P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

Second book in the Lara Jean series by Jenny Han 

 

(taken from Amazon.com)

Given the way love turned her heart in the New York Times bestselling To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, which SLJ called a “lovely, lighthearted romance,” it’s no surprise that Lara Jean still has letters to write.

Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.
When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?
In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that’s part of makes it so amazing.

In this sequel to To All the Boys I've Loved Before, the focus shifts a little from the sister relationships and the budding relationship between Lara Jean and Peter, to see their new relationship challenged and conflicted by their friendships. Whereas in the first book of the series, much of it is about Lara Jean growing into new experiences with boys and navigating sister relationships, P.S. I Still Love You moves to see how Lara Jean struggles within her new relationship with her first boyfriend, and how the friendships with boys and girls of her past and present complicate it.

If you really liked Lara Jean's character in the first of the series, you might be a little put-off by the fact that in this sequel, Lara Jean is not as "squeaky clean" (no rhyme intended) as she was before. I see this as an asset, having a character who has faults and has to learn to recognize them, but others might disagree if they're too partial to the protagonist. In this book, no longer is Lara Jean naive, and, particularly in the semi-twist ending, she herself realizes that she has to hold herself just as accountable as those people she thinks have wronged her--she can't just imagine herself the victim all the time. Sometimes, failing to do something is just as damnable as doing to the wrong thing. There's also a moment toward the end of the book where she tries to reconcile with a friend, but her friend wisely replies, "Grow up, Lara Jean". The truth that "some wounds run too deep", that some things can't fully be reconciled, certainly rings true through this story, and I liked the honesty of that.

Overall Rating: 7 / 10 Stars 

Jenny Han did a good job of taking Lara Jean's character to the next level of complexity in forcing her to recognize and come to terms with her own faults and wrongs in how she's treated her past and present friends and boyfriends, and I really respected that, as much as it broke my heart to see a innocent-sweet-girl protagonist's "bad side". If nothing else, it forces me to remember that we all--even those of us who believe we are the proverbial "goody-two-shoes"--have said and done things we're not proud of, and it takes two people to build or break a friendship, not just one.