About the Book: Lara Jean didn't expect to really fall for Peter.
How cute is Peter?? Oh my goodness, I love everything about him. I love how imperfect he is, but how hard he tries. That's what we should expect out of people. I'm not sure where we got this idea that all fictional characters in YA must be portrayed as always knowing the right way to act, speak, and behave, but it's ridiculous. That's not how anyone is. What we should hope for is that we're able to surround ourselves with people who try, and who have a good heart. That's Peter in every way. Sometimes he says the dopey, dumb boy, thing but he will always apologize and try to make it right, and it was in those moments that I fell for him harder.
Lara Jean is just as relate-able! She's also not perfect, even though people think she is. Lara Jean has insecurities and she wants everything to be too perfect all the time even when it's not realistic. However, she doesn't hold grudges. She doesn't overreact when something goes wrong, or not her way. When anyone she loves does something wrong, she's very quick to forgive and forget. She recognizes that life is too short to hold onto the little stuff. People usually aren't hurtful on purpose. Most of the time it's a lapse in judgement, and when you can't forgive you end up losing out on meaningful relationships.
I really liked Lara Jean and Peter's friendship in the first book, but in P.S. I Still Love you everything just got so much more meaningful. I could go on and list everything that added weight to Lara Jean and Peter, but it would give away spoilers, so instead I'll just say the cliff hanger and threads that were left at the end of book one are nicely sewn up in this one. It's a solid ending.
And still, I jumped right into book three.
About the Book: 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.
Always and Forever, Lara Jean took me forever to read. My non-blogger life was a large part of the delay, with personal and work issues that came first, but part of the reason was, Always and Forever, Lara Jean felt like a really really long epilogue.
This trilogy isn't really large on plot, if I'm being honest. It's definitely 'coming of age', and more about Lara Jean as a person. It's all character driven. However, it felt like Always and Forever, Lara Jean was even more plotless than the first two. I know it was about preparing for college, and making that giant leap forward, but I think that we could have done without, especially because now with the third book I feel like I have less closure.
That's not to say I hated the book. I don't think I could have hated any book in this series. They're just so light and happy. Sweet. There were many moments that made me swoon. You can't help it with Lara Jean and Peter, they're just dang adorable. I did appreciate the honest depiction of how going away to college can make you feel, about leaving family, and about wondering how you can make it work with that special guy.
Overall, I did enjoy Always and Forever, Lara Jean enough to give the finale 4 stars. I guess I just feel like the story would have been better served as a duology.
Very nice review, Birdie!! I have read To All The Boys I've Loved Before and those two are on my TBR at the moment… they sound so cute and warm and funny, I can't wait to get to them!
I can't wait to hear what you thought! I ended up binge reading all three back to back.
Very nice! I have no idea when I'll read those… I haven't got the physical books yet and I'd like to read a few more of the stuff I have, but I do look forward to reading them!
I am such a fan of Lara Jean and the Song girls in general, that I will read any story Han writes about them. I am waiting for a hold to come through to read this, but am super excited that Han took us full circle with this book. It started with LJ's sister leaving for college, and now she is leaving for college. Now, if we can get Han to write some Kitty centric books, that would be fabulous.
Oh man, I'd love a Kitty trilogy!