2nd Read: January 2021
4.5 stars
Going into this book, I doubted it would stand by itself and I worried that I wouldn’t enjoy it too much. Sufficient to say, it was great! I forgot so many aspects of this book, honestly due to the movie adaptation and the details it missed. It made me laugh out loud, shout at the book in frustration and also just made me smile and my tummy feel fuzzy.

Lara Jean is such a great protagonist, one in which so many people can relate to for different reasons. I relate to her because I’ve never had any experience with boys, but she is written in such a way that she’s relatable and funny but not smack in the face dumb and annoying. Others relate to her for having all sisters, for being Korean/Asian in a Western culture and for losing a parent.

Since 2018 I have gained a little sister and my goodness Kitty is an icon and reminds me so much of my own sister. Her jokes, one liners and persistence for a dog make me laugh. Also, for Kitty and the rest of the family it is so evident that they all care deeply about each other. Family dynamics tend to lack fluffy YA romances, and I always treasure TATBILB for this reason.

"Margot would say she belongs to herself. Kitty would say she belongs to no one. And I guess I would say I belong to my sisters and my dad, but that won’t always be true. To belong to someone - I didn’t know it, but now that I think about it, it seems like that’s all I’ve ever wanted. To really be somebody’s, and to have them be mine."

Differences between the book / the movie
Having not re-read the book since the movie came out, there are two things that I think the book did better. This section will contain spoilers for both the book/movie.

Spoiler

The Relationship between Lara Jean and Peter
In the book so many things happen to develop them as a couple, which don’t happen in the movie. Particularly the trip to the estate sale and the betrayal Peter feels after Lara doesn’t sit next to him on the bus. On the estate sale trip Peter gives Lara doughnuts, which then come up again later in the book. They discuss losing a parent, one to death and the other to divorce and how it impacts the family. Just these small conversations, make the plot line of Lara Jean and Peter actually falling for each other much more believable. Maybe I just need to watch the movie again, but the romance in the book developed at a better pace than the movie.

[Peter] says “I don’t know if I ever loved Genevieve. How would I even know what that felt like? I’m seventeen, for God’s sake.”
“Seventeen’s not so young. A hundred years ago people got married when they were practically our age.”
“Yeah, that was before electricity and the Internet. A hundred years ago eighteen-year-old guys were out there fighting wars with bayonets and holding a man’s life in their hands! They lived a lot of life by the time they were our age. What do kids our age know about love and life?”
I’ve never heard him talk like this before - like he actually cares about something.

The Friendship between Lara Jean and Josh
In the movie, Josh is such a throwaway character in my opinion. Used as a tool to get Lara Jean and Peter to start dating and then randomly comes back at the very end to shout at Peter. Whereas in the book, there was much more discussion around friendship and how it can be affected by feelings. Josh cared for Lara Jean, there was a lovely scene where she could tell his parents were fighting so she turned on the living room lights to tell him he could come over and crash at her place. They also go to the diner, instead of Peter and Lara Jean going in the movie, and talk about Margot and Lara Jean’s relationship with Peter. It explores the natural theme that teenagers have growing up, when platonic relationships can sometimes lead to more or not and the damages it can have. I really appreciated this bit of the book much more.

1st Read: July-August 2018
5 Stars
I really enjoyed this.

I heard about the hype this movie was getting on Netflix, and I watched the trailer a few billion times and when I saw his book decided to buy and read it.

For a while I had been craving to read some soppy romance, and this was so it. Not just the romance side of things but the embarrassing starting high school... EVERYTHING. Was just so up my alley when it comes to reading.

I'm not sure if I want to read the sequel just yet, but it did leave it on a cliffhanger and maybe the next few would be exciting. However I do know that sometimes the good book of a trilogy is only the first one.

I am extremely hyped for the movie, strange as it sounds highschool-esc movies where the main character is dealing with teenage issues and crushes are my FAVOURITE movies.

This was a very enjoyable read for a long car journey.