a bit immature.  I don't know what it was exactly, but there were certain points when I thought that she sounded a little younger than she was meant to be.  She did seem to mature through the book as she grew, but I just found her to be a little too immature at the start.

Finally, I couldn't write this review without commenting on the romance element, which I really did like.  I thought I could see where it was going from the beginning of the book and so wasn't amazingly too excited about reading on, when the book surprised me by going in a completely different direction, one that I definitely prefered.  I liked how it didn't go the obvious route and overall I just found the romance to be cute and really easy to read.

So, I think it's safe to say that I enjoyed this one.  I liked how it surprised me in many different ways and how much of a journey I felt I went on with this book.  I would definitely recommend it and I'm now really excited to pick up the sequel!

Favourite:

Character(s): Peter and Kitty

Scene(s): Peter and Lara baking cupcakes

Quote(s): 'But the little things are what make up life'

Relate:

Song(s): I Choose You - Sara Bareilles

Bright - Echosmith 

Other Book(s): Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Rating:

4/5

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