Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
My Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 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?
Oh god, I'm not entirely sure I can capture in words how I feel about this book, but I'll try.
First off, WHERE IS MY PETER K???????????
Okay, moving on, I will go out on a limb and say that Always and Forever, Lara Jean is my favorite book of this series. It's the best one, okay? We don't deal with the love triangles anymore, and we get so many cute, domestic scenes. Throughout most of the book, Lara Jean is completely happy with Peter, but she is also worrying about their future when they leave for college. On top of this, she's planning her dad's wedding and trying to decide on a college.
I'm at that point of my life where I am also dealing with all the college stuff, though not quite yet. However, I really related to the events of this book; prom, graduation, etc. Jenny Han did a really good job at capturing all these scenes without being cheesy or completely unrealistic. (Although one thing Lara Jean never thinks about is her major, which is??? kind of unrealistic because what teenager isn't obsessed with what they're going to do?)
I've read some reviews that some of the scenes felt unnecessary, but I think completely opposite. What I've always enjoyed about this series, and what I believe makes it so good, is that the plot is Lara Jean's daily life, and this includes all the little moments. Most YA romance/contemporary has the protagonist facing some issue, but Lara Jean's is just her life. And I love this series for that; it makes it all the more relatable. However, I will say that this book did what P.S. I Still Love You did (although it did it better imo), in that it resolved almost immediately without any real buildup. I loved the ending though. It was sweet but with just the right amount of bittersweet, although not really bittersweet? More of a contemplative tone that doesn't trivialize the ending.
I would honestly say this is Jenny Han's best book. I think the writing got a lot better in this one, and the pacing was quick enough so that nothing dragged, but not so that everything flew by too fast, especially because there was a bit of a time jump between P.S. I Still Love You and Always and Forever, Lara Jean. All the relationships are developed throughout the series to culminate in this perfect, sweet novel that I will treasure and hold close to my heart forever.
I'll end with this: WHERE IS MY PETER K??????
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