Book: Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To all the boys I’ve loved before #3)
Author: Jenny Han
Pages: 320 (paperback)
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: May 4, 2017
note: Review might contain spoilers for book 1& 2 in the series, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and PS: I Still Love You
Synopsis:
Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for. She is head over heels in love with her boyfriend, Peter; her dad’s finally getting remarried to their next door neighbor, Ms. Rothschild; and Margot’s coming home for the summer just in time for the wedding.
But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy helping plan her father’s wedding, she can’t ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. She watched her sister Margot go through these growing pains. Now Lara Jean’s the one who’ll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her family—and possibly the boy she loves—behind.
When your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?
Source: Goodreads
My opinion:
First of all, I was very surprised when I heard about a third Lara Jean book being released, since this was a duology. And to be honest, I didn’t really expect much because I liked book 1, but wasn’t very impressed with the second installment. But damn! What a surprise Always and Forever, Lara Jean was! This is by far the best book in that trilogy and where I wished Jenny Han would have stopped after the first book, I now want more.
The plot was not really anything new or exciting in particular, but just following Lara Jean’s life. Except for the general theme of “what the hell am I doing after high school”, I didn’t really know where this was going. And I loved every second of it and exploring the character of Lara Jean further. While the first two books center around Lara Jean, her friends and her love life, this one is more about her family, her not-so-chaotic-anymore love life and baking. So much baking, I was indeed over the moon. And I could identify with the protagonist so good. And I bet a lot of people do. Because what to do after high school / what college or uni to go to… many young people go through these decisions at some point in their life, and so did I, so I could feel Lara Jean struggling and I just felt so understood by that fictional person. And I feel like she has had such a great character development through the entirety of that book series.
And teh rest of the family. We get to see more of Margot, finally. And I just love the whole family dynamic, especially between the three sisters, but also the relationship of every sister with their dad. I probably could read about the Song Covey family forever. They are so lovely and positive.
What I also liked is that all the characters from the previous books were in this one. Some were more important than others, but I loved to see them all back with great developments themselves. Really, all of them are so grown-up and just so nice and sweet.
The drama towards the end was quite unnecessary though. It only went on for about two or three chapters and kind of destroyed the warm, fuzzy feeling the rest of the book built.
But apart from that, I loved every single page. And I want more of it, it was glorious.
Rating:
★★★★/5
